oniaka's on Sunday was great. She gave me a quick weapons lesson which basically consisted of blocking and parries. autonomic_pilot helped me practice that for a bit and then before I knew it we were all going at it! Oniaka taught me a little more as we went along but learning something and practicing it while a weapon is swinging at you is another story. I think I would have to practice this a LOT before I can remember anything I learned.Afterward I gave some thought to which I liked better, Kung Fu sparring or combat with weapons. Fighting with weapons gave me a much better work out. But as a person with ADD I'm not always present and half the time I'm usually thinking about something else or my mind is drifting in a million different places. I found that even in the middle of combat (with weapons) I could check out mentally. Granted I would come back every time there was a spear or sword coming at me. But that made my reaction time all the slower. With Kung Fu everything is hand to hand and you don't have the distance that the weapons require. As a result the sparring is more intimate and I feel more deeply connected to my opponent. I am 100% present and aware during every moment of hand to hand sparring. In fact, I think it might be the only activity in life that has the power to keep me fully aware and in the present moment like that (there might be some others but it's been so long since I've experience them that I can't honestly think of any right now).
Of course I haven't been doing either one long enough to make a fair comparison. It's quite possible that fighting with weapons will become my favorite as I gain the practice and skills to do it accurately. I would like to continue to pursue both.
