Kobudo

Now offering private Kobudo lessons on the weekends. Either book week to week or grab a regular time.

Lessons are $15, though you can have a family member join your lesson for an additional $10. If you need to cancel, please do so 24 hours in advanced. (There will be NO PENALTY for cancelling last minute. Specially if you or anyone in your household is feeling unwell.) These classes will be 55 minutes long. Which ever Kobudo weapons you bring that day will be the weapons we practice. If you want to spend the last 10-40 minutes of the lesson working on karate katas, just ask. Please review the Sensei’s Safety Plan below. Classes are held at the Southeast corner of Parkway Park. Make sure to bring water and wear sun screen. Kobudo is open to any Sun Mesa Karate student with a Yellow Belt or higher, and provided they have their own weapon(s). Call or Text Sensei to book your time. 505-610-5708

Times available for this week:

Saturday:

9:00am Booked (recurring lesson)

10:00 am Open

11:00 am Open

12:00 am Only if other spots are full

Sunday:

9:00am Booked (recurring lesson)

10:00 am Booked (recurring lesson)

11:00 am Open

12:00 am Only if other spots are full

Sensei’s Safety Plan

Here is the safety plan for how private classes will be conducted:

-Masks will need to be worn at all times.

-12 feet social distancing between Sensei and the student will be enforced. Lucky, we will all be swinging weapons around, so staying farther apart is doubly beneficial.

-Hand Sanitizer will be available if necessary.

-There are no bathrooms available. Please plan accordingly.

-Partly because of the above provision, and incase there is an emergency, parents are requested to please not leave.

-Parents and other spectators are asked to remain in their car, or under a different tree than the one we are working under.

-If arriving early, please wait until the previous student has made it back to their car before coming out for your lesson.

-If Sensei is not at the park when you arrive, please call or text.

-If there is rain, class is cancelled. Please make sure Sensei has an up-to-date text number.

-If you OR ANYONE IN YOUR FAMILY is feeling even slightly unwell, STAY HOME! “But it’s just allergies…” STAY HOME!

-Please make payments via the website. If you can’t, checks will be excepted at the end of class. No Cash.

-If there is anything more I can do to help you all feel safer, please ask.

If the park doesn’t work you: The time is wrong, or you are immune compromised, or you don’t feel it is safe yet, or you really just don’t want to wear a mask… I totally understand. That is why I will still be offering one free zoom class a week on Thursdays at 4:00pm (Time may change based on interest).

Kobudo History

The way the story has often been told was that the Satsuma Samurai clan of Japan came down and took over the Ryu Kyu Kingdom of which Okinawa and the rest of the Ryu Kyu islands were a part of. When they did that, they banned everyone from owning weapons. Through influences from the Shaolin monks, the Okinawans then developed fighting styles based around empty (kara) hand (te) techniques or by utilizing farm tools as weapons (kobudo). Many karate historians have started to call this story into question. Many of the kobudo weapons are clearly tools; like the Kama (sickle), Eku-Bo (boat oar), Kuwa (farming hoe), tekko/kanzashi (stick used to haul in fishing nets). But the others are up for debate as they have been given stories for how they were used as farm tools, but their stories have yet to be substantially proven. These weapons include the sai, the nunchaku and the tonfa. The bo is interesting as it is the most common kobudo weapon, and it clearly has non weapon uses (walking stik, used to carry buckets of water from rivers), but it also has a history of use as a weapon going back thousands of years throughout human history. There is a cool new video at the bottom of the page about this myth.

Regardless, here is the kobudo page. As of right now it will primarily focus on the Kata and Bunkai videos, but at some point I will add in-depth descriptions of the weapons as well the lineage of our weapon’s style, Okinawan Kenpo Kobudo.

When classes return to the community centers:

We will be designating a specific weapon to a week of the months. It is recommended that new students start with the bo, but is not required.

1st Tuesday of the month: Bo

2nd Tuesday of the month: Sai

3rd Tuesday of the month: Tonfa

4th Tuesday of the month: Nunchaku

5th Tuesday of the month (when it happens): Two Person forms (bo students welcome)