So after having made a cane and immersing myself in cane videos, I got to thinking about further ways to study the cane.

You see, in Kuk Sool’s cane curriculum, there’s only a limited bit of cane taught. This is understandable, and really no one system or style can teach it all — they’re all limited in some manner or other. Thus to really get the most out of something you need to freely explore it on your own. Still, sometimes it’s tough to freely explore something without at least some degree of direction to get started in. I’ve found something that works for this and I’d like to share it with you.

I actually touched on this briefly when I discussed dan bong drills. The technique is simple. Take what you already know and apply it to what you don’t (yet) know… apply it to what you’re learning.

In the dan bong case, my suggestion was to take a technique set like Maek Chi Ki and perform it with a dan bong. Will it perform perfectly? Maybe, maybe not; it doesn’t matter. The point of the exercise is to take the known (Maek Chi Ki) and apply it to the unknown (the dan bong that you’re learning). In doing so you may find a technique that works directly. You may find a technique that sorta works, and with a slightly different approach may work better. You may find something that doesn’t work. You may have to experiment to find out if it will or won’t work, and how you can make it work, make it work better, make it work worse, make it not work at all. The point is to use something like Maek Chi Ki as the starting point for further exploration. With dan bong you could also try Ki Bohn Soo. For an alternative take, have your partner attack you with the dan bong; can you use Dahn Doh Mahk Ki techniques to defend it? Should you?

When it comes to cane, you could try the same, trying Ki Bohn Soo and Maek Chi Ki. Do they work? How can you make them work? The cane has more “use vectors” than a dan bong, e.g. many different grips and starting points. Do those come into play? How do they change the use and/or effectiveness and/or applicability of the technique?

As well, don’t just stop with technique work, but more into forms. Can you use your cane (or dan bong) in Ki Cho Hyung? How about your cane in Jung Gum Hyung? And not just using the cane in some artsy way, but actually applying sound martial concepts.

Of course, this doesn’t have to end with taking weapons into empty hand forms. You could simply do the opposite and see if your weapons work can translate into empty hand work. Or branch beyond martial arts to see where and how you can apply this concept to other parts of your life… that in and of itself is applying the concept. 🙂