Dear Friend

Okay, about the heavy (bronze) Straight-Sword. My grandfather was a veteran of the Korean War (Chinese People’s Volunteers). When I was very young, I saw him and his comrades practicing martial arts, and I never saw him without weapons. Either with a heavy (bronze) Straight-Sword or an Iron Whip. Anyway, the Taijiquan my grandfather showed me he practiced was nothing like the old men and women practice these days – or at least the “popular” versions – that are easily viewable. Whatever the case, my grandfather passed away in 1995. The heavy (bronze) Straight-Swords he used are still at my home. Each weighs about eight or nine kilograms. I cannot hold a stance for even 20 seconds holding these weapons, let alone practice with them.

From what I gather, Taijiquan techniques are refined through the experience of using heavy weapons. The root-reason is that carrying heavy objects adds to the dropped bodyweight. This magnifies the bodyweight and clears-out (and strengthens) the qi-channels flowing through the centre of the bones. Changing the heavy-object's trajectory at high-speed is more intensive and takes greater control. Curved paths combined with twisting around the centre of gravity is consistent with human physiology and physics – as this generates a greater degree of power.

Chinese Language Text:

亲爱的朋友

铜锏的好吧，我外公是抗美援朝的老兵，很小的小时候见他和战友演武就没见过空手的，
要么拿着铜锏要么拿着铁鞭，反正外公跟我说的他练的太极，根本不是现在老头老太练的这种玩意[笑哭]外公95年去世的，

那对铜锏现在还在家里扔着呢，一根大概八九公斤，这玩意我拿着别说练，摆个架子都撑不住20秒[笑哭]
​
 太极拳法应是从使用重钝兵器经验中精炼而成的，根缘是重物惯性大，但人体力有限，高频变换物体运行轨迹付出的消耗更大且难以把控，而圆曲轨道配合重心旋转则高效得多，这是符合人生理及物理本质的。

Dear Tony

​My teacher used to strike a pressure-point to the upper-calf area - which made all control in my entire leg to "cease". As a young man, my muscles were strong and fit - but being hit like this just wiped it all away. Initially, I fell down - but the lesson was to place my weight on my other leg and attempt to bring back the sensation and control - usually through stamping. Once I perfected this (on either leg) - the next step was for both calves to be hit simultaneously - with the calf muscles being suitably "tensed" to create a natural armouring (this is linked to TCM and Shiatsu points - as you already know).

​Of course, I cannot be sure - but I expect the Sensei in this video is performing this conditioning on his student (striking the back of the upper-calf) - whilst the student is carrying the weighted urns. Genuine pressure-point striking is extremely dangerous and cuts-through all conditioning and will-power.

My teacher once gently "pinched" together my shirt-collar - and the next thing I remember is opening my eyes and seeing everyone's feet as they stepped around my head. I thought I had woke-up in bed and had no immediate memory of what had just happened. I slowly realised I was lying on a wooden floor - and that I was fully dressed and amongst a group of people discussing blood-flow and blood-circulation. I had been out for about 10-seconds or so - but my experience seemed timeless. As I got up, my short-term memory returned. All important life lessons for martial arts practice. 

Probably from around 35-years onward, a serious practitioner of traditional Chinese martial arts should be beginning the slow transition from purely ‘external’ to predominately ‘internal’ training methods, exercises and understandings. The point of this is purely age-related – as we get older, we see more in different ways to a younger person – who naturally possesses a different type strength (which changes as age progresses). If a practitioner does not possess access to correct instruction, then he or she will not ‘understand’ how to accommodate these age-related changes, and almost always will ‘give-up’ their practice. Another factor that needs to be considered is the age that training start for an individual, as this will affect what objectives should realistically be sought-after. However, prior to 35-years old, a practitioner of gongfu should have experienced much of the ‘hard’, ‘external’ training, understand psychological and physical suffering (through direct experience), and ‘know’ how to defend themselves during a violent encounter. External ‘sensitivity’ training is very different from ‘internal’ sensitivity training. The latter example involves the turning of the mind’s awareness ‘inward’ so that a) the blood flow can be sensed, and b) after a deep-breath, the oxygen can be felt as it distributes throughout and around the entirety of the body! The point of ‘external’ and ‘internal’ training is a perfect ‘integration’ (zagong) of the two aspects so that qi-power can be manifested at anywhere on a scale from imperceptible to ‘massive’ and ‘highly destructive’. If none of this makes any sense, then train harder!