Had a really excellent stick fighting class tonight!

I just had to talk about it someplace where someone might understand.

Usually, our stick fighting classes are drills and then matches based on our sparring rules. But tonight was different. Tonight was self defense oriented in a way we haven't done in our stick fighting before.

The theme of the night was if one person was unarmed and being attacked by someone with a stick. First drill was about controlling the arm with the stick. Then we did drills where we controlled the arm and then attempted to grab the stick from the attacker - disarming techniques.

The attacks were full on power- almost full speed to full speed - attacker moving forward with multiple swings that could target anywhere.

I did pretty well overall. I did have a tendancy sometimes to successfully get the weapon out of the attackers hand, but have it fling off somewhere instead of grabbing control of it myself. Something to work on.

Anyways, I REALLY enjoyed it! And I felt good that I actually could control/ disarm someone swinging full power/ speed at me.

Our instructor said that our Sifu is planning on adding more variety of weapons fighting in the future to the school. Actual contact fighting with staffs, and even with daggers. (I assume those plastic daggers?)

We spar, we have drills, etc. but they are mostly non weapon stuff. Our weapon stuff is mostly forms and techniques. Which was fine because most Chinese weapons are not practical to carry down the street. So I focused on the hand stuff for practical defense/ fighting and the weapon stuff for building co-ordination, strength, and knowing body targets. And just because Chinese weapons are fun.

But the thought of adding some hands on practice fighting with daggers and staff sounds really exciting! It isn't starting immediately, but I will be at the school whenever it starts.

This is one reason I love my school. They don't just get stuck in the status quo. And they could. They have been around and successful for almost 30 years. They could stick with the same thing that has worked. But they don't. They are always looking for ways to improve their teachings. That is why they added submission grappling 7 or so years ago, then stick fighting a couple of years ago. Now, more fun stuff is on the way!

Anyways, MA forums are the only place where I can talk about this and other people would get why I am so exicted. I just had to share.

 

Nothing quite like a stick swinging at you at 70mph to get you angling off correctly.

 

70mph?

Is that actually the speed of the average swing of a stick?

How would anyone know that?

 

I forget the name of them but devices you can tie to things to measure their speed aren't hard to get. You've clearly never watched a sport science or mythbusters show

 

Are you asking me?

I am not a teacher. Just a humble student. I train at White Dragon Martial Arts - La Mesa location in San Diego, Ca. USA. Odds are, you don't live in my area, but if you do, PM me if you want more info.

 

You are correct, I have not watched these types of shows. Oh, except I caught a few of some show that compared -scientifically - the efficiency of two differing MA styles. Forget what it was called.

Welll, we don't use eskrima or other sticks in our stick fighting. We use those foam covered pvc pipe sticks. MMA gloves work just fine, but if you get the open part of your fingers hit just right, it can sting. What kind of gloves do you use?

I am guessing they move through the air a bit slower than 70 mph, but it seemed fast enough for practice to me.

 

At one point, I found myself doing something really dumb and realizing how dumb it was immediately afterwards. My opponents stick went flying and my instinct was to grab the stick, But I turned my back on my opponent when doing so. It was a reminder to me to not be so focused on a weapon that you forget your empty hand abilities. If it had been a real attack, I had openings for empty hand strikes, but I bent over with my back facing my opponent - giving him quite the opening. Doh!

If you can find that video, I would love to see it!