Rope dart

A rope dart

The rope dart or rope javelin(Chinese: 繩鏢; pinyin: shěng biāo), also known as Jouhyou in Japanese, is one of the flexible, also known as soft, weapons in Chinese martial arts. Other weapons in this family include the meteor hammer, flying claws, and chain whip. Although the flexible weapons share similar movements, each weapon has its own specific techniques.

The rope dart is basically a long rope (usually 14' - 16') with a metal dart attached to one end. This was a weapon from ancient times, which allows the user to throw the dart out at a long range target and use the rope to pull it back. The rope dart can be used for twining, binding, circling, hitting, piercing, tightening, and other techniques.

Rope dart play consists of twining, shooting, and retrieval. Twining and shooting can be done from any joint such as foot, knee, elbow, and neck. The rope is anchored on the left hand and played primarily with the right hand.

Skillful use of the rope dart can easily trick an opponent because the dart can shoot out very suddenly.

Just like the chain whip, excellent hand-eye coordination is a must for the practitioner to use this weapon well. In some Wushu training regimens, the chain whip and Changquan are prerequisites for learning the rope dart.

A variation of this weapon is the meteor hammer, which has a blunt weight on the end of the rope. It was used in a similar fashion to the rope dart, and many of the techniques are the same. The blunt shape of the meteor ball will deal concussive damage rather than piercing.

Construction

The rope dart is constructed from 5 parts:

dart
rings
rope or fine chain
flags or bright feathers
handle

The dart is made of a hard material, usually iron or steel. It can be of variable weight depending on the users preference, and can be variable in shape (conical, triangular prism, pentagonal prism).

The rings (usually 4 or 5) are attached to the dart head.

The rope is attached to the final ring. Traditionally, the rope was constructed from Chinese rope and covered with wax to minimize friction. In modern times, the rope is often made of a softer synthetic material and covered with talc powder or some other substance to reduce friction.

There is at least one flag attached near, or onto the dart head itself to conceal the dart during play. Additional flags can be attached to the side rings to slow down the dart and increase control.

The handle is made from the last piece of rope.

Media

Rope dart demonstrations

http://www.wushucentral.com/videos/miscellaneous/library/flexible/li_jin_heng-ropedart.mpg

http://www.wushucentral.com/videos/miscellaneous/library/flexible/zhong_qiyin-rope_dart.mpg

Rope Darts in Popular Culture

In Heroes of the East (1978), Gordon Liu's character uses a rope dart against a Ninja.
The characters Scorpion, and Smoke from the Mortal Kombat series of video games uses a rope dart in a special attack that impales and drags his opponents closer for a melee attack. In Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, Scorpion also uses this weapon like a more traditional rope dart.
In Five Masters of Death, one of the villains uses a variation of the rope dart, which consists of a rope with an ax head at the end.
In Martial Arts of Shaolin one of the villains is seen briefly using a rope dart during the final assault on the boat.
In the King of Fighters XI, Shion, the sub-boss, attacks with a rope dart among many other weapons.
In Super Smash Brothers Melee, Princess Zelda, as Sheik uses a rope dart or chain whip type weapon as her side B attack.
In Stormbreaker Alex uses the rope dart technique to take out 4 auto wreckers and escape another 2.
In Naruto, Gaara gives a rope dart to Matsuri, his pupil, to use.
Though using unconventional materials to improvise a weapon, in Shanghai Noon Jackie Chan uses a horseshoe and rope in a same manner as a rope dart.
Similarly, Jet Li uses a fire hose in Romeo Must Die.
In the series Darker than Black, the main character Hei uses a modified rope dart. pip
In the game Red Ninja for the PS2 the main character uses a weapon similar to a rope dart in the form of a kunai tied on her signature razor wire.
In Oriental Heroes (a Jademan Comics series in Hong Kong) one of the Gang of Four, the Heartbreak Kid uses the Rope Dart

References

Li, Keqin (1996). Soft Weapons -- Nine-Section Whip and Rope Dart. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. ISBN 7-119-01883-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)