Which martial art uses Nunchuks?

A quick glance at traditional martial arts will show you that Nunchuks are commonplace within the world of combat sports. Also known as Nunchaku, these were popularized by Bruce Lee and others. They are small poles that are attached to each other by a small chain. As a result, they are easy to carry and are used by swinging them at your opponent. If hit with enough force, they can knock people out, or even kill them in severe cases.

Whilst they’re also seen as quite flashy and technical when being swung, they’re also practical and also do serious damage. So, you may be wondering what martial arts actually use Nunchuks? If you’re interested in learning these iconic Japanese weapons then read on.

Karate

Whilst many Karate dojos opt to train without weapons, those that do will often use Nunchuks. This is because Karate is a Japanese martial art that often incorporated the Kobudo weapons, especially during Karate’s earlier days, with both art forms stemming from the Okinawa region of Japan.

This means that you could also find other weapons such as the Bo and Bokken too in Karate as well as much more. Nunchuks can be used alongside Karate movements and often the training without weapons blends into a similar pattern of training with weapons. For example, you may learn certain footwork and swift hand movements that allows you to block strikes and counter with a punch. This same pattern can be applied to striking an opponent with Nunchuks.

Okinawan Kobudo

Nunchuks originated from Okinawan Kobudo which birthed various weapons that are used to this very day in a number of different martial arts. You may not know that Nunchuks were originally rice flails. That’s right, like many weapons from Kobudo, these were originally used as farming tools to cut rice for the harvest.

During the era when weapons were banned in Japan, farmers and peasants would adapt their tools to create makeshift weapons. This is how the Nunchuk was born. Since then, its shape has changed and the poles aren’t as long as rice flails. Nonetheless, it still makes for an interesting piece of history and is one of the most popular weapons to appear from Okinawan Kobudo.

Jeet Kune Do

Jeet Kune Do was created by Bruce Lee who wanted to apply his Wing Chun techniques to a street fight setting. As a result, he wasn’t afraid to use weapons, and often Nunchuks were his weapon of choice. Over the years, countless videos have appeared showing Bruce Lee’s stellar technique with Nunchuks. Here, he’d show off his speed and technical control when using them.

These days, Jeet Kune Do still uses Nunchuks and there’s a big emphasis on how to attack and defend with them.

Hapkido

Hapkido is known as a pretty broad martial art that uses various fighting styles. From grappling to striking and use of weapons, you can find a bit of everything in Hapkido. With this in mind, it’s not unusual to see people training with Nunchaku in this martial art. It should be noted that like Karate, sometimes this isn’t the case though.

The reason for this is that Hapkido is almost an umbrella system. That is, techniques and training systems may vary from place to place. Therefore, if you’re dead set on using Nunchuks in a Hapkido dojo, then it may be best to call ahead as certain gyms may not use Nunchuks.

Others

Although the above mostly use Nunchuks, there are certain other martial arts that can sometimes use them. These are the likes of Wing Chun, Kung Fu, and Eskrima. Basically, it all depends on the teacher and their own individual take on the martial art that they train. If someone wants to incorporate Nunchuks into their combat system, then they are allowed to do so. Having said this, obviously, Nunchuks feature in certain martial arts more than others.

Are Nunchuks legal to carry?

Nunchuks are perfectly legal to buy and mainstream sites such as eBay and Amazon will both happily sell Nunchuks to the general public. In fact, you can pick up a pair for under $10 which shows how many Nunchuks are in circulation and that the demand for them is high. It should be added that some Nunchuks are more dangerous than others and certain ones are softer, with training and safety in mind.

Having said this, Nunchuks are often illegal to carry in public. This differs from country to country so it’s best to check out the rules where you live. In the USA, it also depends on which state you live in. For instance, in California, they are classed as a dangerous weapon so in most cases, it’s illegal to own Nunchuks, let alone carry them out in public. Because of this, you should treat Nunchuk ownership with the care and responsibility that they demand.

Can you learn Nunchuks online?

To answer this question, yes you can learn how to use Nunchuks online. In fact, a quick look through Youtube will show various videos on how to use them and there’s plenty of skilled teachers out there. Of course, the best tool for any martial art is to try and learn in person. Whilst learning visually can and does work, nothing beats learning in person in a gym environment, where your technique will be rigorously tested and improved upon.

However, if you can’t afford to train at a gym then arguably Nunchuks are some of the best weapons to learn alone and it’s a case of trying to emulate the monkey see, monkey do method in terms of learning.

Conclusion

Overall, there are several martial arts that teach the use of Nunchuks which is great if you want to learn them. If you live in a city or town, then the chances are that there’s at least on dojo that trains Nunchuks in some capacity. Of course, learning them is not easy and like any martial art this will take a number of years to master.

At the same time, just because you become skilled in using Nunchuks, it doesn’t mean that you should use them on people, and in most cases they’re learned for show, or as a last resort in a self defense scenario.