In all the martial arts weapons history, of all the martial arts styles I have studied, the three training drills I am about to give you are the best. They are simple, don’t require much equipment, and increase your sixth sense. They do require that you latch on to a different way of thinking.
I played with the tonfa, and the sickles, and all that sort of thing, and I realized something: a weapon is a line. Nun chucks have a hinge, tonfas have handles, even a gun projects on a straight line. Even a sword, appearing curved, is a straight line moving in a circle.
Understanding this, I began two specific exercises: one was thrusting, and the other was cutting. Yes, there is always butting, or some other odd technique, but everything should revolve around these two things: poking and slicing. Thus I came up with two specific drills.
One drill was to hang a tire from a tree, and cut it so it turns in one direction, and then cut it again so it turns in another direction. If it starts swinging, I cut it so that the swing is stopped, and the rotation is begun again. You will find that using a martial arts sword in this fashion requires some finesse.
The second drill I developed using self defense weapons had to do with the straight thrust. I hung a six inch circle from a tree and practiced thrusting a pole through the center, making sure not to touch any sides of the circle. I wanted to make my thrust straight and true, and not have it deflected by any extra contact.
I took a year off and practiced these two strikes, hour after hour, day after day. It was a rigorous and pure martial arts training, but it really worked. I could feel my muscles become lean and dense, and my strikes were becoming effortless, and then I developed my third method.
I got into my car and stuck the key into the slot. I blinked, and realized the similarity to a sword strike, so I closed my eyes and practiced putting the key in without the benefit of eyes. Then I attached a key to the end of a pole, fastened a lock to a wall, and practiced putting the key in without using my eyes.
This was a logical extension of the weapon, and a logical extension of my physical into the spiritual and ethereal. Doing this trains one to know the space about oneself, as opposed to having to look at the space one is in. I totally recommend these martial arts weapons training methods if you want to elevate your art beyond what is normally taught in martial arts dojos.
You can find out more about unusual training methods that really work at Monster Martial Arts.
Matrix Martial Arts 