I love my weapons. I know I have said that several times (especially lately), but weapons are my life. I have finished teaching myself the Cane Form with the saber, and I decided to try it on the left side. Pleasantly, I was able to do the whole thing. Except two movements that I’ve also had trouble with on the right side as well. I rewatched my teacher’s teacher doing the Cane Form (with the cane), which helped. Then I kept doing it until I mostly got the hang of it. And then I was so tired. Here’s yesterday’s post about my fun with weapons.
It’s deceptive how much muscles it takes to do the weapons. I mean, not as much as weightlifting, obviously, but enough for me to feel it at the end of the day.
Today, I did the whole Cane Form with the saber on the right side. Then, I decided to give it a whirl on the left side and had very little trouble with it except for two postures in the fourth row. The same two postures that have given me trouble since I first learned the form. Watching Sifu (my teacher’s teacher) do it helped clarify a few things, but I’m still not quite there.
I’m not sweating it, though. I will get there at some point; I just need to keep working on it. That’s the deffirence between now and before. When I first started learning the Saber Form, I would not have had any confident that I could get through a sticky point. With the sword? Yes, because I love it so much. I did not feel the same way about the saber.
I want to rank the weapon forms just because I can. I have done this before, and it’s always complicated. Why? Because I love the different weapons for different reasons. If I were to say which weapon I absolutely loved the most, it would most likely be the double sabers.
Let me backtrack immediately. I fell in love with the sword the second my teacher put a wooden one in my hand. I have said this several times before, but I resisted learning the weapons because I was not a violent person. Yes, that was the rationale in my mind. Learning the combat reasons fdor the postures felt different to me. That was for self-defense, whereas learning a weapon felt more aggressive to me (at the time).
The second I closed my fingers over the hilt of a shitty wooden practice sword, I fell in love. I knew this was what I wanted to do fro the rest of my life and learned it as quickly as I could. My road since then has been rocky, but I’ve finally reached a point over a decade later where I feel like I’m pretty damn good at the weapons. Even though I’m teaching myself. Even though I’m making mistakes. I’m still on the road to being really damn good at this.
I have included a video of Sifu doing the Sword Form, and it’s the next form I want to refine. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at my Sword Form, and it can do with some tweaking. I’ve asked my teacher to show me the beginning since Sifu has refined the form. My teacher has shown me the first half-dozen or so movements, but she’s not quite comfortable with the changes herself.
This is my first love and my everlasting love. It’s no longer my favorite weapon, but it will always have a special place in my heart because it’s the weapon that started me on my journey towards learning all these weapon forms.
My least favorite weapon is still probably the cane. Though I now have a deeper appreciation for it because of doing the Cane Form with a saber, it’s still not as exciting to me as some of the other weapons. I will keep working on it diligently and maybe one day, I’ll find a deep abiding love for it. Again, I like it so much better now than before I did the Cane Form with a saber, so I’ll take that.
As for the saber, it’s a new darling to me right now. Today, I did both the Saber Form and the Cane Form with the saber. I did the latter both left and right side. And I fucking loved all of it. I’ts mindblowing how doing the Cane Form with a saber has completely changed my mind about the saber. In previous points, I kept talking about how I never expected this to happen, and I can’t quite get over it.
You know how in romcoms, the ‘ugly’ girl (put in quotes because it’s usually that she has messy hair, is wearing shapeless clothing, and has on glasses, but is otherwise stunning) gets a makeover and is suddenly gorgeous? That’s how I feel about the cane and the saber, especially the saber. For so long, it’s been a secondary weapon to me, and now, it’s top tier.
Here’s my problem. Now, I want to learn all the weapons at once. I recently watched Sifu doing the Karambit Form (not Taiji), and I wanted to finish learning it. I know about half of it, and while watching him, I was glad to see that I had the part I knew basically right. When I start teaching it to myself again, I will definitely clean it up.
I also want to refine my Sword Form. I have not looked at it since I learned it, and that was roughly a decade ago. Oh, and I’m still messing around with a fan and a karambit. While also learning the Swimming Dragon Form (bagua) with hands only. I have roughly four movements left in that form, and then I will learn it with the Deer Horn Knives.
I am so excited for that! The Deer Horn Knives are my favorite weapon that I have yet to really use. I do use them to walk the circle, but I have yet to learn a form with them. My teacher teaching me to walk the circle with them was a pivotal point in my study, and it’s only second to the day she strongly urged me to hold a sword and would not let me back out of it.
I’m trying to be very intentional about my learning because I tend to get too obsessed about things. I don’t want to rush it and feel like I’m just trophy hunting. “Oh, I just added double fan to my belt.” It’s hard, though, because I am so eager to learn them, and I feel like there is not enough time to learn them all.
I’m done for today. More tomorrow.