options

[GrimHydra]

I live in a small town in alaska, Im new to all of this and I don't have the most money. I want to see if I could go through the belts (starting with white) and be able to train with weapons at the very beginning, would this be ok or would it mess with my training.

[sperki]

First of all welcome to KF. There are other folks here better qualified to answer than me, but I'll give it a shot. I would think that every school is going to be a bit different; the dojo where I trained started teaching me bo and nun-chucks while I was still a white belt. But I bet with some schools / instructors don't move into weapons until you've got a good grasp of several empty hand katas. And some martial arts are based around weapons, so you're likely to use one very early in your training. It will depend on what styles are available in your area. Find out and talk to the instructors at those schools. Good luck!

[GrimHydra]

so its kind of up to the instructor? Thanks for your time Much appreciated.

[tallgeese]

Or up to the type of school you're attending. SOme school will have weapons on the sylabus very early and focus heavily on that aspect. Other schools may have little to no traditional weapons involved in the training.

Something else to look at is what kind of weapons you want to train with. Schools that have origins in Japanesse or Okinawa will teach drastically different weapons than those originating in the Phillipines.

Best bet is, as always, take a look at what you want to do then check out local schools and training groups to see what is the best fit. You might even stumble into something you were unaware of that appeals to you.

Good luck, let us know how the search goes. And welcome to KF.

[Rateh]

In my experience, most instructors don't have a problem with white belts learning weapons. Weapon training may or may not be required for advanced students, bust most instructors will be willing to teach lower ranked students who have the desire. Usually through private lessons (which often times costs extra).

Welcome to the forum.

[JusticeZero]

What sort of town? If it's somewhere like say, Cold Bay or smaller - an isolated place - you might have to settle for whatever teacher has a plank out. If you pass through Anchorage or Fairbanks or Juneau or some other midsize place regularly, you get some options there. But yeah, varies from school to school.

[JusticeZero]

There is also the question of what sort of weapon training you plan to do. If you find an Aikido school, I suspect you will be working with wooden swords, staffs, and jo (basically a cane) quite early on, but I don't know that an aikidoka would ever expect to pick up a sai or kama or nunchaku. Handgun training is a martial art, and obviously you would be using a specific weapon from the word go. I've spent, oh, two hours playing with knives... in my toes... and ten minutes with the knives in my hands, over the past decade. If you want to geek out with swords, you can always look for a fencing club. And so on. It's not like there is one single omni-martial-art out there. =)

[GrimHydra]

I think theres only one place here. He does do weapon training but on the time scheduel it says "Advanced & Weapons" I guess I could just talk to him and I really want to learn how to use the Bo staff and...eskrima sticks (Sorry if I mispelled). Those just seem like the most practical weapons, as in you could find sticks pretty much anywhere.

[tallgeese]

That's not a bad theory.

Even if its a Japaneese or Okinawan dojo, there are still schools that deal with the short stick (hanbo). It won't be in the same style as escrema might or othher Phillapine arts but it will be solid, espically on the joint manip angle.

[bushido_man96]

Some styles and schools will be weapons-based, like some forms of Japanese or Medieval Swordsmanship, or Filipino styles using sticks and knives. Others may have a few weapons to supplement what they do empty-handed.

As the others have mentioned, look around and see what they offer. Everyone has a different opinion on weapons training.