One of the unexpected casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic was Mugen Dachi ceasing to export high-quality tatami mats for test cutting to the United States. This left a hole that the US HEMA community has struggled to fill. This has been a particular issue with my school, as we have monthly test cutting classes and run the cutting tournament for the southeastern United States at Queen’s Gambit, our annual competitive event. In this article I’m going to detail an alternative: newsprint targets wrapped around cardboard shipping tubes.
This is going to be a long article, so we’ll divide it into sections so you can skip to whichever part you want. I’ll start with a discussion of the purpose of test cutting generally (and, specifically, what these targets are intended to be), then describe the process of preparing the targets. We’ll finish with an extensively illustrated section to help us read the feedback these targets are giving us.
The Purpose of Test Cutting
Let’s start with this: there is more than one reason to cut targets with a sharp sword. We can cut …
- For the joy of turning one object into two.
- To demonstrate our mastery of the weapon by performing difficult-to-execute feats, without regard for their tactical usefulness.
- To demonstrate our ability to perform specific movements we might use against a resisting opponent (specific combinations of sword movements and steps).
- To demonstrate our ability to cut realistic targets.
- To demonstrate our ability to cut difficult targets.
- To demonstrate our ability to operate the weapon with precision.
To some extent these purposes overlap, but they are not the same. It is important that we know which is our focus for a given test cutting session (or test cutting competition), as that will drive the feedback we give, the feedback we look for–and the characteristics we want in a target.
The focus of this article is on precision cutting. That means we want a target big enough to perform multiple cuts on, but of a defined size (being asked to fit eight cuts into a single target inherently requires better targeting than being asked to fit two cuts). We want a target that is easy to cut with good form but difficult to cut with poor form (as opposed to, say, something that is so easy to cut that even poor form will do the job). And, most importantly, we want a target that can be read to tell us what, specifically, went wrong with a cut.
In precision cutting, it’s important to remember that the target’s role is not to simulate a realistic target but to give a physical record of the sword’s behavior during the cut. For this reason, when we are doing precision cutting, our focus is on what the target is telling us about what we made the sword do, not on whether the target is cut in two or not. Moreover, the target only records about 4.5 inches of the sword’s path of travel, but many targets that we would actually want our sword to pass through–large mammals, say–are larger than 4.5 inches wide. For this reason, we want to pay extra attention to the target’s edges, as these will help us extrapolate more of the sword’s behavior during the whole arc of the cut. Nobody would wish to cut 4.5 inches into a large mammal, only to discover that their sword got stuck because they can only cut 4.5 inches into the target.
Materials and Process
Materials Needed
There are two components to this kind of target: a 2”x36” cardboard packing tube, and a roll of 36” newsprint. If you buy the tubes in reasonably large quantities (by the half-dozen or more) and buy a large roll of newsprint (we use 1500’ rolls), these materials can be had for a per-target price of approximately $7, which is comparable to the pre-pandemic price of fresh tatami.
Preparing the Target
The preparation process is simple:
- Cut 20 feet of newsprint. Depending on your available rolling space, this can be done in a single 20’ sheet, or several sheets laid on top of each other. Sometimes four 5’ sheets is easier to handle.
- Roll the newsprint around the cardboard tube. It is not necessary to get a perfectly even roll; the target will still provide good feedback even if you have to scrunch the paper at the ends of the tube.
- Secure the newsprint with rubber bands. I use four sets of rubber bands (dividing the target into five sections), using two #36 rubber bands from Office Depot for a total of eight rubber bands per target.
- Plop the target in a shallow tub of water. Make sure the plastic end-caps are still in the packing tube when you do this; you don’t want water to invade the interior of the tube. Give it a spin to soak the outer layer of newsprint.
- Wait no less than 10 minutes but no more than 15. Your target is now ready to use.
The point of the cardboard packing tube is to give structural stability to the target, so it stands upright and can easily be secured to a cutting stand (see below). This is one reason why you don’t want the cardboard tube to get wet. The “meat” of the target is the newsprint itself, not the packing tube.
Why 20 feet of newsprint? Because that’s what feels the most like a fresh tatami mat to me. There’s nothing magical about the 20 foot number. We’ve experimented with different amounts of newsprint here in Charlotte, and 20 feet feels the most “tatami-like” in terms of resistance. You can, obviously, use less newsprint for a slightly easier target, or more newsprint for a harder target. However, it’s worth remembering that neither newsprint nor tatami is a flesh simulator. If you want to make the target harder to cut, you may wish to do so by other means, such as wrapping the target in layers of cloth. If you wish to add thickness to the target so you can see feedback for more of the arc of the cut … well, you can do that with newsprint, but I’d suggest that cutting multiple targets is going to show you more than trying to cut through a super-thick roll of newsprint. Remember that newsprint is essentially wood pulp. A roll of wet newsprint 6” in diameter is no joke as a target.
