XingYi: Going from barehand to sword

Most people are surprised to hear, or would disagree, with the statement that XingYi is primerily a weapons art. It is. The historical record of its origins is that it comes from spear fighting, yet in the modern age it's done almost exclusively barehand. While XingYi is a proven martial art for barehand fighting, many of the techniques of XingYi still make a lot more sense with a weapon in your hand.

As an aside, I'm convinced one of the reasons (among others) that Wang Zhang Zhai changed his XingYi into Yi Quani was to reflect the reality that barehand fighting was what people were actually using the art for.

But anyway, I digress. One of the joys (for me) of XingYi has always been that what you learn barehand you then transfer directly to weapons use. There is no need to learn another 'form' just because you're holding a sword or a spear in your hand.

Here's an example of what I mean - I shot this informal clip of me messing around in the morning yesterday, and it shows how the same movements can transfer from barehand to sword with little, if any, alteration. In XingYi, the tip of the sword becomes the hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrCvP_YUQsg