dao training?

[neit]

in your school do you ever go beyond forms when training with the dao? i think the techniques would transfer well to "foam bopper" sparring. or at least some drills with a wooden blade.

[MasterKiller]

Wood against wood is OK. I'm sure it's nothing compared to a real fight, but as close as we get to real combat.

Wood blades can still lay a whelp on you.

[David Jamieson]

open sparring with real weapons is best left to those people who have high level proficiency.

most others would hurt themselves or someone else...badly.
whacking away indiscriminately is hardly skill development.

I was learning for 5 years before I learned a choreographed weapon set. spear vs double broadswords.

the skill to use weapons freely and without damaging your partner is not to be taken lightly. If you do not have a form of personal mastery over the weapon, it is ill advised that you make these attempts.

cheers

[neit]

what about the "foam bopper" sparring? you can't get hurt, so why not?

[David Jamieson]

foam boppers don't have the same weight or properties as your 'live' weapons. I suppose, in a limited fashion they would serve a purpose in helping you understand some of the gross tactics of the weaponry you are having the bopper imitate.

In that sense, yes. For instance, in my former school, we would use foam and plastic rods to emulate sticks or bats and we would work out ways of stopping attacks from those. For that purpose, it was alright, but when it comes to real bats, with real intent and a real mad guy behind it coming at you, then all that training is not really worth anything if that bat contacts you. :) Unless you were focusing on limb joint grabs and locks and were less concerned with the foamy bat. IN which case, you may have an opportunity if yous gots the quickness.

For bladed weapon sparring, you could use them to develop a choreographed routine without risking injury I suppose. I would move very slowly once you crossed over to the real weapons though.

cheers

[neit]

hmmmmm, i think i'll skip the choreographing part. i will be taking kendo in addition to my hung gar in september, so i can bet my sparring in there.

[David Jamieson]

Kendo will have you fully armoured and you will be using shinai (bamboo katanas of a sort).

Kendo is highly ritualistic in it's practice and it subscribes to the "one strike, one kill" idea. It is definitely not the same as the flashy weapons routines associated with Kungfu.

But, you will get some learning out of it to be sure.

cheers

[neit]

hmmm. i am not sure which sabre routine i have been learning. but it is far from flashy. it uses very basic concepts, such that i would trust them with any linear object.

[Kristoffer]

I have seen very few CMA ppl do traditional dao forms. Most flash around the modern wushu swords (And that's fine as long as you do traditional form or application ie- choreographed sets.) without thinking that a real sword is HEAVY. You can't dance around like that


I prefer short sticks anyway :)