Montana

Nunchaku, in my opinion, are the most widely misused, abused and misunderstood martial arts weapon. When I visit another dojo or go to a tournament and see all these people doing finger tip twirling, behing the neck, figure 8's, through the goin swings and such, I just CRINGE!!! Very rarely do you see people do trapping techniques, nerve techniques and such. Just out of curiosity, has anybody trained to use the nunchauku against a bo? Do you realize that the nunchauku can trap/capture the bo and make it useless? I wish I had the available bandwidth with my pc and a video camera to do short videos of what I talk about on here so you can understand, but that's not possible.

Agreed. If you think the bo is "easy"..then you aren't learning anything other than simple basics with the weapon. There are parrys, disarms, locks, sweeps, blocks, jabs, thrusts, etc etc etc...the vast majority of people think there's maybe 10 bo techniques...HA! I've been working on the bo for 30+ years now, and I still discover new things to do with it.

Another option if you can is to try to pry one finger loose...ANY finger..and pull it back until it breaks...most people will let go.

From Nahachi Shodan kata...hands close together, drop and bend your knees about half way thrusting your butt into your opponent and bending slightly forward, this throws his center of gravity off..then thrust your elbows up and out while keeping your hands close together. Should break his grip if done correctly. The only problem can be if yoru opponent lifts you into the air. If the opponent is taller or the same height, you can always try to slam your head back into his face if possible. If your opponet grabs from behind and his arms are on the upper part of your arms (above your elbow), try side stepping slightly to one side and bring one arm up and the other over to your oppsite hip (easier to show than describe) then step behind with your foot ande twist your body towards your opponent...this can cause you to actually throw him to the ground.i Every situation is different...depends on how they grab you, their/your height, etc.

I was a mid-kyu belt when I met my first wife and we got married 2 months after I received my shodan. For the next 17 years I tried to get her interested in learning the art, but she never showed one bit of interest. 17 years later we divorced. I remarried 3 years ago to a woman that is an exercise/workout fanatic! She runs about 20-25 miles/week and lefts weights at least 4 nights/week at the YMCA. I've talked to her about learning Shorin Ryu, but she says "It's to violent"...HUH? No matter what I say to her or show her, she has absolutely no interest in it. *sigh*

1st suggestion, the corret spelling is "nunchaku". Secondly, forget websites. Find a qualified and legitimate instructor to teach you proper technique. Easiest was to tell if a person knows what they're doing or not is to see where they hold the weapon. Are they holding it close to the string/chain? If so...PASS! They don't know what they're doing. Unless of course all you're interested in is flash, not effectiveness...then go for it. If you still want a website, go to Google and type in "nunchaku", or *shudder* "numchucks" and start sifting through a few million websites of garbage to find anything useful.

I work out at the YMCA a couple oftimes/week withy weights and treadmill (fast walking), but besides getting off the couch to get some chips , that's about it.

There is no "easiest weapon" in my opinion. They all have their own unique chararastics, techniques and challenges to learning. I suppose the shotgun would be easiest... STEP ONE: point it in the general direction of the target STEP TWO: pull trigger.

I've been sparring light to medium contact without any sort of gear, including groin cup, since January of 1975. Sure, I've been tagged, but you know what? It teaaches you to BLOCK AND PROTECT YOURSELF!!! The logic we use is that you're not going to have gear on in a street fight, so you'd better learn to protect yourself in the dojo. I've always have given my students the option to wear protective gear of any sort, and a few do. Some of the guys wear cups, most don't. One gal wore a chest protector, but only the one. The only time we are required to wear gear is during full contact, and then we wear Okinawan bogu gear and gloves with groin cups. To each their own IMO.

You guys are expectibng realism in a movie? Did you just crawl out of a cave somewhere and see your first movie?

I guess if yoyu're running your school under the permission and support of your instructor, and without his assistance you aren't allowed to run a school...then I'd say he can charge you anything he likes. If that's all he's charging you, I'd say you're getting away pretty lucky.

