World Of Swords

People are always asking me questions about the various Martial Arts Weapons. Why are they odd shaped and does a person use them? What's the best Weapon in Aikido, or Kenpo, or jujitsu, or whatever.

The truth of this matter of sharp and shiny things is expressed in a concept so simple that most people never really figure it out. There is, you see, an easy way to understand what the swords and knives and things are, and this will give intuitive grasp as to how they are used. That simple notion is...geometry.

A killing implement, no matter what the shape, is generally based on the idea of a straight line. The simplest and most basic straight line is a pole. The pole is designed for two specific things, poking and bashing.

Fix a knife to the tip of the staff and you have a spear. Decorations, grips, or whatever, this is just a pole with a sharp end. It is great for bashing of a delicate sort, and plain, old, simple poking.

Cut that pole in two and sharpen it up a bit and you have a sword. A Chinese Tai Chi Chuan sword, commonly called a Jian, when you think about it, is a rather lengthy knitting needle. You can use the tip for extended and rather delicate bashing, as of the throat, or you can just poke with it.

Put a bend on that Jian, thicken it up a it, and you have a samurai sword. Or a cutlass or some other type of thick sword. Good for poking, but bashing is more suited to the thicker tool.

Shorten the sword, shrink it down a bit, and you have a knife. Good for poking and Close Quarter bashing, if the guy is within arm's reach. Easily hidden, great for opening boxes or prying lids, and swell for playing matador with that mugger who tries to take your wallet, grab your wife, invade your home, and so on.

So, knife to sword to pole to even gun...there is a line that defines the tool. The line can be hinged not at all or many times, or handled with little hand grips (a tonfa) poking out the side, and so on. And the the ultimate geometry of all martial arts weapons is making the decision as to whether the shape of the tool best supports poking or bashing.

There is much more to Martial Arts Weapons, and the most important work on their use, how to teach them, and so on, is available through the Blinding Steel course. Head on over over to Monster Martial Arts.

With most types of martial arts, the color of the belt that you have will signify your rank within your style of martial arts. The belts that are used with martial arts signify your rank within that style, although they have no universal means or ranking within the martial arts world. More or less, they tell others how much you know about your specific martial art.

The use of belt colors in martial arts is an old practice, dating back hundreds of years. Belts and their use in martial arts all started by a man known as Jigoro Kano, who created the style known as Kodokan Judo. Kano started out by using only white and black belts to signify rank within his style of martial arts. His reason for using belts, was to specify which students could compete in different activities. For example, those with white belts couldn't compete in the same activities as those with black belts.

Shortly after Kano introduced his idea of using belts, other belt colors were introduced to the world of martial arts. Over the years, it became a great way of telling what experience a student had in his style - just by the look of his belt. Other styles began to use this system as well over the years, including Karate, Taekwondo, and several others.

The only problem with using belts to signify ranking, is the fact that one school may have different requirements from another school. Even though they both may teach the same style of martial arts, their ranking system and requirements to get a certain ranking may be totally different. This can cause confusion in ranks, especially if a black belt from one school isn't as versed in the style as a black belt from another school. Even though most schools stick to the same criteria, there are schools that choose to incorporate their own unique style as well.

Although most martial arts styles use belts to signify rank, there are some martial arts out there such as Shootfighting that don't use belts at all. The styles that choose not to use belts don't go by rankings either, as they are more or less for self defense purposes. Pitfighting is another style that doesn't use belts either. These styles are great to learn for protecting yourself - although they differ from the traditional sense of martial arts.

All things aside, belts are an innovation to martial arts. They give students something to aim for, and a reason to keep practicing. Most students that study martial arts aim for getting the black belt, which is the most prestige belt in martial arts. A black belt takes years of practice to obtain, as the student will move through many lower ranked belts before getting the opportunity to try and earn the black belt.

It's them against you! Your heart's racing, your mouth is dry, your hands are sweating and you suddenly realize that this is life or death! The "safe moves" won't cut it out on the streets... http://virl.ws/s/Street-Fighting

Galilee Barbarossa, Street Fighting or More Knockout Power

Most students of the martial arts Have probably seen a pair of nunchaku (Chucks) being used while in the martial arts. Whether it was in a "karate movie," or while training in the dojo -- martial arts school - where you train in your chosen discipline. They're so popular that they're known all over the world as "nunchucks," "chucks" or "numchucks."

The "twin sticks" (that's their meaning when the word "nunchaku" is spoken in native Okinawan), in the right hands, are a whirling blur of motion that can actually be hard for the eye to follow when they're moving fast enough. And they can pack a seriously hard wallop when they're used to strike at somebody during close-quarters fighting.

They can be used alone as a pair of sticks joined together by a short length of rope or chain, or in pairs (one set for each hand) for double the trouble. The nunchaku (aka. Chucks) has a long and interesting history, starting from when they first appeared on the island of Okinawa off the coast of Japan sometime in the early to mid 1600s. Nowadays, few craftsmen like the ones at Buki Yuushuu still turn out modern customized versions of this beloved and cherished classic weapon.

How the nunchaku came to be developed on Okinawa during that time is a bit unclear. The most popular story was that Okinawan farmers and others on the island, including the upper classes of that time, took a farmer's thresher, which was a handheld tool made up of two sticks joined by a rope, and suddenly became nunchaku masters!

We're just kidding about the "instant master" effect. It usually takes some time to study and practice with the nunchaku (and more than a few whacks on the head!) before a person becomes skilled enough to use it in a real self-defense situation.

Actually, the invention of the nunchaku most likely never happened that way at all, but it makes for a good story. In realty, this popular self-defense weapon probably was constructed for the role it played then and still plays today; as a weapon. The evidence for this is that the Chinese themselves had a weapon that was very close in appearance to the nunchaku back before the 1600s, and that Chinese immigrants to Okinawa brought it with them. Also, the word for "nunchaku" comes from the Chinese language, so we can assume that it really was built to be what we know it as today.

To understand why these "two sticks connected by a string" came into being, we should understand that on the island of Okinawa, as with the rest of Japan, most people were forbidden to carry a sword or other bladed weapon. Only Japanese who were of the samurai class, a professional warrior were able to have such things. Native Okinawans, who were not Japanese at all, fell under this same rule. But people being people were just smart back then as they are today, and soon the nunchaku (Nunchuck) began to be used for personal protection and the protection of property against any would be criminals or Japanese samurai who happened to take advantage of their situation.

The Native Okinawa's as with most people didn't like to be ordered and pushed around, and samurai were experts at giving orders to those under their class. Can you imagine what a surprise it was when one of these professional warriors felt or witnessed the blistering speed of these wooden sticks coming at him?

Today the essence of the "chuck" is still the same; they are just faster and flashier than the nunchaku of old. If you'd like to see what a modern pair of nunchaku look like, go to bukiyuushuu.com one of the leaders of Okinawan style of weaponry, look at all the different styles, colors and the different ways you can customize your made to order nunchaku.

Come and see the most styles and choices in custom Nunchaku click here Nunchuck