Anywho, training was different, as it sometimes is when Dai-Sensei takes our class. This time, we focused on bunkai from some of the lower kata, which was good as I’ll be required to demonstrate it in my future gradings. Now, this is all well and good, but Dai-Sensei brought in some goodies to accompany training – kobudo weapons We had a few options to work with, including jo, hanbo, sai, nunchaku, tonfa, katana, wakizashi and kama. What Dai-Sensei was trying to demonstrate was the relationship/connection between open-handed forms and kobudo forms, showing how one complements the other and that your open-handed karate kata has forms the work well with weapons. More importantly, it demonstrated that the principles of attack/defense/counter in kata can be re-enforced by applying the same principles in kobudo.

But the best part of the evening was playing with these:

Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons, original image by chris ?

Sai are awesome, and that’s probably because I watched too much TMNT as a kid Was great fun using them in class, and while I didn’t learn much that was all the useful due to the short period of time using them (though I learned a basic method for how to trap a Bo!), it was still so much fun

It also brought to the fore my interest in kobudo, and that I’d really like to get into it down the line. Though I can imagine the look Wifey would give me if I came home with more stuff to complement some of the staffs I have around the place from when I started doing mixed-style stick fighting last year

Related posts:

1. Another lightbulb moment – amputee-friendly round kicks (mawashi geri)
2. Shonky martial arts movies – round 1
3. Catching up on a few weeks’ worth of training

All the way down to the packaging, it’s an exact replica of the original TMNT toys I used to love playing with when I was a kid!!! Truly crazy/nerdy stuff. I used to love TMNT (in fact, I still do – I’m so tragic ), I wanted to get a picture of Raphael but I couldn’t find one. Ah well, the above should suffice I was also reading that apparently there’s a massive graphic novel compilation of the first x number of issues of the original comics on the way (500+ pages or something??), due out in a couple of months – I have the four coloured graphic novels of the original Eastman/Laird comics lying around the place, but the prospect of seeing more of the story and art sounds really, really awesome.

Aaaand, apparently the original TMNT movies and the new CG one are Blu-Ray box set bound some time this year. Probably a waste of moolah/HD capabilities, but I’ll totally pick them up. TMNT is so awesome.

Okay, I’ll end this nerd post here. Just thought I’d share the retro love

Related posts:

1. Archive: New TMNT – Best.Movie.Ever
2. Another lightbulb moment – amputee-friendly round kicks (mawashi geri)