When working with weapons it is often better to practice the movements and actions around a target, articulating the joints and paying close attention to your every move. In this way you will be able to intuitively build a strong understanding of attack and defence by thinking consciously about your every subtle movement. But you have to be fully engaged, not thinking about smashing the thing to pieces, otherwise you will not be aware of the subtle movements. During inner Martial Arts practice we should realise that we already know how to do these things, it’s just a case of concentrating and genuinely feeling these movements and skills so that we manifest this understanding.
If you are simply seeking to smash the other person, you may well achieve your aim, but this is not to your own benefit. Personally I hold on to the idea in my minds eye that I am a living light, trying to illuminate the target, or forces of darkness. This can inspire the most attentive and inspired behaviours so that ones actions converge towards the highest ideal of perfection. But this is a very delicate point, do not confuse and delude yourself into think of yourself as a figure of light physically speaking, it is a mental tool.
You will find that by using this method you will awaken and stimulate skills and techniques which would otherwise remain dormant, even with extensive technical training. This is because we need a high ideal, and a simple symbol of power to surpass ourselves, which is often more effective than accumulating scars of lifeless information1. In other words to fully absorb ourselves in work, it is better to relate ourselves not according to our physical capabilities and limitations, but our creative imagination. You might say “What a load of rubbish, I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous”. You are free to think that and I wouldn’t blame you. However feel free to try it for yourself as I have no reason to deceive anyone.
It is better to concentrate fully on the task at hand, and then if you can put it into safe practice with a partner. Too often the partner drills lack any real intuition and freestyle improvised flow. These aren’t always conditions where your keen senses really develop, because you either get whipped up into a rage when hit by the other person or the exercise becomes dull and predictable. If you have a good training partner then great, but the subtle side of martial Arts requires relative silence from chaotic environments and concentration on the inner forces. In other words, this is where the lessons are learnt which will enable you to handle chaos2.
Obviously live sparring can be beneficial. But at the same time the inner attitude and philosophy is neglected so that the person engaging in such activities actually ends up more tense and taking things personally, when in fact it isn’t about winning some contest of drill. I only advise engaging in partner drills of this kind when it is clear there is no pride on the line, as pride is the most difficult enemy to overcome. Lots of people engaging in these activities say that they are humble but the way they go about training often betrays the fact they they are training their pride and vanity, which when active simply takes up all their concentration. They may pound other into the dust but in their ignorance they’ve stunted their development.
Only train with others if you think it will benefit your development. Otherwise it’s likely that your so called training partner will just undermine the exercise by letting the chaotic forces within them ruin the spirit of the activity. From my point of view, any training should seek to reduce the influence of vanity and pride by working on concentration, intensity, and inner understanding, and under those conditions your abilities will emerge triumphantly.
So move around the target, imaginary or otherwise, fully concentrating and immersing yourself in the subtle movements which are demanded of you to keep centred and connected to the activity. Keep this connection and you will find that you flow and understand the movements contained within the work you are performing. Each time you go back to this, your understanding will increase. Why stop there? every instance of the day is an activity to engage in exercise, by contemplating and mindfully practicing anything from lidting a chair, to holding a cup, from breathing to thinking.
It is not important to think only about the weapon. You will make all sorts of other connections by applying the principles learnt from weapon fighting to say, boxing. From knowing how to use a weapon you will better be able to use your hands more generally, and vice versa. Having the right attitude and perspective will allow everything to converge, so that even though you are practicing one thing, it represents everything else. This is worth contemplating.
References
1 The High Ideal https://harmanater.com/2020/07/26/the-high-ideal/
2 Live in Harmony, Fight in Chaos https://harmanater.com/2020/07/12/fight-chaos-live-in-harmony/