Learning nunchuks

[CPU]

Just what it says, anyone know where/how i can learn? My dojo does have classes about twice a year but if i'm going to compeat with them(forms) i'd like to be able to train more at home, any sugestions?

[monkeygirl]

You might try the Century video library, they have a few nunchaku tapes. I've been pleased with some of their other tapes (such as Kicknastics), so hopefully their nunchaku tapes are good, too.

[tommarker]

Ask you instructor for a few basic skills to work on, and then drill them repeatedly at home on your own.

 

You can never go wrong with lots of figure eights.

[hajime]

the basics are:

 

1)

 

tuck under arm, strike out to straight ontop of head of opponent spin under and out to return weapon to under same arm under control

 

(don't want to hit self on head!)

 

2)

 

strike out in movement from outside to in aiming for side of person's head and gather nunchuka back in same way as 1)

 

3) as tommarker said

 

figure of eight. for wrist strengthening.

 

If you can't find anywhere to see this I could maybe upload a clip of me doing it.

 

the download would be big though and I'll quite out of practise. let me know

[Silent bob]

I teach nunchuks over here in the UK.

 

Id advise purchasing some of the Demura books and after that purchase some videos?

[bigpopparob2000]

Go to https://www.ninjitsu.com. Click on the videos. They'll be a weapon's section covering many, many techniques with nunchucks. He doesn't cover any nunchuck katas, though.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

I used to judge weapons competitions quite a bit (still do, but not as much), since mine is one of the arts that actually uses the weapons (kobudo) in their system, as opposed to many systems that just pick them up and self-teach themselves a whole lot of bad technique. No slam intended people, but when I see a TKD black belt walk out on the weapons floor and they don't even HOLD the weapon properly, it just drives me NUTS!

 

Anyway, the two biggest things that I look for when a person approaches me to announce their kata (this is how we do it anyway) is does the person pronounce THE WEAPONS NAME PROPERLY? If he/she pronounces them "numchuks"..or "chucks", out of a possible 10 points maximum on their kata, they will NOT get anymore than a 7 out of me.

 

Why?

 

Because they have, before they even began to show me their kata, demonstrated to me that they don't even know what the weapon is called.

 

Am I a tough judge? Damn straight I am!

 

Why does so little of a thing bother me? Because there is so much GARBAGE out there in the arts now, and I will not encourage someone, whether black belt or white, to get away with such poor performance as not even knowing what the name of his chosen weapon is.

 

The 2nd thing I look at is how does the person hold the weapon?

 

If he/she is holding the weapon where his/her hands are close to the cord or chain cionsistantly (now and then is OK for specific techniques), again, they will not score higher than a 7 out of a possible 10 with me.

 

Why? Because holding the nunchaku close to the rope/chain lessens the striking power of the weapon drastically. Yes, holding it that way you can get fancier and flashier movements out of the weapon, but without power, you have basically lost all of the effectivenesxs of the weapon.

 

OK, somebody's going to say in response..."But the judges are looking for flashy and fancy"..and yes, some do. But I, as a weapons instructor and nearly 29 year practioner of this art, look for effective, and good technique. Flashy, fancy and ineffective garbage gets marked down.

 

Also, I admire, but ignor when the person does splits, acrobatic jumps and flips, etc in weapons competition, as this has no bearing (in my opinion) on the persons demonstration of his skills with the weapon. Sure, they look GREAT, but what does that have to do with the weapon???

 

Tournaments here generally have 5 black belt judges on the panel for kata competition. The center judge is normally picked by the tournament promoter as the person, regardless of rank, that has the most knowledge of that particular subject..in this case, weapons. I am invarably always asked to be the center judge in this event, not because I am the highest rank, but because I teach kobudo (weapons) as a part of my art, because it IS a part of my art.

 

A good example was a tournament I was center judge at maybe 10 years ago. A red belt in TKD approached the judges and announced he was going to do (forgot the name of the kata) a "Numchuk kata" from his system. Already, he was scored a 7 in my mind because he doesn't know the name of the weapon.

