Or weaponless techniques, for that matter. Now, remember that I'm only White in KSW, so I only know KCH. However, and even after being told that it's not a form thought to be done with weapons, I find it does lend itself quite well to introducing, at least, knives and medium staves (40-70 cm). And that I perform certain movements much more precisely and close to the intended angle of attack when I'm using, for instance, a knife. My Soo Do, for example, becomes much closer to the horizontal. Any similar experiences? Any suggestions?
Ferran, I can't help you with KSW because I'm white belt too, but I'm black belt in TKD. In TKD, as you may know, you don't practice forms with weapons, but I have tried a few with a dang bong and with a bong with effort. My advice is: take a weapon ant try it.
Done the same myself. Wait till you try it with your next form. You'll be surprised how good a pair of short swords work.
I try --hard-- not to spy on higher belts syllabus Of course, if it's some Black Belt performing, then it's not spying, is it? It's just culture & learning. Can't avoid being mesmerized, I guess...
I've tried Ki Cho Hyung with a dan bong (held in my right hand). You have to adapt it a little bit so the hand movements are a bit more for a dan bong than an empty hand, but it can work. I find it a fun thing to do now and and again.
Not wrong with "spying", I watch pretty much every demo I can. I've found that I can't remember it all unless I've started to be taught something of it. ... I've also heard from one of my seniors that he pretty much stayed at the dojang all the time, watching whatever classes he couldn't participate in, etc. It's just a question of how much time you can / want to spend at it.
Ferran - I cant help with the KSW either, but we experiment with all our Tang Soo Do forms as weapons forms - We have 3 'basic' forms, then the next 5 Pyung Ahn forms are familiar to the Karate gang as their Pinan (sp?) forms. The simpler weapons (no moving parts) jang-bong, charu (tonfa), knife, fit into a lot of forms - the chule-bong (nunchaku) need a more 'complex' form like Passai (Bassai Dai). Have a play around, while remaining 'true' to the empty-hand form, and see what comes up
"Demos" are not spying, of course. That's why they call them so. No, I mean that I try to avoid "spying" on other belts syllabus while on class; I'm supposed to have my own work to mind, on one hand. On the other, BB forms are precious techniques far away: watching them is like going to some free form ballet, it's an art experience; watching something I might be doing in some months feels like cheating. Just my mileage, in any case. With forms, it wouldn't be as much (as you said, they're difficult to grasp 'on the fly'), but with techniques...
There's always a balance. In class, I try very much to focus on what I am doing, and ignore anything else. But if I happen to be waiting my turn for an activity, I'll watch. I think I mentioned to Buckeye a long time back that I never counted a technique as "taught" until an instructor showed it to me in class. That did not mean I didn't have the concept a week or more ahead of time. Memory for techniques varies. There were a number of Friday classes, when I was an Intermediate student, that I ended up partnering with a DBN assistant instructor. We'd alternate sets, and so I got to experience a lot of the post-Kwan Jul Li Ki sets as a blue or red belt. But it was more familiarization than learning. I couldn't remember the set names or order just from that. As for watching an instructor practice... it seems to depend on attitude a bit, on both sides. 1) A person who's really concentrating on what they're doing is only likely to notice they are being watched if the watcher is obvious about it. (Line of sight, staring straight at them.) 2) The watcher can go into "stealth mode", kind of a quiet, respectful attitude.
