I see all of your pionts and I would have to say
my views are more in line with legend than anyone else’s. My reasoning is for the simple fact that I can never count on a weapon being there, but I can always count on myself.
I find that weapons don’t really build up the strength I want, so I choose to do body wieght excises and wieght lifting.
I also believe that most people who attack people in the streets with a weapon aren’t skilled weapon fighters. So there is no need to been an expert of set weapons to know how to defend yourself against set weapons. I do believe you need to know the common attacks and angles the attacks can come from with set weapons.
These are just my beliefs. If you are happy training weapon, don’t stop.
And please keep the opinions coming.
weapons are awesome, and art definetely good for training. But if you’re not interested in them, they are not neccassary. They are just an extra tool in the martial arts to improve skill. There is no reason not to learn weapons though, it will only help your training.
For years, religion did nothing but divide. (killa priest)
Religion is like a prison for the seekers of wisdom. (killa priest)
What I’ve got to say has probably been covered in bits and pieces, but since I’ve already written it out, I guess I might as well stick it up
The “why bother” question has occurred to me frequently, and I’ve come up with two main (and closely related) justifications for training traditional weapons.
They add to one’s understanding of the empty-hand syllabus, especially if studying an art based on concepts rather than techniques (like bagua, in my case). Some kali/silat folks even begin with weapons, but all of the masters I’ve met have insisted that it remains an empty hand art in essence.
By studying weaponry personally, one gains an appreciation of how others might use those or similar weapons in an attack. I can’t seem to put that more eloquently just now, but the gist is that you’re better prepared to defend against a weapon when you know what its characteristics are, and where the (generic) weak points in its use are.
It is also well worth keeping in mind something that others have said - you don’t need to carry around a sword or 6 foot pole to orchestrate your defense… in a pinch you might be able to grab a stick or an umbrella or anything really, and so much the better if you know how to use it.
Anyone have any interesting/entertaining/enlightening stories they could share regarding their weapons training experience? Not just kung fu weapons, weapons training in general.
My old teacher loved sword, and about the only time he smiled was when he would jump back and tap his partner in the head while they were trying to execute more flamboyant manuevers. The he’d say “You should try to protect your head,” knowing full well that his partner was thinking the same thing.
I was training in short stick fighting and lost my grip…the stick went flying towards the beatiful and expensive floor to ceiling windows…infront of the windows was a stretching bar with two levels…the stick flew inbetween the two rails and CLANGIDYCLANG bounced around and right back out at me, missing the windows entirely. That was a lucky day :).
I learned the hard way why you keep track of exactly where the blades are in the Twin Dragon sword form from Bagua, when I nearly cut off the pinkie finger on my right hand. The blade went right into the bone, man. I held up my hand palm out with the fingers straight, after prying the blade out of the bone, to see how bad the damage was, and said, “hmmm, that doesn’t look bad at all.” Then I turned my palm toward me and curled my fingers into a loose fist so I could look a little closer, and blood came gushing out all over the place. My natural reaction when I cut my finger and it bleeds is to put it in my mouth, which I did. The drawback to this, I instantly found out, is that the taste of copious amounts of blood makes fruitarians very very sick. Strangely enough, shortly after that incident, I started to get cravings for red meat. F*cked up, but true.
Don’t cut yourself with a sword or bladed weapon:D
When using weapons in drills, try not to hit your partner’s fingers (man that hurts…fortunately my partner got to feel that too )
Most the time the dangerous part is pointed towards the attacker (not always, however).
Never train in enclosed places or near lots of glass when you first start…bad things man.
A friend held up a gun towards me and then pulled it away. He asked me if I knew or not if the safety was on. I didn’t and had to sit down and learn exactly how to tell, how to see if the gun is loaded (including the chamber, etc.), what to look for, etiquette in holding a gun, giving it to another person, etc. before handling the actual gun. I actually thought this was a good idea. Guns are very dangerous…especially when loaded.
I was doing an exibition on ancient viking weapons with a couple of friends.
Well doing this show we were 11 guys standing opposit each other doing some mock fighting, when suddenly the person opposit me did an unexpected downward chop with his axe. I stepped back and instantantly pinned his axe to the ground using my own two-handed axe.
Well he then tried to lift his axe and I did a rolling/scooping movement which lifted his axe way up. Unfortunatly he then couldnt hold on so the axe kept going up and up into the air.
