Just curious, your bio says you trained in china, I was just curious if you trained with any traditional weapons.

Im interested in the connections between armed and unarmed combat in the TCMA's, considering you learned in china, I figured it would be a good place to ask about any personal experiences or perspectives you have about training with weapons, and learning how to defend against them, I.e. knives, spears, swords, guns, batons, throwing weapons, etc..

You mind?

Feel free to chime in folks.

Im doing a study.

I learned the Xingyiquan staff and straight sword, as well as the Sun Taijiquan straight sword and Baguazhang straight sword.

We did practice "applications" in a cooperative format, but there was no real sparring or contact work with gear or mock weapons, so I feel most of the training was a waste of time as far as relevance to any kind of practical skill.

I take a tai ji class and we do this push hands drill with the swords. IMO it is a waste of time fighting wise.

Hahaha!

Oh cmon!

Anything that is not directly applicable to fighting is a waste of time to you!

But thats what I like about Masta Tim.

I personally would LOVE to learn those weapons forms.

Comes in handy with tha "ladies" Ya know. "sword skills" and all..

Timber, that reminds me of musashi, and how the legend goes...

He used to win death battles with wooden swords.

That is totally badass, slightly ruthless, gory, and psychopathic, but badass nonetheless, considering he couldve died himself..

They're called legends for a reason......

This is my take on legends. Look at modern day fighters who will be legends later on. Tim Cartmell might be a legend sometime down the road. Is he winning fights with wooden swords against someone with a real sword who isn't a child? Is he using his fast ba gua step to mystify his opponents into losing to him? Is he only using fa jin to push people away but is supposedly a good fighter like Chen Man Ching? Is he going to magically talk to his students from his coffin, like Dong Hai Whoever the ba gua founder, and tell them their skill isn't even close to his?

No. None of that is going to happen. Did you ever wonder why those stories of past masters are always so vague? Because whatever happened barely happened and students were just trying to be nice. The same thing is happening between one of my teachers and I. He was a great stree fighter back in the day and now he's overweight and can barely walk. It doesn't look like he's done martial arts a day in his life. But if after he died, you were to ask me if he could fight I'm going to answer yes out of respect. But deep down I know the truth about this current circumstances.

Is Tim Cartmell contemplating the i ching to make his ba gua fighting strategy better? Is Tim circle walking around trees for 9 years until they bend in his direction? Is Tim Cartmell starving himself to find enlightenment while meditating under a tree? Is Tim Cartmell taking "full" strikes to his body to prove his iron body skills? NOtice how those guys never take a shot to their faces??

You get my point, Robert.

I'm not against all non-combat oriented martial arts practices. I'm into nei gong for warm ups/cool downs and for injury rehabilitation. Qi gong/nei gong are especially good for injury rehab because they are low impact and can be done by anyone. Also, it's cheaper to do qi gong than to have a physical therapist move me around in ways I can do on my own.

I like to do stake standing for meditative reasons these days.

And when I'm bored I walk the circle occasionally. For some reason people are mystified but that but if they see me doing shuai jiao I'm doing something that's rough and not "real" martial arts. People see me circle walking and it's like i'm Jesus.

I know plenty of sword forms, Robert. I'll teach them to you for a fee of $500 each if you want.

You forgot the decimal. You meant $5.00 each right?

When youre circle walking, you feel like jesus?

Try circle walking on water.

Then turn that water into wine and get drunk afterwards :D

and then make a bunch of fish, mmmm....

I bet jesus was pretty good at circle walking.

Legendary...

David Blaine has nothing on this guy
http://www.break.com/index/epic-indian-card-trick-fight-scene-2389267

What the hell?

Rereading threads is funny...

I have a friend who used to play baseball is really good with a bat, and has good aim, and a strong arm, from baseball...
I bet he would be a killer swordsman.

I suck with a bat... more of a hand eye guy, knives... stuff like that.

What kind of bat; vampire, fruit or squeaker?

-_-