# Nunchaku - The final answer **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 30, 2016, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266 "2016-07-30T10:37:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/121 "2016-08-16T15:19:05Z")
> [@Hill\_Billy](#): > > I assure you at 5’9", 360lbs the internet is the only place you cowards would say such mean things. > [@naita](#): > > What is 5’9", 360lbs? The internet is. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/122 "2016-08-16T15:27:33Z")
> [@Hill\_Billy](#): > > The childish, idiotic comments regarding a legend, like Paul Anderson are as stupid as they are disrespectful. I assure you at 5’9", 360lbs the internet is the only place you cowards would say such mean things. Those “childish, idiotic” comments weren’t pointed toward Paul Anderson, a man for whom I have a great deal of respect (and who never once held a pair of nunchaku). They were aimed at the silly claim and poor grammar in your post. From the [Paul Anderson Park](http://www.paulandersonpark.com/short_walk.php) (in Toccoa, GA) page: > [@](#): > > During these early years, the true champion began to emerge as this ingenious young man envisioned and created homemade weights and apparatuses that are still awe-inspiring. On any given day, Paul could be seen lifting old car axles, 50-gallon drums filled with concrete, huge iron wheels, an old safe filled with weights and concrete, or a combination of them all. I seriously doubt that Paul’s mom, Ethel, would allow such in her “swing” room. But who needs facts, amiright? ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/123 "2016-08-16T16:50:23Z")
> [@Hill\_Billy](#): > > The childish, idiotic comments regarding a legend, like Paul Anderson are as stupid as they are disrespectful. I assure you at 5’9", 360lbs the internet is the only place **you cowards** would say such mean things. (bolding added) Just a friendly heads-up. You’re welcome to disagree with folks in here, but you’re edging toward personal insults, here. Keep it civil and feel free to otherwise carry on the discussion. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/124 "2016-08-16T16:55:52Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Those “childish, idiotic” comments weren’t pointed toward Paul Anderson, a man for whom I have a great deal of respect (and who never once held a pair of nunchaku). They were aimed at the silly claim and poor grammar in your post. From the [Paul Anderson Park](http://www.paulandersonpark.com/short_walk.php) (in Toccoa, GA) page: > I seriously doubt that Paul’s mom, Ethel, would allow such in her “swing” room. But who needs facts, amiright? Maybe he’s doing all these exercises in her sewing room. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/125 "2016-08-16T17:01:11Z")
Are there any videos available showing the superiority of nunchakus versus other weapons? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/126 "2016-08-16T17:42:43Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Are there any videos available showing the superiority of nunchakus versus other weapons? [This one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSTcqOyURHk) is pretty conclusive. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/127 "2016-08-16T17:51:36Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > [This one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSTcqOyURHk) is pretty conclusive. Um, thanks…but no. And nothing from the Shaw Brothers Studio, if you don’t mind. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/128 "2016-08-18T15:00:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Are there any videos available showing the superiority of nunchakus versus other weapons? Nope. You can find tons of video of people twirling them expertly, same as a cheerleading baton (eerily similar in some cases), but as a weapon they aren’t much more effective than going barehanded, and are less effective than most anything else. If Jason Bourne was ambushed in a room with a bunch of office supplies and a pair of nunchaku, he’d throw a stapler at his assailant as a delaying tactic while he rolled up a magazine or grabbed a pen. Me, if I were attacked and I had a pair of them, I’d toss them to my assailant in hopes he’d injure himself trying to use them. ---
**Author:** ![Hill\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/46a35a/32.png) [@Hill\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hill_Billy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/129 "2016-08-18T19:13:40Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > But frankly, as a weapon, it sucks. It is much easier to disarm someone with an SJB than it is to disarm someone with a single stick. The stick has the advantage of leverage which the SJB doesn’t have. > > Bruce Lee was good with them, I’ll grant you that. But he took a second-rate weapon and turned it into a first-rate flashy movie prop and now people think it is a weapon of the ghods. It ain’t. Deal with it. I absolutely agree with you. Which is why the sjambok is my favorite weapon. If it weren’t for Bruce Lee I don’t think we would know what a nunchaku even is. ---
**Author:** ![Hill\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/46a35a/32.png) [@Hill\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hill_Billy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/130 "2016-08-18T19:18:39Z")
Are images not able to be uploaded? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/131 "2016-08-18T19:32:00Z")
