Broadsword II Part 1

I really wanted to write a blog detailing my thought, goals, and intents that went into creating my forms this year. I thought I would write one for my broadsword and one form my hand form, but that would likely get a bit long. Then I thought I might need to split each one in half and do sword part 1 and sword part 2, but that might still be too long. Now I’m realizing I will likely need at least 3 or 4 sections to cover everything while still writing the blog in a reasonable time frame. So here is part 1/? Of Broadsword II:

Here are some of the main things I was thinking about when making my Broadsword form:

1) my primary goal was to try to find new and interesting ways to use the sword so that it would look distinct from my previous broadsword form 

2) I wanted to utilize the idea of the 5 animals and the 5 elements somewhere in the sequence to improve my understanding of each one and see how they manifested in my techniques/knowledge

Ok so into each techniques! (which I will be designating as move 1, 2, ect both because I’m not sure I have the vocabulary to describe them, and for brevity) 

1) similar to the opening move in hung I wanted this to be like a wind-up and launching off point for the next move while maintaining the idea of completing the move and staying in the moment

2) I need more practice with my cannon punches so I wanted to put them in, and also see how my understanding of the technique will change while being unbalanced between my left and right side since I only have one sword, and how the whole thing changes when I have a weapon in my hand

3) This started as a weird transition that came out of me when I asked my body how it wanted to move, but after analyzing it a bit more I want to use it as a tool for working on my footwork and centering during a spin and I want to pay attention to how I can launch my sword off my hip, since normally when I’m wielding a broadsword I think about my hip on the withdrawal after a slash, but I realize I don’t have much hip involvement in the launching of the blade in the beginning of a slash

4) These two slashes are probably the most thoughtless part of this form, I honestly just needed some sort of transition to turn me around, but while I mentioned in the beginning I wanted this form to think outside of the box in terms of how I can use my broadsword, I wanted to make sure I had some of those foundational moves in there too

5) This move I straight up ripped from the old Broadsword form we were shown in blackbelt class once, I am obsessed with how the blade chambers and the path that it takes during the compression and expansion of the technique. In the second half of this move I wanted to maintain that feeling of ‘the path of the blade’ in transition being the focus rather than strike at the end, but with something that I created, rather than something I’m imitating from the old form

6) This is the SNAKE move, my intent is to visualize a cobra reared back and poised to strike; at the same time I wanted to develop my hand-eye coordination and relationship with my sword, so that I can catch the edge of the blade even after swinging it in a complete circle at almost the furthest edge of my range of power, asking myself ‘do I know my blade well enough to catch the edge of it blindly’

7) I really like when weapons can make a sound, either when they whoosh through the air or crack against something so I definitely wanted to see what sorts of sounds I could make with my sword, so this move actually started with the sound and the motion of the actual technique followed the context of how I needed to move the sword to make that sound. The second half of this move still needs some figuring out in terms of how I want to use it as a tool for myself. I’m not sure if I want to make sure I am landing in pure solid stances and separating the motion into two cuts each with their own release of power, or if I want to listen to the sword first and allow my body to move in the way that gives the slash the most potential power, and think of each slash as a half of the whole move, allowing the momentum to generate power during the turnaround. 

8) I love doing kicks, but I still really struggle with back kicks and feeling the release of power (or any power sometimes) so I wanted a chance to practice my back kicks more

9) This is the LEOPARD move. Even though I am using a tiger claw technique I wanted to push myself to understand what the leopard represents and see if I could do something built with the intent of the tiger in a way the at evokes the leopard instead. I thought seeing the similarities and differences between the two cats would also help me define them for myself

	Current Total
Push-ups	7912
Sit-Ups	5794
AOK	198
Km	538
Blogs	10
Sparring	16
Hand Form	120
Weapon Form	153
Repair Relationship	0