Secrets of the Sword | Following on from Downward Ge

Having successfully intercepted your opponent’s sword with a Ge, this is not the best time to congratulate yourself and think about what to do next.

What follows on from it needs to be spontaneous and almost instantaneous, which is why it’s good to practice these moves often with a partner as, in a real fight or even in light and friendly sparring, even a moment’s hesitation allows your opponent time to recover and do something else, which means not only a lost opportunity for you but also an opportunity for them to come right back at you. So however skilled you are, never underestimate an opponent’s response to any move, or it could be game over before you have time to blink.

From a downward Ge to your left, there are at least four ways in which your sword can do something useful as it slides back towards you and loops up and over to come down upon your opponent’s wrist or hand. You can choose whether to bring the blade down and up again sharply in a quick chopping action (Ji – pronounced “jee”), or to pull it into a slicing action (Chou – pronounced “chow”, as in “show”) as it makes contact, or to poke a point on their wrist with the very tip of your sword (Dian – pronounced “dien”).

The latter is the most difficult and it takes an incredible amount of control and accuracy to pull it off. A downward Ji is also technically a small type of Pi (a downward chopping action, which we will be discussing again later) applied with a quick flick of the wrist, but Ji can be applied in any direction, including sideways, to any part of the body. Whichever you use, the idea so far is to incapacitate their sword hand or arm so that they drop their weapon and are unable to pick it up again.

The same is true of a technique that arises naturally from a downwards Ge to your right. In this case, as your sword diverts theirs outwards to your right and slides towards you, it can very quickly flick upwards sharply to strike their hand from underneath, a movement called Beng (pronounced “bung”).

Beng not only applies to our suggested follow up to right downwards Ge but can also be used to describe other sudden, explosive movements in your form, often delivered with a blast of Fa Jing that vibrates outwards through your body and arm to the tip of your sword.

Incidentally, all of these techniques to attack the sword hand or wrist would only be possible if your opponent was also using a Chinese sword or similar weapon and was not holding a basket-hilted or more complex-hilted variety that has a steel cage, or other metal structure, protecting their hand and wrist. Knowing what these techniques can do to a sword-carrying hand or wrist, one can very much appreciate why basket-hilted swords were developed in many parts of the world. To disarm an opponent brandishing such a weapon, you would need to get in closer and strike higher up the arm, perhaps with Pi, - a risky business, even though it’s wielder might be less dexterous than you with your lighter and less-encumbering weapon. Every weapon has its advantages and disadvantages and the skill in Chinese sword lies partly in pulling off these thirteen techniques and partly in avoiding having them done back to you without the luxury of a metal basket to protect your hand.

Now that you know about some of the possible follow-ups to downward Ge, maybe see if you can identify any of them in your form or those of other styles. In the next article, we will be considering how we might follow through from an upward-pointing Ge.