nunchaku practioners?

[psychojack]

just wondering if there are any other "chuckers" out there. i'm new to the weapon (new to martial arts in general) and would love to discuss techniques with more experienced people. being self taught, i often reach a point of saturation and could use some help being pushed over the hump, so to speak.

any of you out there?

Thomas Sharpton

[tetsu]

Hi Thomas,

Probably a large number of people who go on
this board have done nunchaku.

If you aren't already involved with a karate
style, you might look into schools in your
area and see if any okinawan stylists are teaching
in your locale. (Shorin ryu, Goju ryu, Uechi ryu,
Isshin ryu) Or, rarely, Kobudo specialists may
have a dedicated dojo (Matayoshi Kobudo, Ryukyu
Kobudo, etc.) Often these ryuha are present
within the dojos of Okinawan karate ryuha.

Nunchaku are fun, and highly portable. They
are kind of low on the list for most weapons
people however. For they are percieved as being
weak against the other kobudo weapons. It is
true that practicing kumite with nunchaku is
more difficult than just about any other weapon.

You don't really say in your post exactly how
you train nunchaku. You use the phrase "chucker"
which I usually associate with people who enjoy
complex twirls and rolls. If so, you might learn
some interesting things from Patrick Gresham's
Nunchaku page. I don't remember the URL but
you can google search his page up. He has self
taught himself a huge array of tricky twirls and
rolls.

Unfortunately, without a hearty background in
unarmed martial arts, it's quite difficult to
practice the actual fighting aspects of nunchaku.
Timing and distancing as well as body positioning
become very impartant if using nunchaku against
an armed and living opponent. These aspects are
difficult to self teach.

For a mixture of complex weapon handling and
actual fighting applications, the two videos
of nunchaku techniques by Tadashi Yamashita
(available through Panther Videos) are extremely
useful. There are also good books out
from Master Yamashita (Shorin ryu), Jiro Shiroma
(Shorin ryu).

Nunchaku is one weapon that really bridges the
connection between striking (like karate) and
grappling (like jujutsu.)

Johnny Tetsu

[Doug Daulton]

Thomas,

Johnny gave you some good advice. Particularly concerning the distinction between trick spinning (great for films and tournaments) and the genuine combative applications for this weapon.

If you are interested in the former, I cannot help you. If you are interested in the latter, I'd suggest you look into the traditional Okinawan-derived karate schools in your area. If they do not offer specific Kobudo instruction, they can usually direct you to your best regional resource.

If you'd like, you can e-mail me directly with your location and intentions and I may be able to connect you with a teacher in your area.

Regards

[cainbv]

Thomas,

A really good source of information is Fumio Demura's book "Nunchaku: Karate weapon of self defense".
Demura Sensei is very knowledgeable. I had the privilage of training with him in California, but this was for
a very short period. I wasn't able to train in any kobudo, but I have his books and they are excellent. You can
usually pick them up at your local book store, but if not the are published through Ohara publications I believe.
I hope this helps you out. Best of luck

Brian Cain

[luihu]

I am interested what is your opinion about training with two nunchakus. Fighting solutions are rare, but I have been thinking, that wouldn´t it be better to start nunchaku practise with two weapons? Advantage in this would be better coordination, although some (I do not say most) techniques are impossible for two weapons at the time.

Even if all techniques can´t be trained, afterwards it would be really easy for practitioner to select just one and handle it well.

Just wondering, if someone has experience on start his training with two instead of one.

József Pap

[John Bowden]

The Demura books provide some very basic concepts. I'm a bit unsure of some of his applications however. I think there are other books that do a better job overall. I haven't seen Sensei Demura's video, but I'd probably look at that before the books. The videos and book by Master Tadashi Yamashita are very good and the material in both media are related.

Regarding double nunchaku, double nunchaku is good for training coordination. If you were going to think about fighting, however, single nunchaku is the only way to go. One handed technique removes many of the nunchakus most effective tactics.

[kenshorin]

J. Pap -
I would probably say start with one set of nunchaku. For the beginner, it will be hard enough just learning to control a basic flail. With double nunchaku, you are limiting the amount of things you can do. As Johnny had mentioned, there is this midrange distance and an in-close, grappling distance when training in nunchaku. However, with double nunchaku, you can't really begin the practice on that grappling range, since the grappling aspects require both hands on one set of nunchaku.
I personally enjoy training with two nunchaku. I found that after I started training with them, I developed a lot better reaction time and coordination. And the double nunchaku at a midrange, when you get them going, can be an intimidating thing. But without establishing some basic fundamentals, I think double nunchaku would have been a longer (more painful) process.

[Doug Daulton]

Kenshorin & J Pap,

It is E-Budo policy to sign your full name to all posts. Please edit your last post accordingly and sign all future posts.

Regards,

Doug Daulton
Moderator
E-Budo - Okinawan Martial Arts Forums

[luihu]

After training with one for couple of years, I managed to buy myself two last year. And yes, I have noticed too that it helps with coordination, but isn´t "street-wise". What I was interested is that do someone have an strong opinion why you shouldn´t start with two. Far too often you can hear people complaining, that their left hand doesn´t work properly.