All a bunch of bollocks. Everyone knows the [Bec de Corbin](http://irongatearmory.com/other_weapons/spears_and_pole_weapons/bec_de_corbin) is the most awesome weapon in the world. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Hill\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/46a35a/32.png) [@Hill\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hill_Billy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/132 "2016-08-18T22:45:56Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I seriously doubt that Paul’s mom, Ethel, would allow such in her “swing” room. But who needs facts, amiright? Here’s 5’9", 360lb Paul squatting his 6000lb wheels IN HIS MOTHER’S **SEWING** ROOM. [[http://www.payh](http://www.payh) org]([http://www.payh](http://www.payh) org) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2016, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/133 "2016-08-18T23:11:02Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > Nope. You can find tons of video of people twirling them expertly, same as a cheerleading baton (eerily similar in some cases), but as a weapon they aren’t much more effective than going barehanded, and are less effective than most anything else. If Jason Bourne was ambushed in a room with a bunch of office supplies and a pair of nunchaku, he’d throw a stapler at his assailant as a delaying tactic while he rolled up a magazine or grabbed a pen. > > Me, if I were attacked and I had a pair of them, I’d toss them to my assailant in hopes he’d injure himself trying to use them. If you hold it folded, with both ends in the same hand, you get a short club with a metal tip. Not a bad weapon in a pinch. ---
**Author:** ![Hill\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/46a35a/32.png) [@Hill\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hill_Billy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/134 "2016-08-19T00:57:26Z")
The nunchaku is an excellent weapon for choking/strangling & joint locking/pinching. Which is how it was originally used by Okinawans. Theres NO evidence of them ever using it as a striking weapon. It was only after Bruce Lee resurrected the nunchaku was it ever used to spar or strike. I like the post about martial art students first weapon being the nunchaku because it painfully reaches restraint. Cold Steel’s polypropylene version of the sjambok is also, great for pinching/locking/choking & a helluva lot more user friendly for striking than the overrated “numchuck”. Thanks for all the “constructive criticism” fellow board members the comments have cleared up any misconceptions I had about the sjambok being a superior flail-type weapon. If only it was concealable! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/135 "2016-08-19T03:52:58Z")
> [@Hill\_Billy](#): > > I absolutely agree with you. Which is why the sjambok is my favorite weapon. If it weren’t for Bruce Lee I don’t think we would know what a nunchaku even is. The why the _hell_ did you start this thread, then post a bunch of unsupported “facts” about the twirly things? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/136 "2016-08-19T11:13:12Z")
> [@Hill\_Billy](#): > > Thanks for all the “constructive criticism” fellow board members the comments have cleared up any misconceptions I had about the sjambok being a superior flail-type weapon. If only it was concealable! At last, our long national nightmare is over. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/137 "2016-08-19T13:08:26Z")
> [@Hill\_Billy](#): > > Here’s 5’9", 360lb Paul squatting his 6000lb wheels IN HIS MOTHER’S **SEWING** ROOM. > > [[http://www.payh](http://www.payh) org]([http://www.payh](http://www.payh) org) The page you tried to link to contains a video. That video does indeed, at about the 1:20 mark, show Paul Anderson squatting an immensely heavy weight (judging by the bend of the bar) in **A** room. A still from that video, by the way, is on his Wikipedia page. Nowhere in the video or audio does it show or say anything about it being his mom’s sewing room. Bear in mind that a modern residential floor has a safe live load of about 40 lbs per square foot. The lift you describe would exceed that threshold by some 80 fold. In addition, that lift doesn’t depict his famous 6,200 lb lift which, in all fairness, is disputed and was removed from the Guinness books. No photo evidence exists, but it was described as a [back lift](http://www.oocities.org/colosseum/9748/dino2005k.jpg), where he loaded a low table with people and weights (including a concrete filled safe), crawled under and lifted the weight a few inches with his back and legs. No human, past or present, could squat 6,0000 lbs. Is it so hard to admit that you’re just making stuff up? Or are you just going to keep getting more ridiculous? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/138 "2016-08-19T13:17:15Z")
> [@Hill\_Billy](#): > > Cold Steel’s polypropylene version of the sjambok is also, great for pinching/locking/choking & a helluva lot more user friendly for striking than the overrated “numchuck”. > > Thanks for all the “constructive criticism” fellow board members the comments have cleared up any misconceptions I had about the sjambok being a superior flail-type weapon. If only it was concealable! So in conclusion: The final-final answer is that the sjambok is the superior self defense weapon. If only it wasn’t so completely impractical. Got it. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/139 "2016-08-19T14:21:45Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > Is it so hard to admit that you’re just making stuff up? Or are you just going to keep getting more ridiculous? I’m going to go out on a limb and vote for the second option. ---
**Author:** ![Hill\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/46a35a/32.png) [@Hill\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hill_Billy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266/140 "2016-08-19T14:55:50Z")
Here’s another TRULY ridiculous story \> [http://www.naplesnews.com/story/sports/olympics/2016/07/31/olympic-fire-still-burns-93-year-old-floridian-frank-spellman-weighlifting-medalist/87883798/](http://www.naplesnews.com/story/sports/olympics/2016/07/31/olympic-fire-still-burns-93-year-old-floridian-frank-spellman-weighlifting-medalist/87883798/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nunchaku-the-final-answer/761266.md?page=8)