OK, let's start off with a few assumptions that I should clarify before going into this.
1. My club has a heavy focus on applied martial arts. Be able to use what you train. It is our belief that both Karate/Kenpo and Kobudo were intended to be methods of survival or warfare. They were combative in the past. If we are not training with this intent in mind today then we are really not pursuing the same thing as the originators of the system. It's fine to go your own way but don't think you are practicing the same thing as your system's originators. Only since the late 1800's have we moved away from combative use into other qualities of the martial arts.
2. The Sai is a multi-range weapon. There are two main positions for the weapon. Open, with the 'pointy' part out and the handle in your grip. And Closed, with the length of the weapon along your forearm and the end of the grip out in front. Each position allows you to do things in different ranges. Closed is for a closer range and open a slightly longer range. And I suppose you can throw it too but that gets into tactics and strategy a little deeper than I want to go for now.
Now, in a recent advanced (Shodan and up) class last week we began working on something that should be basic. Sai 101 stuff. This may be old news to some but I was not shown this coming up. I have yet to run across anyone else who was either. I always thought the basic ready position for sai was either both weapons open or both closed. This is how we always learned it before and it seems to fit well with a lot of the things we see in the katas. We have found that the paired sai work very well as a one up, one down kamae. Or, one open and one closed at the same time. Specifically with the lead hand closed. Think sword and shield position and you're pretty close.
What's interesting is that since I have started using it I have yet to shoot any holes in the idea. I see it everywhere now in the katas. We might be on to something. A few points of support...
Now that I'm looking for it, it shows up consistently throughout our Sai kata. I would have a hard time saying it is not the basic on guard position at this point. If you are working from a ready or semi-ready posture you can tie everything to this guarded lead hand and open chambered hand.
Also, it fits with the traditional idea of how the weapons were carried and drawn from the hip. Try it. Place two sai in your belt on your left hip. One just outside of the other. Now play around with different ways to smoothly remove them both into a good ready position. Did you end up with a cross draw for the right hand and a thumb hook to lift out the left? The one in the right hand is open and the left is either closed or awkwardly fumbled to an open guard. Flipping this open would be slower and more likely to lose the weapon. Me too. It's natural. It's fast and you can perform most kata techniques starting from here.
This is very similar to the way I teach other weapons such as the escrima (tanbo for our Okinawan stylists). We don't normally fold the front weapon (when using two) but the rear hand is always in a high chamber. We found this to be the preferred place to start from. Keeping the weapon back and chambered allows you to use it in either a full step forward, a half step (cutting step) in , or from punching range without a step. It makes it more versatile while eliminating the need to load before striking.
I realize reading this that the whole topic is kind of dull and basic...unless you've never heard of it. As I said, most of the people I know who practice with sai fall into that category. If you are looking for applications in your sai kata, give this a try.
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