Anyone use sai?

session savage

Hi folks. I am wondering if anyone around Tipperary or Kilkenny teaches the sai? I would love to learn to use these. I come from karate and Japanese jiu jitsu background and haven't ever learned these but I feel like I should. Anyone have any ideas?

Dyr

session savage wrote: »

Hi folks. I am wondering if anyone around Tipperary or Kilkenny teaches the sai? I would love to learn to use these. I come from karate and Japanese jiu jitsu background and haven't ever learned these but I feel like I should. Anyone have any ideas?

Kung fu place off the O'Loughlin road in kilkenny might

pearsquasher

Sai seem to be part of some Okinawan Karate Kobudo popularized by turtle-based animation back in the 80's. I'd be weary of anyone claiming to teach their use authentically... especially in pairs, they way they are often depicted. For Japanese jujutsu the nearest equivalent is the jutte - basically a truncheon with a single thine. Its in the Bujinkan syllabus but not taught much.

Dyr

pearsquasher wrote: »

Sai seem to be part of some Okinawan Karate Kobudo popularized by turtle-based animation back in the 80's.

Ninjas being sniffy about the ninja turtles and authenticity in martial arts, how things change

The sai are used in chinese and Indonesian arts, known as gen and tjabang respectively.

pearsquasher

For somebody coming from karate or jujutsu background, I would say learning a weapon from an altogether different culture (indonesian/chinese), just because it looks the same, would be an uphill battle without learning the underlying movement of those arts first. I was going with the OP's background art and how they could proceed. Karate and jujutsu are as different mechanically from each other as they are from chinese/indonesian so I felt it was important to infer how learning Sai, a karate weapon, would be tricky. I'm assuming a desire to learn it properly under authentic instruction.

Speedwell

Well, I'll be damned, I thought those were rotisserie forks.

(Disclaimer: I both had the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and consulted on the writing of a book of hand weapons for a tabletop RPG. I really do know what sais are, I just have spent way too much time explaining an old inside joke that probably wasn't funny in the first place. Carry on.)