I just want to screw around in my backyard with a peice of plyboard or something. And besides, ummmm...well... I have a cough*ninja suit*cough cough!!!

you don't need a teacher to learn shuriken. You can throw knives without a teacher, you can throw shuriken too. Dependency on a teacher to do everything in martial arts is not good. You may not be learning authentic shuriken techniques, but shuriken are for throwing, not for reenacting history. Learn a ryuha method when you find a teacher who'll teach you about it.

Buy a set of quality shuriken and practice with those. The ones on the site I mentioned are very high quality and very close to spec on most shuriken in the ryuha they represent.

I recommend bo shuriken as they're more difficult to throw and face less legal opposition due to their non weaponlike appearance.

I agree with paradox about not necessarily needing a teacher for throwing things - but only providing that the practioner has already had some experience with MA weapons and has good stances and is careful.

I bought shuriken and used a cardboard target on a big tree on my property [carefully].

We made sure that only one person threw at a time and we were very careful to find all the shuriken before throwing again.

- Apart from when my son decided to be "smart" when I was busy elsewhere and see how high up the tree he could throw one. He threw it so high that it was lost for about 3 weeks until the wind dislodged it!

As it was in the middle of our own private property, there was no danger to the public and we just left it there until nature sorted it out.

What should I use as a board? I was thinking of buying a 5x8 piece of plyboard and spray painting a silohette of a person on it and using that as my target. Big enough for me to mess up and not worry about killing something.

Reiki, could you give a shortlist on the 'skills' or concepts one can acquire by learning how to throw shuriken?

thanks.

I'm going to have to be the party pooper here. I understand everyone is trying to help but there is something we need to keep in mind. Saarna is 14, he's not the one who is going to be charged if found with these items; his parents will. If his parents are ok with him having shuriken or nunchaku and understand the implications of having them then that's one thing. I don't feel Fightingarts.com as a collective should be responsible for aiding a minor in obtaining illegal weapons without any sign of parental consent. This is how law suites are started. It's one thing if he didn't know it was illegal and we tried to help him out. No one would expect most here to know off the top of their head what is legal in Cali. Because he knows and mentions they are illegal in his state and we as a collective (fightingarts.com) offer him with a means to circumvent the legal system can be held partially liable in the even someone is accidentally hurt.

Saarna i suggest you find a different interest for the time being, at least until your old enough to be held responsible for your own actions and decisions. I don't want to discourage you from any form of martial arts training but there are just some things that will be out of your reach for a while.


http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=35848819893+1+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

Sound advice. Remember: Trix are for kids...and weapons for adults.

Personally, I have too many things to remember that can get me in trouble if I forget them (filing my taxes on time, remembering to keep my cars registered and inspected, etc.) to take my chances with illegal activities. For me, I always balance the potential cost of an activity against the potential return...and that is why I turned down a set of free shuriken. 'No thanks' to potential trouble.

Funny, we used to make them all the time in high school, metal shop, do they still have that?

My dad is the one who'd be ordering the shuriken. I don't have a credit card and most of these sites only take paypal or something similar.

Bo shuriken are not illegal in most areas of the world because they have 2 points only.

In general most countries where shuriken are illegal, the law states that the object must have 3 points or more and is generally known as a shaken (in some cases also as shuriken, but almost always the definition is at least 3 points).

Bo shuriken are the real deal anyway. Senban/shaken are very easy to throw. Too easy. Get good with bo shuriken and you can throw chopsticks or pens at people.

Get good at throwing all kinds of light objects too, that's very useful. Throwing lit cigarettes as a distraction comes to mind. But it's tough to do.

Also remember that as long as no one sees you doing it, no one will ever report you. So if you live in the city, keep your activities indoors.

For a target I recommend a large plywood board with a 1/4 inch thick slab of cork board over the area you plan to hit the most. If you're doing this inside don't throw towards windows, and you may want to cover the floor beneath your target with a blanket or foam mattress so the shuriken don't make noise when they bounce off... you're new- they will bounce off.

there's an australian site called secrets of the shuriken.. google it for some basic techniques, but understand not all of the techniques there are described acurately (to protect kuden) and also there are many variations on how to throw.