[ashe]

i remember dave telling me something along the lines of "Sifu thinks that the real skill is in the body".

many of the fillipino arts have the same philosophy, and start you out empty handed. the thinking is, if you can't beat your opponent empty handed, you probably can't do it with a weapon either. (assuming he's armed as well)

or i guess you could say, if you'd lose empty handed, you'd just lose faster with a weapon.\

traditionally i think they trained with the pole in malaysia, but i don't know how much they did.