 

He got up and started spinning the nunchaku very nicely and fancy, but holding it right below the rope. Smoothly, he brought out a 2nd hidden pair out of his gi top and started spinning two of them at the same time. Great, but his technique was terrible! This guy put on one heck of a show, including doing the splits, a front flip, tumbles on the floor...you name it, this kid was good...except for his weapons technique! Remember, this is a weapons competition, not a gymnastics meet.

 

Every one of the other judges (none of whom BTW did weapons as a prt of their art) scored this young man a 9..and one even gave him a 10! I, on the other hand, scored him a 7. Yep, I was boo'd a bit..which didn't bother me one bit. I stand by my principles and training.

 

A visiting local TV news crew grabbed the kid (who won 1st place BTW, despite my score) afterwards and asked him to do it again, and it was on the local news that night. *sigh*

 

This kid, about 17 or so, came up to me afterwards and asked me...very politlely, why I scored him so low, and I told him. "Learn to pronounce the weapon properly, and learn to use it the way it is intended to be used. Otherwise, get a twirling baton and lead a marching band in a parade."

 

He then asked me to watch him, and the kid demonstrated some VERY GOOD TECHNIQUE with the nunchaku..so he really did know how to use them, but he readily admitted that he can't do all that fancy stuff while holding it correctly!

 

Wow..I'm getting really long winded on this...sorry, but I'm just trying to help here.

 

My point I guess is this. If you want to win trophies, and you go to tournaments that like fancy technique as opposed to effective technique, then do what you want I guess. I, personally, would rather be judged for good, effective technique that will do what the weapons is designed to do, and that is defeat my enemy, and risk getting a low score because of it..than to do a bunch of fancy crap that isn't any better than twirling a baton in a parade.

[monkeygirl]

*applause*

 

It really annoys me when people do all those flips and stuff. It puts so much pressure on the rest of us to be acrobatic, when it's just plain silly and useless. I'll admit, I've done a split or two to dress up my kata a bit, but the acrobatics just anger me. Mostly because I can't do it, but also because of what Shorinryu Sensei said...it's an MA tournament, not a gymnastics meet!

[KoreanTiger30]

There are some good nunchuk videos at http://www.mooto.com shopping mall (English). They cover some really good techniques and some traditional korean forms.

 

In reply to the fancy acrobatics incorporated into forms now. I had the pleasure of going to Korea with one of my Korean masters who formley was a coach for the Korean Tiger Demonstration Team. We were guests at a tournament that had weapons forms in it. This 16 year old Korean boy did a nunchuk form with like aerial cartwheels and back flips in it with all ot spinning techniques and twirls over the body. Master CHoi is really formal and hates the "gymnastic forms" He told "the students that do these forms lose the real power and have no understanding of what the weapon was originally used for" The Maste rof the boy introduced him to Master Choi, and the student asked Master Choi what he thought about his form and Master CHoi replied "Is that for the show or to the technique". He told me that when they starting worrying about how fancy their forms look like they should be leaders of marching bands and not martial artists.

[tommarker]

Pure jealousy!!! (joking!)

 

I am a more-or-less self-taught nunchaku person. However, I was extremely fortunate to have some excellent guidance at first in terms of the traditional ways of their use.

 

However, I have a soft spot for the flashy stuff, too. It's still a very interesting physical expression. However, it does have it's place. That place usually isn't the dojo. Although the flashy stuff is great for building dexterity and confidence. I think it's a matter of whether or not the student has the humility and common sense to know what is martial and what is not.

 

I've been practicing the nunchaku for about 10 years on and off (my father got me into them before i even started training) and I've spent the last 3-4 years seriously exploring them. Part of that process was understanding and learning how to do some of the "flippy-dippy" (As I call it) techniques. After all, it seems only fair to be able to do it before I criticize it, and I'll admit, some of the techniques have a great way of keeping the momentum alive.

 

The junior students in our class ask me for help, and I usually tell them to practice figure-eights. I don't teach the flippy-dippy stuff.