I’m sure all of you have heard the argument countless times that the traditional weaponry taught in Kung Fu and other classical martial arts is outdated at best, if not completely useless in today’s modern martial art scene. But I beg to differ. Not only is it NOT outdated, but it can give you greater insight and help foster if not even deepen your understanding of your empty hand martial arts training. So let’s begin…
Weapon training serves as a unification tool for mind and body beyond the body and the mind. It forces the individual to put their entire mindset, feeling, expression and physical and mental power into the weapon, i.e. the tool. Therefor, you have to be a more excellent craftsman because you’re using the weapon. The weapon becomes the teacher; the weapon becomes the test; the weapon is the lesson that you must learn to excel and go beyond yourself. It’s never the fault of the Black and Decker tool that you got for Father’s Day when your project doesn’t turn out right. It always and forever will be in the hands of the craftsman, i.e. the student, teacher, sword master, weapon master, whatever you want to call yourself. Weaponry training is a magnification of what the student’s attributes are, be they positive or negative. Because it acts as a magnifying glass and an extension of the physical and mental ability of the individual practitioner, we have to listen to those magnifications, be they good or bad, and reconcile them in order to make improvement.
Initially, everybody goes, “ooh” and “ah” when they see weapons, but it’s not the glittery, shiny spearhead or the ominous looking wolfstooth mace that matter. It’s actually the power and spirit and physical ability of the practitioner that makes you go “ooh” and “ah.” The race car doesn’t drive itself; the painting doesn’t paint itself. The five star meal doesn’t cook itself. It all needs someone behind it. The things that we practice teach us back if we are good enough of a sounding board and able to listen. If we don’t, you become like Tommy, deaf, dumb and blind, but he was a pinball wizard and you’re not. If you take that famous rock opera by The Who, Tommy was deaf, dumb and blind, but he played that pinball machine because he was one with himself. He listened and became one with the item he was playing. This is what you need to do with your weaponry and your martial art training in general. You need to go away from yourself to get in touch with yourself. This is how weapon training can become a unification tool of mind and body.
The weapon is the teacher, not the other way around. Every weapon is taking the opportunity to teach you again, and your job is to learn again and listen to the weapon. The weapon is the teacher because you have to learn the special Kung Fu of that particular item. Each item has its own way to be treated, taken care of, taught and practiced. Just like when you’re cooking, everything has a particular temperature it has to be cooked at, and all things don’t cook the same way. You have to know how to cook that item. I see many people, including my own students, move, jump around and do all their movement. The movement may be good and clean, but if the taste is not there, it’s just movement. This is one reason why there’s value in learning a lot of different weapons. If we’re talking about classical weaponry, there are eighteen classical weapons. That means there’s 18 different tastes, 18 different flavors of ice cream (and there’s more than that). You have to be able to exhibit the difference in the taste and/or style (味道) because if everything tastes like chicken I don’t want to eat your ice cream. If you play the Kwan Do, you have to evoke Kwan Do taste. If your Kwan Do movement and your spear movement and all the movement that you do taste the same, that means you’re missing the individual Kung Fu, the individual flavor of that particular weapon. Even though each weapon is predicated on the same basic stances, arm and leg movement, they should each exhibit their own feeling and taste. You order California pizza or Hawaiian pizza, and then you go to Lombardi’s and you get a real margherita pizza. They’re all great, but the taste is so vastly different. If you don’t have that taste, then why did you order that item? When you play a particular weapon, you want to have the taste and feeling of that weapon. Yesterday, I was playing the bench with a young man. The bench has very similar movements to that of the double headed staff, but a bench is a bench and a staff is a staff. They sort of share movements, but the taste is very different. If you play one like the other, then you’re not doing it service. You must exhibit the spirit, feeling, attitude and power of each item.
Weaponry training forces your intention to go beyond the confines of your body. This is another reason why classical weaponry should still be taught and learned today. It’s forcing you to make that extension. You can see in the way the individual plays his form whether his intention goes all the way through. You’re not doing the move with the weapon or with your finger; you’re doing it with your heart. Once we take the weapon away from the individual, assuming that said student understands, the intention should still reside in your empty hand movement. If you can project your intention and energy into the weapon, which is an inanimate object, if we take the weapon away, then your energy is just as long as the weapon you had in your hand. All things taken equally, you should be going through the opponent when you strike him with your hand or your foot because you can project that energy through the opponent. Like a singer able to project their voice, you are able to project your energy. The audience is able to hear you just as well in the cheap seats as in the mezzanine or the orchestra. The weapon is helping you produce as well as project physical, mental and spiritual energy. You see how that translates back to the empty hand movement. You have to mentally project your energy, because everything comes back to your mental state.
If you train your mental state properly, then you gain. If not, you lose. This is what the weapon is trying to teach you. The other day, I was talking with two of my senior students while they practiced their weapons. I asked them, “Are you able to see how out of tune you are with your own mind and your own body because the weapon is teaching you? You need to listen with your heart to understand that weapon’s lesson because the master is hiding therein.” That’s cool! Even if you feel stupid and you look ridiculous, it’s cool because you have another chance to elevate your skill and understanding. That’s the approach that we should have. If you have that understanding in your mind, you will start to learn something. You will have some gains. Maybe you won’t look the way you want. Maybe you won’t have the power, speed and grace you’re seeking at this moment in time, but you’re making inroads into it. You’re making inroads into becoming a master of the weapon, inroads into becoming a master of yourself. Ultimately, that’s the real reason why you study Kung Fu. In essence, when you’re practicing weaponry, you’re learning not just the weapon, but learning more about yourself, therefor elevating your Kung Fu. This is one of, if not the main reason that classical Kung Fu weaponry should still be practiced and taught in this modern day age.
If you train your mental state properly, then you gain. If not, you lose. This is what the weapon is trying to teach you. The other day, I was talking with two of my senior students while they practiced their weapons. I asked them, “Are you able to see how out of tune you are with your own mind and your own body because the weapon is teaching you? You need to listen with your heart to understand that weapon’s lesson because the master is hiding therein.” That’s cool! Even if you feel stupid and you look ridiculous, it’s cool because you have another chance to elevate your skill and understanding. That’s the approach that we should have. If you have that understanding in your mind, you will start to learn something. You will have some gains. Maybe you won’t look the way you want. Maybe you won’t have the power, speed and grace you’re seeking at this moment in time, but you’re making inroads into it. You’re making inroads into becoming a master of the weapon, inroads into becoming a master of yourself. Ultimately, that’s the real reason why you study Kung Fu. In essence, when you’re practicing weaponry, you’re learning not just the weapon, but learning more about yourself, therefor elevating your Kung Fu. This is one of, if not the main reason that classical Kung Fu weaponry should still be practiced and taught in this modern day age.
-Sifu Paul Koh