Mike's nunchucks

[Time Mistress]

The nunchucks seem to be a weapon you either have an automatic affinity for or you don't. Unfortunately, as I found out at my first chucking class a few years back I don't. The chucks fit into a catagory of weapons known as "flexible weapons" and are considered among the hardest, most dangerous martial arts weapons to master, even more than the sword. The nunchucks, three-sectional staff, rope & dart, and mariki gasari (steel whip) all fit into this catagory. (In fact I find it interesting that there are four main marial arts weapon catagories and four Turtles so we get a master of each branch, though I'm sure it wasn't orignally planned that way by Eastman & Laird.)

Anyway, the reason the flexible weapons are so dangerous is there is actually a moment when a a flexible weapon is completely out of control. A master of these weapons needs to know how to constantly move and catch their weapon on the rebound (Mike's natural agility would come in very handy here). Because even after you smash your opponent, the weapon will still ricochet back to you. This is something I realized quickly in my first chuk class, my Sifu (Chinese for sensei) switched me from the wooden chucks to the rubber ones after I managed to whack myself in the chin and my back with the chuks a couple times. It's a good thing he did though beacuse the chucks can be a VERY dangerous weapon. At full spin the nunchuck generate 80 pound of pressure per squre inch. It only take 4 puond of pressure per square inch to cave in the human skull. My Sifu has known people who have knocked out teeth or even knocked themselves unconcious while learning the steel whip (manriki gasari). The fact that the Mirage comic shows us a pre-teen Mike with good steel whip skills (as well as the first season of the old toon) should speak volumes for Mike's talent as an equal to his brothers in skill level.