Not for sparring or formal martial arts - I mean, are nunchuks actually sensible tools to use in inflicting injury upon one’s fellow human beings?
It would seem not. I mean, if you want to hit people with blunt objects, we have sticks. If you want to hit people with blunt objects from a greater distance, we have . . . longer sticks. I guess you could possible build up more speed at the business end of a nunchuk, since you can swing it on the chain - but the thing just isn’t that long.
So, let me frame the question like this: Compared to say, a quarterstaff, a spear, or even a rock thrown in anger, how does a pair of nunchuks rate in terms of actually hurting other people in real fights?
Well, from a physics standpoint, E[sub]k[/sub] = 1/2 m v[sup]2[/sup]. If you can increase the speed of an object by a factor of 2 by decreasing its mass by a factor of 2, you’ll double it’s kinetic energy.
Nunchucks (or nunchaku) are easier to carry than a staff or spear
Defensively, they are good for entangling swords, staffs, etc., and thus disarming a foe, while the nunchaku user remains armed.
They can be used not only to strike an opponent but to strangle or perform a joint lock, which might be useful if the object is to subdue rather than harm an opponent.
They are cooler than spears or staffs. Chicks dig guys that can do cool stuff. Remember, it’s not the size of the weapon that counts…
I saw a show about Bruce Lee that mentioned nunchucks. According to the show, they weren’t considered to be very good weapons and weren’t at all popular until Bruce Lee started using them in movies. You can still hurt someone with them, but as the OP pointed out, there are plenty of better weapons.
I always thought that nunchucks were basically devised as a weapon for folks that weren’t allowed to have weapons, i.e. Japanese peasants. They could be used to thresh rice, and therefore were a farming tool (and therefore permitted to be used), but in a pinch would work as a decent weapon. Since it was basically a modified farming implement you wouldn’t necessarily expect it to make the top ten list of good weapons or anything like that. However, poking around on the net for a bit I have found that while commonly believed, their origin as a farming tool may not have any basis in reality.
Nunchuku are a form of flail. Flails in general are weaponized versions of agricultural tools, but still effective at hurting people. There are certainly better options; I’d pick a bat or quarterstaff, but those are harder to conceal.
compared to a (thrown) rock, nunchucks would be a more viable weapon because it isn’t a “one shot”
compared to a staff or spear (assuming the user knows how to wield it), nunchucks would likely not be as viable unless there were some environmental issues (cramped spaces) that would make the staff or spear less effective. This is more an issue of reach advantage.
The one you didn’t ask about: compared to a baton or club (with equivalent reach). There are pros and cons - you can exert more force with less effort with nunchucks, and arguably faster speed with nunchucks. The downside is that they bounce, so you need to know what to do once contact is made.
However, nunchucks have other uses than just bonking people:
if you’ve ever had one on your neck, you would know they make a very effective vice and can be very useful for “attitude adjustment”
wrapped around your opponent’s wrist, they can be used to hold them
I once hit someone with nunchucks hard enough to elicit an “OW FUCK!”. Unfortunately, the someone was me. That was the first and last time I messed around with the things. If you don’t know how to use them, they absolutely suck as a weapon OR a cool toy.
The chain or joint in flail-type weapons allows the striking end of the flail to move much faster than a solid rod of the same length. The Chinese three-section staff, or Sanjiegun, is if anything even harder to control than the nunchaku. An extremely versitile weapon, but only in the hands of someone expert enough to control it.
In addition to this, flail-type weapons don’t transfer much of the the shock of impact to the swinger’s hands - though this does have the downside of also not transferring your body momentum through impact either.
Like so much of the other bunk of MA, I’d say not very effective. Recently I saw a prison video of and inmate beating an elderly guard. He wailed on him pretty good with a baton and yet the guard fought back and walked away. I’ve seen a video of someone getting beaten with a tire iron (a woman receptionist) and she fought back and ran off. The point is that people don’t crumple up as easily in life as they do in the movies.
They are compact, but in a combat situation I’m guessing they would tangle easily. I’ve used them a lot for kata and me and my MA classmates would spar with rubber ones. Personally, I would rather fight empty handed.
I don’t know about that: as a weapon, they punished the recipient. As a toy, well, right now, somebody is quite amused! Missions accomplished!
Seriously, tho, they would be a good weapon, in the right context. You don’t need to spin them all around and flip upside down, etc…and, like scissor, paper, rock, it may be superior to many of the others. Whereas a quarterstaff can hook the nunchaku by its own chain/rope, the nunchaku can also deflect the quarterstaff from it’s course.
They can also beat somebody with only his bare hands, unless the barehanded one is not afrait to get damage to his own arm, hand, and then has strength and enough dexterity to whoop it up on you…
End result: they aren’t bad, but not perfect.
I agree they can be effective in skilled hands in certain situations, but if I have to fight somebody and I believe the use of a weapon is lawful under the circumstances, I want something that goes BANG repeatedly, and blows large gaping holes in the target.
I have a set of nunchaku that have wooden octagonal handles. The nice thing about them is that they will hurt like flaming hell when you whack them across a bony target (voice of experience), and the octagonal edge will slice like a knife if you hit across skin with power. Not a deep cut, but one of the most discouraging things for an attacker is the sight of his own blood.
Clubs that are held firmly don’t release as much of the energy into the target, releasing a significant amount of energy back into the wielder’s hands. That can hurt, be tiring, etc. It also hurts the target more.
I thought you taste the blood and just go back to fighting.