My main weapons training comes from FMA & I was wondering how you other guy's do it ? Do you use form's?? Partner drills?? flow/energy drills?? do you spar, if so is it free play, 1/3 step sparring?? if you spar for the 1st touch or go all out till the times over?? when you spar do you rely on your partners control or do you spar with real contact?? What kind of armour do you use??
Yes. Yes, sort of like isolated sparring for the most part. No [/B][/QUOTE] do you spar, if so is it free play, 1/3 step sparring?? [/B][/QUOTE] Free play Keep going Contact Light gloves and a mask, pad the weapons
My group dont use forms Are partner drills are just one on one free sparring what is a flow/energy drill? we spar at a full comabt speed and it is until one has benn 'killed' ie had bloiw land ona lethal target area. for the two forms of fighting I do 1) we wear fencin masks and groin protection occiasoionally gloves and skateing pads. I dont like gloves because it allows you block with your hands with out pain encouraging bad parrying. And the weapons we use for this are shinais or parts of shinais to replicate other weapons 2) we wear steel helmets gauntlets kidney groin and joint protection at a minimum some wear full steel armour. the weaposn we use are made mostly of rattan and occasionally foam padding to create diifernet weapons such as axes or mauls
The best training I have done with weapons is to actually fight with them. There was a time in our training when we would fight with everything we could get our hands on. We fought with staffs, knifes(wooden), sticks, rope, and every other thing you can think of save the really exotic weapons. We would fight with these weapons for extended periods of time and then we would come up with drills to emphasize the important aspects of the combat we were training. Initially we fought with very heave protection, but as we got better, we started skimming down the protection until we were using almost nothing in forms of protection. This was a great way to train because the longer we fought the better we got and this meant we had better control of the weapon so we could do light contact body sparring with minimal injuries. Those years were great, a lot of bumps and bruises, but great. It truly brought out the blood, sweat, and tears in all of us.
weapon training The way I learn to fight with weapons is to be self talt. First I come up with some kind of idea. Then I think about what targets the tech will be aimed at. Then I think how to best take postion and effencey. Then I think form.finally I have a tech. :woo:
Re: weapon training At least if someone thinks about attacking you you'll be able to think about defending
LOL! I like the way you spar with weapons SFJohn..that is about the same method me and my friends use... We spar full speed with Shinai and Bokken and occasionally a few other weapons like we used nunchaku's and "escrima's" one time... We wear armor most of the time though...
One exercise that comes to mind is when we train with knives. We would put our bag glove on the hand you would hold the knife in and partner up with someone. We would try to hit the opponents weapon hand. We cannot use our free hand for checking. Basically you are blocking and attacking with the knife. There are no preset attack and defend patterns in this drill. Improves reflex, speed and footwork.
Hi Elhiggito, Training in weapons can bring many benefits and it depends on what you are training for i.e. learning to use the weapons in a fight by substituting the weapon for an every day objects,umbrellas,walking sticks etc. Problem is we would get arrested for carrying a broadsword down the street-Bad enough that even in its cover it looks like a gun!! In Tai Chi main things are to realise that the weapons is only an extension of your body and can be used as a form of strength training without letting the weapon run away with you. If we are training in the broad sword we will do it with and without the weapon in order to feel the difference and strive to get total body force into a hand strike or strike with a weapon rather than just using the arm alone. In spear training we will semi spar in a controlled way and train in pushing spears which uses the same philosophy as pushing hands without a weapon and can look a bit like bagua as we will walk in a circle with the spears facing into the centre. There are many other techniques and I hope this gives a liittle insight into Tai Chi weapons practice.