Spear: The King of Weapons

The Spear is considered the King of the weapons. It is called the King of the Weapons because it is the most difficult to defend against. The spear is also called the King of Weapons because of its versatility and power. The spear is long and has a sharp point. One small poke can kill. Even an unskilled person who only knows how to thrust straight ahead is dangerous with a spear because it is hard to get around the length of the spear. For equipping an army, the Spear was the primary close combat weapon because it only uses a little metal and is therefore much cheaper than a sword and much more deadly than a staff.

Spears are made from white wax wood poles, with a metal tip and red horse hair tassel. The tassel confuses the opponent, can trap the opponent′s weapon, and prevents blood from making the handle sticky and hard to slide. Spears along with crossbows and halberds were the main weapons of common foot soldiers.

The Spear, like the straight sword, makes use of many spiraling techniques and helps to focus the power within the body. The spear is excellent for stretching the shoulder blades and rotating the hips and shoulders in unity with the spine. The spear is also excellent for developing the power of the waist and center of the body and developing power in punching techniques. Because spear thrusts are similar to punches, when you thrust with the spear, its weight helps you develop strength and proper alignment for fast, powerful punches. Spear practice builds shoulder strength, size, and density.

The spear is a good weapon for women because it does not require as much strength as many other weapons and extends their reach. The spear also relies on intelligence and speed. Thus, women who are not as strong as a large man can use their intelligence, speed, and the length of the spear and its many tricks to overcome a much stronger male attacker.

Many spear forms also have exceptionally beautiful choreography that makes them fun to learn and practice. Spear is considered to be a much harder weapon to master than Staff. It is said that the Staff takes 100 days of steady practice to master and the Spear takes 1,000 days. At the 10,000 Victories School of Kung Fu we are fortunate to have five different Spear Forms. All are awesome.

Spear forms are known for controlling space because of the weapon′s long reach, and all contain some moves that use full extension. Sometimes these entail holding the spear at the butt-end and fully extending the thrusting arm. Other times the spear is twirled or spun overhead or around the body. These moves suggest one is surrounded by many attackers and is driving them back all at once.

At the 10,000 Victories School of Kung Fu we are fortunate to have five different spear forms. All are awesome.

Rising Block Spear is the shortest form and comes from the Northern Shaolin tradition. This was the first spear form taught by Grandmaster Wong Jackman. It drills into opponents with aggressive thrusting techniques. It′s very direct. This form also highlights quick and agile steps and leaps, and has some flashy moves. Grandmaster Ku Yu Jeong, the greatest Iron Palm master of all time and our great-grand teacher, was famous for performing it at big shows.

Plum Blossom Spear was the second form taught by Sifu Wong Jackman. Few people learned this form because it′s longer than Rising Block Spear and most people can′t remember two long spear forms. Plum Blossom is from the Lo Han or Buddha Palm system. It has many unique moves and uses the spear on the left side of the body, which is the opposite of Rising Block Spear. It develops great wrist strength, power, and skill.

Five Tigers Breaking Down the Door Spear is an advanced form that comes from the Lan Shou Quan system. Lan Shou is noted as being a spear-focused art that teaches seven different spear forms. This form has both a full arsenal of techniques and some very deceptive and sneaky tricks! It develops the waist and belly power behind all Lan Shou techniques.

10,000 Victories Spear was created by Grandmaster Liu Wan Fu in two versions. The first was the top level modern Wu Shu competition form in China in the "A" Category. A national-level gold medal was a required to compete in this category. The second was a traditional version that contained all of the old power techniques and slippery angles and defenses he removed from the competition version. To create this form, he extracted his favorite moves out of the older seven Lan Shou spear forms in their most difficult variations and combined them. Sifu Jensen learned both Five Tigers Spear and the traditional version of 10,000 Victories Spear from Grandmaster Liu in Tianjin, China.

