Shaolin Broadsword workshop was held on Saturday 13th August 2016, it attracted 21 students across all 3 centres. Although this Broadsword forms part of everyday training at the Golden Lion, Sifu Steeve Kiat offered the workshop at the Rowville centre to those who are not yet at the grading level to study this technique. It was also great to see several Tai Chi members participate. It is becoming more frequent to see Tai Chi members take part in the Kung Fu workshops and this acknowledges an increase in interest given the various disciplines the academy provides for all its members.
From the very beginning, even prior to commencing the workshop, everyone had sword in hand, ready and full of enthusiasm to start. However, with any training session we need to do our warm up exercises, so therefore it was sword down for the first 5 minutes. Subsequent to the warm up, Sifu Steeve gave an overview on the contents of the workshop and how it would be conducted so to meet everyone’s expectations. He then proceeded to explain the various parts of the sword, its shape, its blade, its handle, its guard and the cloth tassel attached to the end of the handle. Additionally and more importantly, it was described how to hold the sword correctly, how to hand over a sword to someone and how to carry a sword.
Now having sword in hand, everyone started to practice: thrusting/jabbing, horizontal and cuts, wrapping the sword, chopping/hacking as well as twirling. With anything new, the body requires some strength conditions and flexibility to perform these new movements proficiently. Using the sword in the right hand, it was quickly noted that our wrist and shoulder were getting a good workout and as adrenalin was high this did not phase everyone.
There are 4 sections in the routine. We learnt one section at a time and as everyone was comfortable we proceeded onto the next sections and so on. Whilst it was hard work, both physically but more so mentally, everyone held themselves together to finish all 4 sections with plenty of time to revise.
Towards the end of the workshop, everyone felt a sense of achievement in having to learn the whole routine in the short period of time.
Congratulations to everyone and the great effort to keep up during the workshop.