One of the things that makes TCMA cool and unique to me is the variety of weapons.
I don’t know where this thread will go, but a good start is discussing favorite weapons, drills, and forms - with links whenever possible. I think where TCMA can really excel in regards to other martial arts is in weapons practice so sharing and practicing drills and applications could be a good way for us to go. To me there’s no reason why TCMA can’t supplant Filipino Martial Arts as the Arts of choice for practical weapons proficiency.
Anyway,
One of my favorite weapons is also one of the most basic and that’s the dao.
I don’t have a good clip of single saber, but here’s a pretty cool one of my Sifu doing a traditional double saber routine.
I don’t do weapons for the sake of tradition anymore.
I trains edge ( knives) and impact weapons ( sticks) for the obvious practical applications.
I also train with firearms when I can ( not often).
I do sword work because I simply enjoy it.
I still train with staff, short stick, knife, big knife, double edge sword, butterfly knives and occaisionally with halberd (kwan dao) and a claymore.
It’s awesome practice. I find the most useful to be staff and short stick as far as what will be readily available and the least life threatening to use in an actual situation.
I’d hate to cut someone when I could just knock them on the head.
Firearms…I don’t train them, but I like to shoot with some friends once or twice a year.
Fav is the R700 scoped. That thing is awesome! For a HG I like the Colt 57 Python Patrolman Revolver. I haven’t shot a full auto piece in years. Hey, that’s Canada for you.
Anybody remember Martial Law? I think one of the premises of that show was that he could use anything as a weapon - buckets, brooms, shoes, umbrellas, etc. Is using everything as a weapon a relevant skill to have and is TCMA in a good position to teach and promote that today?
[QUOTE=MightyB;1205264]Anybody remember Martial Law? I think one of the premises of that show was that he could use anything as a weapon - buckets, brooms, shoes, umbrellas, etc. Is using everything as a weapon a relevant skill to have and is TCMA in a good position to teach and promote that today?[/QUOTE]
Environmental fighting is good training for RBSD in any class.
You should be able to use your environment and what’s in it to your tactical advantage if necessary.
…I’m currently working on a piece addressing weapons - well, one weapon in particular - which I use as a jumping off point to discuss non-practical versus practical weapons in a modern day context. As most of you already know, I used to fence and do kendo, which are only street practical if you have a sword handy, and that’s not very often, even for me. But I still love swordsmanship and enjoy practicing Shaolin meihuadao regularly. That being said, you’ll have to wait for this piece to be complete as I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag just yet. I’ve set the deadline for mid-April, so be patient. Maybe I’ll remember this thread in three months and post it here.
[QUOTE=GeneChing;1205290]…I’m currently working on a piece addressing weapons - well, one weapon in particular - which I use as a jumping off point to discuss non-practical versus practical weapons in a modern day context. As most of you already know, I used to fence and do kendo, which are only street practical if you have a sword handy, and that’s not very often, even for me. But I still love swordsmanship and enjoy practicing Shaolin meihuadao regularly. That being said, you’ll have to wait for this piece to be complete as I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag just yet. I’ve set the deadline for mid-April, so be patient. Maybe I’ll remember this thread in three months and post it here.
I will love the staff forever and no one will ever convince me it is not practical. Like Gene, I still like doing Meihuadao and I have 2 jian forms I work on regularly. Weapons practice can be very practical because you can adapt those techniques to items found in the environment.
Hello. I’m new to this forum. Don’t claim to be a fighter. Kung fu in particular and martial arts in general is a hobby I enjoyed for the past twenty years. Mainly I train at home now with a friend or two.
This sounds like an interesting thread. I personally do a lot of knife work with friends because I feel blades are still relevent today. We put on fencing masks and some pads. We like to use a lot of long range tactics. We find that more often than not the close range stuff end up in a lot exchanges of cuts and stabs.
For kung fu weapons, I like to practice with my butterfly swords just because I think they’re really cool and fun! And the more I practice the more crossovers I see in the empty hand work.
