Fist With a Fauxhawk

I'm really enjoying learning all the details and nuances of cutting and how it is giving me more insight on single cutting techniques. It really helps me improve my forms as to where I should be putting cutting energy and how long to maintain it in the motion. So far I've only been cutting water bottles and cardboard, so there's a long way to go. I am hopefully going to cut some bamboo and tatami later on this year so I can really feel the "cutting" standard. The biggest revelation I've had is about hand position. Cutting, weight, and practical techniques require some specific hand positions which deviate from the accepted knowledge and techniques that have been passed down. On top of it all, I've been able to expand my community and make new friends and mentors. I have been very lucky to have had extensive conversations with some very profound martial artists, who I would call actual swordsmen (unlike myself, there's a long way to go for me!).

Here is a demonstration of the Han dynasty pole arm, Sha 鎩 in action. This spear-like weapon has a sword blade that allows for some high powered cutting as well as piercing and thrusting. The Sha would have been used by more elite soldiers in infantry, and oftentimes by the cavalry on horseback. This particular Sha has a bat wing design for the cross guard, hence it's name. Since there are no existing manuals or records of Han dynasty fighting techniques, we are unsure of how they were exactly used. However, we can speculate that on horseback they would've been used more for swinging and cutting, otherwise for infantry soldiers, they would've been used more direct with thrusting techniques. I am performing a selection from the Snake Tongue Spear form from Choy Li Fut kung fu as the movements fit this weapon well with a variety of thrusting and cutting techniques.

https://lkchensword.com/classic-han-shahttps://lkchensword.com/bat-wing-han-sha In this video we hit the controversial topic of what were the real weapons of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. In short, we don’t know exactly, but for sure they were not the Crescent Blade Guan Dao and Snake Tongue Spear we associate them with because those two weapons did not exist until centuries later in the Song dynasty. So we can look at what weapons were available in the Han Dynasty, and what they were most likely to use based on their military rank, and commonly fought on horseback. This leads us to speculate that they used polearm weapons like the Sha, Pi, or Qiang. I personally think they would have used a Sha as their main polearm, but that is only my opinion, so what do you think? I use a ton of images from Ginkgostory on Artstation, so go check out his page for historically accurate artwork and illustrations: https://www.artstation.com/ginkgostory

Han Dynasty halberd in action! The Ji is a halberd with two blades, one upward spear head and one forward dagger axe blade which was a very important weapon during the Han Dynasty. Although the blade itself is quite light, once it is placed on the end of a pole it becomes noticeably heavy in motion. I have a couple other videos on my YouTube channel that discuss this weapons history and usage, and a video on how to tie it too! Be sure to check those out!!!

What was the real weapon of Lü Bu?

I was pleasantly surprised with how good this game is (as frustrating as it can be)! Sloclap did a lot of research in putting this game together and it shows. So I thought it would be cool to point out some of the little details that really shine, from a Sifu's perspective.

Who else is playing SIFU? I finally got through the museum thanks to the charged backfist with a blade, then I could take Kuroki on at a younger age with full health!

This video is inspired by the poem "Broken Time" by Xin Qiji and features the truly magnificent sword and reproduction of a 2000 year old Warring States Era sword "The Magnificent Chu Jian" by LK Chen Swords. https://lkchensword.com/magnificent-c... This sword is agile, aggressive, and fierce. It favors piercing and thrusting, but can carry itself through any chop and slash, making it a very menacing sword.

Check out: https://youtu.be/JZlDMYPIm-k if you want to know more about the sword!

This video features the Gung Ji Kuen 工字拳 form of Choy Li Fut kung fu. It is not the same as Gung Jee Fook Fu in the Hung Gar system, and the name itself is derived from the '工' or 'gung' character as the path of the footwork in the form resembles the 工 shape. Gung Ji Kuen is a unique set and I enjoyed the parallels of training the linear parts of the set in the narrow hallways, it just seemed like the perfect setting. Gung Ji Kuen is known and practiced by many Choy Li Fut practitioners around the world, and here you can see the form performed by a young student in King Mui village in China https://youtu.be/AJ9WOeNVWTE. Get out there, train hard, and sleep well!

The song is called "Trying to sleep" by Wolfie's Just Fine. I don't own copyright to the song, and I did not monetize this video, so any ads you see support the artist, if you like it you should check out his channel www.youtube.com/jonlajoie or purchase his albums across all major music streaming apps.

Choy Li Fut Kung Fu Two Section Staff 大梢子棍 The two section staff is one of my favorite kung fu weapons and I personally think it is highly underrated. Not only is it an impressive weapon to watch, it is a challenge to train and develop technique, and it is quite practical as a long weapon.

Choy Li Fut Kung Fu - Nine Tooth Rake One of the more dynamic weapon sets in Choy Li Fut Kung Fu, the Nine Tooth Rake has is more than just a muck rake, forged in heaven, it was the chosen weapon of the immortal Zhu Bajie (Pig of Eight Precepts) or "Pigsy" (in western translations) from the Chinese literary classic Journey to the West. Even though Zhu Bajie was reckless and lacking in tact, his martial prowess was well known as were his deeds as he joined monk Tan Sanzang, Sun Wukong the Monkey king, and Sha Wujing the sand monk, on their journey to the west. I speculate that there was a large influence of Chinese opera in the making of this form, with certain positions like "wearing the sword" and the frequency of weapon spinning techniques. It is most likely that this form was created in homage to the character from the story, but inspired by opera routines of the time. In the end, I think it's a very underrated and underrepresented form in the vast Choy Li Fut system. It's a very exciting form as well as challenging to switch grips and spin and perform strong techniques on both right and left sides. If you ever get the chance, I highly suggest you learn it!

I am fascinated with this sword, for the length and heft of the blade, it still maneuvers quite easily. It's also really cool to wield the same sword as the famed 108 Heroes of the Song Dynasty, to cut, chop and slash like Wu Song the Pilgrim...

I've been lucky enough to learn some Wudang sword exercises, techniques, and forms from Grandmaster Doc-Fai Wong who learned them from his teacher, Hu Yuen Chou who was a student of Guo Qifeng who was a master of Wudang sword.

The sword I am using is the Flying Phoenix from LK Chen https://lkchensword.com/flying-phoenix and you can see some cutting I did with the sword here: https://youtu.be/SjPJVut7KeQ and a review video with my thoughts here: https://youtu.be/f2cWP1hjTvM

I felt that out of the handful of jian sets I know, this felt the most natural with the Han Jian. The length of the sword and the weight distribution felt perfect for the many circling and thrusting techniques.

This was a lot of fun to both film and edit. The sword carries itself, I just have to point it at the water bottle...

...also, slow motion makes everything look cooler!

Looking to get a Han Jian? Here are my thoughts on the Flying Phoenix by LK Chen. I have a lot to say about the sword, including some history and the details of construction.

Let me know if you already have the Flying Phoenix, or any other sword from LK Chen!