Yes, let's get back to the topic. Ashihara Student pointed out the tonfa videos. I checked these out and was wondering if anyone here is a Kobudo student and if they could be possibly checked out for authenticity. They look a little like homebrew to me but I could be wrong. The link is here:

http://ironcrane.com/html/tonfa.htm

This whole Iron Crane dojo looks a little mixed up, it looks like a hotchpotch of kungfu and karate with some weapons and hapkido thrown in. Now that's fine by me - absorb what is useful and all that - but there seems to be a lack of technique going on in these videos. The guy in the tonfa video is the "grandmaster" or whatever. There are photos of him being presented with his menkyo kaiden or whatever you like to call it from the previous grandmaster. Check out this link for their black belt grading syllabus....

http://ironcrane.com/html/abbtest.html

Now that should give you a flavour of what these guys do. But I'm not impressed with the technique being displayed in these videos so far. Take a look at the videos of the Isshinryu kata...

http://ironcrane.com/html/isshinkta.html

Can somebody from Isshinryu please take a look and see what you think. They are performed pretty appallingly in my opinion. Fair enough one of the guys (the grandmaster) demonstrating is old, and hat's off to him for still training, having a website for his students and all that. But I get the urge to order a cheeseburger, fries and a large strawberry milkshake from their online shop. ( I love the US McD's strawberry shakes, you get bits of strawberry in them. None of that over here tight b******s)

ps. Here's another link to an altogether far more interesting piece of vintage footage of master Shimabuku himself...
http://ironcrane.com/html/shimvid.html

I don't know enough to say anything...I've only taken weapons for about a year now. But, I can't help but notice that there seems to be no 'target'...no 'intent'...no muscle in it.

Hi, there.

They are interesting??? Why are you SO crying?
Interesting or not? They are prefere THE MEAT? What is the problem? YOU are prefere potatoes? It is only YOUR problem. They are like LIFE and MArts? YOU like??? Like them? Academics... This is karate. OK. Such karate...

My, 1961, recomendations? Really you want them? OK... I'll be great for a second... Get the way of YOUR master, YOUR style, YOUR ryu. Study karate.

Best regards.

It is not for "Isshinryukid4life - Veteran". Only reply for the last post. My mistake.

For "Isshinryukid4life - Veteran"... I'm not "Gun fu". I understand that the "ironcrane" is or was the old club without the famous master at the beginning. Without style. Without the serious federation links. This is really obvious! You are clever and i'm stupid
Ok.
You saw interesting hand held weapon like a screwdriver with the cross instead of the handle? Really at SUCH school there is no anything, interesting?
Ok.
YOU are clever...

Best regards.

wow, I guess he told YOU, huh kid. I have no idea WHAT he/she told you...but it sounded similar to a point.

1961: Multiple choice question...
"Do you really find this karate club website too interesting?"
A) Yes
B) No

Short Answer question: "Why or why not?"

thanks.

(Can't help myself...High School flashback...)

To paraphrase Hamlet, it is a post told by an ...full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

I think I understand what you trying to say 1961, and my reply would be that martial arts is being eroded by people who make a big deal of shall we say the "glam" side of karate - the headbands, pictures of grizzly bears and dragons, karate belts and kung fu uniforms, poor quality technique demonstrated on video (and I would not be ripping the s**t out of these guys so much if I hadn't witnessed their techniques on these videos). These people do not strike me as being competent martial artists. They might love martial arts and train hard like the rest of us but thats not enough and I think the videos they have produced speak for themselves on that point.

I think it is our duty to discourage the practice of poor standards and a pre-occupation with all the bs that goes with the martial arts and that's what I'm doing with my critisms of these people.

On a side note I do not find this website "interesting" at all apart from the historic video clips of master Shimabuku. I would not want to learn anything from these guys as a student.