The History of Nunchucks

Series Summary

Nunchucks are a traditional weapon of the Kobudo weapons set and consists of two sticks connected at their ends with a short chain or rope. The nunchuck as a weapon has surged in popularity since martial artist Bruce Lee used it in his movies in the 1970's. It is generally considered by martial artists to be a limited weapon, although it is also one of the least understood. Complex and difficult to use, the nunchuck has a steep learning curve. It is also prone to inflicting injury on its user.

Speed chucks are a kind of nunchuck with a short string, thus allowing for faster movement. In this free video series, our expert will teach you how to warm up to use speed nunchucks and how to hold them. You'll also learn a number of moves and strikes, such as x's, the helicopter, and side to side strikes. Soon, you'll learn a new and unique martial arts skill that will bring you that much closer to being the next Bruce Lee.

Video Transcript

"CALAB LABARDA: Oh, hi. My name is Calab Labarda, I'm a third degree black belt in Taekwondo. I'm here with Expert Village, and today, I'm going to teach you how to use speed chucks. Alright, so the first thing you should know about nunchucks is the history behind it, okay, before you learn how to use it. Alright, so the nunchucks were invented by taekwondo, okay, in Korea. That's where taekwondo originated from. It's a taekwondo weapon, okay. Now, what you see with me here is an original pair of nunchucks, okay. It's harder, it's got a nice, hard ends on them. It's got the chain and with ball bearings, they spin really fast. These aren't speed chucks. These are the original Bruce Lee style nunchucks, okay. Now, if you've been thinking about what these were used for. Before they were used for fighting and war, they are farm tools because Koreans were farmers back in the day, before there was any electricity, or any high-tech equipment, besides guns and things like that, okay. So, as a farming tool, they would use it as something to help grind grain, it's--that they hit their grain with it, okay. They can use it to roll the grain, okay, back and forth, and that was an important part to turn it into a fine powder. And also, different types of nunchucks are shorter and taller. They're for horse's horse bits, okay, that you put it in the horse's mouth and the rider, it would be connected, and it helped control the horse, okay. So, that's where your nunchucks originated from."