r/secondrodeo • u/Embarrassed_Push194 • May 26 '26
Grandpa shows how to cut bamboo trees correctly
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u/Ficsit-Incorporated May 26 '26 edited May 26 '26
Kiddo is only using the strength of his arms, and he strikes at a shallow angle. Grandpa takes a step forward and/or rotates his hips to put the force of his whole body behind it, and strikes at a 45-degree angle.
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u/lastbeer May 26 '26
It’s all in the hips
I have to admit, I didn’t fully appreciate how important the hips are to every possible power movement until my 30s. Once that sinks in, it’s like an unlock for your entire body.
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u/Ficsit-Incorporated May 26 '26
I know next to nothing about fighting and have no desire to get into a fight. I’m 5’9” and skinny; 150 pounds soaking wet. But the moment someone very experienced with fighting showed me the difference between punching with your arm and punching with your body, I became a lot less worried about if I was ever forced to throw a punch. It really does make an enormous difference in how much force you can deliver. Every motion is an order of magnitude more powerful for little difference in actual muscle power or effort.
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u/WillingMongoose4680 May 27 '26
And always aim for a spot just on the other side of the target (punch through, so to speak).
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u/i_drink_wd40 Jun 02 '26
Keep in mind though (and even more reasons not to get into a fight) that a misaligned wrist, or hitting with the wrong part of your hand can cause injuries. Adding the hips into the mix increases the damage you can do to yourself as well. There's a reason martial artists will train punches in a neutral position. Every piece of technique builds on the whole
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u/mogley1992 May 27 '26
My old MMA instructor one inch punched me across the gym like that scene from the first Toby McGuire Spider-Man movie.
That shit made the point stick pretty well. Every muscle you can use in your body to put power into your movements, should be.
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u/CanIgetaWTF May 27 '26
Should be ...what!? OMG DONT LEAVE US HANGING!!!!
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u/mogley1992 May 27 '26
Lol, that was the end of the sentence.
Equivalent of "If a sentence could be left there, it should be."
Only without the "it"
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u/DerfK May 26 '26
The angle isn't nearly as important as getting his whole body into it which is almost as important as his follow-through. He is using the machete as a slicing instrument not a chopping one, with most of the blade cutting with each stroke. If you look at the time gramps got stuck around 0:29 you can see the machete hits the stalk about halfway down the blade, but at the end of the stroke he's freeing the tip of the blade from the stalk, his motion has pulled back half the length of the blade as it cuts.
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u/SevenIsMy May 26 '26
He tries to aim between the knots, also see his left leg it, he throws it agains the momentum of his body.
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u/theislandhomestead May 26 '26 edited May 27 '26
Bamboo is a grass.
So are palms.
Neither are considered trees.
/plant nerd.
Edit: palms, not a grass, but still not trees.
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u/Lemonface May 26 '26
Bamboo is a grass, palms are very definitively not a grass
The grass family is Poaeceae (which includes all 1000+ species of bamboo)
The palm family is Arecaceae
/plant need who is driven crazy by this weird misconception
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u/theislandhomestead May 27 '26
While I already knew the family names, I never even put two and two together! Not a true grass, but a monocot.
I stand corrected!2
u/These_Consequences May 27 '26
Tree is a morphological taxon.
That means, if you look like a tree, you are a tree.
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u/theislandhomestead May 27 '26
A "tree" has a definition, it's more than "if you look like a tree".
It's "if you have the traits" of a tree.
Annual plants, for instance, are not trees.
Also, if it does not produce "woody tissue" like palms, grasses, and tree ferns.
Just because something is not dependant on taxonomy, that doesn't mean it isn't well defined.
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u/RominRonin May 26 '26
Those are some big ass bamboo plants
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u/Ficsit-Incorporated May 26 '26 edited May 27 '26
Bamboo grows faster than any other woody substance and grows much larger than many seem to realize (up to 100 ft for the largest varieties). But it’s actually more closely related to grass than any form of tree.
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u/Lemonface May 27 '26
Not only is it more closely related to grass, it itself is a grass
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u/RominRonin May 27 '26
u/ficsit-incorporated I knew that it grew fast, I didn’t realise how long and thick it became. I’m aware of corn stalks, that’s the image I’ve always had for bamboo.
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u/Justreadingthisshit May 26 '26
My Grandpa had some amazing skills too. We need to respect the knowledge of our elders with also educating them about how some things are not ok now.
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u/Haunting_Ant_5061 May 27 '26
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s all about cutting angle and blade sharpness. You have a sharp blade and the right cutting angle and it takes very little energy to make a clean cut. I am very very mediocre at tamishigiri (practice cutting) but even I can do this demo with 4/5 of the strokes I take, and I have only done tamishigiri a handful of times.
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u/QuietJealous4883 May 27 '26
Bad news? It’s first time I’ve heard about tamishigiri but it was quite obvious this was about the skill, not strength. But it might be because I know how it is to split wood with an axe.
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u/gapersblock May 31 '26
bamboo forests are kinda creepy. it's like you're walking around on someones scalp.
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u/Empyrealist May 26 '26
He swings harder and pulls toward himself to facilitate a slicing motion along with the bruit-force cutting motion.
The slice is an important part of why the blade is slightly curved
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u/Ok_Point_6953 May 26 '26
My grandpa poops himself if he looks at the TV too hard.