Wudangduijian (武当对剑) or Wu Dang two person sword set. It was said that it was developed by Li Jinglin (1884-1931) with the help of other masters during his time as the deputy director of the Central Guoshu Institute established by the National Government of China in 1928. Anyone practice this set and would like to share your experiences or anything related to two edged swords.
I practice a bit of taiji jian now and again. It's never been a major part of my practice, but I enjoy waving a sword around as much as the next bloke
I think I briefly learned this form and two man set before. Long time ago, probably around 2004-2005. There was some other sword specific exercises too. I haven't trained it in quite a while and have forgotten most of it now. One thing I do recall from this set that I still keep in mind is that one of the strategies was to be quite evasive and target the opponent's sword hand as opposed to the torso. The idea is that the sword hand will be closer to you than the rest of the opponent, if you cut the hand, the opponents reflex will be to either drop his weapon or withdraw the hand back towards their body, this is where some more common Taiji ideas comes in i.e. follow the opponent's hand withdrawing towards their torso (attempting to get away from your sword) and attack the torso then. DB, if you learned your Jian from Alex, it may well be the same stuff. I learned it from him who in turn got it from Serge if I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty sure Serge was the source as he previously taught Li Jinglin's Taiji and related neigong at another seminar.
The strategy should be triangulation but may be that is the same as "evasive and target the opponent's sword hand".
One major solo training is to touch the tip of your sword on a tree. Rotate your hand in a big circle but remain your sword tip contact on the tree. This way, you can develop you skill to cut into your opponent's sword holding wrist from any 360 degree angle. Your sword handle make a big circle, your sword tip make a small circle..
Thanks, that is a standard Baguaquan technique but there are difficulties in the two person set. Some do practice striking the opponent's wrist in different angles to develop the triangulation strategy.
