learning about your weapon

Regarding kobudo weapons training, a teacher friend tells me that you haven’t really learned about the weapon until you have injured yourself with it. Given the number of weapons in our system, there are ample learning opportunities.

I had a very nice one a couple years back, trying to follow along with some others who knew a higher level nunchaku kata. It is quite a bit fancier than the one I was working on and involved many more types of swings and strikes.

This was a new kata for me. They weren’t going to slow down for me. I could/ should have stepped out to observe, but something in me can’t do that. So, going too fast through a kata I didn’t know…

Bam, the tip circled back and struck me between the lower lip and chin. That smack or my following bad word were enough to draw everyone’s attention. Again, I could/ should have stepped out, but something in me can’t do that.

So I was frantically trying to follow along while also running my tongue around inside my mouth, trying to check for any teeth that might be floating about in the blood that was seeping out.

It is a sort of multi-tasking, I suppose. Like when sparring a Thai kick boxer who blasts right through and kicks me in the mouth, just like that. (Could have should have worn a mouth piece). My jaws and teeth crashed together and I heard something fall on the dojo floor. But it was not the time to stop. Knowing immediately that I was not near his level, he was kind enough to ease up a bit, which made discovering my half-broken tooth with my tongue –while trying to continue sparring - a bit easier.

Following up last night’s excellent 3 hours of kobudo practice, I was outside this morning when another learning opportunity arose.

This time it was the sai. Everything was going smoothly and I was reworking all my motions from the ground up. Then one of the metal tines on the side of the weapon caught or snagged the pocket of my jacket. There was a beautiful instant of realizing that it had caught and adjusting the usual path of the sai to avoid ripping the pocket. (see “if I were a true master” series of posts)

That instant was followed by another in which I realized that altering the path of one hand, without altering that of the other, could have unpleasant circumstances. The beauty of the prior instant gave way to a rather different sensation, one of pain, as the end of one sai ripped across a couple of my fingers.

Then it was time for multi-tasking again. Of course stopping the motions of the kata to inspect the damage was not an option. But I was really curious as to whether or not blood was flowing. I could glance down at the hand…but that would disrupt the flow and focus of the motions. Drops of blood on the ground or jacket? Same problem.

Nothing to do but keep going. As expected, the damage was not too severe: the blood staunched quickly and the lingering sting is a good reminder.

Time to review the tekko (brass knuckles, basically) next. Surely I won’t be served up two learning opportunities in one day.

(picture from Vancouver)