Shorin Ryuu

Well...if you want flashy impractical stuff...look up Daredevil...(never saw the movie but saw one of the characters holding a sai in a manner that would leave them missing quite a few fingers if ever used in a fight...)

Yeah, It think relaxation when doing martial arts (and life in general, especially for guys) is one of the hardest things to teach beginners. You have to constantly tell them to relax... Even really motivated students have a problem with this at first, because they tend to tense up as they concentrate...

Okay, that makes more sense... I hear the Army doesn't carry their m9's on fire (as opposed to safety, not the lack of burning...)? In the Air Force, we carry them on "fire". You could throw the thing as hard as you could on the ground with the safety off and it still wouldn't shoot...

Good point. I have had instructors who'd tell me there were no "basics" in karate and those that would tell me that there were no "advanced techniques" in karate. Basically, there point was that if you were going to do anything, you have to do it right. An advanced technique is merely a higher level of the basics, as the name implies. Therefore an advanced technique shouldn't be any more difficult to achieve, it is merely your perspective that changes. If this is true, then that means that there are no "basics" because even those require dedication and correct training to perform properly...a game of semantics but an important concept nonetheless... For more on the punch, see the "punching" post...i've got a rather lengthy post on a "basic" technique...

Aww, c'mon, the belt doesn't hold up your pants...it holds your gi together But as mentioned above, karateka just practiced outdoors in a loincloth. Most people I have talked to who have trained extensively in Okinawa say that they didn't even wear the gi top much except for formal occasions until females were allowed in the dojo (It was far to hot and humid in Okinawa otherwise...).

Well...I'm sure if you only trained for 6 months, you only learned "defensive" stuff. Usually at the beginning levels, a lot of teachers are more concerned with making sure the student can handle danger without harm to themselves first. Later on, of course, the defensive things you learn turn into offensive things at the same time... I obviously can't speak for that dojo in particular, but that is my guess as to what happened...

So, what is your question?

Haha...six years as a lieutenant...must've been a pretty bad one...

That looks like Seibukan. Seibukan is a branch of Shorin Ryu founded by Shimabukuro Zenryo.

Last Legend blades also look very good for cutting... Swordstore.com sells some true handmade ones as well (look under the shinken section)...

I haven't done any research into this whatsoever...but I remember my father telling me how he and other officers were issued .45s in Korea when he was there as a company commander... Do you mean just for everyone to have no matter where they are stationed? (Officer and enlisted?)

With as much fluff that is out there it is hard enough to find martial arts places that teach proper punches, kicks, etc...I would wager that it would even be harder to do it on your own.

Not bad, you have good hand-eye coordination. There are some things you want to work on. If you don't really care about the practical application, then feel free to disregard the following: You hold it very close to the chain, which in most traditional circles, is wrong. In order to generate more power and to use the varying grappling techniques associated with the weapon, the nunchaku should be held towards the bottom of each flail. When passing under or over your shoulder, you don't (but you should). You have a tendency to shortcut the movement so that it wraps around your upper arm rather than under or over your shoulder. Wrapping it around your shoulder gives it the proper "wrap-length" so that it ends up naturally in your hand (towards the bottom) and allows you to set up the next movement properly. It is my opinion that most of the over-the-shoulder-passes and the like techniques are meant to get you accustomed to the weapon and be able to transition quickly if you miss or it bounces off and opponent (obviously you wouldn't just stand there and spin them in a fight). This critique holds true for most of your wrapping techniques around the body or hand transitions using those positions (I just didn't feel like listing every one). When you spin them in the figure eight or its variations (with the exception of a few places), your flails are not in a straight line (they should be). This allows for proper power transfer during a technique. Anything else makes it easy to take from you. Last constructive critique is that in quite a few places, it appeared that you were using your elbow for a lot of your manipulations as opposed to your wrist. For the techniques you were doing and how you were doing them, the wrist should be emphasized even more (generating speed as opposed to pure striking power...even in my traditional style we use the wrist a lot since the emphasis is more upon the grappling techniques, even though we include the solid strikes as well) For the most part, you didn't look at your hands and your head was stationary. That's a good thing. Once again, don't get me wrong. Your stuff looked really good, it was just lacking in a few application based areas. If that isn't your focus, then just take this as an interesting commentary (I hope). If you wish to focus on both looking cool and being practical, then please consider some of the things I wrote... Anyone else with more practical nunchaku training, please correct me if I am mistaken in any of my comments or bring up anything I missed... Lastly, I am critiquing you based on a video, which is even more difficult with the nunchaku...

I was referring to tourists seeing the swastika denoting the temple, not the crosses...

You'll find them all over maps in Japan since they represent temples (sort of like how we put crosses to represent churches in America). It is funny to see tourist reactions to this if they don't know what it means...

