Swordsmanship training

Swordsmanship is the art of weilding and fighting with the Chinese Straight Sword, or Jian. The great swordsmaster Piandao once trained Sokka, and most likely others, the way of the sword.

Creativeness
One of the most essential parts of swordsmanship is being creative, both on the battlefield and in everyday life. Piandao told Sokka that in order to master the sword, he had to be creative, because on the battlefield, you need to find every advantage you can possible find. Sokka showed much creativeness when dueling Piandao, using his superior agility and fighting on the high ground to have an advantage against the master.

Versatility
To be an exelent sword-weilder, versatility is another essential part of swordsmanship. Using the sword means that you have to constantly shift from offencive manuver to a defencive manuver with ease. It is shown mostly when, for example, a swordweilder utilizes versatility by attemping to strike an opponate with the sword, while also remaining on the defencive by using the sword to block any attacks.

Calligraphy
Piandao states that when you fight on the battle field, you stamp your identity on the battlefield, while to practice that, you must learn to stamp your identity on paper. He usually practices Calligraphy to further perfect his technique. Sokka utilized creativity by literally stamping his identity on paper by smearing ink on his face and printing his face onto it.

Landscaping
Landscaping, accourding to Piandao, can help highten a warrior's sences while fighting. He said that in battle, you have only an instant to see every single detail of the battlefield. He made Sokka practice this by looking at a beautiful waterfall for only five seconds, then he turned him around and made him paint it. This practice is meant to improve a warrior's memory, as it will let them take in many details at one instant.

Sword Duels
In many cases, warriors duel each other for practice in order to test each other's skill and strength in swordplay. It also lets both of the contestants look back on their improvement and also let them know on what to improve on. The sparrings usually end when one of the contestents is immobilized or defeated, depending on the duel that takes place.

Sokka participated in at least three duels against Piandao's butler, Fat, in order to help him learn about utilizing the sword in combat. He lost very quickly the first two times, but he managed to defeat him the third time, showing that he has improved greatly. He also even duelled Piandao himself after he told him he was from the Southern Water Tribe, sparring evenly against him for a while, but then was iturn defeated, but was sparred.