The Blunt Weapon Training section will give concepts of motion for the use of blunt man-made weapons used in American Kenpo Karate training.  The two weapons which will be discussed most often will be kenpo clubs and the kenpo staff, both of which are offered specially made to fit the technician through Martial Fusion.  The Club and Staff tools available through Martial Fusion come with color coordinated graphics of the Dragon and Tiger to aid in complex movements and demonstration purposes.  Initially, I must request that before reading or trying any of the concepts discussed in this section that you use these weapons with great care so as not to injure yourself in any way, and do not over train in these concepts. Either of those would be detrimental to continued training and to the safety of the practitioner.  One suggestion to aid the student from injury would be to work basic drills with clubs and staffs would be to work single club, double clubs and staff in basic motions found in the Universal Pattern.         In the continuing discussion on Launching and Definition in movement, this training section is going to take a different direction regarding Clubs and Staff work.  As far as empty hand, even the most novice student beginning or looking into the martial arts can learn something from Launching and Definition in movement.  This is due to the fact that whatever action is taken, it should be done as quickly and confidently as possible to come close to working, especially in a live situation.  However, this training section, along with Edged Weapons Training is not for the novice martial artist.  Weapons training is much more meticulous and requires more sophisticated motion for study due to the fact that Clubs and Staff can restrict the ability of your natural weapons somewhat. So as we have stated in the previous training section, train first with what you know slowly to learn the movement, then work with different concepts once you are comfortable.         From Dragon Tales there was an physical analogy we like to use to help mentally understand the concept of Launching and Definite Action.  It was a reference to a video game that many members of Dragon Tales have played often.  There is a live action or cinema styled shooting game on the market called FAST DRAW SHOWDOWN.  The game is based in the Old West and the concept of the game is to draw your firearm faster than your electronic opponent.  If you don't shoot your opponent fast enough you loose a life on the game, and if you do draw the gun and fire fast enough, your opponent has a rather dramatic passing on.  As far as this game's correlation with Kenpo Club or Staff Training, although there are no firearms involved, there is a similarity Blunt Weapons training.  The student, like the gunfighter, must execute their movements against their opponent with speed and precision to even remotely survive the altercation unharmed.         Generally, depending on your circumstances, use of Staff and Clubs will not require as much of a quick draw motion due to the fact the weapons will already be in your possession.  Like empty hand training, they will usually require moving them from their starting position to the target (which is another principle called point-of-origin, a very good one to train  with Launching).  Should your response be to block your opponents action, this movement should be done quickly and with proper execution. Given that both Staff and Clubs are more blunt weapons with very little slashing movements except for the top and bottom of the weapons, the most common action used with Launching would be Whipping.  Whip like motion creates a great deal of energy or force from either club or staff motion, and actually has a direct similarity with the use of nunchucku.  The same whipping action from the wrist which creates centrifugal force when using the nunchucku is also the best way to create the desired Launching effect with both Clubs and Staff.         Given that most of the Club and Staff techniques come from empty hand self defense techniques, one of the best training methods would be to analyze motion from those techniques and transfer them to Weapons Training.  Depending on personal preferences and range, the kicks involved with Kenpo Training could be deleted or added into Staff or Club work. When you are working on Launching, use the quick draw principle at the beginning of the technique slowly at first to decided how you are going to directly control your opponent.  Then once you are more comfortable begin to move faster with that movement, but remember to keep the weapon in control.  Once you have the movement to where you feel you understand it physically, begin to use more whipping movements to truly gain all the benefits you can from Launching.         And always keep your movements definite and with purpose, this will aid you in controlling your opponent.  If you are only using one Club, use the other hand to offset your action and keep good alignment with the Club.  If you are using both Clubs, the same alignment should be used along with the offset motion between Clubs.  With staff the motion should be kept offset between the dominate hand, or the hand that will be completing the movement.  As it was stated in the Empty-Hand Training Concept Article 2, "It doesn't matter if you can hit someone 20 times in a second if you get hit in the nose by your opponent."         While working on these concepts with clubs or a staff, always keep in mind the principles of motion that make Kenpo or any martial arts system work.  Although we talked about the whipping motion which can be utilized with Blunt Weapons, or anything for that matter, be mindful that there are two other types of motion to consider.  Those being Hammering, and Thrusting.  These must also be considered when working on movements that really "smoke."  And, like with any other aspect of learning to defend yourself, work on the specialized movements in the training hall.  Like the first ten yellow belt techniques in Kenpo, keep things in a live situation simple, direct, and effective.