If I asked you..."What do you drive?" And you replied "A car."..that's the same as you're learning "karate-do". Karate-do is a generic term for Japanese/Okinawan martial arts. Do you know what system of "karate-do" you're learning? (IE: Chevy, Ford, etc)

I wouldn't, unless approved by the head of the dojo in advance.

My thoughts exactly. I've had other instructors come into my dojo to learn as a student. I ask them to wear a white belt because they are white belts/beginners inb this system, therefore their blackbelts have no bearinbg in my class. I do allow them toline up with respect to their higher rank at the beginning and end of the class.

Agreed. To force your kids to participate in something they no longer have an interest in will just make them end up hating it. Let them decide what they want to do. If it's to leave class, then that's their choice. They might, or might not, decide they miss it down the road a ways. I agree with you both. Also, anything above 3rd or 2nd kyu should be a passionate martial artist who can hardly imagine life without it. Agreed, but the way I do it is when a student reaches 5th kyu I give them my standard "speech"..which consists of: "Now is the time to make the decisiion...do you want to take karate seriously and train even harder, because if not, then you might as well pack your gi and stay home. This is when I really expect you to start training hard."

Ummm..pardon me, but don't you mean 8 or 9 to one? Are we forgetting feet, knees, elbows and head butts? How about some good hip throws? Once you have relative control ofthe weapon you don't just want to stand there and gloat about it..you need to do something! Stomp his foot, knee his groin/stomach, short kick the sides of his knees, elbow into his elbows or head/face.

As one of those *ahem* seniors youre talking about, I personally would be a bit offended at being in a class with a bunch of oldies. Sure, I don't have the speed or power I had when I wwas in my 30's, but you know what? I beli8eve very strongly in the saying..."Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill." What I lack in speed and strength at my ripe old age of 58, I make up in experience and craftiness.

Agreed. To force your kids to participate in something they no longer have an interest in will just make them end up hating it. Let them decide what they want to do. If it's to leave class, then that's their choice. They might, or might not, decide they miss it down the road a ways.

I've been teaching for quite a while, and one thing I discovered early on was if you want to get a woman mad, pat her on the head during sparring. It's a good way to get a new female student that is afraid to spar the very first time angry enough to start attacking you!

I can see little aprehension with a technique perhaps, but fear? No. If you are experiencing fear after 3 years of doing the art, then I'd say something's terribly wrong and you need to address that fear and come to grips with it, or take up basket weaving instead. If you have fear inside the dojo, then you can fully expect to have that same fear, if not greater, in a street confrontation. I have a screwed up back and have to be careful when practicing. Rolls, breakfalls and hard kicks with my right leg can cause my back to "pop", and that's not a good thing. Do I fear the techniques? Not at all, but because I have limitations and I know what they are, I use caution and do my best to compensate for them.

Trapping techniques are geared more for self-defense rather than sport fighting. In a self-defense situation you're "generally" fighting an unskilled opponent, or at least one that has little or no martial arts skills, so the traps are much more of a surprise effective than against a trained opponent.

Definitely TKD, and in my opinion, a total rip off! What good woudl a degree from this "university" do you other than give you a piece of paper to hang on your wall? Interesting that I didn't find anywhere on the site about the cost of the program. Sorry, I'd say total rip off.

What style do you train in? Shorin Ryu Matsumura Kenpo/Orthodox What rank are you? Yondan (4th Dan) How many day and times a day do you train? Since my back injury forced me to quit teaching, I train a couple of days/week at the local YMCA and run thru my karate kata and basics a couple of times/week....carefully! [/b]

First of all, any training for a gun defense is better than none. I use a .22, .357 revolver or 9mm semi-auto in our gun defense training. I remove the cylinder on the revolvers, and magazine on the 9mm and make darn sure myself and at least one other gun oriented person in the room verifies it is empty before use. I teach small classes so it's easy to watch everyone go thru their techniques.

What you call "getting off the line", we call change of body, or body shifting. Essentially the same thing. We practice it extensively right from the beginning of training (white belt) and it is a core principle of our art. When you get really good at it, you end up behind your attacker.