The Bo story

 

I really have no more ability to handle a bo with my disabilities.

 

However I remember my training well.

 

I was a brown belt when Charles Murray began by bo instruction. As I was going to study Tokumine No Kun he told  me I should by a bo on an upcoming business trip to Philadelphia.

 

So on that trip I went to the old location of Asian World of Martial Arts on North  Philadelphia, where the store was an old basement store front location. It was there I purchased my first bo and sai.

 

Focusing on the Bo it was of a very dense wood, and where it has been cut from a tree limb, it was slightly irregular as it slightly bent on the one end. The wood was ultra dense, almost as if it had a core of lead. That made it quite heav.

 

That was the bo I studied with.

 

Later my father gave me two bo he had a friend hand turn for him as a gift to me.

My father’s friend who made those bo, swore he would never make another. But I was very thankful he did make them.

 

The size of the bo was identical to what a bo should look like. However the wood was extremely light weight. I kept one aside to use for tournaments and used one as my dojo for study and practice.

 

When I was getting ready for a tournament back in the 1980’s I would practice with the heavyweight bo for weeks, developing my power. Then the week before a tournament I would switch to the light weight bo. It needed practice not to let if fly from my hand as I was conditioned for the heavier bo.  That training worked for me.

 

About 10 years later when I had students training with me, I obtained 3 other light weight bo for use. The wood was denser but the weight was similar to my hand made bo. They were perfect for training, competition and endured bo – bo kumite.

 

In those days my students did compete occasionally at tournaments. They followed my regime. Training with the heavyweight bo and then switching to the light weight bo a week before the tournament to be able to handle it.

 

Some students also purchased their own bo. But all of them trained with the heavyweight one too.

 

About a decade later I worked out the real secret of bo in karate. Really not for rational self defense   ( as who walks around with a bo) rather it was critical in long term ability development. Decades of Bo work  developed arms and hand grips that would  become a valuable force enhancer to add to ones karate usage.

 

There is no rational way to explain to the new brown belt or black belt what bo practice would add decades later.  It would be of incredible value especially to fight dissolution as one ages. There were so many values.

 

When I left karate behind I bequeathed my bo’s to my students in Derry.

 

May they continue to find value in their use.