Training the past few days has been mostly dedicated to my Bo Staff. I have really fallen in love with it, which is strange for me because I normally would hate something that I didn't think was effective. Training with the Bo Staff has taught me a lot about the weapon, but also a lot about myself. I had this preconceived notion that this staff was simple and mostly for showmanship, something I would never consider myself interested in, but sure enough it turns out it has been one of my favorite things so far. Although it is a simple piece of wood, it has so much functionality to it. It is effective as a weapon, as a support for working on kicks, as a training tool for building fast twitch muscle movements, it has greatly enhanced my forearm training, and the list goes on and on. It's complex even though its appearance is misleading, which made me stop to think. It makes me wonder about my past... as a person who used to go around with similar preconceived notions, how many opportunities did I pass up on life? How many people/experiences did I not give a chance because of my own self disillusions? It's something I always have thought about, yet something I rarely take the time to really act upon. Training with the staff has just come to show me that I of course don't know everything and like I said previously with weapons training, you have to approach it with a child like wonder. Just yesterday I saw two kids laughing hysterically holding a stick and swinging it at a bush, like it was the most fun they had ever had. While I was sitting in my backyard spinning my Bo Staff and watching and listening to these kids, I realized that while I am training I am doing just that. I am laughing and loving every minute of it. I need to approach life in the same way. Rather than go around thinking I know what I'm talking about and thinking I know how to judge others, I need to approach each opportunity with the same child like wonder. Who knows what experiences await outside of the normal realm of experiences I have had.
The main things I have been working on with the Bo Staff are spins and attacks. My spins are coming along extremely fast, which was a little surprising for me. I feel very confident holding the staff now and just want to keep spinning everything I see! It really is a great feeling and I highly recommend if you have never used a Bo Staff before, you should consider picking one up and just twirling it around. It will unlock this feeling inside of you that you might have forgotten! I'm beginning to increase the velocity of my spins and adding more complex movements to them as well. The greatest aspect of training with them though is it unlocks some core muscles that don't necessarily normally get activated. Some of the spins require core and shoulder movement only, while the hands are more of a fulcrum for the staff to spin on. If you have trouble keeping up with your ab exercise routine, this will help make up for it and perhaps even be able to supplement some of them. Besides spins, I also came to the conclusion that the Bo Staff hasn't been used as effectively as it could, so part of my experimentation is based on how to strike with it. Most people hold the staff like a baseball bat and attempt to strike through the target. The two biggest problems with this mentality are A.) The staff isn't made of a hardwood, so it is flexible and can be broken and B.) The staff doesn't possess all the weight at the striking end, it is equally distributed throughout the staff. Well, why are these even an issue? Both of these are issues, because as the velocity of the staff increases it is not solid like a bat, the staff actually bends. If the staff can be bent while swinging forward, that also means the staff can also be bent by swinging backwards. That simply means that with proper timing and knowledge of how far the staff can bend, you essentially should be able to reverse direction at the moment before impact and whip all the energy directly into the target. Doing so would eliminate the probability of breaking the staff and also ensure a more devastating blow. The reason the staff breaks when it is held like a baseball bat is simply because of the force exerted back onto the staff by the bag/target/person you are attacking. By channeling all the energy into the bent tip of the staff, there would be no blow back from the target. If you have a staff, give it a shot. I see many people make videos about spinning the staff and show basic forms for attacking, but I have yet to read or see anything that describes an attack in the way I have just said. Once I get my experiments up and running, I will have further proof that what I am saying is true, but until that time you just have to take my word for it. :-)
Although I am making great progress with the Bo Staff, I'm having a hard time applying the same techniques into the 3 sectional staff. When using it, I am attempting to have all three sections move independently while simultaneously generating cyclical force. Most people seem to treat the three sectional as a bo staff, but I believe this is a fatal error. They use similar forms and spins to make the weapon appear fancy, but when it comes to striking they fall into the same issue as the Bo Staff. I will go more into detail about it as I progress my knowledge of physics and get a better feel for the weapon too. My greatest issue with the three sectional now though is simply that I am afraid of it. I try to get it spinning, but every time I am afraid I will hit myself in the head or the shin or some other vulnerable body parts. I think that is the greatest challenge this weapon possesses. Controlling it isn't that difficult, but controlling your own fear is always challenging. Even though I have hit myself in the head at full spin and hit myself in the leg with the recoil off my heavy bag, I still am hesitant as I try to spin it. I'm sure as I gain more confidence in my Bo Staff spins, that the fear from the three sectional will be overcome by my confidence in my ability. Once I overcome my fear and begin using the three sectional more effectively, I will discuss the mindset that I have while I spin it, what I think about, how I feel, what I do with my hands. I will go into great detail about it and how I overcame the problems I just discussed and hopefully that will help someone reading this overcome their fear too!
Strangely enough I have been so focused on my staffs that I haven't really had much time for working on my punches and kicks. Today I resume my iron palm training, which I will create a section for as well on here, so that should help get me back into the swing of things. But even though I haven't been working on my punch and kicks, like I have said before I believe if you are using weapons as extensions of yourself, then even without realizing it you are strengthening your forms without even realizing it. My balance is improving, my form is improving, everything is improving.
The sections are still a little too generalized for my liking, so I am looking into creating more individual blog posts focused on each aspect of my training. I've also started making some videos of my staff handling and such, so I will be possibly posting them on here too. I will soon be uploading pictures of my training and once I get my physics experimentation set up I will be creating a section on here to document that too. I have so much excitement now for everything I am doing, each new thing I learn further increases my passion for doing what I do. I hope to inspire you to find this feeling as well, no matter how you apply it to your own life.
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