#atlab lok

The live-action adaptation, however, seemed to stumble over the very foundation that made the original so captivating. To me, it felt as though the essence of the source material was either misunderstood or disregarded. The choreography (or lack there of..) , which should have been a dynamic homage to the intricate art of bending, came across as lackluster and devoid of the authentic martial arts movements that once breathed life into it. Firebending for instance, is not like tossing a stone. It has a process that entails a beginning a middle and end…

That being said, I’ll concede that the costumes and some of the special effects caught my eye, but beyond those fleeting moments, I found little to hold onto. Am i “mad” about it? Nope. Was I upset about not working on the project? Nope. (I don’t do that sort of work anymore.) I’m just enjoying my life, And let me make one thing clear—my opinion is mine alone.

Be well😋

Chinese swords are very beautiful and dangerous weapons that have played an important role in Chinese history and culture for thousands of years. Their intricate design and construction are a testament to centuries of Chinese swordmaking tradition.

One must be familiar with the complex workings of Chinese swords to fully appreciate their lethality and beauty and use them more effectively in Wushu or Kung Fu Chinese martial arts. In this article, we’ll introduce you to the various components of the Dao or Jian, the traditional Chinese swords, and their use.

Parts of the Jian / Straigh Double Edge

The Parts of a Jian Sword – Credits: Mandarin Mansion Antiques

The Jian is a type of ancient Chinese straight, double-edged sword that has been valued for over a thousand years. Its blade is long and narrow, while the handle is straight and slim. Soldiers, martial artists, and academics employed the sword in ancient China and surrounding regions. Together with the staff, spear, and Dao swords, it is one of the four key weapons in Chinese martial arts.

1. Jiantan – Pommel

The Chinese word for the pommel of a Jian sword is Jiantan, and it is there that the sword begins. It’s a metal weight at the end of the handle, and its purpose is to balance the blade so the user can have a firm hold. First only available in ring pommels, Jian pommels eventually evolved into more complex designs like the metal cap, ball, or teardrop shapes and the common disk pommel known today.

2. Jian Sui – Tassel

A Jian sword’s tassel is a decorative accessory that can be fastened to the pommel or scabbard. The Chinese sword tassel is often constructed from silk. This sheath beautifies the Jian and adds a few features that may or may not improve the sword’s effectiveness in battle.

3. Jianba – Handle

The different possible edge features on the Jian sword – Credits: Sword Buyers Guide

The Jianba is the sword’s handle, and it is always straight and slim, measuring somewhere between 6 and 10 inches (15 and 25 cm) in length. For ceremonial and combat purposes, it may be crafted from various materials, including bone, wood, horn, and even jade. The majority of Jianbas have a shorter handle designed for use with one hand, although there are also longer versions used with both.

4. Jian Ge – Guard

Traditional Jian sword guards are thin, tapered pieces of metal that can be angled in either direction relative to the blade and handle. In some cases, it can be round or square that goes between the blade and the handle. Its purpose is to shield the user’s hand from the oncoming blade and to stop the enemy’s weapon from sliding down the blade onto the hand. In some cases, it only serves as a beautiful ornamental piece.

5. Shaungxue – Hamon

A hamon is the visible line on the Jian sword that is sometimes on the blade but not always. It is a result of the differential hardening used throughout history to make the edges of the blade sharper by using clay. It is a feature most known today on the Japanese Katana.

6. Jianti – Blade

The blade of a Jian sword is narrow and long, normally measuring 23 to 31 inches (60 to 80 cm) but reaching as high as 47 inches (1.2 meters), and always tapers into a sharp blade tip. It is the only straight Chinese sword, one of just a few in the arsenal of Chinese swords, with no curving variant. The blade is forged from bronze, then iron, and finally, high-quality steel, and it is optimized for speed and accuracy when cutting.

7. Jian Ren – Edge

The straight Jian scabbard –

The sharp edges on both sides of the Jian’s blade are called Jian Ren. This Jian Ren has three sections and parts, mostly seen in the combat or martial arts type of Jian sword.

Top – razor sharp and used primarily for hacking, slashing, thrusting, but not blocking

Middle – semi-sharpened part of the blade but much thicker, which is used for slashing and blocking

Bottom – very thick, sturdy, and usually unsharpened for defensive or unorthodox offensive movements

8. Jian Jian – Blade Tip

The very point of the Jian sword is called Jian Jian. It is sharpened on both sides and made to be deadly when used for thrusting and piercing, but it can also be used for slashing.

