I recently begun training in kobudo alongside my karate practice. The two arts are very different, yet inextricably linked. So what is kobudo? And why am I so pumped to train it alongside karate?

The martial art of kobudo

Literally translated, kobudo means “old martial way.” There are a couple different forms of kobudo, but the term is generally used to refer to a weapons-based system of martial arts.

Weapons covered under Okinawan kobudo include the bo (a long staff that’s basically a really sturdy wooden broomstick), the sai (a pronged metal weapon that was used to defend against swords and other weapons in a non-lethal manner), tonfa (similar to the nightsticks carried by many police officers today), and nunchaku, among others.

The art is usually taught using a combination of kata, bunkai (practical applications), and exercises meant to familiarize students with the use cases of each weapon.

Why train it alongside karate?

Here’s where the magic happens. When you train kobudo, true, you’re learning how to use weapons. You’re also learning how to defend against those weapons. But there’s so much more to the puzzle than that.

You build a foundation that allows you to use almost anything as a weapon.

Are you going to carry your bo with you everywhere you go, waiting for someone to pick a fight? Of course not… right? Right??

Right.

But what you don’t realize is that, while you’re training with these seemingly-outdated weapons, you’re internalizing a set of movements and mechanics that you can apply to things you didn’t train with in the dojo: an umbrella, a belt, whatever. There’s some value in the confidence that comes with that, if nothing else. But that’s not where the true value is. No, the real value of training karate and kobudo together is that…

Karate and kobudo were never meant to be separated.

When karate and kobudo were “growing up,” they were always trained together. Putting aside the reasons why that has changed over the course of time for now, what this means is that training in kobudo will help you better understand your karate.

The two systems evolved together. Do you really think that karate evolved only as a means of defending against other unarmed opponents? Of course not. Half the katas you practice probably have bunkai that were originally geared toward defending against someone with a weapon.

Are you going to need to defend against someone attacking you with a bo any time soon? I mean anything’s possible, but probably not. But don’t you think there’s value in knowing which techniques were created for that purpose? Or would you rather go through your training thinking all along that that kake uke and clear was for someone grabbing you on the wrist?

Bottom line: training kobudo alongside karate makes your karate better,a nd it makes you more knowledgeable about what your techniques were originally designed to do.

What am I getting out of it personally?

For me, kobudo gives me something I haven’t felt for a while in my dojo: the chance to feel like a white belt again. When I train kobudo, I feel like the dumbest guy in the room. And I love it. When I’m the dumbest guy in the room, I’m learning from every single person around me. Every step is new; every kata full of new possibilities.

It also helps that I’m learning both karate and kobudo from the same sensei – he’s the reason why I’m able to make these connections. Having trained both arts for decades, he’s been able to make these connections between arts long ago, and understands them thoroughly enough to teach them to his students. That’s a rare thing, and not something I take for granted.

I’m not training kobudo for the purposes of practicality, and I likely wouldn’t train it as a solo art; but alongside my karate, it just makes me a better martial artist, plain and simple.

And anything that makes me a better martial artist is something I’m interested in exploring.