Year of the stick

 2022 is going to be the year of the stick for me.  This is the weapon that I’ve chosen for the Year of the Tiger.  Interestingly this is the first weapon I learned and the the one I want to master in the run up to my black belt grading. 

I’ve been drawn to hinged weapons (nunchucks to be exact) as I liked watching Bruce Lee movies as a kid.  They’re flashy and super cool.  The stick at first glance doesn’t look like a flashy style of weapon.  But I won’t let looks deceive me as I feel that the stick is a very cool weapon in it’s own right.  I’m pretty confident that a skilled martial artist can more than hold his own using a stick against nunchucks.

Last nights class was pretty amazing.  I hadn’t really picked up my stick (oh and it showed lol) in a long time.  However after a few minutes of getting to know each other we felt good together.  I enjoyed dusting off the HUGE amounts of cob webs from the stick form.  By the end of the night I was feeling a lot better and today I picked up my stick and kept going. I’m really enjoying the movements of the form, I can feel both the connection and disconnection of the six harmonies.  There are moments when things feel really good and there are a few more moments where they don’t.  

I’m grateful to have this next year to work on mastering the stick.  There are so many things that I’m going to learn and perfect along the way.  The best part of training with my stick is it makes the rest of my Kung Fu that much better.

Mr. Ian Repay