Weapons in your Curriculum

[mooyingmantis]

Which weapons do you teach as a part of your mantis curriculum?

Do you teach weapons in a particular order?

Do you try to make the weapon sets applicable to today's self defense needs, or do you do them just for fun and to maintain the tradition? No wrong answer here.

I am currently teaching my students the shuang bi shou (double daggers). This is their first weapon set. I teach them how to modify the techniques for use with other commonly accessible objects.

[YouKnowWho]

The order of the TCMA weapon training is:

1. staff
2. single edge knife
3. double edge sword
4. spear

Short weapon such as dagger can be inserted into any place you wish.

[MightyB]

The order of the TCMA weapon training is:

1. staff
2. single edge knife
3. double edge sword
4. spear

Short weapon such as dagger can be inserted into any place you wish.

been a bit, but I think I learned in a similar order:
1. staff
2. single edge knife
3. spear
4. double edge sword

My Sifu put emphasis on the double edge sword being an officer's weapon and therefore made you wait for it. The above mix is general because there were other weapons, variations of weapon sets, and two person forms in the mix before you got to stage 4.

In the end, I agree with something I read in Kung Fu mag... it was a Hung Ga master saying that "in the street (in China) everyone grabs a weapon" contrasting it to how in America we say "in the street it always goes to the ground".

IMO 7* Mantis should be taught with the mentality of dirty street fighting... Mean, Nasty, in your face Dirty. With knives and sticks. It shouldn't even try to be anything other than a mean prison fight with shanks. Beat'n arse in confined places and going to the dark side when it has to.

When 7* tries to be something it's not - i.e. pretty, scholarly, jedi tastic, sport'n fu - it's no good. It's meant to be mean, dirty, street fight'n knife pulling, sucker punching, confined spaces, dirty uneven ground, obstacle throwing mean. Chop you in the throat mean.

[RenDaHai]

Not mantis but similar tradition,

Staff
Saber
Sword
Spear

Staff for power, Saber for agility, Sword for shenfa, Spear to combine all the others.

We did the applications but focused on it as a tool to improve body skill.

On an interesting note, the Sword (double edged, straight) is the weapon that improved my kung fu most. It has increased the power of all my strikes. Because it extends the flexibility and control in the waist. And separates the waist and the hips. After learning the sword I found in all my punches my waist twisted further and faster and stronger.

[SimonM]

Again, not mantis, but the order I learned weapons was:

Truncheon
Staff
Dao
Jian

And then sort of stuck to jian with lots of sword-sparring and such.

[ShaolinDan]

Well...since we went there...
Also not mantis, but in a similar tradition (shaolin/eagle claw).

staff
dao
spear
jian

Jian and spear seem to be switched from trad. in my curriculum, but I'm not surprised; my Shifu likes to teach things out of order. :)

[sho'nuff]

Peace and Blessings! i dont post on here much but i do check on the threads from time to time and this is a really good one. I dont mean to go off topic to much but from what learned and observed through the years is it seems tho that the staff is more of the first/starter weapon for shaolin kung fu systems or systems that later came to the temple like mantis did. Now i do understand why this is. Monks did not want to kill and dont believe in it so the staff could really hurt someone without killing him if trained right. I do train mantis but i have had some training in bagua and xing yi and some wudang arts and i have seen my training partners start with most times the straight or broad sword. even in some of the mantis schools i visited that claim wudang influence dont always start with a staff. I have hung out and went to a few classes of one of Philipman Chow's appointed shifus and tho they start with the staff they have alot more weapons then most of the mantis schools i have visited. Again i dont mean to go off of topic, i have been really looking at martial arts system lately and trying to understand why they systematically differ in aspects of weapons training and order of which to train first and last.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Stick-progressing to DBL stick and to short staff ( 5ft at the most)
Knife progressing to DBL knife
Sword, just for the fun of it :)

[sho'nuff]

Peace Sanjuro. What system of kung fu or martial arts to you study if you dont mind me asking?

[sanjuro_ronin]

Peace Sanjuro. What system of kung fu or martial arts to you study if you dont mind me asking?

You must be new :D
My background, TCMA oriented, is Kung Kuen and Southern Mantis.
Martial arts wise:
2nd BB in Kyokushin and BB in Judo, Muay Thai, and Kali ( an boxing and TKD...).

[sho'nuff]

You must be new :D
My background, TCMA oriented, is Kung Kuen and Southern Mantis.
Martial arts wise:
2nd BB in Kyokushin and BB in Judo, Muay Thai, and Kali ( an boxing and TKD...).

Im new and old lol! i been on the site for a little while but at one point i never got on it because i didnt have internet for awhile. I will learn better tho! Thanks for sharing that info with me bro.

[md1]

Not from a mantis system but...

short staff
long staff
dao
dao gim
gim
kwan dao
spear

[Chop Socki]

I'll take a stab at this part, only because you said there's no wrong answer and I didn't study for this test! ;)

> Do you try to make the weapon sets applicable to today's self defense needs, or do you do them just for fun and to maintain the tradition? No wrong answer here.

In my experience, people study MA for one of two reasons (though you can break these into a near-infinite number of sub-categories, and most people combine the two in some personal way):

They want something practical that they can use, should the need arise
They're inspired by the traditional aspect of the system they study (assuming it has one, of course) and want a 'complete', well-rounded experience


Again, these reasons aren't mutually exclusive, but I try to evaluate each student's motivation to determine what I teach them and why.

A student who's interest is more traditional can enjoy the techniques of the kwan dao or monk spade and never look beyond that; someone more interested in practical applications can be shown the applicability of those same techniques with a rake or a shovel.

Starting with double daggers is great because it reinforces the most basic concept of any weapon - that it's intended to be an extension of your hand(s). Haven't we all seen enough 'masters' flailing something around at high speeds with absolutely no attention given to the weapon's location and its point of application? Feh.

- CS

[EarthDragon]

call me old fashion, but I feel like the best weapons are your hands... once I master those I will learn the extentions of them.

So for now I feel its better to have complete control with what I have before I add more to it.


that and our particular style doesnt include weapons so its an easy thing to not do.
I do think thier kweel as he ll though. I am taking some side classes from sensei Kimura who is a samurai adn he is slowing teaching me cutting.

[Howard]

In terms of our Mantis, we mainly have spear and sword (I think there is a staff set Liuhe and a broadsword but only few of us practice them).