Weapons in Taekwondo

[FearlessFreep]

(Some backstory - back to my "Black Belt Dads" story, I found out that the reason I was not told initially to attend the Saturday afternoon class is that the Sat class is an 'optional' class that is a little more intense and quasi-'by invitation' for some students and when I had initially asked about a sparring class I'm assuming did not have enough time at the school for the instructor to make such a judgement, hence ending up in the Friday class with yonger students by default. This has been resolved because a) I'm now in the Saturday class, I guess having proven at least my work-ethic and b) The Friday evening adult class is now doing sparring and I'm not atteninding the early class of younger students)

Anyway, inthe Saturday afternoon class they are doing some Bo Staff training. This seems a bit of a new thing. The instructors seem confident and assured but it seems to be a bit of a new concept to the students. The class is mostly black belts with a few higher gup ranks (I'm pretty much the bottom of the gup ranks).

The thing I'm wondering is this: Is weapon training a part of TKD? The reason I ask is because I always assumed that when you reached black belt that you pretty much had been taught all the basic techniques of TKD and that from BB onwas honing, perfecting studying and understanding those techniques better. So I'm curious about bring in a new subject as complicated as handling a weapon either after you've achieved Dan )Or Poom for some of the students) of pretty close to that point. I would assume that this intricate would be started taught at an earlier rank. Or is it done for saety sake? Or is the weapons training really not a part of 'traditional taekwondo' and is something added on as a compliment?

Or is in non-standard enough that only my instructor could answer for his school?

 

[Rich Parsons]

Caveat: I have not trained in TKD, but I have friends who have (* ITF & WTF *) and this is what I saw.

That some of the techniques are still learned at the higher ranks in the Forms. So there is new material even for third or fourth degree black. (* Once again based upon what I saw, not an official member of any Org *).

Some clubs would also begin weapons, and not all weapons were required, some were recommended, and others were optional. I believe this has to do with the weapon forms competitions. I could be wrong. Back in the early 80's my friends all used and had "Nun-chuks". Later lots of people took up the staff for their own development and for competition.

Just and outsiders perspective.

Good Luck

 

[FearlessFreep]

I actually like the idea of training a staff (up until now I had been sitting out because it was for 'black and pre-black' but the instructor(s) said I could eget a staff and join in, saying "better then sitting around...")

Anyway I like the idea because staff is probably something I could find a 'legal to carry' variant that would be less obviously dangerous than a knife and yet considerably even the odds if ever faced with a knife.

 

[Brad Dunne]

For WTF / Kukkiwon, there are no weapons training requirments. Any weapons training is by choice of individual school/instructor. That being said, the weapon of choice for most TKD folks in competition is the Bo/Staff.

 

[ajs1976]

I have heard some schools introduce weapons to the dan level students to give them something new to learn and keep them interested which helps with student retention.

My intructor has a weapons class that covers sword, staff, and nunchuka and he is talking about adding the fan. It is a separate class that is outside of the TKD curriculum and is open to any student.

 

[Marginal]

Or is the weapons training really not a part of 'traditional taekwondo' and is something added on as a compliment?

It's an add on. TKD is an empty hand art. Doesn't mean it's not useful tho.

 

[TigerWoman]

As far as our school, weapons is an add on but is not tested . We have bo staff, nunchaku, and sai. I was told these were not traditional Korean weapons but Indonesian of origin. We practice these for tournaments and demos basically. There is a special class designated for this practice. A weapon is not required for black belt but after that usually every black belt takes up a weapon.

It used to be that weapons were not taught until black belt so the basics were finished first. At least my son had to wait until then to start nunchuks. But now even a white belt can start, but seldom do. Enough on their plate, I think. It is quite time consuming after all. TW

 

[jfarnsworth]

I had to learn basics on the sai, staff, tonfa, nunchuck, and some defenses with a cane. The cane was more addressed for the older people in the studio but since they were working on stuff the rest of us did as well.

 

[bluemtn]

At one class I go to, you can go to the weapons seminars that are held yearly (it's an add on), at any rank. At the new one, we start doing weapons as green belts.

 

[BrandiJo]

we start wepons at green and they are optional, ever few months we change wepons.

 

[Tony]

When I think of Taekwondo I have images of empty hand patterns, dynamic flashy jumping kicks but how can you call it Taekwondo when you add weapons. Isn't it a mostly kicking art with some hand techniques? I don't doubt the effectiveness of this style but why add weapons?
In kung fu and other arts there are weapons as its a requirement.
My friend who does GTI Taekwondo has started learning how to use the nunchuks. This is a weapon that has it origins from China as we do that in my class but why Taekwondo?

 

[FearlessFreep]

Isn't it a mostly kicking art with some hand techniques?

Taekwondo is mostly a hard linear striking art. That you see a lot of kicks is partially a result of the approach that you can get more powerful strikes from the legs, and the fact that the scoring in sport competition is setup to encourage high kicks over hand strikes. So it's easy for an oberver to see it as being able abt kicks with some hands.

 

[karatekid1975]

We start bo training at green. My instructor designed two basic forms to teach the lower gups how to strike and block with the bo. Then we have two bo forms (one we learn at 2nd gup, the other at BB).

 

[Tarot]

Anyway I like the idea because staff is probably something I could find a 'legal to carry' variant that would be less obviously dangerous than a knife and yet considerably even the odds if ever faced with a knife.

This is part of the reason I really want to learn bo staff. I think it would be a good technique to know because my thinking is, if I'm ever in a real fight I would be able to pick up something around me (pipe, peice of wood etc.) and use my bo staff knowledge. It just seems really practical to me.

The current school I'm at (taking my trial classes) teaches weapons. It one of the main reasons I'm seriously looking at this school because weapons training is something I consider important to my training. My Master starts weapons training at purple belt and is willing to teach you anything you want to know. I'm hoping to learn bo staff, sword, and short sticks when I get to that level.