I wrote my piece On Dan Bong and completely forgot to mention something, so I’ll mention it now. 🙂

I have found dan bong to be a versatile weapon. Apart from some striking drills, e.g., the 12 angle drill I mentioned from Modern Arnis, what else can you do to explore dan bong?

Take whatever you know, put a dan bong in your hand, and see what you can do with what you already know. That’s a good place to start.

So what do I mean by that? Easiest way for me to explain is within the context and nomenclature of Kuk Sool.

Let’s take Maek Chi Ki. First, perform Maek Chi Ki as the empty-hand set that it is. Now, pick up your dan bong and perform Maek Chi Ki but instead of using your empty hand to strike, use the dan bong. Maek Chi Ki 1-3 would involve a normal “whipping strike” with the side of the tip. Maek Chi Ki 4 would involve a tip thrust into the armpit. Maek Chi Ki 6 could be a butt-end strike to the temple or an inverted tip strike to the temple. And so on. Ki Bohn Soo is a good place to start for locking and leverage applications.

Will every technique work exactly the same? Probably not. Some techniques may require a small modification, some techniques could have multiple approaches/interpretations, some may require you to invert the technique (e.g. performing it “other side/mirror image”), and some techniques may just flat out not work. But the point is to use existing knowledge as a foundation for exploring what you can do with a dan bong. Explore.