What is the point of doing weapons work, especially what some may perceive as outdated weapons work? Not many people carry swords, sticks, staves, clubs, shields, bucklers, polearms, or even daggers. Not in 2024. Not in the developed world. While the practical applications of such weapons are not the most socially acceptable (or the easiest ones to deduce), weapons work and training do have their roles in both the martial arts and in everyday life. Throughout this piece, I will reference my weapons training from aikido and from Olympic Fencing.
As mentioned, weapons work for the martial artist can improve three aspects of training: awareness, distance, and precision. Firstly, from the receiving side, it is the awareness that an object attached to a partner is coming towards one’s center mass, and the awareness to not wait until the last second to move, parry, or bind. Awareness is noticing the signs, the subtle movements, and the tells from any given partner and creating a response based on the information given at that time. Once everything registers, then the martial artist can move out of the way of the incoming weapon. But how far should the martial artist move away from the weapon? Enough for them to run away or enough for them to reengage and possibly turn the situation around? This is where distance enters into the conversation.
Distance is important as it generally sets the tone for what will occur next in a martial arts situation. If one is too far, then the question of reengaging or escaping the situation arises. Conversely, if one is too close, the question of how long the engagement should be appears. Knowing how to move and when to move, thereby creating distance, is crucial to a martial artist. Weapons work can assist in establishing a foundation for knowing how far one is to one’s partner.
For example, if two partners are drilling cuts with a sword, there is a specific area of the blade that both partners should be trying to cut with. If the partners are arriving too close to each other, then the optimal portion of the blade is not being used, therefore, the cuts are negated by the lack of spatial awareness of the practitioners. Likewise, if the partners arrive too far away from each other, then the cuts are again negated. Finding that distance is not a one-and-done activity, rather it is a process.
Particularly in Olympic Fencing, for instance, there is a distance referred to as “lunge distance.” As it describes, lunge distance is the distance that a fencer is able to lunge and hit their target. Each fencer has their own lunge distance and no two are ever alike. It takes some time for fencers to truly know their lunge distance, and once they do, they know that their opponent is within their reach to make an attack that has the possibility of landing.
To the importance and nuance of distance, furthermore, there in an aikido weapons drill where a partner would cut straight down and the one receiving the strike had to wait until the last possible second to move the correct distance off the line of attack. There needed to be constant awareness on the part of the receiver to quickly analyze how their partner was striking, the speed at which the weapon was coming, and which part of the arch should the receiver move. The “correct distance” was moving just enough so that the weapon would pass the receiver. If the receiver moved too far away, then the drill is repeated. Likewise, if the receiver did not move in time, then the drill is repeated. It was a frustrating drill as you wanted to move as the strike was beginning to ensure the clearing of the weapon, but it ultimately forced the receiver to focus on their partner and the incoming strike, searching for those tells and subtle movements that would make “moving out of the way” easier and streamlined.
With weapons work, it almost seems like the practitioners need to have a level of precision during their training. The reality is that precision and weapons go hand-in-hand. One wants to make sure that a head strike looks like a head strike rather than an arm strike or a thrust and vice versa. It is not enough to have a specific strike look like the one it is trying to be, but there needs to be some thought and intention given to where on the body the strike is supposed to land. There is a mindfulness as to where the strike needs to hit. In a somewhat morbid, practical, and martial sense, a head strike needs to hit the head to eliminate an opponent. If it does not, barring all extenuating circumstances, then the head strike does not do the wielder any good. Furthermore, the idea of precision extends to the parts or sections of the weapon, specifically, if a strike is more effective at one end of the weapon as opposed to the opposite end. Precision is evident in the previous training drill regarding the partners practicing their cuts on one another.
As another example, let us consider Olympic Fencing. Each play that a fencer enacts has a specific target to hit. To train for such plays, fencers learn point control, which is controlling the point of their blade to hit the desired target. While this skill can be learned and further honed during bouts, the best way for a fencer to learn and establish point control is to drill the specific skill. If the fencer is not precise in their training, then the skill is not learned to the fullest and the fencer cannot adequately accomplish more complex modes of attack. In addition, the fencer is then not using their blade as designed.
Awareness, distance, and precision make themselves apparent during weapons training. Now, how can these aspects be applied elsewhere, in a non-weapons-based context? Looking at the empty-hand applications, the three aforementioned aspects make themselves known, perhaps even more so. In partnered drills, kata, and randori-based activities, a martial artist needs to be aware of what their partner is doing in relation to themselves – what are the ticks or tells that the partner is making to provoke a certain response? What attack is being launched? How far away is the partner? This awareness then allows the martial artist to issue an appropriate response within the correct distance.
Much like the distance experienced during weapons training, the same principle applies while in empty hand – a punch or kick will not do well if smothering the partner; likewise, a wristlock will not do any good at thirty-nine-and-a-half feet away. For a martial artist, what to use, when to use it, and at what distance to use it is crucial to not only understanding the chosen art but also to the overall awareness needed to do so. Essentially, a martial artist would need to examine the how, what, when, and where questions to fully understand the concepts. Moreover, everything that a martial artist would do should have some precision to make it effective. This is the same precision idea found in weapons work. Without precision, the empty-hand portion of an art would be utterly useless as techniques and the like would become jumbled slop without purpose.
But the real question is how weapons training applies to everyday life. On the surface, not much, yet once the layers are peeled back, different applications show themselves. Firstly, awareness – instead of awareness of one single person, it is an awareness of the encompassing world, of the different situations that one experiences throughout one’s lives. The tells and subtle movements convert into noticing tones of voice and body language during any conversation. The attack transforms into noticing a group of people moving forward or an insult coming from the mouth of another. Such awareness can be applied to one’s job and career, whether noticing numbers, patterns, people, and the like to improve their working efficiency.
Precision, much like it has been discussed above, assists in such daily endeavors. Precision, in the daily routine, is knowing what to use and what one’s goal is and what to use to get there or achieve it. As a martial artist precisely cuts and thrusts with a weapon or during an empty hand drill, so too can one with grading papers, creating a spreadsheet, or putting up drywall. The precision used during weapons training prepares one for applying precision to all other actions outside the training hall.
In 2024, most people do not wear or carry a weapon usually trained with in aikido, fencing, kung fu, karate, or other martial art. Just because a system’s direct application is no longer available does not mean that the system does not provide any value. Awareness, distance, and precision are concepts to learn and implement into one’s own training, be it weapons-based or empty-hand. As discussed, these same concepts have their use in modern everyday life that everyone can use to better themselves. In day and age, there is still a reason to train with weapons.
Martial Arts of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 