Rope dart

The earliest known reference to the rope dart as a distinct weapon from the meteor hammer or flying claw is a drawing in a 19th-century book about street vendors in Beijing.

The context and items in this drawing as well as photographs from the early 20th century of similar content suggest these rope darts are intended for use in performance art.

The dart is kept in near constant motion and the user not only uses both hands, but their arms, legs and neck as part of the manipulation process.

A typical action involves using momentum of the dart to wind the rope around specific body parts, using principles of angular momentum to build up speed, and then carefully timing a release to send the dart flying out in a straight line, followed quickly by retrieval.

In some Wushu training regimens, the chain whip and Changquan are prerequisites for learning the rope dart.

[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.