There are two major hurdles that all martial arts practitioners should overcome when training with weapons. These hurdles should be overcome naturally, they are not techniques that you can directly and purposefully practice for and they are not something another person can teach. You must overcome these hurdles on your own.

The first is to know your weapon. You must naturally familiarise yourself with the weight, length, durability, limitations and advantages that each weapon brings with it. You should feel the way your weapon moves. The weapon, as they say “is an extension of your arm”. This is true, so far as to say that it only moves in the way that you tell it to move. Your abilities as a weapons expert is reflected by how well you can control the weapon, how well does the weapon adhere to your instructions.

There are grounds to say that each person is suited for a particular weapon, and this is true. For example, not all can handle a spear as well as they can handle a sword. Some martial practitioners can feel some weapons better than others. To find your weapon, each practitioner must learn a little bit of as many weapons as possible, but in the end specialise only in one.