The ’80s Martial Arts Craze: Nunchucks, Throwing Stars & Mall Ninja Madness

That Don't Sound Right is a podcast about talking—the way we did before the internet, when you couldn't instantly prove anyone right or wrong and all the expertise lived in the people having the conversation. We hope you enjoy our conversations, and if you find yourself thinking, That Don't Sound Right, send us a comment. You're one of us.

In this episode, Peter and Cecil take a nostalgic—and occasionally painful—trip back to the 1980s martial-arts craze.

Remember when you could walk through the mall and find stores packed with nunchucks, throwing stars, butterfly knives, martial-arts practice gear, and all kinds of equipment that seemed incredibly cool to a kid in the ’80s?

Peter and Cecil reminisce about learning martial-arts moves, experimenting with nunchucks, and discovering the hard way that some techniques look a lot easier in the movies than they are in real life. They also share stories about the homemade versions kids created when they couldn't afford the real thing—and the inevitable question: How did we think this was a good idea?

The conversation wanders through the martial-arts movies and pop culture that fueled the craze, the surprising availability of martial-arts equipment, and the laws and attitudes that made some of these items seem perfectly normal for kids to encounter at the local mall.

It's another classic That Don't Sound Right conversation about growing up before the internet, when you learned by watching somebody else, trying it yourself, and occasionally getting hurt.

Did you have a pair of nunchucks? Make your own? Own throwing stars? Or have a story about learning a martial-arts move that went spectacularly wrong?

Send it to Peter and Cecil. Your story could make it into a future episode.

Because in the ’80s, sometimes the path to becoming a martial-arts master started at the mall... and ended with an ice pack.

That Don't Sound Right.

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