I ♥ Weapons

Last night (Tuesday) we had our second Escrima class. I really enjoy it. I also enjoy working with the bo staff (and Thursday night is Bo Night in class…Yay!)

I don’t’ know what it is about sticks that captivates me. Maybe it’s the fact that a 28” stick in each hand extends your reach. And a bo staff extends your reach by almost 6 feet! Don’t you find this comforting? As a 5’4” woman, I know I do.

I also enjoyed the class we had on using knives. Of course, we used rubber or wooden training knives, but I found learning the basic movements very interesting. I remember feeling like Jack Sparrow doing the swashbuckling like fluid movements. It was exhilarating.

We don’t train in guns, as we shouldn’t, but we do practice self defense techniques using rubber and wooden training guns in the attacker role.

But escrima and bo staffs are a sticking point with me. (Pun intended.) As I said earlier in this post, the extended reach these weapons provide holds some of the allure, but I am quite sure that is not my main reason of attraction to this form of weaponry.

When I learned the first bo kata, I didn’t even realize it was a kata. I just assumed that was the way you handled the 6 foot stick. But as I learned it, and went through the rhythmic movements, I realized it was actually kata – my favorite part of martial arts – and I started trying to practice it as such. One of our senseis showed Rose and I how to do the second bo kata about 3 months ago or so and she caught on pretty easily. She attributed that to her having been a baton twirler (Is”baton twirler” a PC term? J) But I just was not ready to learn it yet. I know that sounds like a cop-out, and maybe it is, but I’d like to think it’s not and that I truly was not ready or not in the right frame of mind to learn the 2nd bo kata last time because I’m telling you - I just couldn’t get it for some reason.

In our escrima training, I am finding a common denominator in working with bo staffs…that almost choreographed-like patterns of movement. Again, very similar to kata. A woman in my class with whom I was working last Tuesday and this Tuesday said she wishes we were trained in the bo staff in the same way we are being trained in the basic escrima movements. Starting with the first section of the bo kata, practicing it until we have that down, then adding in the next section, and just building until we have learned the bo kata in full. I told her to suggest this. It was a valid point. However, we only do one bo class per session – so usually maybe 3 per year total, whereas we are working with escrima every week for about half of our session – probably about 6 – 8 weeks or something like that. The frequency does make quite a bit of difference in how well you “take” to learning something new. I know that’s true with me and I think it’s safe to say that is probably a pretty universally true statement.

Whatever the case, kata is still my favorite part of martial arts, but I have to say, in finding how much I enjoy the elegance and kata-like qualities of escrima and bo staff, I would have to say the practice of these weapons are a close second in my book.

Since I have been in class, we have not explored stars or other forms of weaponry, but I think it would be a study I would enjoy. This is another one of those things that I love about martial arts – learning unexpected things about yourself through studying them. I would have never in a million years pegged myself as someone who would enjoy working with weapons.

And an added bonus - I still love to see the looks on people’s faces when, on Tuesday afternoon, I say I need to get going because I don’t want to be late for my weapons class.