The rubber bands are used to make sure the newsprint doesn’t fall off. There’s nothing magic to using four bands. You can use more or fewer if you find that works to you. Just remember that the rubber bands will get cut as the target is cut, and you don’t want the newsprint unrolling itself mid-cutting session because you used too few bands. I find that banding the target in four different places holds together well without consuming too many rubber bands.
As with tatami, soaking the target adds a bit of weight to the target (so it’s less likely to fly off the cutting stand peg) and helps the layers of newsprint cohere into a single mass, so you’re cutting through a single object rather than dozens of curtain-like individual layers of paper.
One logistical advantage to these targets is that they don’t have to be soaked in advance. You can transport them to your cutting location dry, soak them for a few minutes, and they’re ready to go! Just don’t soak them too much, or the newsprint will start to disintegrate.
Using the Target
These targets are best used with a cutting stand “spike” that consists of a 2” diameter plug. We use “mushroom” plugs that consist of a 1” diameter dowel sunk into a 2” plug, so the paper target plugs are compatible with the cutting stands we use for spiking tatami (our spikes are also 1” diameter, so all of our cutting stands have a 1” hole in them).
Pop the plastic cap off of one end of the tube and plonk it down on the plug.
This is another reason you don’t want water inside the tube: if the cardboard gets mushy, it can’t be spiked.
Don’t forget to set the height of the lower rubber band to mark the height of the plug, so your cutters don’t carve up your plugs by cutting too low on the target!
If you don’t want to make mushroom plugs, you can spike these targets directly onto a tatami spike, letting the spike pierce the plastic end-cap. This is not as secure as a mushroom plug, and thus demands more from the cutter, but it can certainly be done. We’ve done it plenty. Think of it as an intermediate step in difficulty between a solidly “plug” spiked target and a completely un-spiked, freestanding target.
Reading the Targets
Of course, a cutting target is only as helpful as the feedback it provides. In this section, we’ll go over how to read different results on paper targets to see what kind of feedback they give us. All of these photos were taken during a real test cutting session at Swordwind, from a variety of students with a range of skill levels. The cuts I chose for this article were all made with our loaner longsword or sidesword, each of which is sharp enough to shave the hair off my arm.
NB: Remember that we’re using the target to diagnose imprecisions in the way the fencer has operated the sword. We want a straight trajectory through the target with no deviations.
Diagnosis: Good Cut
This is an example of a successful descending cut on a paper target:
- The plane of the cut is straight from beginning to end.
- The cardboard on the upper end of the cut is bent in, but the cardboard on the lower end of the cut is cleanly severed.
- The paper jacket is frayed on the lower end of the cut, but only on the final few layers of paper.
It is important to remember, when diagnosing paper targets, that the outer layers of newsprint on the far end of the cut will tend to fray regardless of how clean the cut is. This should only be taken as evidence of imprecision if the fraying or tearing reaches the cardboard tube or continues below the level of the cut, as we’ll look at below.
Packing tube cardboard includes various irregularities and imperfections that mean the cardboard will sometimes cut less cleanly than the newsprint (as in the example above) even if the fencer has done nothing wrong. We’ll look at evidence of cardboard imperfections that are evidence of imprecision in the examples below.
Diagnosis: Good Cut
This is another example of a good cut on a paper target. If this were a tatami mat, the fact that the severed piece flew so far would be evidence of imprecision: some extraneous movement of the sword would have lofted the remains that far. However, paper targets, even when soaked in water, are significantly lighter than tatami mats, and fly quite far even with very clean cuts. The location of the severed piece should only be considered evidence of imprecision if the piece flew “forward,” away from the fencer (which usually indicates that the fencer was leaning or bending forward in the very act of the cut), or if the piece flew “backward,” towards the fencer (which usually indicates ulnar deviation of the wrist, causing the sword to “hook” into the target).
These are additional examples of good cuts on a paper target. The last is an example of a clean rising cut.
Diagnosis: Pull at the End of the Cut
This is an otherwise good descending cut with enough fraying at the end to indicate a real issue. On a tatami mat, this would appear as fraying straws. The fact that the paper has torn enough to tear below the level of the cut indicates that somehow the sword blade was dragging on the target at the end of the cut. There are two typical causes of this: either the fencer pulled the sword laterally towards their rear hip while the sword was still in contact with the target, or the fencer accelerated their hip turn at the end of the cut. Of the two, the former is the more common in my experience. The difference can easily be diagnosed by checking whether the sword ended the cut in line with the fencer’s rear hip (indicating that it was pulled there too early in the cut) or whether the sword ended the cut in line with the belly button (indicating that the hip turn accelerated mid-cut).
Diagnosis: Hip Turn Finished Too Early
In this descending cut, the blade has clearly made a downward turn at the end of the cut. This is plain from the state of the cardboard tube, which demands a different diagnosis than tearing of just the newsprint jacket (as in the previous example).
