OK so I heard the numchucks or nunchaku or whatever make for really good seminars so I dug through my closet to find the foam pair I had purchased at a seminar at least 15 years ago…
They were hard to handle and felt like they would do wonders for my coordination so I started practicing them everyday for at least 15-30 min…just doing basic moves right now, nothing too fancy…some stuff I remembered from the seminars I took as a kid and some stuff from videos…
anyway these chucks are pretty old and the chord looks like it is ready to break…so I go to my buddies school across the street but they only have glochucks…they look the right size but are a little light so I shoved some pens and junk in there (I am saving the glosticks for special occasions) and they are still a little light but I feel like they are much better than nothing…
I found the lighter glochucks a little bit easier to handle than the foam ones so I want to order a pair of rattan or octaganol wooden ones soon to make things more challenging…Also going to watch some Bruce Lee movies 'cause I feel like I am getting proficient enough at the basic moves to start trying some more fancy ones…right now I am suppose to do the seminar sometime in September so I will keep practicing them every day…
nunchaku are great for arm conditioning. I was never really too hot on the whole chuck idea until one day i messed up my elbow real good.
I couldnt do push ups for about a month, was at the local budo shop when i decided I would get a foam pair and see how well they helped in rehabilitating my damaged joint.
The great thing is you can work your techs with very little force at all, just simply going through the motions. Or you can blast all your power into every strike. This is what really helped me out. I would varie the degree of power i used to the point where it was just right and my elbow could handle the pain. Gradually increasing the level.
After a month of that I bought a pair of the wooden octogon rope nunchaku. The added weight did wonders on upping the amount of strain on my joint.
Now, a year later my elbow is fine. Of course i would bruse the hell out of the inner elbows but thats all superficial, and heals just fine. I attribute chucking to a major part of the therapy that got my arm back. And now im pretty confident i could mess a mo fo up if i needed to.
I tell you of all the places ive hit myself i would have to say the knob on the outside of my right ankle was the worst. Straight dropped me to the floor. Ive hit my groin elbow head and various other places but that was the worst.
I’ve got a pair of maple octagonal w/ round ends and the Speedchuck™ swivel.
I’ve got them about 1983…shortly after I busted out the picture window in the living room. :eek: :o
I’ve got another maple octagonal set w/ squared ends and rope. I bought some 2mm Kevlar rope at a climbing shop and restrung them and they are pretty sweet.
I think chucks are great for learning to stick and follow a moving object so is good for developing chin na skills.
I just did a class with some of my students teaching them basic movements and passes…I’ve also got 6 pair of foam chuck
I’ve got a pair of maple octagonal w/ round ends and the Speedchuck™ swivel.
I’ve got them about 1983…shortly after I busted out the picture window in the living room. :eek: :o
Ok, I sent my chucks flying in '82 and knocked over a lamp. Anyone else would have known to forge ahead with caution…instead I made an excuse, they slipped, I am really starting to get good :rolleyes: .
I really thought that I was a bad mo fo with them untill about 5 minutes later, again going as fast as I could, when I dropped myself to my knees from cracking them into my skull. Yup, they were the octagon shaped ones.
I accidently smashed a porsline/glass lamp in my bedroom. So I bought a new one, exactly like the first. I smashed that one too. So I got another one. That one lasted about a year. So now I don’t bother to buy a new lamp so there’s just a lightbulb hanging from the roof. It’s been like that for 2 years I think.
I think Chucks are good to learn hand/eye cordination and they look good spinning around (Poi is also nice) however as a weapon I don’t care for them. Seems like they’re illegal to even carry in your car in most parts of the country.
A more practical weapon is a staff or walking cane. Easier to use, not illegal to carry a cane anywhere…even in an airplane.
i personally love em. i always have to re rope them for the right length when i buy em.
ive gravitated far away from doing flashy techniques though. i like to keep it simple, effecient, and powerful. fortunately for myself ive stopped accidentally hitting myself about a year ago.
ive noticed most people that do nunchaku, have a similar approach that modern contemp wushu guys have in comparison to combat relations.
most nunchaku is just crap.
they are illegal to carry, but i could imagine someones suprise to face someone who has a profeciency with them.
hell i would pay to see some nunchaku in a real life situation. i just dont want to pay THE MAN, myself.
It's not every day that you get to hear U.S. Senators and a Supreme Court nominee talk about nunchucks. Today was one such day.
In one of the more unintentionally light exchanges of the second day of confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah questioned Sotomayor on Maloney v. Rice. The case involved the banning of nunchucks, a martial arts weapon made from two sticks of wood and connected by a chain or, as Sen. Hatch suggested, "rawhide."
The mention of nunchucks, which Sotomayor judged to be a deadly weapon and thus subject to a ban in New York, sparked off a huge flurry of searches. Lookups on "nunchucks" and the alternate spelling "nunchaku" both chopped up the Search box.
Likely to surge as the day wears on: "origin of nunchucks." Where do these things come from and who, aside from Napoleon Dynamite, actually finds them to be an effective weapon? Well, Bruce Lee used them in various films. Oh, and let us not forget Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 'Nuff said.
You can watch Sen. Hatch and Judge Sotomayor talk nunchucks below...
i like that set, its realistic. i wish i had someone around me to teach me some more about the nunchaku.
ive been practicing with them for about 5 years now. im past the point of hitting myself, thankfully, but all ive got to go with is video, and my heavy bag. all my influence is japanese driven as well. im pretty confident that i could really mess someone up if i pulled them.
i dont do any fancy tricks though. all my technique is driven by my martial mind with a firm grip at all times. ive been developing a set, for myself, just to string together everything ive become somewhat profecient in. ive tried very hard to infuse my shaolin methods into the training to keep it more familiar. ive found some pretty devious approaches, one of my favorites involving an upward strike, from passing behind the back followed with a sidekick and an downward strike then defense retreating back to empty ready.
