Tai Chi Sword - Slicing High and Low

Hey what's up this is Sifu Kato and in this video we're going to be working on a couple of slices with a tai chi sword. Now this is a nice technique to use because it helps you identify some of the most basic slicing techniques but it also helps you perfect the movement and there's a couple of things I want to mention before we get started. One thing is typically you're going to only be using this last part of the sword for slicing. Some blades may not have even been sharpened all the way down because a lot of the techniques were geared towards slicing with the tip of the sword and stabbing. So I want you to think predominantly here in this area however even if you did have a sharp blade all the way down you would still be gearing these techniques towards here. The other thing that I want to mention is whenever we're moving and as the blade crosses the body you always want to keep the tip of the sword at the center line so never let the tip of the sword cross the plane. If I'm bringing the sword from my right to my left it never goes to the left completely. Okay now the reason behind this is once I move past I'm completely open for attack so whether or not I hit my opponent and then kept moving now I'm open or I was blocked or I completely missed now I'm still open for attack. If I hit and get blocked or I just miss my opponent and I keep the tip of the sword in front they now have an obstacle to move past when trying to get towards me so always keep the tip of the sword in front of the center line no matter how the hand moves how far it moves from side to side. Okay with that said let's go get to work. Okay so before we get into the technique make sure you're holding sword finger so curl in the ring finger and pinky finger touch it like you're doing a peace sign and then close those fingers keep them closed the whole time. Okay now we're going to be moving forward with a bow stance and stepping forward with both our left foot and our right foot as we do this and we can make it colorful we can change it up we can move we can step forward step backwards we can step this way turn around go this way that's fine but the techniques are going to be very simple. I'm going to do a horizontal cut across touching my fingertips to the wrist as I slice across from inside to outside and then turn the blade over and then slice from outside to inside. Okay notice for these my hand is going to be palm down as I slice and then palm up as I return. I'm turning the body as well so it's very important once you get used to the timing here make sure to as you shift forward turn the waist to slice and then as you pivot you can rotate the blade over notice it's already out to the side I don't need to bring it back anymore and then I'm just going to slice across here. You can put your sword finger wherever I prefer to keep my sword finger touching but you can you can let the hand come up as we come across here or you can keep it touching the wrist as we come across here. Notice again as I do this the tip of the sword always remains in front of my center line even though my hand crosses the body all right and typically for a good rule of thumb when you're just working on this and practicing this keep the sword hand at about solar plexus level and the tip of the sword about nose level okay so I step forward slice high I can step back slice high step back slice high slice high and then here as you get used to this you can start doing a little bit of a draw to get a little more slicing action not just tapping as you bring it across. Now that's up high we also have down low so what we can do again touch the sword finger to the wrist and then we step we're going to slice down towards the inside of the thigh cutting right here okay if we hit the shin that's fine we hit something okay but an ideal goal for these ones is to go at the inside of the thigh because you bleed more that way. So here we come across again my hand's going to be about solar plexus level and I want the tip to remain at that center line. I turn the hand over and bring it across step forward turn the hand over bring it across I can turn around and then here I can go high step high turn around low step low so you can work on that and then you can also change the hand position so if we're going low we can keep the hand in the down position and then when we go up high we can keep the hand in the up position okay it's really up to you you can play more with this technique you can work with an l-shape footwork so I can step high high turn around low low stepping in the l-shape now to this side low I can go up high afterwards and turn around high and then even low from here so you have lots of different options that you can do once you get down these basic movements okay so slicing low and across slicing up high and across okay so there you have it now this may seem simple it's just four basic cuts too high too low but the idea is continuous energy using the body and being precise in your motion so after you get used to just placing the sword in these positions up high start thinking about how you would be dragging the blade back to actually accomplish slicing while doing this technique it's not always just about the tap or the chopping movement that's going to make this a successful technique tap chop and draw is going to have an even better effect okay so if you like this video hit that like button and as always be sure to subscribe until next time this is Sifu Karo