42 Style Yang Family Spear is misunderstood in more ways than one. Some mistakenly assume it′s related to the Yang style Tai Chi Chuan. Actually, it comes from the Yang family of generals who defended China during the Song Dynasty from the invading Jin horde. This heroic family was responsible for holding one key pass, and they held it for many, many years! This family also boasted two famous female generals who were exceptional martial artists.

The form′s name also leads people to think that there are 42 moves in the form, but it′s actually more than 120 moves long. There are 42 different ways or styles of using the spear, and this form repeats those three, five, or more times.

42 Style Yang Family Spear uses the spear′s great length to continually open space around the body and drive people back and releases or tosses the spear an astounding eight times. This makes it very large and really difficult to practice indoors, but it makes it a great show form. It′s uplifting and heroic in character because of its big movements, and its great crescendo close displays strength, power, and speed. It′s also an intense shoulder workout.

Sifu Jensen learned 42 Style Yang Family Spear from Grandmaster Chen Yun Ching of Tai Chung, Taiwan.

Mathematics of Kung Fu

A bit of simple math can really boost your Kung Fu. It′s all addition and multiplication, really! As a Sifu and as a student, I have seen both the talented and the not–so–talented begin Kung Fu, and I can tell you that talent is nice but in the end it doesn′t matter. What matters is the math of your training, how much time you spend practicing.

Most schools offer only one–hour or 45–minute classes. Two one-hour classes a week is two hours a week total. At the 10,000 Victories School of Kung Fu and Tai Chi, we have a two–;hour + class twice a week. That's already twice as much training time, which means that perhaps we will progress twice as fast or learn twice as much.

But consider this: what if you trained an hour a day outside of class? In a week you have seven hours outside of class and four hours in class. That′s 11 hours instead of two. Now you are moving five–and–a–half times as fast. In just one week you are doing the same amount of training as one month at other martial arts schools.

What if you trained two hours a day outside of class? That′s 18 [7x2=14+4=18. Don′t forget the weekend!!] hours a week. One week now exceeds two months of training at a typical school. If you trained for six weeks, you would have logged more hours than one year in those short classes. In one year you would have spent more time training than you would have in eight years with the other guys.

There is another aspect to the mathematics of Kung Fu: the consistency of training has greater benefit and impact. At a low level of training hours, you maintain a plateau easier. You may learn new material, but it is hard to achieve real Kung Fu body transformation and ability. When you build intensity with regular hours, the effect is synergistic and greater than the hours spread out over a long period of time.

I have met many people who have been training in Tai Chi for many years and have almost no real skill. Some can barely remember the form. Others remember the form but their body mechanics and transformation is so low that they are still beginners even after 20 years. They have basically repeated the first year 20 times.

There is a vast difference between once–a–;week people and everyday people. This is true in both health and skill. Many of the top Tai Chi and Kung Fu masters I know have had life threatening or debilitating illnesses or injuries. Many had failed with Western medicine or their treatment had left them weak and feeble. These individuals had to practice like their life depended on it because, in fact, their life did depend on it. They practiced not one or two hours, but many more in small blocks of time. They cured themselves and, in the process, mastered the arts.

I am one of those people. I have survived two major car accidents. In one, I broke my pelvis in five places and went "code blue". Code blue means that you're not breathing, your heart has stopped beating, and you′re flatlining on the cardio machine. You are basically dead or very near death. In my case, the paramedics brought me back to life. When I left the hospital I could barely touch my knees. In a second accident, I suffered massive spinal whiplash. Every single vertebrae was misplaced from the top of my spine to the bottom and there was damage to all the tissue around my spine. As a result of these accidents I was always in considerable pain. My only choices were to work out or end up in a wheelchair.

In those early days, I would work out six to eight hours. I might practice Qi Gong for an hour or two, stretch for an hour or two, and then practice forms and train with partners. That was what it took for me to break through the scar tissue and restore my flexibility and posture. If I stopped training the pain would come back. If I had practiced only an hour or two a week, I wouldn′t have the results I have. Because I practiced dillgently, I not only gained skill and knowledge in five different arts, I developed a deep love and respect for Kung Fu and Tai Chi.

