What woudl be better, sword or staff?

[doaninja]

Well, as far as instructors not letting you learn other weapons till your high lvl, that is entirely dependent on the instructor. I know 2 instructors within my area, who do weapons training. If you ask them specficially to teach you, lets say..Sword, they will do so. Now, since your a novice, they are not going to give you a sword and start whacking, they will hand you either a nice wooden stick or a Shinai (bamboo Sword) and let you practice with those. Even then, for the better part of a year, you spend learning forms, katas, and proper stances, or that is how they do it.

 

The reasoning behind this is fairly simple. Some instructors will indeed not let students into weapons classes, until they have reached a certain belt ranking, like brown belt. Supposedly at that level, they are able to control themselves better, etc etc etc. Well yea, I would agree with you that after 2 years worth of training, they ought to have better control of themselves. However, if you were to take someone into a controled and monitered environment, and give them harmless weapons, you can teach them control and discipline all the same.

 

I think some instructors wait until students are a higher rank for multiple reasons. If you are learning TKD, I imagine your instructor will want you to learn TKD, before even thinking about toying around with weapons, since TKD is the MA that you are supposed to be mastering.

 

Some do it, I think to make money, knowing that weapons training would be neat and cool to some, they make people wait till they gain higher rank, which would mean they would have dumped alot of money into training to achieve that rank.

 

I think some do it, to make sure there student is disciplined enough to wield a deadly and powerful weapon, to understand its power and not abuse it, or take it lightly.

 

I was taking TKD, until i started taking weapons classes. Now weapons training is all I do. So far, i have learned Bo, Nunchuks, Cane, and various polearms. Its great! Once I am done with my weapons training, I will be able to pick up almost (keyword is almost) any thing around me, and use it in some way rudimentry fashion as a weapon =).

 

D.

 

D.

[amp]

i can garenty that any instructor with a brain would not let you use a proper sharp samurai sword till you are very experienced.

 

You should have thousands of hours of practice with a wooden sword, not to mention general strength-building exercises, before you touch a sword. I use a lead-filled suburito bokken to strengthen my wrists and arms.

 

If I were you, I would start with bo and then gradually work towards sword technique. A line of training like bo --> tonfa --> sai --> katana is probably a heck of a lot more sound than ??? --> sword!!!

[fungku]

Where I went it was not your rank that decided what weapon you could use it was the sifu.

 

I started training with a sword (a practice chinese sword, not a samurai sword) a few months after joining. After a while I started learning the staff as well as the sword.

 

Most people at my school started with the staff though. A friend of mine was training in nunchuks and another was training with the 3-sectional staff ^.^

 

Everyone started at a different time. Our sifu would start us training with a weapon when and if he thought we were ready. Some people learn the basics slower than others, and some people pick up on things really quickly.

[theswarm]

what styles allow you to pick up a weapon earlier on?

 

i'm doing karate at the moment that has no weapons, i'm curious because i always wanted to know how to use a staff or a sai - by earlier on i mean in the first 6-8 months?

[fungku]

Most styles of Kung Fu that I can think of, would let you start weapons early on

[KaratekaAikidoist]

Well, If you had equally skilled fighters, a sword could cut through a bo. I take goju ryu and almost have my black belt in that. I'm taking aikido too and we use a bokken a lot so I'd say its ok to start early but make sure your safe and respectful.

[AndrewGreen]

Weapons first would have made more sense if the weapons where intended to be used.

 

Why teach a person unarmed if he will be carrying a sword? Teach the weapon, then if there is time left teach hand fighting.

 

But we don't have weapons on us, and hopefully won't be getting into many armed fights...

 

Anyway the reason it is usually reserved for higher ranks, despite what the "given" reason is, is retention. If after a year and a half you are getting bored and thinking of doing something else maybe you'll stay if they offer a weapons class that you can attend after a few more months.

 

That is something "special" and a reward, not everyone gets to do it and it is really cool so maybe you'll keep paying.

 

The basic idea is that people loose interest if they do the same thing over and over again long enough. If you want to keep them you can offer them new things along the way (belts, weapons, grappling classes, etc.) and hopefully they will stay thinking once they get the next new thing, it will be better.

 

Then they get it and it is... for a little while, then the new thing gets old....

 

I think it has to do with most schools that teach weapons as a "advanced skill" also happen to be kata, or technique based schools. Kata is great, but there are only so many kata. Once you know them all, you know them all.

 

Weapons can be taught right from start, I do it. And really just about any weapon. I would have no problem starting a person on a 3 sectional staff if that was what they really wanted. For kata most start with staff or nunchaku though, partially because I have lots of those and most don't already have their own weapons on the first day.

 

And Partially because staff is the main weapon in kobudo and has the most kata and the first nunchaku kata is fairly simple.

 

Same thing for sparring, some prefer staff, some sticks, some sai, some nunchaku, some 3 sectional staff, etc. Do what you want.

 

But what I do is not standard. My weapons students start sparring in thier first class, usually with a stick or staff. For drills they sometimes use whatever weapon they want, sometimes a specific one. They also get to choose which weapons they learn kata for.

 

Although I would suggest padded weapons to start with for everything except kata and hitting the bag initially. Or maybe a light rattan and some padding, but padded weapons are cheaper and less intimidating

[KoreanTiger30]

In Haedong Gumdo (KOrean Sword art) we start off using a wood sword (mokgum) and then after so many belt slevel if your techniques are worthy they give you an imitation steel sword (gagum) and then once black belt you receive a sharp blade (jin Gum) the reaosn being is your techniques have to be so proficient that if if you techniques are sloppy it will damge the blade if you practicing cutting. We cut straw, bamboo and such that are equivalent to like human necks, and waists. You must practice control with sword thats why we do candle extinguishing where you put the falme out without touching the flame with the sword. Also we do sword techniques in Hapkido and bo staff is usually taught before sword in Hapkido , but for more detail fighting with sword I turn to Haedong Gumdo.

[karate_woman]

Well, If you had equally skilled fighters, a sword could cut through a bo. I take goju ryu and almost have my black belt in that. I'm taking aikido too and we use a bokken a lot so I'd say its ok to start early but make sure your safe and respectful.

 

A sword could certainly cut through a bo, but a person using a bo against a person with a sword would not try use it in that way. They would have to use the natural advantages of the weapon (mainly its range, and the speed you can use it at) to attack other areas (arm, etc). Also, if a bo is cut in two, it can still be used as a weapon - two in fact (think escrima)

 

A highly skilled bo master vs a highly skilled swordsman....I don't think the winner is necessarily a foregone conclusion, in fact we've been taught (in Okinawan Goju Ryu and Kobudo) swordsmen have been defeated by people with a bo/staff.

[kchenault]

Man, I wish we had a Haidong Gumdo school here where I live. The closest thing we have is Kumdo, or Korean Kendo. That particular instructor won't teach you unless you are a black belt. So I picked the school where my son attends. Maybe some day.