Those weren't the ones I had in mind specifically, but even stuff like keys...you ever train with the tekko? Anything relatively cylindrical will benefit from bo, jo or nitonbo (they differ only in length) training. That could be a pipe, a bat, broom, anything of that nature. nunchaku=belt, jacket, the like (use more of the practical grappling applications as opposed to the flashy movie stuff) Sai - Shorter, cylindrical objects. Kama - a lot of things. The kama has a lot of weapons principles embedded in it due to the perpendicular cutting surface (in relation to the handle) that make it pretty multi-use. Therefore the principles can be applied to shorter objects with or without a perpendicular part at the end. And so on... The issue isn't specific MA weapons (that's focusing too much on technique) but characteristics (that you can manipulate because you know weapons principles). As usual, I go back to my techniques vs. principles soapbox... I also think a lot of those weapons really force you to employ both hands, if you don't already, in your fighting. If you do, it increases that even further. Another benefit in my mind is that practicing with weapon to weapon or weapon to body contact increases your ability to sense changes in body momentum/position/mechanics in yourself and your opponent, as you have to sense through the weapon in addition to your own body... Bleh, you got me into discussing this deeper than I intended...

This issue comes up a lot, I'm feeling lazy right now, so I'll just give a brief justification. I usually stick to the "jackie chan" defense, meaning that he can use anything as a weapon even though he hasn't trained it table fu or shopping cart fist. Weapons training teaches you to be able to use and defend against weapons. It also lets you use these principles to use and defend against other random objects with similar characteristics. And of course there are physical benefits as well (coordination, strength, the like). Any good weapons teacher will teach you grappling with the weapon (as there is more to a weapon than just hitting and parrying), and principles will transfer to and from empty hand to weapons use. In short: you can learn a whole lot from weapons training. To be honest, I do them for both reasons.

I didn't even bother to open this thread for a while, because I feared the worst... After finding the worst, it really wasn't that bad because it made me laugh... I'm waiting for them to start selling martial arts milkshakes...you know, once a day for a month and you can beat anyone!

This is an Okinawan website (English version of course) that I stumbled on today that is on karate and is maintained by the Okinawan Prefectural government. It isn't too terribly in-depth, but has a broad range of things, including some videos of current masters of varying systems. http://www.wonder-okinawa.jp/023/eng/index.html Just thought I'd share (and hope this hasn't been posted already).

I think the issue isn't just related to safety, although that is important. I have seen many "self-taught" bo practitioners...and they were terrible... What people are trying to tell you is that if you have the opportunity to learn from someone better (instructor), then take full advantage of it. There are a lot of common mistakes that beginners make because they are not familiar with the weapon. Why not do your best to avoid them by having someone help you? In Asian culture, the teacher is traditionally a person that was highly respected, and for good reason. That person spends their time helping others. Why not take them up on it?

I agree it has limitations...I'm primarily an Okinawan karateka, I'm just taking it for a fresh perspective on some principles that are in my style (and because the teacher is also my iaido teacher). I do agree that stuff like UFC has made it more popular, since they always say "Hey, you never see a karate guy win UFC" and other such things.

Is it just a "fad"? I didn't know it went away. I've only recently started taking jujitsu formally, but I've always had a lot of respect for jujitsu people I would grapple with before I took it.

I can't claim any credit for that post, as it is simply what has been shown to me or what I've read. Incidentally, I've bought the book since I first wrote that email, and it can explain it in far better terms then I can. While he does mention gamaku, I thought he should have emphasized it or explained it even more than he did (although he mentions it a lot). I'm thinking about buying the Japanese version of it and seeing if there are any differences between the English and the original. The author, Kiyoshi Arakai does say that the type of fist (full rotation, 3/4, vertical) doesn't matter, but I disagree with him on this point. Delta1: Even though I didn't really get into it, Doug Perry is also very big on using both the the muscles you mentioned (the ones behind the back) in addition to gamaku (he separates the two, I guess)...I just don't remember what he called them so I left them out of the discussion...I'm happy if I can fully incorporate just half of what he says into my training! Arakaki's section on movement made things a lot clearer to me. It was stuff my instructors have harped on me about before and things I have always tried to experiment with, but it just "clicked" even better when I read it in his book. I'm not sure if I agree with everything in the book, but I think it is one of the best that I have bought in terms of pure theory and technique. Perhaps for the benefit of all later, I might try and summarize his thoughts on movement and the like...(hopefully in a correct manner)

I only know Hakutsuru Sho, as the Hakutsuru kata are not in Kobayashi Shorin Ryu (not my branch, anyway). Regardless, you can see influences in the other kata though.

Yes, but I believe a good deal of that will depend upon your physical training as well. Just as a note, it is necessary for athletes to eat more protein than non-athletes...just be sure you don't go overboard, as I think many people do. Protein doesn't burn as "cleanly" as other sources of energy...although plant proteins burn cleaner than animal sources...