9. Jianqiao – Scabbard

When not in use, a Jian sword is stored safely in its scabbard, called the Jianqiao. It’s usually crafted from wood and covered in luxurious materials like silk or leather. Metal fittings and tassels are two examples of possible embellishments for the scabbard.

Parts of the Dao Sword (Knife/ Saber)

The Parts of a Dao Sword – Credits: Mandarin Mansion Antiques

The Dao sword, often called the Chinese broadsword, is a renowned blade that has served Chinese warriors for millennia. Its defining feature is a single-edged blade, which can be straight or slightly curved and may be gripped in one or both hands thanks to the long, slim grip. The Dao sword has a long history of use in numerous Chinese martial arts traditions, but it was primarily a sword of the soldier thanks to its ease of use and simpler design.

1. Daoba Dingshu – Pommel

Usually, the Dao sword has a smaller metal cap of a pommel which can be ring type, as seen in the 20th-century use of the Dadao. However, the most common type is a round or wider disc shape. It serves as a back support to the user’s hand as well as a possible blunt attack tool.

2. Lanyard and Tassel

Like the Jian has the traditional Chinese tassel, so does the Dao. But most of the time, the Dao swords have a lanyard, which is meant to have a better grip on the sword and make this curved blade more effective in mounted attacks.

3. Daoba – Handle

The handle of the Dao, which can be as small as a person’s hand or the size of the blade itself, is called the Daoba. Its most common length is 8 to 13 inches (20 to 35 cm), and it can be used with one or two hands for powerful slashing attacks.

4. Daoba Shu – Ferrule

The small metal piece just under and between the guard and the handle is called the Daoba Shu. These are often circular metal rings made for extra joining and fastening of the handle and sealing and reinforcing the wrapping material.

5. Dao Hushou – Guard

The metal piece that protects the user’s hand between the blade and the handle is the Dao Hushou. The most common type of guard seen on a Dao sword is round or disc-shaped. It offers protection to the user’s hand but is fairly limited. It makes for an excellent marching or cavalry type of guard. However, It is also featured in the parts of a Katana known as tsuba.

6. Dao Cao – Groove

The early types of Dao Ren on the straight Dao swords, which curved with time – Credits: The Scholar General

The Dao Cao translates to saber groove and can be found in almost all types of Chinese Dao. They are sometimes referred to as blood grooves, but their real purpose is to lessen the weight of the blade so that it can increase the saber’s handling and speed. In addition, they make eye-pleasing aesthetics.

7. Dao Ren – Blade (Edge)

The sharpened side of the Dao swords, which makes them single-edged, is called the Dao Ren, which sets it apart from the Jian. This edge makes for an effective slashing tool that benefited from the curve added onto the later Dao types of swords. Thanks to the Dao Ren, these blades were easier to master and cheaper to produce, but still very effective in combat and became the main type of military sword for Chinese soldiers.

8. Dao Bei – Spine

The sturdy part of the Dao sword, which can hold off the flexibility of the edge, is called Dao Bei. This isn’t a sharpened part and can be either straight or curved based on the type of sword and can be used for defensive purposes too. Sometimes the blade can be made broader and wider, and there are instances of a spike on some Dao Beis.

9. Blade Rings

There are some cases of Chinese swords with rings placed on the Dao Bei or the blade’s spine. They are mostly for entertainment and ornamental reasons, but some say they are also beneficial in combat.

10. Tunkou – Blade Collar

An unsharpened piece of metal, usually on top of the guard of Dao swords, is called a Tunkou, which is a blade collar. This is placed for decorative purposes, mostly with traditional Chinese elements, but it also holds the blade tightly inside the scabbard, keeping it safe from the elements. 

11. Dao Feng – Blade Tip

The very end of the blade is called the Dao Feng, the blade’s sharpened tip. There are cases where only one side is sharpened, but on some Dao swords, the tip is double-edged, making it ideal for both slashing and thrusting.

12. Daoqiao – Scabbard

The P-shape curved scabbard of the Dao sword – Credits: Mandarin Mansion Antiques

The Daoqiao, or the scabbard for the Dao blade, has the same features and materials as the Jian, except that it is curved.  It protects the blade from outside elements and is a nice resting piece for carrying the Dao around.

13. Dao Shu Liang – Scabbard Suspension

The Dao Shu Liang is how the scabbard is different from the Jian. This tradition came from Persian influence on the west during the Tang Dynasty and is basically two ropes swinging from the blade that hold the swords in a horizontal fashion

Ottawa — Nov 8 & 9, 2025 🥋

Northern Shaolin Kung Fu isn’t just movement.

