Restita DeJesus was cracking the whip literally with her whip training class at Lincoln Park on Sunday. She's an instructor at the Seattle Wushu Center on Calfornia Ave. The class is free and meets every third Sunday.
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Restita DeJesus learned how to handle a bullwhip in the late 1990's at a Shaolin Martial Arts seminar. "I was really intrigued by the use of the bullwhip and kicking and running at the same time." A couple of years later she bought a bullwhip and taught herself other styles moves.
She teaches martial arts at the Seattle Wushu Center 5659 California Ave. s.w. Suite "A" (at the corner of California and Juneau).
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On Sunday, Aug. 21 she had 8 of her 15 students, at Lincoln Park all learning how to crack the whip, which is literally breaking the sound barrier as the tip exceeds 1400 feet per second or 768 mph (though it varies depending on conditions and altitude). That crack you hear is sort of a mini-sonic boom.
There's a lot to learn about how to use a whip. There are multiple styles of whip use, the use of multiple whips and many different moves. Whips of course are also about accuracy, aiming for and precisely hitting a target.
Why were the students there? "It's hard to explain," said DeJesus, "but once you get a whip to crack it's one of those really satisfying feelings." It does take a bit of skill as far as form, because a lot of people will tend to throw the whip, but that's when you hurt yourself, she explained. "What I teach is a really relaxed movement, how to crack at different angles, how to jump over it, and go behind your back."
The sound of multiple whips cracking can resemble fire crackers going off at a distance so they did the class out in the open so anyone curious could easily see the source of the sound.
Gary Marshall comes from Bellevue because, "Once I ordered the whip and got it in I thought, ok my kids are going to think this is really kind of weird but my sixteen year old son thinks I'm the coolest dad on the planet now. At the end of a hard day, you go in the back yard and you crack the whip a few times and you come in and you're a little bit more relaxed." He ordered his whip from Neawhips.com and it's hand made (though truthfully ARE there any whips made by machines? It's a 5000 year old technology after all). www.HappyCracking.com is another source and one used by Lyn Yancha. She loves using a whip for, "exercise, coordination, and camaraderie, and actually I'm taking another martial arts class and I'm using a little bit that form in here. And as a massage therapist I'm actually using all the movements of that.
