Since my stick collection has increased I must be like a dog.
Fetching.
I do nonetheless have a range of weapons as classed in the martial artz vernacular. You can do a lot with these, except, as Chancellor Otto von Bismarck pointed out about bayonets, sit on them.
At right are two: my Silambam Bo (the tall one) and my Jo.
The Bo has flex and cut from rattan (I suspect).
The Jo is bamboo aggregate whose career was supposedly to be a broom handle.
Needless to say, they perform differently in my hands. I can, nonetheless, do the same moves with both with varying success.
The smaller one, the Jo, comes up to my arm pit and works well as a walking or hiking stick. The Bo is a shade taller than I am.
I think the material they are made from influences the cadence with which each stick is drilled. One of the delights of the rattan Bo is that you get whish sounds at speed.
That's a groovy sound effect.
Of course, whish or whatever also means that when you drop or lose hold of the stick it's sure to fly off into space. So forget about all that dojo malarkey, and do you stick work outside in god's/buddha's/krishna's good air.
And position yourself away from windows or other fragilities.
You may also like to remove your glasses as you practice for fear that a feral turn may strike and break them.
I guess I'm pointing out that stick work has a lot to do with often losing the stick from your hands as you skill up. Since you don't want to injure your stick, practice on grass or earth may be a good idea too.
Keep dogs and babies away too.
Outside too, you don't have to fret about ceiling height -- which is the major limitation of stick work indoors.
As I get better with the Jo -- doing the #13 Jo kata over and over again -- I sure respect it as a weapon. The footwork is still a challenge for me as I know I must move from anchorage to anchorage. In Silambam, you learn footwork before you drill with your hands. Feet patterns are a key feature of Korean Hapkido bong work too.
My learning is actually quite slow. The double hand spin -- butterfly palm over butterfly palm -- is very difficult to master. Each teacher has a subtly different approach to this basic technique. So be warned. and keep studying those vids.
Once you get it is a great day at the end of your upper limbs.
They have lift off!
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