Open-Hand kata with weapons

[albeaver]

Does anyone else do their open-hand kata with weapons? Or use their weapon kata with a different weapon? I think it helps understand the kata better, since you have to think about what you are trying to do. Personally I have dont Tokimine with sia and tuifa. I do Seisan with sai, tuifa, swords, and kama. I also have done Kusanku with tuifa.

[Montana]

Oh most certainly! I've done all my kata with all my weapons at one time or the other..which can be pretty interesting sometimes! lol

[wildbourgman]

Jitte or Jitte No bo can go either way.

I want to learn that next with a bo.

[Wastelander]

I have, in the past, run through my empty hand kata with weapons. It's an interesting exercise, and can be fun to do. Personally, I think tonfa, sai, tekko, and hanbo work best from an application standpoint, because you can pretty much just use all of your empty hand techniques with them and they enhance the techniques. Kama can work, too, but their angled blade kind of change things. Nunchaku can also work, but your strikes change drastically. I have found that longer, two-handed weapons, like bo, jo, eku, and nunti, don't really fit the empty hand kata as well. All that said, the same concepts can be used.

[sensei8]

I've taken each and every Kata taught in Shindokan and added the following Kobudo weapons to them, more for fun, than a requirement:

Bo

Nunchaku

Sai

Kama

Tonfa

The weapons seem to fit well in the Kata's!! All my Dai-Soke told me once when I showed him..."OK!!", then walked away. I interpreted it that he wasn't to happy/pleased...he acted as though I committed a sacrilege!! He once barked at me when I took a Bo and started moving it around like a nunchaku.

Well, it's my journey, I told him, and then I shrugged my shoulders to him!!

[cathal]

Its a creative endeavour to test and experiment your techniques. It can be a great deal of fun!

[Wado Heretic]

A few times; though the only effective overlaps I have found were with Sai, and Tonfa, otherwise there are too few analogues with the other weapons to truly perform the kata in a way authentic to the original. I find one has to change the stances too much, and of course the way of generating power, and then one has to acknowledge the different dangers one is confronting with a weapon. It is fun, but personally I prefer the kata dedicated to weapons. Why reinvent the wheel after all. I have found useful overlaps with Tanto and Kubaton, but otherwise I generally stick to unarmed, and weapon kata as separate.

As said though, it's ones own journey; but in my opinion its barking up the wrong tree past an entertaining side-road when one is in need of some quick inspiration.

[Lupin1]

We do that. Usually our first weapons kata is a version of our first kata (an Isshinryu-ized version of Fukyugata Ichi) with a short stick. Later in black belt we study the Isshinryu weapons forms, which include a sai version of Kusanku. I believe there's also a tonfa version of Wansu somewhere in the mysterious upper reaches of our curriculum.

[cathal]

I've taken each and every Kata taught in Shindokan and added the following Kobudo weapons to them, more for fun, than a requirement:

Bo

Nunchaku

Sai

Kama

Tonfa

One of my favourite things is to play with the kata and kihon to see what works and what doesn't with each weapon. You get a better feel for each of them and how they move, how they can move, and how they can adapt.

my journey.

Its a journey to be certain! The discovery, the new adaptations, and creative ways to express. Gets the blood pumping. It also helps me to understand and appreciate the empty-hand techniques a bit better, too.

[Spodo Komodo]

I have done a few Wado kata with sai, just to get the feel of them. For such a thing to be successful the kata has to fit the weapon - since sai are mainly striking/blocking weapons this works well with some karate kata. However an open hand kata done with sai has to be a compromise, you can't train the locking/pulling/throwing aspects of open hand and you can't train the hooking/pinning/distracting aspects of the sai.

As a gateway to leaning a good weapon kata though, go for it!