more nunchaku stuff...

[tommarker]

Thought some of you might be interested in this page:

 

http://doubledna.com/nunchuck/

 

He used to have a tripod hosted page for a long time, it's nice to see he's still updating things. If you're looking for the flashy stuff, his is a good page to start.

[Spin]

oOo Nice!

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Since I have a dialup connection, and a slow, erratic one at that, I only looked at a couple of those clips.

 

Yep, they're fancy and flashy all right, and really poor technique. Personally, I wouldn't recommend them to anybody to learn from, but rather as an example of self-learned (probably) "what not to do" technique.

[tommarker]

He is a self-learned guy, from what I gather. For some reason, I admire him in the sense that he's not pretending to be doing anything martial... he just has fun.

 

It does make you wonder, however, what he could do with the proper instructor.

 

His biggest problem, IMHO, even for flashy stuff is that he needs to keep everything a lot tighter. That would make a huge difference, and I could make some more judgements from there.

 

He was probably a drum major in a previous life.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

at the drum major comment!

 

The biggest thing I noticed immediately was the poor positioning of his hold on the nunchaku. That drives me BUGGIE when I see a black belt, or otherwise, holding them like that at a tournament.

[AndrewGreen]

His hand position suits his objectives.

 

By his standards yours is poor....

[Shorinryu Sensei]

His hand position suits his objectives.

 

By his standards yours is poor....

 

That would be true of course. If what he seeks is flash and no substance, he's a master of it. That's not my chosen path in the arts.

[AndrewGreen]

So why critisis him for his choosen path?

 

Oh, and how much do you spar with them? I mean if you have substance that is pretty much a given that you do it...

[tommarker]

Ok, you're just trying to pick a fight here Andrew.

 

First off, I think we can all agree that in traditional nunchaku, you hold the rod 1" from the bottom when in forward grip.

 

Granted, you won't get many wrist rolls off from this position, so if that's what you're interested in doing, you will obviously have to make changes. Just as long as you understand you sacrifice power and reach to do so.

 

That aside, I still think the clips show poor positioning at times, even for flashy stuff. I think he could be a lot better by solidifying his catches and positioning a bit, especially as he speeds up. I've noticed that whenever I blow a techique and the nunchaku go flying across the room, I can usually attribute it to sloppiness on my part.

 

You shouldn't be content with grabbing them "just anywhere" whether you are using them in a traditional manner or in a performance. You are still working to perfect a skill, despite any difference in the objective. In that respect, even though he can do some impressive technique, that doesn't mean he can't clean up his basics and improve everything else.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

My critisim is that people will go to that site and learn the slop that he is doing, and then pass it on to others. Ask anybody that knows legitimate, good and real nunchaku technique and has judged kobudo at tournaments. They're rampant with black belt instructors that don't know their you-know-what's from a hole in the ground, and are passing along that bad technique to their students, who, as far as they know, think it is good technique.

 

That is my complaint with it. It's just a further progression of the degradation of good kobudo in the arts.

 

I bow to that lad's right to do so, and his right to post it on the internet, but he is presenting something that in the long run will harm the arts more than they already are.