Eskrima Kombat

In the video above, Skallagrim makes multiple common-sense observations on the nunchaku.

The nunchaku became popular after Bruce Lee used then in his movies. Suddenly ignorant legislators became concerned about the “deadly” nunchaku. There was a case of a blind guy in California who was beaten by cops who mistook his collapsible cane for a pair of nunchaku. The blind man, who couldn’t see they were cops, thought he was being robbed. The problem here is cops who are afraid of the super-deadly nunchaku. Had their overblown fear of the secret killer Asian kung-fu weapon not been in play, they wouldn’t have seen the guy as a threat.

Reality is that you can far more easily stab someone to death with an icepick, but nunchaku look good on screen. The nunchaku are a movie weapon, because they are flashy and easy to see, unlike a knife used in a realistic manner.

Even though nunchaku were illegal in California, my friend and I made our own, as did everybody. The home-made nunchaku were far more dangerous because they had a tendency to fly apart, particularly when you had 1/4 inch eyescrews in soft pine broomsticks or closet dowel.

Once I was swinging our homemade nunchaku like crazy, just a few feet from my friend Terry. I stopped and let the nunchaku swing out from under my armpit. One stick simply fell off the eyscrew and dropped to the makeshift mat. We both froze in the sudden realization that if that stick had come loose a few seconds earlier, Terry might have been hit in the face with a flying stick. Oops!

If you’re ever attacked by cinder blocks….

They irony is that if people could have bought legally-manufactured, quality nunchaku there would have been fewer injuries.

I wish legislators would grasp the fact that it’s the person who is dangerous, not the weapon. I grew up in a neighborhood where every every kid had access to multiple pistols, shotguns, and deer rifles, which are far more powerful than so-called “assault weapons,” yet nobody in my neighborhood ever shot anybody –perhaps because we all came from intact families.

 

 

 

Below I’m including footage of GM Inosanto swinging the nunchaku, with a caveat that you should keep in mind there are differences between theatrical martial arts and realistic martial arts. GM Inosanto himself has said he would rather have a stick than a pair of nunchaku, but a hammer handle doesn’t look as good as a pair of nunchaku, either on screen or in your dojo.