American Style Nunchaku

American Style Nunchaku – Fast, flashy and easy to learn

The American Style Nunchaku originally started out as an instructional video in 1990 and has over the years evolved into it’s own weapons martial art with its own curriculum and belt rank system. Today, there are hundreds of practitioners around the world practicing our system, and many win forms competitions using techniques of the style. As a martial art American Style Nunchaku is modern even though it revolves around a classic weapon for combat. The techniques and footwork are fast and explosive.

The nunchaku descends from Okinawan Kobudo, but the techniques of American Style Nunchaku are significantly different from classic Kobudo. The nunchaku itself used in ASN is lighter and the movements can therefore be broken around the wrist, which makes the techniques faster and flashier. We see the nunchaku as a weapon, and our style as a martial art where the nunchaku is used as a tool for combat. Today, there are many forms of swinging the nunchaku with light and luminous nunchakus that are thrown into the air and caught by the practitioner behind the back, but which have no realistic connection to combat technique. For us it is important to keep the techniques realistic.

Of course, safety is important and as a beginner we recommend starting with a lightweight nunchaku to avoid serious injuries. The nunchaku that is used when you have gained more experience is a 12 inch octagonal nunchaku made of wood with a short polyester string of about 2 inches long. We usually do not use nunchakus with metal chain.

American Style Nunchaku, like many other martial arts, has three main areas of study – basic technique, forms and partner training, and is excellent for online training. The American Style Nunchaku Federation has been offering distance training via the Chakus instructional video series since 2010. During the pandemic years, interest in online and distance training increased and our concept has been thoroughly tested. We had the opportunity to develop and make fine adjustments to be able to offer as high-quality training to our members as possible.