Thursday, November 10, 2011

Random thoughts about stick fighting

I see advertised time and time again in self defense schools about using a cane as a weapon, but I rarely see anyone using a cane these days. It doesn't make sense to me to learn tactics for a weapon that hardly anyone carries, but it did get me thinking. I see senior folks walking in subdivisions every morning, and most of them are carrying a good sized sturdy stick. This isn't something I see every once in awhile, either; literally I see some stick carrying old dude with an angry look on his face at least once a week, and I have to say that if I were a scumbag, it would be a deterrent. I'm a physically capable individual with no doubts that I could overcome someone twice my age if they were unarmed, but I would be hesitant enough to attack a potential Korean war veteran with a nasty case of untreated PTSD and a treated hickory stick.

So, what about stick tactics?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

A lot of Philippino martial arts schools use the stick as a way of training for the knife. They claim that learning the stick will transfer to the knife very easily.

That may or may not be true but a lot of folks think so.

I got some experience in both (I'm no master) and I can see the commonalities but I don't think it's the same. Then again I carry a small collapsible baton (it carries my keys and I can use it as a flail) along with my gun and folding knives.

As to the cane, it doesn't work at all like the smaller sticks but whenever I'm in an airport, I think that it would be really nice to have a big stick when on a plane.

Terry

Unknown said...

I've thought about a collapsible baton as well. On a plane the only weapon that I will have is my Wilderness belt with its steel buckle -- that should leave a mark.

Drew said...

i always thought the koga was a really cool concealable ninja like tool for self defense. i have one of the S&W self defense pens which function about the same way. when all else fails the rear naked choke hold is always a good standby.

Broken Andy said...

My sensei teaches his sword class with long sticks. He told me that the movements to avoid getting cut by a sword are very applicable to modern street fighting if somebody is coming at you with a blunt weapon. Many of the movements for shorter weapons are very much the same as for longer ones, and therefore defense against them is very similar.

I heard it said that Musashi, considered Japan's greatest swordsman, got bored of duels with swords and instead went up against swords with sticks. He bashed in quite a few skulls before he died of old age.

Anonymous said...

"I've thought about a collapsible baton as well. On a plane the only weapon that I will have is my Wilderness belt with its steel buckle -- that should leave a mark."

Tried to bring my collapsible baton/keychain with me on a plane (pre 911) and they forced me to check it.

I wear the same belt pretty much everywhere with exactly the same thoughts as you :-)

Still looking for something extra though.

Terry

Unknown said...

Drew -- I've thought about the SD pens as well, but have heard that the TSA won't let them on planes.

Andy -- Sword tactics seem like a good place to start; most of the sticks that I see people carrying are around three feet long, which would match pretty well for size.

Terry -- The baton will get you arrested these days. Oh, how I yearn for pre-9/11 security!

Drang said...

The Clue Meter: But will it replace shuffleboard?