The Swordsman?
By
Sifu Steffan de Graffenried
中 文 按 此
I heard this story several years ago while competing in a Tai Chi
tournament in Winchester, VA. It was recently brought back to my memory
and I thought it would be useful to include in this section of fighting
stories.
In 1988, Grandmaster Wong and his student, the late, Jane Hallander were
invited to Dallas, Texas by Grandmaster In Hyuk Soo to perform
exhibitions at his tournament. Grandmaster and Sifu Hallander arrived at
the event and began to warm up for their performances. Grandmaster was
to perform the famous Wu Dang sword and he was showing sifu Hallander
some of the subtle nuances of the techniques when a man walked up and
began watching Grandmaster's technique. The man waited for a break in
the action and took that opportunity to introduce himself as a sword
"expert", stating that he had mastered several sword styles including
the Korean sword style of Kook Sul Won and the Japanese sword styles.
The man droned on and on about how the Chinese sword styles were too
flowery and could never stand up to the Korean and Japanese styles.
Grandmaster tried, in vain, to explain to the man how the techniques
only looked useless to the untrained eye but the man insisted that he
was correct and that Grandmaster only knew the Chinese styles and
therefore could not understand the Korean and Japanese styles.
The man asked Grandmaster Wong to show him how the techniques worked so
Grandmaster handed the man his sword and looked around for a suitable
non-lethal substitute with which to demonstrate (as he did not want to
injure the man). Grandmaster found a small stick to use and the man took
Grandmaster Wong's Tai Chi straight sword (Gim) and immediately held it
like a Japanese Samurai sword. He attacked Grandmaster from many angles
and directions to no avail. In one final frustrated effort the man
thrust straight in to Grandmaster's center and Grandmaster saw an
opportunity to attack with a technique we call "Tiu" (this is an attack
from underneath with the tip of the sword to the hands of the opponent).
The man yelped in pain and dropped the Tai Chi sword and then noticed
that Grandmaster's small stick was touching his throat.
The man was obviously embarrassed but bowed respectfully and thanked
Grandmaster Wong for the lesson then turned and walked away.
Next Story