Hey! So I've been doing martial arts for a couple of months now. Mostly just trying out a lot of stuff to see what sticks. So far, if you're interested, I've been regularly going to capoeira classes and enjoying it quite a lot. But I've been thinking lately, that I've not tried out any martial arts with weapons, and that it seems like something that could be quite interesting. The only ones that come to mind for me are kendo, silat and ninjitsu (if I'm not mistaken). So my question is, what kind of martial arts are there that incorperate weapons or are based entirely on using a weapon? And furthermore, does anyone perhaps have any useful information or advice on the subject? Thanks in advance.
Choy Li Fut has tons of weapons. My lineage has 53 different weapons. You name it, CLF probably has it. Spears, staffs, chain whip, various swords, cudgels, two and three sectional staffs, daggers, wind and fire wheels, halberds, Farmer's hoe, axes, the list goes on........... But at least in my school, you start off with hand forms. Then move to weapons when you get to intermediate levels.
The list of martial arts that include some amount of weapons in their curriculum is probably longer than the list that doesn't. It's difficult to give useful advice in this category, though, as it often depends on the specific training available to you. It's entirely possible to train in aikido without every seeing any of the various aikiken techniques, for example. The list of weapon-primary arts -- the martial arts that will definitely have weapons and start you on them from day one -- is a lot shorter. Filipino martial arts (FMA), historical European martial arts (HEMA), some traditional schools of Japanese martial arts (koryu bujutsu). And then you have the weapon sports: fencing and kendo (in which I'm also including atarashii naginata and iaido). I'd put la canne in here as well, but I don't know it well enough to be entirely comfortable with that. The top piece of practical advice is: while there are many types of weapon martial arts in existence, the availability of weapon training is much lower than bare-handed training. It's better to start by asking what is actually on offer within your reach, rather than picking your ideal only to find out the nearest group to you is on the other side of the country. Assuming you're one of the lucky people who has options available to you, then the question is: what about the idea of studying weapons appeals to you? Perhaps most obviously, if you're interested in a particular weapon (the sword, knives, kusarigama, whatever) your options narrow down a lot. More broadly, are you attracted to the idea of weapons for self-defence? In the historical aspects? In the aesthetics?
Some karate dojos teach okinawan weapons called kobudō. You'll learn bó, nunchaku, Kama, sai, tonfa, and oar depending on the teacher. Some don't teach all those and some may teach even more. It's cool stuff, I particularly liked training the bó.
this^^ I train kobudo on Wednesdays. I also train Japanese sword. That's a lot of fun. A good teacher will get you into basic controlled sparring drills in a few lessons. (beware that the International Shinkendo Federation requires quite a few kata for gradings. Some are pretty tricky, but rewarding) Also, some kobudo teachers teach more weapons. My shihan teaches 7.
Hey. This post in particular has been very helpful. I'm going to start by answering that last question. I'm interested in picking up a weapons art, in short, because I think it could be something I would enjoy as a hobby really, and I like the idea of having the ability to know what I'm doing with at least one weapon. Nothing too much more than that, although I probably would end up getting interested in the history of the art. I perhaps should have mentioned in the first post that if I were to start a weapons art, it would almost certainly be one which had a very large focus on weapons, seeing as I'm already doing a few empty-handed martial arts that don't neccessarily synergise well with any new ones. But thank you very much to yourself and others who have listed martial arts names as this will give me something to research and see what classes are avaliable. I'm very happy with the number of good responses here.
Heya. Thanks for your replies. They've been very helpful. I'd like to know, do you train weapons alongside an empty-handed style or individually? If your answer is the first, is it neccessary to do so? I don't want to come off as impatient or undedicated or anything. It's just that I'm already learning some empty-handed styles and if I was going to learn an armed martial art, I would be doing it for the weapons training and would like to get the most out of my time and money by focusing on that aspect. I like the idea of learning to use a blade of some sorts. Perhaps not knives/daggers, but maybe a sword or halberd? I'm quite new to this but it's all very interesting. Thanks again!
I'd suggest you look at FMA. I'm not sure what you know of eskrima, but there's a wide range if weapons used; Sticks of all sizes, knives, sword, machetes, axes. There's also projectile weapons, whips and bows in some systems. The thing is you don't really get taught different weapons as such, you get taught a technique and then learn to use it with pretty much any thing you can hold in your hand. So whether you have a walking stick, steak knife or tyre iron, you use the same technique....with a bit of tweak.
Hmmmm. I know next to nothing about FMA. I've only really read a wikipedia page and one schools description of it, but what you've said sounds quite interesting. So, that being said, is there much empty-handed work in a typical eskrima school? How many weapons do they typically teach, and what weapons are the most common? Thanks a lot for your reply.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I see. I'm not exactly sure why me, but at least I know what's happening. Edit: Wasn't even directed to me. >.< I'm just sleepy. Zzzz.
as far as I know you're only likely to find kobudo taught alongside karate, I've never heard of anywhere outside okinawa that teaches just kobudo. I suppose you might find a karate dojo that separates the classes, but I wouldn't call that likely. Kobudo is getting less and less common these days.
