more nunchaku stuff...

[psionics]

where is your dojo sir?

may i also have your dojo phone numbers too?

[Shorinryu Sensei]

where is your dojo sir?

may i also have your dojo phone numbers too?

I teach out of a small health club that a friend owns in Evergreen (suburb of Kalispell), MT. As for a phone number, that wouldn't do you any good as it is a health club, not a karate dojo exclusively and the person that answers wouldn't be able to help you with anything. Basically what I'm saying si that I don't have a large, commercial dojo in the way that you're thinking. I have had those in the past, but found it wasn't to my liking.

Might I ask why you want this information?

[psionics]

to expand my knowledge of nunchaku art and i am willing to learn sir..

is there a way to reach your art? how often do you meet with your students?

[Shorinryu Sensei]

to expand my knowledge of nunchaku art and i am willing to learn sir..

is there a way to reach your art? how often do you meet with your students?

My system is under my name to the left, but it would be difficult to find an instructor of it as we are not a wide spread system like some others. It's the older style of Shorin Ryu, not the new and improved varitety.

My students andI practice on Monday and Thursday nights from 6-8pm. As it is now, I have to scoot bck to work, but I'll be back on this afternoon for a while before class.

If you'd care to check out our association website, its:

http://www.geocities.com/rohai.geo/page.html

You can contact Sensei Larry Mason via the website and ask him if he knows of anyone in your area that is teaching this system. There are also a few pictures of me taken back in 1978 with Sensei Kuda. I am also listed as #5 on the list of instructors and members of the association.

[Sauzin]

I've made a lot of posts on this but I kind of like finding new ways of saying the same thing so I'll post again.

Take a look at the yo-yo. Look at what happened to it. It used to be a weapon, now it's a plastic toy you can buy at a Walmart. This is the fear traditional artists are faced with. In 100 years what will nunchaku be then? Now don't mistake this as an insult to yo yo enthusiasts. They are awesome. My uncle competed nationally. But they aren't martial artists. They don't practice what they do in karate schools. And they don't post on weapon forums. How is what you do with the nunchaku any different then yo yo techniques in this respect?

I've got a potential solution. A suggestion if you will. Why use the name nunchaku for what you do? Why not call them "extreme rope sticks" or ERS for short. Or heck maybe use the term "chucks" if you are concerned about people not being familiar with a new term. The term "nunchaku" is a traditional name for a weapon. Using the name for the weapon is misleading don't you think?

Further more why not advertise flash techniques as juggling techniques. Juggling isn't just throwing balls in cascades you know. One of my best friends is a professional juggler. Jugglers do all kinds of tricks with sticks and rings and yes even ropes. Do a little research on jugglers, you will find that in fact what you are doing doesn't just fit with juggling, it is juggling. Why not recognize this and clear some confusion for beginners who might not understand the difference between flash and fighting.

In an ideal world these suggestions would work. These distinctions would clearly separate martial arts from performance/entertainment arts and people would know what they are signing up for. No worry for diluting either art, they would be kept as pure as can be. But the problem is that it's the diluting that is feeding the performance side of nunchaku. If these two sticks on a string were never known as weapons I doubt any flash artists would have ever picked them up. Something in every one of us wants to be the fastest, deadliest, bad*** on the block. It’s the basic survival instincts in us all. The difference between a flash artist and a traditional artist is that we meet and confront this craving by actually studying how to fight with a weapon. When you are learning flash on some level you are tricking yourself into thinking you are studying something that you are not. A weapon.

weapon

1 : something used to injure, defeat, or destroy

2 : a means of contending against another

- Merriam Webster Dictionary

[PatrickGresham]

"I appreciate your skills PatrickGresham in what you are doing with the nunchauku, but I view the nunchaku as a weapon, not a twirling baton. That's where we differ. I can cripple or kill a person with them, not leave bruises and bumps because you twirled them wrong. As long as the people you teach realize that what you are doing is no different than twirling a baton and has little or no relevance to self-defense, then that's just fine with me."

