Weapons tournamnet tactics.?

Question

I have entered a weapons kata tournament and am looking for some advice.

I am very confident using a boken and have come 3rd and 4th in previous club tournaments. I want to improve on this but I know that the standard of the other competitors is very high (one guy can use two bokens at once).

I was thinking that I might use a pair of sai as no-one has ever used these in our competitions before, almost everyone uses a boken or nunchucks, and people who use two weapons generally do better than those who only use one. However, I have had less experience with these and have only 4 weeks before the competition in which to create and practise a brand new kata.

So my question is this. From a judges point of view which would you find more impressive, a well executed but common boken kata, or a new kata with a weapon you haven't seen before?

PS: does anyone know of any good videos on the net that show people using sais?

Answer 1

If you can pick up five DVDs of Power Rangers Ninja Storm there is a section on different forms that they use, which I find quite unique.

Answer 2

Utube - a lot of work as there is so much on there but with time and patience you will hopefully find what you are looking for. Saw one once with sais doing a karate kata I recognized, must be common enough for me to recognise it