Combat Weapons!

Ok, so ten to one no one who doesn't do martial arts will care about this in the slightest, but I just had one of the most fun workouts in my life doing a combat weapons seminar with Master Jordan Schreiber, who was visiting our school this weekend for a banquet honoring our own Senior Master Thor. We do traditional sparring in TKD, of course, but this is something new, where we're sparring with weapons, a large padded stick approximately two feet in length with a small handle. Full sparring gear is required, unfortunately, but the headache of the chest protector and face mask was well worth it for being able to actually hit each other with sticks. Most of the strikes are named for animals, and mimic in some way their pattern of attack, like a cobra strike, which curls up and then lunges out, a tiger strike, which zigzags back and forth the way a tiger would move in tall grass, or a golden rooster, which is a diversionary strike to the chest and then a jump and strike downward, like a chicken attempting to fly. Aggression is a key to this, since many people are unnerved by a stick flying at their face (and yes, the face is a legal target, except the eyes and the front and back of the neck, the groin also being an illegal target) and they forget to block. I can't wait to do more of this.