Of course, in a descending cut, the sword is already traveling downwards. Thus, a pronounced downward turn is most often the result not of increased downward velocity but of decreased horizontal velocity. A cut like this is caused by the fencer not following through sufficiently with their hip turn: in other words, the hips stopped turning before the arms stopped descending.
Diagnosis: Poor Edge Alignment
This is the result of a descending cut where the sword initially impacted with poor edge alignment, which is evident in the pushed-in edge of the paper jacket on the upper part of the cut. Typically this is a result of improper grip on the sword. The fact that the sword has still finished the cut indicates that the edge aligned true partway through the cut, which is only possible if the edge is only been slightly misaligned.
Diagnosis: Broken Wrist
This is the result of a descending cut from right to left. Notice that the rough part of the target on the lower portion of the cut is not centered at the bottom of the cut, but towards the camera. You can draw a straight line from the rough part of the target to the upper left portion of the target (from the camera’s point of view), where the cardboard is crumpled inwards. This is typically the result of the sword being “over-thrown” in the cut, with excessive ulnar deviation. Such a cut “hooks” past the target, which is what causes the line of the cut to be tilted towards the camera. The weak wrist structure causes the sword to be poorly supported when it impacts, quickly losing momentum, which results in the cardboard tube being battered inwards rather than cleanly severed.
Diagnosis: Tip Drag
This is a clean cut for the most part, but the rough part of the paper jacket is, once again, not centered at the bottom of the cut. The bruised-in part of the cardboard tube on the upper edge of the cut is also not centered at the top of the cut. Notice that the diagonal line of this cut runs away from the cutter, rather than towards the cutter as in the previous picture. As the previous cut was caused by excessive ulnar deviation of the wrist, this picture is the result of excessive radial deviation, or “tip drag.” This is typically caused by a lack of finger squeeze in the cut.
Diagnosis: Bad Edge Alignment
Unlike the previous cut, this is the result of very bad edge alignment. If the sword impacts with slightly deviated edge alignment, the cut can still be completed. If the sword impacts with very poor edge alignment, it may compromise the cardboard tube so badly that it falls over, as in this picture.
Diagnosis: Bad Trajectory
This is the result of an attempted descending cut that failed to sever the target. This is often misdiagnosed as a lack of power. However, if you look at the shape of the cardboard tube on the far side of the cut from the camera, you can see that the sword came into the target at a downward angle and then turned horizontal. This is typically the result of a disconnect between the movement of the cutter’s arm and hip movements. This, in turn, is often a result of the cutter focusing overmuch on where their hands should be at the end of the cut (e.g., down and to their left), and not enough on how to create a straight line between the sword’s starting and ending points.
Diagnosis: Good Cut
This is the result of a clean rising cut from the left. Note that the cardboard tube is somewhat ragged on the lower portion of the cut, but the paper jacket in that region of the cut is smoothly severed, which indicates that the cardboard raggedness was the result of imperfections in the cardboard moreso than an error from the cutter. On the upper end of the cut, the paper jacket is cleanly severed until the final few layers of paper.
Diagnosis: End Point Too Narrow
This is a rising cut that shows a pronounced scallop: the path the sword carved through the target is not straight, but curved (which, in a more resistive medium, would likely result in the sword getting stuck). This is typically caused by the fencer aiming to end the rising cut with the sword too much in line with the shoulder, rather than outside the silhouette.
Diagnosis: Tip Drag
Both of these are the result of a rising cut that got stuck in the target. In both cases, the path of the sword through the target was straight. This often leads to a misdiagnosis as a problem with power generation, as the straight path suggests good form. Instead, however, in each case, the issue was tip drag, which can be noticed from the cutting coach’s point of view when the cutter’s hands pass the target before the blade impacts.
Diagnosis: Tip Drag
In this case, the sword got stuck in the target, clearly showing the tip drag that resulted in the failed cut. The fencer’s hands are significantly below the level of the cut and to the left of the target (from the cutter’s point of view) even though the impact point is on the right side of the target.
Diagnosis: Good Cut
This is the result of a good horizontal cut, from right to left. The paper jacket on the left shows feathering only at the very leftmost edge of the cut, while on the right the paper shows a sharp division.
Diagnosis: Bad Trajectory and Rolled Sword
This is the result of an attempted strong-side horizontal cut whose trajectory was not quite horizontal. You can see the slightly descending trajectory of the cut in the remnant of the cut, but the ripped remnant of the cut suggests that the sword rolled counterclockwise as the cut progressed, causing it to bite into the cardboard tube and paper jacket and rip them free. This is a common issue in horizontal cuts from the dominant side when the arms are not properly centered to the hips, as the wrists have a natural tendency to want to cross when they pass to the non-dominant side of the body.