It’s resilience. Awareness. Spirit.

This November, I’m bringing the tradition to Ottawa in collaboration with our longtime friends at Stone Lion Kung Fu Club.

⚡ Train. Sweat. Discover. ⚡

✨ Come as you are. Leave transformed. ✨

For centuries, Northern Shaolin Kung Fu has been passed down as both a martial art and a way of life. It’s a tradition that doesn’t just teach movement—it forges resilience, cultivates awareness, and awakens the warrior spirit within.

On November 8th and 9th, I’ll be bringing this living art to Ottawa for a rare, in-person workshop, hosted in collaboration with our long-standing friends at the Stone Lion Kung Fu Club.

Whether it’s your very first time stepping onto the training floor or you’ve been cultivating your practice for years, this experience is built for you. Together, we’ll train with intensity, refine our focus, and explore a discipline that sharpens the body, steadies the mind, and connects us to something deeper than technique alone.

This isn’t just martial arts.

It’s a journey of discovery—

a chance to move with purpose, draw strength from discipline, and leave renewed with your inner fire reignited.

✨ Come as you are. Leave transformed. ✨

So I gave the Netflix, avatar the last Airbender a second try. I took off my judgment goggles and looked at it as a brand new work of fiction. Now mind you my opinion means nothing, but I do have a certain level of emotional attachment to this intellectual property.

The live action show is very pretty, I love the costumes and I actually enjoy some of the characters. Keep in mind I’m only 20 minutes into the second episode. I’m a little busy these days. But I plan to make some time. I took down my original post where I called the show trash so that I could collect more data for my opinion.

Some grumbles;

The special effects are kind of wonky in places. I don’t care for Appa‘s hair. 😁

Some of the fight scenes actually have good kung fu in them. Hats off to the choreographer. However the connected CGI animations of the characters performing bending imho lack the basic essences of bending. The Airbender staff fighting had no “bending” at all.

The work we did on the original show came from a certain type of process, and none of those processes seem to exist in this current offering from Netflix…

I think if Bryan and Mike had stuck around on the project you may have seen some differences, but we will never know will we?

I may write more about this after I’ve seen the entire affair. I’m still a little upset about what NF did to cowboy bebop. Both of these shows had a certain “soul“ in the original animations, but that is one more element missing in these current efforts.Heck I know people that worked on NFATLAB that won’t even watch it.

In closing someone brought to my attention that some clown on Reddit called me an asshole.

Meh, I may very well be.

But your opinions are just like assholes, everybody’s got one 😜

(((i’ve had a Reddit account since 2008))

🙃

A fundamental part of traditional training the horse riding stance (Ma Bu in Chinese) is a popular yet painful exercise. Here we are going to look at the anatomy of Ma Bu and some of the benefits it produces.

Ma Bu is an Isometric exercise in which the muscles are contracted and held in a static position, what is great about Ma Bu though is that it performs two tasks simultaneously; it is both isometric strength training for the quads and glutes and isometric stretching for the inner thigh.

Muscles stretched:

Adductor longus, Adductor brevis, Adductor magus.

Gracilis, Pectineus, quadratus femoris

Isometric stretching can be uncomfortable, but holding tension in the muscles while they are lengthened will increase flexibility and improve the strength of the muscle fibers.

By pushing out the knees we will stretch the muscles of the inner thigh which are used to adduct the leg (pull it towards the centre of the body,) if you want to increase your hip flexibility, kicking range or do the box splits, isometric training of the adductors is of substantial help.

Muscles Working:

Quadriceps femoris (rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, vastus medialis,) Gluteus maximus (used to outwardly rotate the legs.)

The quads and glutes are some of the largest muscles in the body and used for things such as running, jumping and kicking.

Physical and mental endurance:

Holding Ma Bu for even two minutes is tough, (five minutes is great, going beyond this is said to have little impact on strength gains,) but by holding this high intensity position we are improving our muscular endurance and lactic threshold.

Importantly it isn’t the body that gives out first for a majority of people it’s the mind, we just give up. Holding through the pain when you really want to quit will increase your mental endurance and discipline.

Ankles knees and hips:

Because we are talking about a low horse stance with the feet facing forwards, we will increase the tension on the tendons and ligaments of the hips, knees and ankles, this is fantastic for drawing blood to these areas increasing their strength and health.

Ma Bu may be limited by its static training position when most of our training requires us to move, but it provides some unique benefits and can quite easily be added to your training regime if you have a few minutes spare, which let’s face it we all do at some point.