Off to Hadley

I am becoming more convinced that the scabbard should be a parrying device in Tai Chi sword. While practicing Sparrow Skims the Water, it occured to me that a low and wide attack like that would expose you to getting stabbed in the face. The sword hand would certainly not protect you well from that, but if you were still holding your scabbard, you could clear your way and cover yourself as you made your upward cut!

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Tomorrow we get up at 6AM to drive to Hadley, MA for a seminar in Tai Chi Sword. My group figured that if a master was teaching something nearby, especially one of the authors we are studying from, we should go check it out. Scott Rodell is a long-time Tai Chi practitioner and researcher of applied Tai Chi sword techniques. He's pretty much the only person as far as we can tell who is known for practicing fighting Tai Chi sword.

My main concern for Hadley is that we will be brainwashed. In martial arts, there's a tendency to treat martial dogma like religious commandments. Any statement handed down from the Pope/master must be taken as the word of God and obeyed without question. I hope we will have the wisdom to learn from the seminar and the conviction in our own ideas to stick with our interpretations where appropriate.