On Saturday we ran our Kobudo workshop, and what a great turnout! Thank you to all those who came along and brought family or friends, next time we may need to book a bigger room!
It had to be said when Tim San and Richard San heard that the Dojo had voted for a Tonfa and Jo workshop (all wooden weapons can be called Kobudo), they weren’t in all honesty inspired! 
But like all good blackbelts they knuckled down and embraced the subject and were surprised with how much fun they had!
Richard San of course still managed to turn his lecture on the Jo in to an advanced sword lesson! By understanding the circular nature of the weapon, enjoying the hand changes and embracing the fact that both ends of the weapon can strike he had the students performing great looking ‘combat Jo’. But because they were also being taught complex hand changes that can be used in sword, and even understanding that because it teaches you to centre the mind away from just one direction, you may even be able to understand how a swordsman could use long and short blades to defend himself upon all sides.
Tim San’s lecture on Tonfa jumped straight in with the huge amount of pain this awesome combat weapon could cause an attacker! Arming each student with 1 pair of Tonfa each!
They all set too, learning attack and defence sequences. Building from basic drills to final sequences where they had to incorporate spins and intricate hand changes, this systematic way of teaching was ideal for some of our students who had never been to a wisewarrior session, or indeed any lesson in Martial Arts!!
The 2 hours passed as always way to fast, and despite that each person had only an hour at Tonfa and an hour at Jo they all really achieved so much, the beginners looked confident holding the weapon, and our more advanced students really took too the weapons, enjoying the chance of movement that these Kobudo classes teach, as our sen’s say; any time spent learning with another student will be time well spent. But these weapons do have an important part to play in improving not just your weapons skills but your Martial art skills!
So a Karate student or Aikido student will be better in the dojo because of spending time at a weapons seminar, skills of coordination, space awarness, and being able to use both left and right sides of our bodies and indeed our minds can all be worked upon….and indeed sharpened in that session! So well done if you made it!
Just a reminder our next workshop is the; ‘Holistic movement meditation class’, on the 21st and 22nd of April, (an hour on each day) it will be very different to the last Kobudo one, but guaranteed you are going learn loads from it!
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Dohigh Kevin · 2 April 2012 at 1:10 pm
Having never picked one – or a pair – up before it was great to work with Tonfa in such a dynamic way. (Although after nearly an hour my hands were disagreeing slightly as they began to cramp!).
It hardly felt like any time at all but somehow two hours seemed to slip by unnoticed. A brilliant afternoon.