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Wastelander
Wastelander's picture
Nunchaku Disarming Technique

My Sensei often feels like kobudo kata don't get as much attention as karate kata when it comes to bunkai. Nunchaku, specifically, seems to be misunderstood quite often, so he wanted to share a disarming technique with them that comes from the kata, Tonaki no Nunchaku. I'm not really a "weapons guy," myself, but it seems to be a fairly rare kata. Even so, the technique works whether you know the kata or not. As with most kata applications, how the opponent attacks you isn't really that important. What is important is where you end up in relation to your opponent, and what points of contact are made with the opponent. We demonstrate the technique against a horizontal swing from a stick for simplicity, but you could find a wide variety of attacks that put you in essentially the same position with the same points of contact. I hope some of you find it useful!

Iain Abernethy
Iain Abernethy's picture

Well that’s pretty cool!

Wastelander wrote:
I'm not really a "weapons guy," myself

Me neither, but Bruce Lee branded a love of the Nunchaku into my impressionable young mind :-) Indeed, I ended up running a small “cottage industry” making Nunchaku for my school friends at one point. Of course, all we wanted to be able to do was spin them all over the place without hitting ourselves in the head. So it’s always good for that residual teenage me to be reminded that they are a functional weapon too :-)

Thanks for sharing!

All the best,

Iain

Dale Parker
Dale Parker's picture

I have to admit, I went into this video with a different pre determined scenerio. 

Does anyone have tried and true methods for an unarmed person to disarm someone with Nunchaku?

Just curious.

Tau
Tau's picture

Dale Parker wrote:
I have to admit, I went into this video with a different pre determined scenerio. 

That's how I read it too

Dale Parker wrote:
Does anyone have tried and true methods for an unarmed person to disarm someone with Nunchaku?

Yes.

In my oppinion, for pragmatically focussed clubs or styles, defending against a nunchaku attack is quite pointless. The nunchaku would be classed an offensive weapon and a person caught carrying them in a public place without very good reason would surely be arrested. It stands to reason that if you wanted to carry an illegal weapon then you'd choose something much more effective with much less skill involved... like a knife I don't know the statistics for the number of violent crimes carried out by use of nunchaku but I guess it's less than one per year.

So why do it?

Well because it's fun and interesting.

In my club we've covered defence against "flexible weapons" which includes a belt with buckle, a weighted training belt that replicates a chigiriki and also nunchaku. I know one style that do a lot against chains but I'm not happy with the safety aspect of that. The movement involved in entering the momentum creates some dynamic throwing opportunities and some specific challenges.

Jr cook
Jr cook's picture

Dale Parker wrote:

Does anyone have tried and true methods for an unarmed person to disarm someone with Nunchaku?

Just curious.

Though I also think it's fairly pointless to train this, my inner ninja has made me try it! And being a weapon in our Kobudo system, we occasionally play with them. The disarm I have found useful is essentially to attack the weak point of the weapon, the cord/chain. In use, the nunchaku is very similar to a short stick. With the exception of the joint, it is swung in much the same arc. We train a lot with weapons and have gotten comfortable moving into the range of a swing to stop the motion at the arm.

As an unarmed defender this actually gets slightly easier against nunchaku because you don't need to close in as far. All of the velocity and impact comes from the non-gripped end of the weapon. If you can reach to the cord then you can stop the swing and simultaneously allow the weapon to wrap your hand or arm and stick to you. There is a bit of danger in the end flying around to hit you still but, once it wraps your hand it becomes difficult for the attacker to regain control. If a sharp pull doesn't take it out of their grasp, then proceed to disarm like you would with a club. 

As expected, this becomes harder once the opponent has seen it. They quickly adapt to a more abbreviated swing, using more wrist than arm. This makes it harder to get in on the weapon and is likely how the weapon was intended to be used IMO. My experience has found that everyone wants to swing them further away from their body to start. Maybe it's all the Bruce Lee films. Or maybe it's because nunchaku seem to have a knack for finding your knees, elbows or head if you swing them enough! 

Wastelander
Wastelander's picture

Haha, sorry about the confusion! I suppose a technique for disarming someone who is wielding nunchaku would be an interesting video--maybe we'll do one with sai vs. nunchaku one of these days :P

Dale Parker
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I would think it would center around beating the timing of the nunchaku weilder.

Dale Parker
Dale Parker's picture

And I agree they are an interesting weapon.  The Kobudo I do has them.  I've found them very good for helping people with motor skills.

Dave M
Dave M's picture

I watche a Chicago Transit cop take a guy down in the isle of a train with a pair, I asked him to do it agin it was a thing of beauty!