Hello Victor Smith sensei,Bill Steigner sensei tells me you do some rather unorthodox training for a Isshinryu stylist but I had no idea!!!He also said you do some sifi writing maybe this is a combination effort.I will never be able to watch a flutist again without cracking up.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...h&plindex=7

There's no playing of the flute in this form, but the concept of using a flute as a weapon isn't so crazy if you've got the right flute.

I'm going to say this in the most respectful way possible...

Are you guys that simple minded? It it clearly intended as a joke, not a serious video.

..let me chill with that comment. Some of you get the joke but it's clear some of you took that seriously. Kinda sad - I don't know who's fault it is that you can't tell real stupid videos from joke stupid videos, I guess there's that many sincerely dumb videos out there. But this isn't one of them.

On a more serious note...

Just to let you know, In China the transverse flute is called di (various types: di-zi , chang-di , etc.) and one variety, called tie-di ("iron flute"), is indeed intended as a possible weapon should the necessity to defend oneself arise for the player. I personally own one of those (bought it in an armoury in Tianjin. One of the many flutes I bought in China, being a flute playing freak. ). Mine also has the advantage of a hidden blade that can be used by unscrewing a part of the flute . The blade is nothing short of crappy and hardly deserves the name, but the sheer weight of the flute makes it a bludgeon not to be taken lightly. As for its sound, it's very similar to that of the western transverse flute although it has no key the fingers positions differ.

I don't know any form that use this weapon, though...

In Japan, the Shakuhachi is a sturdy flute usually made from the base of a bamboo tree. It's about 18" long, 2" in diameter & played vertically (like a recorder). The base is wider (base of the bamboo stalk) than the body. In the old days, the Shakuhachi was occasionally used as a defensive weapon but I know of no ryu devoted to the weapon aspect these days.

I think anyone making such a claim must have trained w/ a Buddhist monk in a cave in the mountains of central Japan & is now the only inheritor of the ryu as passed down by that monk.

BTW, joke or not, I've seen equally rediculous "kata" in open tournaments. But you gotta admit, it was damn funny.

Yup. The Chinese equivalent of the shakuhachi , called xiao , is usually a bit smaller than its Japanese version (at least the two I own, and every model I've seen so far); so it's a bit light and fragile as a weapon if it's bamboo-made. But the xiao also has it's metallic version (usually copper, I hear), intended as a weapon. I'd love to find one, because I greatly prefer the xiao to the dizi from a musical point of view (come to think of it, from a martial point of view as well since the xiao is clearly longer and thicker).

Here is a real flute form, Hung Fat style

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_CMBOuLe4w

it's basically just treated like a short stick

Hi Harley,

Just because I posted that flute form doesn't mean I practice it.

I do teach Bando short stick, the following youtube video is of one of my students - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YINL1XMHdm8 and I have studied Chinese short staff which is very similar to the Chinese flute form shown, but I do not teach that one.

At times I do write fan fiction in the Destroyer Novel Universe, but that has nothing to do with my martial studies and is just another private hobby.

On the whole my Isshinryu is the same Isshinryu I studied from my instructors, but I have also trained in other systems of study and include many of the drills from those systems to give my students a wider view of the arts.

Isshinryu remains our core.

pleasantly,

ROFL! That's awesome, but if she wants to perform this at a black belt level she's gonna have to work on her intonation

My SO, also a black belt, plays flute. She'll get a kick outa this.

What is the saying? Kinda goes like 'adapt, improvise...'?

Another weapon that everyone can legally carry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJug16NlqPk