# Fan Weapon Training?



## tempus (Dec 1, 2009)

I think using a fan as a weapon is part of the Wing Chun arts. My wife is interested in learning to use a fan as a weapon. She has a few years studying Aikido, but vertigo put a damper on rolling. Are there any schools in the upstate NY or northern NJ area that teaches this? If I am worng about this being part of the Wing Chun art I apologize.

Thanks,

Gary


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## jks9199 (Dec 1, 2009)

You may want to check into Japanese arts.  I believe one version of the fan is called _tessen_.


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## Stac3y (Dec 1, 2009)

I do American Karate, and my weapon of choice is the fan, though it's not part of our curriculum. Fans were used by samurai--one book that can give you some information is Samurai Weapons by Cunningham. Fans (usually one in each hand) are also used by some Tai Chi practitioners and some CMA practitioners (can't remember what "variety" at the moment.)

There are a lot of DVDs available that teach fan; however, you have to be selective. Most of them are geared toward CMAs; I was looking for a less flowing style, and had a hard time finding anything. So I've had to cobble together techniques from various places to come up with something that fits with my art and personal style. There's at least one video of me doing a fan kata in the Members in Motion section, if you wife wants to have a look.


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## Xue Sheng (Dec 1, 2009)

There is a Chinese Iron Fan that is used as a weapon but I do not think it is part of Wing Chun. I have seen it called Taiji fan and I do believe some styles of Bagua train the fan but I doubt they would just train you the fan if it were the actual martial arts version without training you the empty hand forms first. 

Also note the majority of Taiji fan that I have seen over the last 15 years has been purely for show not fighting. I did not see fan in any of the Chen I studied and it is not part of the curriculum in my flavor of Yang style


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## mook jong man (Dec 1, 2009)

Yes the fan was used in Wing Chun.
It was used to keep the practitioners cool during the humid Hong Kong summers.


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## geezer (Dec 1, 2009)

mook jong man said:


> Yes the fan was used in Wing Chun.
> It was used to keep the practitioners cool during the humid Hong Kong summers.



My favorite martial use of the fan was the way James Bond did it... dropping and _electric_ fan into a bathtub. Shocking!


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## David43515 (Dec 2, 2009)

THE FAN IS USED IN VARIOUS SHAOLIN BASED KUNG FU STYLES, MOSTLY  TO STRIKE PRESSURE POINTS. KWONG WING LAM HAS SOME VIDEOS IN HIS WEBSITE WWW.WLE.COM. ALSO CHECK WWW.GREENDRAGONKUNGFU.COM 

BUT I THINK THE OTHERS WERE RIGHT, MOST SCHOOLS WON`T ENCOURAGE YOU TO COME JUST SO YOU CAN LEARN A SINGLE WEAPON.


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## tempus (Dec 2, 2009)

Thanks for the replies.  Sorry for the double post.  Connection issue and thought the first one never went thru.

-Gary


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## Tensei85 (Dec 2, 2009)

You may want to check into Wudang Bagua, when I was a teenager we used to supplement the Wing Chun training with a Fan form as well as the Fei Long Dao. However not Wing Chun but we trained from Wudang Bagua via Fu Zhen Song lineage, also since your In N.Y. check out Tony Chuy he's a 7 * Mantis guy, the 7 Star Praying Mantis system utilizes the Iron Fan training, forms... however you may have to learn a crap load of other forms before you get to it but he may settle to just teach you the fan form if requested. His website is: 

http://www.northernmantis.com/home.html


Good luck!


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## Tensei85 (Dec 2, 2009)

On a side note: Not to be old fashioned but I would not learn the Iron Fan from a dvd or any form from a dvd for that much, dvd's are great for reference but in reality if you try and learn Gong Fu from a dvd you'll only have whats called "lap Sap" or literally junk. I would find a qualified Instructor that can transmit the skill to you, its a better use of your time & money especially if you want to eventually teach someone else. (There are a lot of intricacies that a dvd or book can't transmit to you not to mention solid mechanics)


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## Xue Sheng (Dec 2, 2009)

First I do not recommend learning from a video but I will also add that the majority of the fan videos on the WLE site, provided a few posts before me, are more fan dancing than actual Martial Arts, I know the people that made the videos.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Dec 2, 2009)

Tensei85 said:


> On a side note: Not to be old fashioned but I would not learn the Iron Fan from a dvd or any form from a dvd for that much, dvd's are great for reference but in reality if you try and learn Gong Fu from a dvd you'll only have whats called "lap Sap" or literally junk. I would find a qualified Instructor that can transmit the skill to you, its a better use of your time & money especially if you want to eventually teach someone else. (There are a lot of intricacies that a dvd or book can't transmit to you not to mention solid mechanics)


 
*Absolutely*, you need a real instructor to show you the skill sets and the intricacies that you will otherwise miss if you try to learn from a dvd.


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## David43515 (Dec 2, 2009)

Can`t agree more about hands on time with an instructor. I just mentioned the videos because he said he couldn`t find anywhere that offered it as a weapon. I thought that it might serve as a decent intro to some of the different meathods of use. But I hope you don`t think I was suggesting that he forego developing a solid background in the basics of footwork, positioning, and power generation.

Growing up in my hometown in Ohio there was one choice for martial arts, period. A single man ran schools in my town and most of the small towns around us. Your option wasn`t just limited to his style, but to people training under him. I know what it`s like to want more options.


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## MattB (Dec 5, 2009)

Fan in Wing Chun??? Maybe a mainland style uses it but I have never heard of it and I cant see how it would be usefull either. But to each his own right.


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## Stac3y (Dec 5, 2009)

MattB said:


> Fan in Wing Chun??? Maybe a mainland style uses it but I have never heard of it and I cant see how it would be usefull either. But to each his own right.



The fighting fan (also called the iron fan or tessen) can be a formidable weapon. The ribs of the fan are made of metal--they are quite heavy--and the end of each rib is sharpened. When closed, the fan is used as a short stick might be, to strike or jab; since the ribs are sharpened, the jab also functions like a jab with a knife. When open, the fan is used to slash with the sharp rib ends, or to obscure other techniques, or to block. Some tessen are not actual fans, but metal or wood fashioned to look like a closed fan, and are used to strike or jab; others are functional. Fighting fans were favored by Samurai when going into areas where weapons were forbidden, as they looked like the fans used for keeping cool, but functioned as weapons.

The fans you can purchase for use in weapons training and kata now are lighter than the traditional (just like most other current weapons) and are not sharpened, of course. They still can hurt like the devil, though; I dropped mine while training and took a large chunk of skin off my leg and had a very nasty bruise.


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## Tensei85 (Dec 5, 2009)

tempus said:


> I think using a fan as a weapon is part of the Wing Chun arts. My wife is interested in learning to use a fan as a weapon. She has a few years studying Aikido, but vertigo put a damper on rolling. Are there any schools in the upstate NY or northern NJ area that teaches this? If I am worng about this being part of the Wing Chun art I apologize.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Gary


 
Here's also a list of Schools in the NJ area that may work for you hopefully. http://www.challengermartialarts.com/schoolsNJ.htm

There is a few Bagua school, a Praying Mantis school as well as a Shaolin school. So atleast one of them should teach the Iron Fan. 

Good luck again!


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## Tensei85 (Dec 5, 2009)

On a side note in CMA the Iron Fan is generally called 
&#38081;&#25159; - Tie Shan or in Cantonese Dit Sin.


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