Wow- what a poignant, well-substantiated, not to mention witty retort. Your last post tells me everything I need to know. You have no desire to understand, you only wish to degrade and be completely disrespectful. Arrogant martial artists are the true plague sir. Go ahead and sit in your ivory tower and feel good about yourself knowing how quickly you can kill people with nunchaku.

Why you feel the need to insult, I don't know. You don't know anything about what freestylists work for. From your reply, it sounds like your goal is inherantly destructive. You brag how you can cripple and kill. When one of your students casually performs a wrist flip, do you smack their hand, or better yet, break it?

I view nunchaku as taking something primal and potentially destructive and elevating it into something greater- but again, there is no chance you can understand that. After all, in your eyes, it's merely twirling a baton. Go ahead and think that. Why I ever bothered to address this with you in the first place is baffling to me now. I'm done trying- besides, I've got some batons to twirl and you have people to cripple.

PS- if you ever feel like coming down from your high horse and opening your eyes, you're invited to our forum:

http://doubledna.com/freestyle/

to Shorin Ryuu: This is the guy you were defending against the label of being "ignorant?" I hate to tell you this, but his demeaning attitude toward everything I tried to explain is the very definition of ignorance- he is ignoring it all and reducing it to baton twirling. Think about that.

[Sauzin]

...I view nunchaku as taking something primal and potentially destructive and elevating it into something greater- but again, there is no chance you can understand that. After all, in your eyes, it's merely twirling a baton. Go ahead and think that. Why I ever bothered to address this with you in the first place is baffling to me now. I'm done trying- besides, I've got some batons to twirl and you have people to cripple.

PS- if you ever feel like coming down from your high horse and opening your eyes, you're invited to our forum:

http://doubledna.com/freestyle/

to Shorin Ryuu: This is the guy you were defending against the label of being "ignorant?" I hate to tell you this, but his demeaning attitude toward everything I tried to explain is the very definition of ignorance- he is ignoring it all and reducing it to baton twirling. Think about that.

Woah, what's wrong with baton twirling? That takes a lot of practice. Sticks were one of the most primal weapons and baton twirlers have elevated this to a very captivating performance art. I don't understand why you feel insulted by this association?

[Shorinryu Sensei]

I'm trying to figure out where I'm insulting you Patrick. I don't see it. I also don't seewhere I'm bragging anywhere. I'm stating my opinion, as you are. We are looking at the nunchaku with different perspectives. Me, through eyes that see it as a weapon. You, that see it as a toy. That is not meant as an insult, but rather an obvious difference in perspective.

When one of your students casually performs a wrist flip, do you smack their hand, or better yet, break it?

For one thing, none of my students would do a "wrist flip" in my dojo unless it was before class, after class, or during a break. It's a technique that has no worthwhile application other than "for fun". What they do outside of class isn't my concern in the way of "flash". They are welcome to play with the nunchaku as much as they please on their own time, but not on mine.

I view nunchaku as taking something primal and potentially destructive and elevating it into something greater-

Where I see you as taking a weapon and turning it into a play thing...a toy. To me, it isn't elevating it, but rather, degrading it into something that is lesser than what it was. Again, a matter of perspective. There are martial arts out there that are doing the same thing IMO, by lessoning the combat applications and turning them into a sport. They are not advancing the art, but rather degrading them and making them into a "toy" martial art.

[psionics]

hmm.. was a nunchaku a weapon at the first place?

what are you proving?

are you part of the origin on nunchakus?

[sticks008]

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 12:58 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Agreed Sauzin. Also, there is not a 10th of the striking power in the techniques he demonstrates as compared to good technique. Twice I've taken nunchauku away from people that were screwing with me with them. They both hit my arms as I reached in. Sure, it hurt a bit and left a small bruise, but if they'd have been using good technique:

1. I wouldn't have done it, and

2. It could have broken a bone on my arm.

I think you have a misperception about freestylists and their supposed inability to use nunchaku as a weapon. I would consider myself a freestylist ande the spinning and aeriel techniques are the most challanging in my opinion, but I dont think you would want any part of trying to take the nunchaku away from me freestylist or not

I mean if I were screwing with you