this confused me a little Sai then nunchaku and a lot of mickey taking from a question :-/ still I do train in both though i specialize in nunchaku as nunchaku (to me) is a great training tool (but against anything more than 3 ft and the other guy is good then you're in trouble lol hense why it was not a Favoured japanese tool even if a weapon in china years before) but that's another story, I think when you go to a good school your be fine sai has never been one of my best weapons though i can use them depends on what you want to learn with them, kata / demonstration / tournaments or practical application but then if your looking for practical application then your best of looking into the benefits of development training and unarmed etc, still long post have not read so sorry if im repeating anyone but i hope you find a good school and would be interested in hearing how it goes
Nota, Quite a few schools teach kobudo. But actually being good is hard. Takes years. Let me show you what I mean: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjmRZ3S2p5A]Chita ****ahaku no Sai[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7miVP-MVm8]Ichi no Sai[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP3AoOcZJt0]Maezato no nunchaku[/ame] Those videos are all a few years old now (ca 2009), but, it demonstrates my point. I had been doing karate for years by then, but didn't look too good in those videos. Too much effort is being put into controlling the weapon - it's not a natural flow. Yes, the stances are the same (as you commented in the OP), but the upper body mechanics change quite a bit when you add weapons. Also, like others had said, expect it to be a while before you train in weapons at a school. In our organization, we do not begin weapons training until brown belt. But don't let that discourage you. I grew up in the 90s, like quite a few others here. You could say the Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, and Karate Kid (original) were my inspirations.
I do realize that I'll have to be well-versed in Empty-hand methods before I can progress to Kobudo, and this doesn't bother me at all. I'd rather it be this way tbh. Armanox, thank you for that insightful post. I did have a theory that the body mechanics change when you add weapons, and I think it requires quite a bit of adaptation. But yeah, I think eventually learning some Sai kata will help me understand how they're really used, because as far as I've read, this is what Kata does. It allegedly helps you understand the flow and execution of techniques. So along with Isshin-Ryu Karate, its Kobudo, and a lot of Kata practicing, sparring, working out, and experimentation, I should turn out as a well-rounded Karateka.