Weapons can be anything. Weapons training to me is more about the use of that core object than the weapon in detail. A cricket bat, baseball bat, cane, Dao, all have similar application, with adjustments for weight. Long staff, med staff, rattan staff, shovel, broom, kwan dao.
Translating skills across weapons is a good objective in weapons training in my own opinion.
I also have a personal thing about not getting attached to any weapon as an object, any one will do, so I get used to accommodating differences in balance, weight, feel, etc..
Favorite non standard weapon I’ve seen is two pieces of Angle Iron along the forearms, wrapped with an ace bandage, under a light jacket.
Regardless of what TCMA system/weapon u r doing, the most important thing I’d say is start training it as soon as possible; as in day 1; the whole convention of holding back weapons training because its inherently advanced or bec empty hand proficiency is a pre-req is simply nonsense; the benefits of early weapon training far outweigh any potential detriment
[QUOTE=sanjuro_ronin;1205318]Actually, kendo can translate to stick work pretty easily.
What is a broom stick but a “solid shinai”, know what I mean?[/QUOTE] True. Funny, I just posted a news bit on our Bad Day for Samurai Wannabes thread about a sword and mop attack and this reminds me of that.
Actually, I misspoke a little on that. Kendo was my main practice but along with that I dabbled in Iaido and Battojitsu. While those arts could translate to stick, they are really skills for edged weapons, so there’s more drawing or pulling of the cut as opposed to blunt bashing with a stick.
[QUOTE=MasterKiller;1205321]I work the Monk Spade and 3-section staff routinely.[/QUOTE] Good one, MK. True to your namesake.
[QUOTE=Yum Cha;1205334]
Translating skills across weapons is a good objective in weapons training in my own opinion.
I also have a personal thing about not getting attached to any weapon as an object, any one will do, so I get used to accommodating differences in balance, weight, feel, etc..
[/QUOTE]
Too true. One time after class, I was using a small towel to whip at a classmate. He got angry and charged me. I then used the towel to put him on my back and choked him.
[QUOTE=MightyB;1205258]
I don’t know where this thread will go, but a good start is discussing favorite weapons, drills, and forms - with links whenever possible. [/QUOTE]
slicing the pie
To me there’s no reason why TCMA can’t supplant Filipino Martial Arts as the Arts of choice for practical weapons proficiency.
The big reason is that FMA schools ALL teach weapon skills by drills and sparring, whereas the bulk of TCMA skills just teach 1 and 2 man forms. Having done Kali the single stick work is pretty much identical to Dao, they just understand it better. As such I teach a variety of single and double stick drills to teach Dao skills.
[QUOTE=Yum Cha;1205334]There’s a book, Shubumi - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibumi_(novel) that’s all about an assassin that uses common objects as weapons. Great adventure read.
Weapons can be anything. Weapons training to me is more about the use of that core object than the weapon in detail. A cricket bat, baseball bat, cane, Dao, all have similar application, with adjustments for weight. Long staff, med staff, rattan staff, shovel, broom, kwan dao.
Translating skills across weapons is a good objective in weapons training in my own opinion.
I also have a personal thing about not getting attached to any weapon as an object, any one will do, so I get used to accommodating differences in balance, weight, feel, etc..
Favorite non standard weapon I’ve seen is two pieces of Angle Iron along the forearms, wrapped with an ace bandage, under a light jacket.[/QUOTE]
Ah, Nicolai Hel…good stuff !
Improvised weaponry should be a must and, with a good core in edge and impact weapons, it is easy to turn anything into a weapon.
Key is principles over specific techniques.
Actually, I misspoke a little on that. Kendo was my main practice but along with that I dabbled in Iaido and Battojitsu. While those arts could translate to stick, they are really skills for edged weapons, so there’s more drawing or pulling of the cut as opposed to blunt bashing with a stick.
My time training the Yagyu shinkage kenjutsu with the bokuto instilled some stick work that I still use to day.
Very few impact weapons can match a good quality bokuto.
