Albert's unit on spear, staff, and pike handling was highly informative. The major value that I picked up was how to handle the spear with an emphasis on maintaining peng and and proper structure. Gongfu! Everyone involved would likely agree that this was not so easy to do while using the long pine "pikes" or staves. Even though they were lighter than a combat grade pike, they were much more challenging than using the light weight wax-wood spears that people frequently practice with. I have begun to work with my own spear at home. It is a short-spear with a metal head mounted on a six foot red oak staff. It is heavy, and I have found that I need to be extremely careful and have to move correctly or it gives me painful feedback. Thank you Albert for your excellent instruction and advice.
The next unit was Rodell Laoshi's class on Jian Swordsmanship which I will not review since I was simultaneously teaching Miao Dao or participating in the Tengpai (shield) and saber class. I got the impression that it was great, as usual.
Henrick taught tengpai (shield) and saber.
Although this is not typically part of the taiji system, it aided me to put all of our weapons use in the historical context of the battlefield. It was also a very exciting class. Although I have familiarity with individual dueling and self-defense, the use of formations really made it clear to me that individual skill is far less significant than the necessity to work as a cohesive unit in a tight formation. I found this extremely useful in putting all of the different pieces together in my understanding of what role each weapon might be used on the battlefield. It was particularly useful when Hendrick pointed out that taiji mechanics must be used when handling a shield with a saber. One does not just block and then attack. Both the deflection with the shield and the counter-attack with the saber must be simultaneous. This follows the concept from the classics of "yield on one side and attack with the other."
Thank you Henrick. Hope you and your crew can make it to the US sometime soon.
It was interesting to experience how spear, shield and saber, and miao dao might be used with varied tactics in a battle. We experimented with this when we conducted the final mass-battle with Laoshi as one captain and Henrick as the other. It was clear that the job of the shield-man is to survive, which was not easy with spears constantly thrusting at the head and legs. Even with safety buffers to avoid serious injury during the larger scale combat scenarios, it was clear that death likely came quickly even to well trained soldiers, and was almost garanteed if their formation broke. Luck was probably a significant factor in who got to come back alive and teach their "survival skills" to new recruits.
In my own class, the Miao Dao (double-handed saber or "cat-cutter" as Phillip Tom informed me it could be called) the objective was to teach the basic-cuts, and free-play using the Miao Dao form as a catalog of techniques and basic combinations. I hope the course was enjoyable and that students gained some useful skills and information. If anyone has any questions at any time, please feel free to ask me.
The Yang Dao (saber) form was an excellent ending to each day. I will be sharing it with the students at my own school this Saturday (July 21st) in an all day- seminar/ barbecue. (Any excuse to use the grill!!)
The Dao will serve as an excellent link between the Miao Dao and Jian, just as Miao Dao is a good link between Dao and spear.
In conclusion, each of the component workshops provided a piece of a larger puzzle. The information on the use of a specific weapon both in the context of individual combat and also in the structure of larger scale formations based combat showed the strengths and potential disadvantages of each weapon. It also gave me a sense of the relationship between each of the weapons which we studied and I was left with the impression that we had acquired a very logical, balanced and well organized knowkedge of a broad cross-section of Chinese Historical Swordsmanship.
The Festival venue was beautiful and I would like to thank the Estonian students who committed so much time and resources to planning the event and preparing all of the outstanding practice gear. It was a pleasure to meet and study with so many serious and dedicated martial artists from Estonia, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Australia, and the US (Laoshi's country

Best wishes,
Seth