What?!
"Left leg forward, right leg back, about one step apart."
"Right, try bending your knees slightly, then push off the ground and rise. Feel how your thighs drive your upper body—no, you don't need to squat that low. You're not doing lunges!"
"Shift your toes a little. Don't turn them inward, and don't point them outward either. Otherwise, when you swing the hammer, your upper body will wobble all over the place..."
Curly-Bearded Guest enthusiastically coached Shen Le through blacksmithing in person. Yet no matter how he instructed him, Shen Le still felt as though he were in a gym rather than a forge...
Well, perhaps that cat demon at the yoga studio next door was even better than Professor Zhang at teaching proper force application?
Though the cat demon's strengths might lie in yoga and Pilates rather than strength training, Shen Le had never seen her coach anyone in the weight room...
In any case, under Professor Zhang's guidance, Shen Le first learned to stand firmly, then tried swinging a wooden rod, and finally attempted to wield a hammer. Seeing the row of hammers on the ground, he was startled again.
"Such small hammers?"
"You can't just look at the size of the hammerhead!" Professor Zhang was beside himself with irritation. He had swung both large and small hammers. The big ones were for forging, the small ones for shaping—every one of them had to strike tens of thousands of times—
A three-pound hammer required precise control, while an eight-pound sledgehammer had to deliver enough force with every blow to forge the iron thoroughly and evenly.
Forget about doubling the hammer's weight. Even if it was just a little heavier, try swinging it all day. By the latter half of the day, every strike would leave you too