This came up in a conversation with Nooms today. I've been taking kobudo classes for about 6 months now. When I started I had no prior experience whatsoever in any weapon, but had just reached 3rd kyu in Goju Ryu, having done around 4 years training in total (2 with GKR previous to Goju).

Now, previous to the classes comencing, it had been mentioned by one of the black belts in our club that kobudo training usually comenced around brown belt level. This being so that the studenthad a basic grounding in empty hand work to build upon and also so that the kobudo training didn't hinder the initial development of a student by way of confusion and/or information overload.

The classes however have been open to all grades, from white to black belt, and it's been interesting seeing how people have picked up things relative to their karate grade.

Before I colour the subject with my personal thoughts, I thought I'd see what other's feelings were. So, in a nutshell, should you have a grounding in karate before kobudo? Is it useful/essential? Would doing kobudo without or before karate be any different? Thoughts?

Alot of ifs and buts I know, but I thought it might have some mileage as a debate.

I teach my students kobudo regardless of grade. As long as they have been training for a while say 3 months so they have a general understanding of stances etc.

Hmmm... interesting one this. I think it helps to have a basic grounding so you have a point of reference when they say - as you would in *** kata. Obviously, there are some people who have a natural aptitude and others who have to work at it. Personally, as with all hobbies, the most important factor is the opportunity for tuition and practice. I find myself falling behind because I have to do it on my own (other than with the invaluable support that I get from ramona via msn) and I have no one to tell me that Im doing it wrong until I can get to one of the classes, where I discover that Ive been doing it wrong for the last 6 weeks! Doh!!! So, instead of focussing on learning the next steps, part of my time is spent putting things right from the last lesson...

I started kobudo as a stand alone class, and at the time it was pretty much the only class I did. I didn't train in the goju class from the same school, but was GKR 4th kyu when I started. There was never any reference to doing things "as you would in kata X", unless it was part of our format anyway, so that bit was never a problem.
I think if I had started in that particular class having done no training before, it would have been easy enough to get by - a lot of repetition (which is a good thing for me), and basics like kamae and footwork were addressed.
Jo, regarding the practicing things wrongly? I think this is where a background in some style comes in handy if you have reached the point where you can do some self-correction - if it doesn't feel right, trying to find out why. Not that it always works, of course. I get to train once a week with weapons, and still practice things wrongly. But because we don't cover the same things every week, it might be weeks before the error is picked up. I still think correcting an error is easier than learning something completely new, though.

I think someone could learn kobudo with no prior training in anything, but maybe it depends on the school and the instructor. In theory, it's no harder to learn from scratch than karate.

I started kobudo at 6th kyu and found it quite easy to pick up the first kihon / kata, of course it is getting more complex now. I think a basic knowledge of karate can help with stances etc. Other than that I think it depends on the weapon. For example the moves using tekko are very close to and even work as open hand techniques while the bo is different approach alltogether.

It hasn't confused me although with 4 hours at a time, the first few lessons were very loaded and I'm sure there was a flashing sign on my forehead reading "tilt". I do try to have at least an hour kobudo training a week and use the time before Wednesday's class for a bit of a refresher with others. I think it complements my karate training rather than confuse it. And of course, it's lots of fun!