Grab your weapons!!




Hello karateka!

Do you practice Karate's older brother?
Yeah, it is called Kobudo, meaning "the way of the ancient warfare".

We are going to talk about Okinawan Kobudo, not about Japanese Kobudo. I am only familiar with the former.

Well, Okinawans figured out that many daily life objects could be used to defend themselves and to hurt other people. The most common Okinawan Karate/Kobudo weapons are the bo, the sai, the tonfa and the nunchaku, with the eku and the tekko as a next step. And some other less known items, but those that I wrote here are the most common ones.

Oh, you do not practice weapons?
They are not part of Karate?
Well, in Okinawa all dojos have weapons, in Japan many dojos have weapons, Funakoshi Sensei used weapons...
Maybe you don't use Kobudo weapons because your Sensei didn't teach you. He didn't teach you, most probably, because his/her Sensei didn't.
Come on, let's put Kobudo back into Karate practice again!

Get yourself some Kobudo weapons (starting with a bo) and practice. 
Watch some tutorials on youtube and try to get some basic understanding of how the weapon works.
Try to learn a basic kata or two and just practice.

You will find out that the laws of physics that govern how you produce power with your fists are the same, so use that to your advantage.
In time, you would produce some convincing Kobudo.





Oh, buy foam nunchaku to start your "research"


Edit:

This is me in Hokama Sensei's dojo in Okinawa, in my first class "learning" Kobudo:


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