you are talking about very awesome weapons but...

[Pacificshore]

We can only pray and hope the message was received and understood

 

Wanna bet on it?

 

Off the topic, do you know Rod martens out of Wyoming? Also does karaho. Just wondering.

 

Yes I do. Met him a couple years ago when I was out there. Good guy

[joe2002]

another thing that is not so apparent is that by working with weapons (and I mean traditional weapons) you also greatly increase your capability for you empty hand ability. for you see studying another empty hand system dosn't really teach you that much more, because the principles are really the same. but if you put weapons into the equation then all of a sudden you have to really change the way you think. and because of that you will really learn things you never would have thought of. Ill give you an easy example. lets say you do a simple side strike with a bo. if you look at the movement that you use to create that strike and then compair it to the movement to a simple straight punch you will see that they are identical to one another. there are so many thing that can be learned from studying weapons like timing and technique that I would highly suggest that if you truly wanted to become a great martial artist or if you preffer the term Warrior or Fighter, then you will take up the study of traditional weapons.

[Keezel]

How far into martial arts would one have to be before they begin learning how to use weapons?

[Shorin Ryuu]

Many places integrate it really early: white belt or yellow belt stage. In other words, from the very start.

 

On Okinawa, kobujutsu used to be (and still is) a separate entity from te, it just happened that a lot of good martial artists did both. Nowadays, a lot of places teach both, although it is not uncommon to find places that teach only weaponry.

[parkerlineage]

All you people hear are all set to learning how to use nunchucks with out smacking yourself in the head (yep i've done that dont want to try again). What i want to know is why do you insist on learning how to use all of these karate weapons.

 

This was at the very beginning.

 

Not to discredit the idiot *cough*...martial artist who began this thread...but...

how to use nunchucks with out smacking yourself in the head

 

Hit me with a glass bottle if I'm wrong, but aren't they...nunchuku? Not nunchucks?

 

And, in response to the whole thing, I completely agree with joe2002 about how weapons expand your thought on empty hands katas, and with Shorinryu Sensei. I used a nearby broom handle to disarm a guy who thought about attacking me with a fatty stick (high school is crazy). I wouldn't have known how to do that without my bo training.

 

Of course, if a glass bottle had been nearby, things may have been different....

 

[Shorin Ryuu]

Hit me with a glass bottle if I'm wrong, but aren't they...nunchuku? Not nunchucks?

 

*hits parkerlineage with a glass bottle*

 

I assume your spelling of nunchaku was just a typo, but I'll hit you with one anyway!

[parkerlineage]

Frickin' weasels.

 

Of all the times to screw it up...

 

Nunchaku nunchaku nunchaku....

 

There we go.

[Vito]

i think people learn them because theyre fun. also, as ive said several times in some forum or another... im my inside coat pocket i can fit my fullsize nunchucks... so if i found myself in a situation where i needed to defend myself, they just might come in handy. you know, if i dont want to shoot them or something.

 

and just for the record, while ive nailed my shin or knees a few times (never at full speed though, nowhere near infact) ive never smacked my own head. maybe youre not practicing right.

[Shorin Ryuu]

I whacked the back of my head once or twice when I first started, but since my instructor demanded we use wooden ones (school of hard knocks theory), I only did it once or twice.

[parkerlineage]

You know what really hurts? Dropping sai on your foot. I did it on Thursday, and they still are throbbing. They also don't feel good being dropped on your leg, stabbed into your stomach, hitting yourself in the neck (don't ask)...