And hey, it doesn´t matter do you have one or two nunchakus, you´re gonna hit yourself in the head anyway. At least I don´t know anybody who haven´t done that,

For pure interest I would also like to know how do you feel about soft nunchakus for beginners. My opinion is, that they just slow the progress, because they are too light for real training.

József Pap

[Doug Daulton]

Originally posted by luihu ... After training with one for couple of years, I managed to buy myself two last year. And yes, I have noticed too that it helps with coordination, but isn´t "street-wise". What I was interested is that do someone have an strong opinion why you shouldn´t start with two. Far too often you can hear people complaining, that their left hand doesn´t work properly.

And hey, it doesn´t matter do you have one or two nunchakus, you´re gonna hit yourself in the head anyway. At least I don´t know anybody who haven´t done that,

For pure interest I would also like to know how do you feel about soft nunchakus for beginners. My opinion is, that they just slow the progress, because they are too light for real training.József,

First, thanks for signing your full name.:) Next, when I was 14, I was a big double nunchaku enthusiast. Over time, I got pretty good with them. Along the way, I managed to knock myself out twice doing neck passes. Both times, I was working out in the backyard. Once, to my great chagrin and her great horror, my mother discovered me unconscious. Once could argue those knockouts still affect me today (both in my philosophy and my general demeanor :)).

I continued that tournament-style training for off and on until around age 22 when I met my current Kobudo teacher (now of almost 12 years). She taught me the way the nunchaku were intended to work (at least from an Okinawan perspective). Essentially, as you pointed out, the double nunchaku ... with all of the spinning and leg, neck, arm passes ... is of little value in actual combat.

These techniques/drills do have value is in the development of hand-eye-total body coordination. I think my combat applications are more fluid for better coordination, though I could not actually do the "flash" drills now if asked.

As for rubber or padded nunchaku, I think they are OK for beginners. But only if you have a large group and are concerned about liability. This is more to protect the others when one or more inevitably go spinning out of one's hands and into another student.

In small groups (2-5), start with the real deal and start slow. There is no need to rush. Speed (if that is what you want) will come as the technique gets stronger. If you go for speed first, real technique will never develop.

I hope this was helpful.

Regards,

[kenshorin]

Doug -
Sorry, didn't notice it wasn't on there. Looks like i got bit by the signature bug... :rolleyes:


Originally posted by Doug Daulton
Kenshorin & J Pap,

It is E-Budo policy to sign your full name to all posts. Please edit your last post accordingly and sign all future posts.



Ken DeCouto

[Doug Daulton]

Originally posted by kenshorin ... Doug -
Sorry, didn't notice it wasn't on there. Looks like i got bit by the signature bug... :rolleyes: Ken DeCouto Ken,

No problem. Thanks for the follow-up.

Regards,

[Nobody]

just wondering if there are any other "chuckers" out there. i'm new to the weapon (new to martial arts in general) and would love to discuss techniques with more experienced people. being self taught, i often reach a point of saturation and could use some help being pushed over the hump, so to speak.

any of you out there?

Thomas Sharpton

I'm not a "chucker" and never really have been, even when I was considerably younger than I am now. I myself have always preferred the more traditional usages of the various kobudo weapons, but if you research further you will find wide differences in opinion even in that regard. For example, the Japanese kobudo people tend to want to bounce the nunchaku off of every surface of your body, including some that can have painful consequences if you make a mistake (to put it mildly). The Okinawans tend to be more conservative in their outlook. Unlike the "accreditated" posters, I have some experience training in traditional Okinawan kobudo but no rank, but I have learned the hard way that using books is not a good idea if you can avoid it. The books mentioned above are good solid traditional references, but it you wish to use media resources you would be better served by using videos rather than books, as you can see the technique performed in its entirety in real time, something you can't see in a book. Nishiuchi's "Mastering the Nunchaku" is a very good resource, as is the Martial Source's "Secrets of Kobudo" Vol. 4, which features the Nichonunchaku no kata, a relatively rare kata utilizing two nunchaku, one in each hand.

I would not recommend practicing with the nunchaku unless you have a solid grounding in some form of karate, Okinawan or otherwise. If you have an instructor in your area who has some verifiable training in Okinawan kobudo, and you can afford it, I would advise you to seek them out, but if you aren't able to afford that, then use caution in training with the nuchaku, as they will bite if you aren't careful. When I was young and ignorant, I tried one of those weird catches in one of Ashida Kim's books, and hit myself in the funny bone so hard I couldn't move my arm for an hour afterwards and thought I had broken it. If you aren't able to seek out any instruction, then do your best and be careful, but I am not going to take the attitude that you should do it my way or no way. Good luck in your training.;)

[TonyU]

Jesus Cripsies! Nothing like responding to a thread over 7 years old where the OP is not even a member anymore.