The first split second we all froze, and then like on cue we ran in opposit directions :).
Well We all managed to get out of the way, and being true showmen, we pretended it was rehearsed and got right back to fighting.
Most of the anecdotes are from the time we were practising spear vs. double broadswords form. Once there was really limited space and there were a lot of us practising. I was operating the spear and the form has some spear spinning movements, so I managed to hit my classmate to the head… twice… Another incident was when doing these spear thrusting movements. My partner should have blocked these, but he froze and I thrusted the spear right in the middle of his forehead. Luckily, the spear was only a staff, I hit him in the middle instead of the eyes, and I managed to stop the movement shortly after the impact so it didn’t follow throught. There was a nice red dot on his forehead after that. At least I hit him exactly where I intended to
This other thing happened just last week. I was practising my broadsword form after a long break and got a bit carried away. As I was doing this section where I was supposed to kind of jump forward and slice my imaginary opponent, I accidentally hit the sword right in the middle of my knee cap. Luckily, the sword wasn’t sharpened, but still it was metal and heavy and I was going pretty fast, so it hurt like hell. Well. the knee cap wasn’t split or anything. Just a red scratch and sore knee.
When I was a kid, like 8 or 9, I was practicing with foam rubber nunchucks – blindfolded, don;t ask me why, my teacher never suggested it – and my brother snuck up behind me.
He, my mother and myself all went to the hospital to stich him up, cracked his head wide open, even with the foam.
Then, about two years ago, I got a Kris Cutlery broad sword (I was still training Hung Gar at the time). A senior wanted to see it and I warned him that it was sharp.
Pulling it out of the scabbard he immeditaely ran his thumb down the blade and sliced it wide open. I don’t understand what part of, “Be careful, its sharp”, he didn’t understand.
I still don’t know how to use that weapon properly for I broke off the training to focus on Hand to Hand with my S. Mantis teacher at the time, and am now married to the internal.
My master teaches the two handed sword (time to get a katana) and what little I have seen of it, I prefer the leverage.
He decided Rope-Nun-chaku was for loosers and decided to make his own using Chain and swivel mounts.
So one day he comes up and asks me to try his new set out.
So I gave them a twirl or two, and they worked well.
Now it was time to up to try the real moves and I go for it.
Next I know he is lying on the Ground holding his “nether region” and groaning.
The Chain had snapped and one half of the nun-chaku went straight onto his manhood.
I’m sorry guys. I know some of these stories are just not to be laughed at, but I just have to at some of them, like the one about the nunchucks where the end came off. Priceless. And the one about the guy who ran his finger down the blade to see if it was sharp. A sure sign of a rocket scientist.
Of course, this is coming from a guy who nearly lost a finger to a sword, but I guess it takes one to know one, right?
(1) We were organising a performance a last year with an event of a form sparring between a spear and a zhanmadao. After a few moves, the spear head broke off and flew offstage ( not at the audience thankfully ). The performers just kept at it. Except now, it was just zhanmadao vs staff-used-like-a-spear.
(2) Just routine training with spears and I was watching with some new-comers. One of them asked me, "those spear heads are made from iron and not steel. That means that are not as powerful. Why don’t use steel ones and sharpen them so we get the real feel of the weapon? " Only seconds after he said this, the form had required a “launching” move of the spear. My Sihing missed his mark and wasn’t able to catch it. The Spear went right through a plastic chair in the direction of it’s lauch.
I simple gave him that look.
(3) A novice went for the three-section-staff. Trained it evey time. Every training, he would hit his head twice. No more, no less. We are starting the consider if the weapon is pocessed.
(4) Gwan Dao training. A sihing was going at it with the rest of us watching. Dunno what happened. THe sihing made a turn and was about to make a cut forward. But as he lifted his weapon off from behind, it just barely missed the face of another person by millimetres.
(5) I don’t know if this qualifys as being a funny story, just a stupid thing one of us played. He strapped on every friggin weapon he was able to get his hands on. I can’t remember all of them. But there was exactly 18 weapons on him. The image of that was just so funny. It was a shame none of us had a camera then.
I am certain there will be plenty more for the years to come
anyone here do any realistic weapons training in their art? What I mean is, are any of the weapons you train in something that might be of use in the real world?
For instance, a karate freind of mine trains often in the Bo, but he uses a brook stick. His theory is that you can find broom, mops, other things of comparable size just about anywhere.
How about carrying weapons you train?
