What Weapon and Why?

1) What's your favourite weapon?

BOB WESLEY: "Straight sword."

VINCENT JONES: "Rather unkindly, my fencing master at school one day said: "Mr Jones, the epée is for gentlemen. I think you should concentrate on the sabre." Nevertheless, the weapon that makes me feel most in touch with Taiji, is the Jian. Overall, though, I come down strongly in favour of the staff. "

VICKY HOLDEN: "I haven't got a favourite - I like 'em all!"

CRAIG JACKSON: "Walking stick."

JOHN FOWLER: "Probably staff/spear. I also like the broadsword, in fact all weapons!"

2) Why is that your favourite?

BOB WESLEY: "Very calming."

VINCENT JONES: "The moves you make with the staff have a tremendous correlation with the applications contained in the form and San Shou, but you are doing them with a weight."

VICKY HOLDEN: "N/A - each has a different characteristic that appeals to me."

CRAIG JACKSON: "Accessible, inconspicuous, lightweight, cheap. Nice fashion accessory for

JOHN FOWLER: "I particularly like the staff/spear forms, they teach you a different distance to work with."

3) Do you practice fighting with it a lot, or do you prefer to spend time perfecting it's form?

BOB WESLEY: "Perfecting."

VINCENT JONES: See following entries.

VICKY HOLDEN: "Both are necessary, and I enjoy doing both. It's no use practicing the empty shapes of a form if you don't study its practical use as well."

CRAIG JACKSON: "I enjoy practising applications and try to as much as I can, but at the moment I'm working on the forms"

JOHN FOWLER: "I practice both forms and two person training a lot, from sticking to applications."

4) What has been it's effect on the rest of your Taiji?

BOB WESLEY:"A sense of connection between the waist and the wrists and an extension of awareness."

VINCENT JONES: "The moves you make with the staff have a tremendous correlation with the applications contained in the form and San Shou, but you are doing them with a weight. The importance of weapons forms are that they build up your strength and increase agility. This goes double for the staff. I take the view that staff (and all weapons training) strengthens not so much the muscles as the ligaments ie. steel in cotton wool."

VICKY HOLDEN:"Enormous! Longer stances, faster footwork, greater accuracy, better use of the waist, more focus - the list is endless!"

CRAIG JACKSON: "From a form point of view, it's nice to practice because it gives you a nice aerobic exercise and I feel that also helps with footwork. Also because it's a blunt weapon, when I'm using it I have more confidence whilst practicing applications and can relax more than wielding a metal or sharp weapon."

JOHN FOWLER: "As mentioned earlier, I feel each weapon teaches different distance and timing awareness.  It always amazes me how much power can be generated using the waist correctly with the staff."

5) How would you recommend people proceed with weapons training?

BOB WESLEY: "Try to get the basic shape of the form."

VINCENT JONES:"As well as doing forms I recommend two practices. I spend a lot of time hitting a car tire hanging from on of my apple trees. This not only strengthens the wrists, arms and body but  also cheers me up quite quickly after a bad day at work.
The second thing I recommend is picking three or four of your favourite staff moves (e.g. thrusting, sweeping and "hay-pitching") and doing each of them, say, two hundred times on one side and then two hundred times the other way around. Then build up the repetitions by one hundred a day. Before the World Championships in 1990 I made it a practice to do three thousand repetitions a day because, as I said above, it is most helpful training for pushing hands.
When practising it is important to get energy to the striking end of the staff on every move and it is more helpful to do fifty strikes in which you do this than one hundred in which you do not. Therefore do not turn your practice into a cardiovascular test in which you are rushing to get finished."

VICKY HOLDEN:"Broadsword is probably a good place to start, as it is the easiest to learn. But resist the temptation to simply learn form after form - spend some time taking the lessons you learn from each weapon back to your hand form, and vice versa."

CRAIG JACKSON:"Most Zhong Ding instructors know at least one stick form. So I would say first find an instructor. He/she will know how to get their hands on walking sticks/canes. But even if they don't know a stick form I find that the application of the stick is similar to the jian so they could learn how to use a straight sword and then apply the principles to a stick."

JOHN FOWLER:"I think practising applications and training is very important, to get the feel of how the weapon works.  Also the two blocks and thrust combination of the spear should be practiced regularly for fa jing training."