Tonfa Training

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

Cleaning out my garage the other day, I found a pair of tonfa that I’d forgotten about. I had a very brief introduction to them when I was training regularly at a dojo, but that was forever ago and I can’t remember much at all.

Anyone know resources (books, dvds, instructors, or general arts) to look into finding some basic how-to’s? Obviously it’s not for self-defense, so I guess it’d be more of a traditional MA-type, learning them just for the sake of learning.

I guess I could wing it, since the basics are probably the basics (thrust, slash, block, etc.), but it’d still be nice to have something somewhat-organized to refer to.

2

Is this a sport of some kind? Just a self-defense method? It looks cool as hell.

3

[quote]PlainPat wrote:
Is this a sport of some kind? Just a self-defense method? It looks cool as hell.[/quote]
I’m just talking about using the old school tool-turned-weapon, the tonfa.

4

This guy is Shihan Nishiuchi, and is a very legit kobudo instructor.

There are more of his videos on youtube, and I think they come from this series:

5

[quote]borrek wrote:
This guy is Shihan Nishiuchi, and is a very legit kobudo instructor.

[/quote]
Cool, thanks.

Yep, I noticed that pop up on Youtube, I just wasn’t sure what’s what and who’s who there. Obviously any knucklehead with a video camera can upload a “tutorial” there. I’ll check out his stuff.

6

Tonfas were my favorite weapon out of the kubudo selection. It’s been about 6 years since I studied with them, but I liked them a lot.

I meant to make pair on a lathe out of some very heavy wood. Since most commercial pairs are light and cheap feeling.

7

Light or cheap feeling, those puppies can still whip around real hard.
I was once practicing my tonfas, which are ‘commercial grade’ (light and cheapy-ish) when I lost my grip.
Fucking thing went flying and made a hole through the wall.

8

lol. yeah, it would suck it get slapped with one.

9

i want to say i remember seeing old law enforcement manuals for the use of tonfas.

also talked about how to use them in a joint lock / pain complicance way to extract someone out from a vehicle and how to do pain compliance escorts.

10

[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:
i want to say i remember seeing old law enforcement manuals for the use of tonfas.

also talked about how to use them in a joint lock / pain complicance way to extract someone out from a vehicle and how to do pain compliance escorts.[/quote]
Good call, definitely another avenue I wasn’t really thinking of. I do have a buddy on the local police force. They don’t use this style of baton, but I’ll see if he can find me some info.

I did notice some security/law enforcement-based videos around but, again, some of them were of questionable quality.

Thanks, ReligiousRigatoni.

11

[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:

Thanks, ReligiousRigatoni.[/quote]

lol.

of course, 99% of modern day police have now updated to the collapseable baton. the tonfa though was pretty popular for awhile there nationwide. you may have to do some digging, but there should be a lot of material to be found.

as with any martial art / weapon system, not all material taught will be applicable and/or realistic. although UNLIKE a lot of the traditional martial arts, there will have been a lot of practical and modern day use of it.