I'm horrible with the Bo.

Posted by: Mr_Heretik

I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/13/06 12:17 AM

Any websites where I can see basic rotations and stuff like that? I practice with my bo in class but by the time I get home I forget everything = (, even simple left to right rotations. I've posted on the stretching forum a thread about wrist flexibility, will it help at all?
Posted by: shoshinkan

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/13/06 07:17 PM

why not take a note book and pen, or if allowed a video camera and ask your instructor to show/tell you the basic techniques - then you wont forget!
Posted by: wristtwister

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/14/06 09:21 AM

Another suggestion would be to find somebody that does well with the weapon, and have them work with you individually on it. You can learn a lot by observing, and if you'll find somebody that handles the weapon well to observe, you'll see the little nuances that make it better.

Just a thought.

Posted by: Ronin1966

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/14/06 02:50 PM

Hello Mr. Heretik:

Weapons are not my "specialty" either. However I watched my kids and some friends of theirs this weekend pick up some dowels, bo's, and assorted plastic Jedi weapons and have one heck of a fun time working with them.

With no training per se, they simply picked them up, had fun with them, played & explored how to move them efficently, effectively for their purposes. It was wonderful to watch. Perhaps your practice will do well with a different perspective? Pick up the weapon a bo of some length and rather than attempting to remember difficult maneuvers, sequences, work with very basic ones....

Wrist strength will certainly occur from weapons work, in what way are you "inflexible" in the wrists? In the same way there is more involved in a punch than merely the fist, there is likely more to the bo practice than the wrists alone?

Take heart...
J
Posted by: Reiki

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/14/06 08:40 PM

Perfect practice makes it perfect.

Try to buddy up with someone in your class to train weapons with while you are learning the initial stuff.

Or ask your instructor if you can spend more time with him going over the basics.

You will need upwards of 1,000 reps to make it feel "natural".

There are lots of stick and bo flexibility exercises that you can do but you should first practice your basic stances, blocks and strikes and get these perfect before going further.
Posted by: Mr_Heretik

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/14/06 09:12 PM

I've taken all your comments into consideration, and will just practice more, thats all I can do I guess.
Posted by: Borrek

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/14/06 11:52 PM

The key to being comfortable with the bo is just getting your body used to it. One note is that you need to make sure you have a balanced bo. I've used bo that have curved and I notice a world of difference in how unwieldy they can be. Here is a good exercise that even after a few years of kobudo I do regularly:

*Start standing naturally with the bo horizontal at an arms length from your body. Your left hand should be grasping the weapon palm down, the right hand should be palm up. (this grip is called jun nigiri http://tinyurl.com/gr3mm )

*Open your hands so you have an open palm grip (called Hasami Nigiri)

*Slide your hands together so that they meet at the center of your bo. The bo should be vertical and your hands will be together and look like youre about dive into a swimming pool.

*Continue sliding your hands past the meeting point until the bo is horizontal again has flipped 180° Now your grip has switched (your left hand was palm down, now it is palm up)

Do this movement over and over. I've probably done this many thousand times over the years. The bo should basically flip 180° back and forth as you do this exercise. The goal is to get faster and faster while at the same time learning how tightly to grip the bo. There shouldn't be any jerky or sticking movements, if there are you are holding too tight. Eventually you will get a great feeling for the bo's center of mass and you'll easily notice if one hand is accelerating or moving too quickly.

After you're good at that, add a strike. Flip the bo and do an overhead strike. For the strike, chamber at your hip and not under your armpit or on the outside of your arm. This allows for fastest transition. Flip the bo again and do an identical overhead strike with the opposite hand out.

... After you're good at that, practice stepping out into zenkutsu dachi with every strike. Come back to musubi dachi as you transition sides with the bo and step out with the same side foot as your striking hand.

...... After youre good at that... just kidding =) but it really can go on and on and on with variations of this drill. The main goal is getting a fluid feel of the weapon. Once your strikes are fluid, pay attention to the path of the bo's tip and try to strike along the same path every time over and over. Then work on speed and snapping the tip by twisting your wrist at the last moment (start the strike with your hand holding the bo as if you were talking on the telephone and at the end of the strike twist your wrist so the palm side of your fist is pointing directly away from you.

sorry if this is too basic, or hard to comprehend. lol this kind of stuff is hard to communicate without pictures (theyre worth a thousand something or others)
Posted by: Mr_Heretik

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/15/06 12:16 AM

Hmm.. I guess I'll try the first drill, since it looks like it provides a good sense of the basics, and I'm sloppy with my hands and all. Thanks alot Borrek.

Posted by: Diga

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/15/06 12:49 AM

That is it. Those exercises will get you started. There are tons of them that can be explained or seen but practice will be your best way to get comfortable with it.

Almost anything you do with the bo will help with wrist flexability as well as upper body strengthening. Then after a few hundred hours of working with it - you will find you can use your hands better without a weapon than you did before.

Here is another good and easy to explain training exercise.
What you will be doing is walking forward, backward and turning 45, 90, 180 or 360 degrees while spinning the Bo.

First - holding the bo horizontally at belt level, one hand palm up and the other palm down (this can be reversed at any time with the exercise explained earlier).The hands are about 18" to 24" apart and centered for balance.
Next bring the bo to your left or right side - upright as if it were standing beside you. One hand up at shoulder height and the other down at hip level.
Then spinning the bo in front of your body to the other side of your body. The hands will change, the top hand goes to the bottom and the bottom hand goes to the top. Then go back to the center and to the first side position again. Continue with this until the bo has done a figure 8 in front of your body.

After you get that down start stepping forward with each spin. When it is going to the left side step with the right foot and when it is going to the right side step with the left foot.Then graduate to walking back, then turning to what ever degree you are able until that becomes comfortable.

If this makes any sense and you are able to do them, you will find that you will gain flexability and strength PLUS you will be better at side stepping an incomming attack and blocking techniques.
The bo is a great training tool for more things than just swinging a stick.

After that exercise gets comfortable try gripping the bo in a different position - that is - have one end longer than the other, then reverse that so the other end is longer. This will change your power timeing and strikeing positions.
Later go to gripping the bo with one hand all the way at one end and the other 2' to 3' apart. The ground will be tough to stay away from but you will see the benefits with time.

Good luck and keep at it. Keeping at it is key !
Posted by: Mr_Heretik

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/15/06 01:36 AM

You're right about the upper body condition Diga, after my TKD classes spinning the Bo makes my shoulders so tired.
Posted by: Mr_Heretik

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/18/06 12:44 AM

UPDATE

My instructor had me practice the hand movements without the bo in my hands, then I tried with them and I'm finally making progress. Yay. At home all day I just move my hands around practicing the movements, seems to work for me more.
Posted by: Borrek

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/18/06 06:11 PM

cool man, just stick with it and it'll feel more and more natural
Posted by: Reiki

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/18/06 06:28 PM

Quote:

UPDATE

My instructor had me practice the hand movements without the bo in my hands, then I tried with them and I'm finally making progress. Yay. At home all day I just move my hands around practicing the movements, seems to work for me more.




that's great!

As I said previously, learning to work with a weapon is just like everything else, you have to work at it and get the reps up - but make sure that HOW you are practicing is using your very best effort and correct technique.

Start slowly and dont try for any speed until you have been doing it correctly for a few months at slow speed.
Posted by: Mr_Heretik

Re: I'm horrible with the Bo. - 05/18/06 09:53 PM

Thanks for the motivation everyone!