Rope dart
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The rope dart or rope javelin (simplified Chinese: 绳镖; traditional Chinese: 繩鏢; pinyin: shéng biāo), also known as Jōhyō in Japanese, is one of the flexible 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 a long rope (usually 10' - 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.[citation needed] 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.
Rope Dart as an Art Form
While relatively new, rope dart is becoming more and more popular and used in the object manipulation scene.[1] This is because of the highly impressive performances involved. Because of this there have been modifications to the original design so a more visual display can be shown. Some rope darts have been created to be set alight[2] while you can get other rope darts with a head filled with LED lights.[3] Both of these can be performed in the dark, which adds to the excitement since the audience cannot see the rope connecting the head and adds mystery.
Rope Dart in Modern Media
- In Heroes of the East (1978), Gordon Liu's character uses a rope dart against a Ninja
- In Shanghai Noon (2000), Jackie Chan's character Chon Wang fashions a blunt rope dart with a horseshoe and a length of rope
- In 2000's Scooby-Doo film, the character of Fred was shown experimenting with rope dart techniques
- The characters Scorpion, and Smoke from the Mortal Kombat series of video games uses a rope dart (or alternately a kunai on a rope) 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 "Red Ninja: End of Honor"(2005 PS2 video game) the main character uses a rope dart fashioned from the steel wire used to hang her
- 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 Ong Bak 2 (2009), one of the villains uses a rope dart to attack the main character Tien (played by Tony Jaa). Tien then proceeds to steal it, and uses it to attack several other villains for a short time.
- In a filler episode of Naruto, Gaara is seen teaching Matsuri how to use a rope dart.
- In Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl uses a rope dart to dispatch several opponents when storming the penthouse.
See also
- Chain Whip A multiple section chain used in a whip like fashion, said to be very close in training to the rope dart.
- Meteor hammer Similar to the rope dart except is shorter and has a heavier blunt weight on either end of the rope.
- slungshot A western weapon of a very similar nature to a 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)