Weapons Training at Silent Dragon School of Kung Fu & Tai Chi Chuan

TEACHING WEAPONS IS FUN

For a number of reasons, we teach the traditional and practical Chinese weapons and forms. We teach them to beginners, and throughout your training with us you will train weapons.

First, they are amazingly fun. These weapons are flashy and learning to manipulate them is interesting and challenging. One of the coolest things about Chinese Kung Fu are the fantastic weapons, such as three section staff, chain whips, or double swords. Even the simple weapons such as staff or short sticks are whirled around with speed and power in surprising patterns. Everybody wants to play with them. My competitors in other styles wish they had such neat-o stuff to teach.

But the benefits of weapons training far outweigh the fun factor.

Weapons training demands intense concentration. We start beginners out with the five foot “eyebrow staff” (it comes up to between your shoulder and your eyebrows). It is difficult to actually injure yourself with this weapon, but failure to pay attention results in a mostly painless but satisfying whack (satisfying to me, anyway), and dropping it makes quite a racket as it clatters and spins across the floor, showing everyone in class how thumbfingered you are. (Actually, if you never drop the staff, it’s because you’re not trying. I drop it all the time. Just not in front of you. Usually.)

To move with the weapon demands perfect blending with the weapon. The proverbial wisdom is that the weapon is an extension of the body. This is incorrect. Rather, your body becomes an extension of the weapon. The weapon is going to do what it is going to do according to the laws of the universe (friction, inertia, etc.) and your job is to ensure that you maneuver it so that it doesn’t hit you and does hit your enemy. Failure is amusing to all spectators, and slightly painful and amusing to you.

For those who have previously studied a martial art, let me also state that use of a weapon is a great help in properly training stance, power, and movement, as well as hand/eye coordination. Instead of using weapons training as a reward for only the best or most dedicated students, we have found that it is a marvelous training aid for all students. You do not have to be perfect before you train with weapons; weapons training will help you perfect your art. Instead of disguising repetition, weapons training makes it a joy, to be looked forward to with pleasure rather than with distaste.

Our weapons forms are fascinating. In the Japanese and Korean styles that I once taught, forms training was not popular, primarily because the Pian/Heian/Pinyan/Hyung forms were designed for children, and are frankly boring.

Our forms are traditional and for adults. They not only teach ergonomically correct and economical movement, they inculcate the movements into you so that in a pinch you will automatically do the right thing with your weapon.

And this is the main reason I teach weapons: they are a great force multiplier. Bruce Lee himself couldn’t take on three opponents, but you can, if you are armed and trained. We train seriously in practical weapons like stick and knife—think whacking someone with a cane, a car antenna, or a broken broomstick or branch. Think what knife training could mean to someone armed only with a ballpoint pen, a hat pin, or piece of broken plastic.

Especially for women, weapons training is important. No matter how much training she has, a woman facing a hostile man is handicapped for size and strength. A knife or stick can make all the difference—if the woman is properly trained. (Remember the saying “Carrying a weapon no more makes you a warrior than carrying a guitar makes you a musician.”) While some people seem to believe that watching a few movies will teach them how to shoot a gun or knife fight, movie fighting is designed to look cool, not actually win a fight. I have learned my knife fighting both from soldiers who have actually killed enemies with knives, and from the truly scary Kung Fu knife training forms. Not many people can make that claim.

These are the reasons I teach weapons. They are fun, they teach stance and movement quickly and well, and they may actually save your life at some point. Also, they are fun. More fun than TV. They will keep you coming to class.