cleung

The point is that is it entertaining and an athletic activity, much like gymnastics and figure skating. If some people like watching and some people like doing them, then that's okay. No harm in it.

I like tournaments too if they are well organized. I've been competing since 1985. It's a social thing for me too. As for expenses, one would have to get sponsored in a team like Paul Mitchell or have a good job.

In the NASKA circuit in North America, the biggest tournaments give out $100 to all first place black belt winners and more to grand champions. I took first a few times this year in this circuit so I won a few hundred but never made it to grand champion. Other major circuits like NBL do not give cash awards to senior divisions.

My main weapons in competition are bo staff and three section staff, depending on the weapons division and the circuit. When I competed in NBL, I did both bo and 3 section staff since there were separate hard and soft style weapons divisions. I won the senior weapons division in NBL back in 1999. I went through the next few years with just the bo and then for the last year, I went back to 3 section staff in the NASKA circuit. My NASKA senior weapons division is an open division and I ended up 3rd overall in the year. I won the senior weapons division this year in the WSKF circuit too with 3 section staff. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next year as I noticed that sometimes it's hard to compete with a Chinese weapon in an open division so I may go back to bo.

Does anybody know if there are any nunchuks (or 3 section staffs) that are made with a detachable system so that one can easily disconnect and reconnect the weapon? Clint