Even today I really can′t stop. If I do, my body rapidly loses its tone and the spine loses its alignment, which makes everything hurt. Even when I get bored, I practice because I know my body needs it.

These days, I maintain a steady two to three hours of practice outside of class for a minimum of five days a week. During class I get a great foundation workout and go over beginning forms and drills. On my own, I practice advanced forms and often revisit all the hand forms in the Shaolin system in one hour and then practice weapons for another hour. A couple of times a week, I train with worthy partners and old friends on two-person skills for an hour or two. Most recently, I have been practicing spear a great deal. These sessions can last three hours with water breaks included. Usually I practice one spear form 10 times and the others once or twice each. On occasion, I practice all five spear forms three times each.

If you take care of your practice, your skill will take care of itself. An hour a day of practice may sound like a lot at first, but after you start to see the results in your body, health, attitude and skill, it will become easier to be motivated and make the workouts happen. If you really want fighting skills, you′ll need to log hours with partners. If you want rapid progress, spend two hours a day with partners at your level or better, your skill will blossom. You′ll be like a train slowly gaining steam. To get started, create a strategy and stick to it: ask for the support of your family and closest friends and find a place or places and schedule a time or different times to work out. Get the mathematics of Kung Fu on your side and go for it!

Words of Wisdom - Training Tips

Watch out for Wet Clothes!

Imagine if you will. You are working out and you are all warmed up. Muscles stretched out, warmed up, blood pumping vigorously, doing your thing! Then suddenly, some one wraps you in towels soaked with cold water! Yuck! What happens next? Your body cools rapidly. Muscles contract quickly. In fact, your muscles can contract so quickly that you will trap blood in the capillaries in the muscles. This leads to stagnant blood condition. This can cause you to get a sore aching feeling that is difficult to get to go away. It may require treatment with cupping or massage with blood moving lineaments. It will also reduce the benefits, especially increased flexibility, you should receive from your workout. This is exactly what happens when you train hard, break a sweat, (good job) soak your shirt, and then slow down to catch your breath, or get a drink of water. The sweat in your clothes will cool very rapidly and then it will chill your muscles, trapping blood as described above.

Imagine another scenario: You have just finished your workout. Your body is still very warm, your pores are wide open, especially on your upper neck and back, and someone throws cold water on you and blasts you with cold air. Do you think you might have increased chance of catching a cold or getting sore cramped neck or back muscles? I do!! This is exactly what happens when you leave class still sweating haven′t toweled off and then stand around outside in the cool evening air chatting away.

Both of these can happen to in an intense Kung Fu workout, but they are easy to avoid. When you are working out and you sweat through your shirt, towel off, and change your shirt! Then continue working out. If you have soaked through all your clothes, towel off and change them. Then continue working out. After class, towel off, change your shirt, and then wear a warm outer layer when you leave class to protect against wind and getting a chill.

When I pack for training I usually pack 3 –4 extra T–shirts, 2–3 extra long sleeves or uniform jackets, a towel, and a complete change of clothes including underwear and socks for after class. I change shirts when I soak through them. In a typical personal training session I soak through everything above and bring home a lot of laundry! I really like having a complete change of clothes for after class, especially if I have a long drive. It feels a lot nicer. I wear a warm jacket after training that protects my neck. If my jacket doesn′t seem warm enough or I forgot it, I wrap my towel or an extra shirt around my neck to protect it. I like hoodies for this. Sometimes I wear the hoodie under my jacket to keep my neck really protected. This will make a big difference in the long haul of your training for longevity.

Best wishes,
Sifu Jensen

P.S. At last count, I have 61 T-shirts, almost all for training. I use 25-30 a week because I teach many classes and work out on my own almost everyday.