Stone Lantern Internal Arts

SEMINAR SUMMARY

Spear Fundamentals with Andrea Falk

Saturday January 29th, 2011

The workshop started with the steps required to set up a spear. What to look for when selecting a stick in terms of straightness, roundedness and spring was covered as were the three steps to follow to prepare and smooth the waxwood stick without damaging it’s integrity. The waxwood stick differs from something like a wood dowel. It is a tree with the side branches removed as opposed to a stick cut down from a larger block of wood. This difference accounts for the liveiness and spring of the spear.

The core techniques of spear are outer trap, inner trap and thrust. Before adding the spear tips, we then did a two person practice with these techniques. It was important to connect with rather than smack the other person’s spear. Equally important is to cleanly coil around the other spear, maintaining control. The drill also trained using the body to snap the spear, bouncing the opponent’s weapon away while keeping the spear tip pointing forward.

Spear set up was completed with attaching tips and tassels. Attaching the tassel correctly requires placing the smooth side against the shaft and pointing the tassel ends towards the spear tip.

Without proper storage, the spear is prone to warping. It needs to be stored flat or clipped vertically to the wall.

Beginners were then shown basic handling drills and two techniques: Thrust with and without stepping and Crosscut. Spear Thrust the combination of outer trap, inner trap and thrust. Left Crosscut involves circling the tip clockwise and snapping to the left. In Right Crosscut, the tip circles counter-clockwise and snaps right.

Returning students reviewed all five fundamental spear techniques with stepping: Thrust (Beng), Chop (Pi), Drill (Zuan), Slash (Pao) and Crosscut (Heng).

To effectively use the spear, the hands should guide the weapon smoothly and the body, not the arms, should provide the power. Finding how to properly coil is essential to understanding the spear.

 “The primary technique is the stab, but first you must circle. The structure of the spear determines this defensive circling. The spear must first control and cross an oncoming weapon before it can stab. Thus, inner trap and outer trap are the most fundamental of spear techniques, and the most important skills. This fundamental combination is traditionally called ‘spear circle’ or ‘circle spear mother technique’.”

“Di Gouyong on Xingyiquan. Vol.3”, translated by Andrea Falk. Pg 169.