Hi FMA's, I have a stick question. Do you ever practice with a stick of other wood than rattan? The rattan sticks seem very light to me, don't know if they'd do enough damage to an attacker in a real bad situation. They hurt like hell, but don't have much impact, too light. I have some sticks from an oak staff, about 18 inches each and very solid. I like to incorporate these into my cma training, they really pack a wallop. Do you do the same? I have a friend in fma who had to use his rattan stick on a crazed, drugged attacker. Altough it drew blood it didn't have the impact to stop the maniac, he just smiled and kept fighting. The oak stick would have crushed his skull, and that's what was needed at the time.
Try a 31" x 1 1/4" Rattan stick from KIL... http://www.bloodsport.com/product.htm These are not the fancy light "twirling toys" that you see the MA stores selling - these are weapons.
Linseed Oil Question. Just on sticks, it was suggested to me that when I purchase rattan sticks to soak them in a tray of linseed oil for a couple of days to make them heavier, stronger and so that they last longer. Have any of you heard of this and does it work? I assume this is if there is no shell?
Yeah like Yoda said try playing with some real rattan sticks that are made to be weapons and then tell me they aren't effective. Having said that I've never had cause to use them and don't carry them for self-defence. There are many types of rattan and also methods of preparing the sticks for use which effect their 'feel'. Most sticks that you see seem to be stripped of their bark in order to make them a more regular/consistent size throughout the length and lighter for manouevrability/speed. If you can find them unpeeled Manau rattan sticks tend to be harder and heavier and make better fighting weapons. The other thing to look out for is the close-node sticks that you sometimes see about. Like bamboo, rattan gows in various lengths into a node at which, whilst alive, it shoots. The closer these nodes are the shorter the fibres and therefore the stronger the stick. I have a 28' 9-node stick that has chewed through numerous other sticks (without any visible marking) to the point that I rarely use it in class to spare my partners' wallet. The batch of sticks that I am currently using are, to put it bluntly, crap. I have destroyed 2-3 sticks every hour lesson so far this year. I may well take Yoda's advice and import some KIL sticks in the near future. As for your other question about different wood types, rattan is generally used as a training weapon because it is cheap (if you live in a rattan growing area), it doesn't shatter (unlike hard woods) and it is lower impact on your training partner (allegedly). Other fighting sticks are traditionally made out of harder woods indigenous to the Philippines like Cocobolo, Bahi and Kamagong. There are also some people that use modern aviation plastics to make sticks with but I believe that these have their own incumbent problems such as reduced shock absorption, shattering and general sensation of not feeling 'right'. I tend to use heavier and harder wood sticks such as a pair of Kamagong's (Iron Wood) for solo practice such as Carenza and for repping out Amarra. This might explain why my forearms are currently knackered! Also you have to remember Tattooed Bear that a crazed, drugged, attacker is somewhat of an unknown in terms of how they will react to pain no matter what you use. Personally I wouldn't have thought it is really practical to carry a stick or staff as a self-defence weapon anyway - although the utility of training with them is that you can improvise with things such as pool cues, umbrellas etc (but it gonna have to be one hell of an umbrella) that are likely to be closer to hand. Dred P.S. Well done for not calling them "Escrimas"!
just to add to what yoda and dredleviathan have said... Some people use skinned sticks because they are lighter, like for demos. But they won't last long and don't have the hardness and heft of unskinned, close-node rattan. Unskinned rattan is as durable as a roll of wet tissue paper in a class with a lot of heavy stick contact. The hardwood sticks are the traditional fighting sticks but as anyone who has sparred with rattan will tell you, that "vine" is definitely a weapon as well. I doubt if anyone who isn't stoned out of his mind will be able to tell whether his skull got crushed by rattan or kamagong. I imagine that it will feel the same regardless of the wood type. anyone on drugs will have impaired reactions to pain. the solution then is to apply a traditional strategy of Filipino Martial Arts: hit him again It's best not to expect the bad guy to go down after one hit, especially if he's on speed or ice. You should be prepared to hit him and keep doing so until he isn't a threat anymore. If it takes more than the usual one or two strikes, so be it. Doesn't matter what you have in your hand. If he's still attacking, keep striking at him as well. just my 2 cents...
How practical is it to constantly train in self defence with sticks if you are not always going to have them around? Unless you like walking around carrying a weapon all day (which will probably attract fights) that is about a foot and a half or two feet then you may not always have them at your dispense. That's why I prefer empty hand training. One thing I will say is that Arnis shows you some bad azz disarms and those are always useful. BTW, I want that "Fights Well Witth Others" Shirt.
it's practical if you realize and remember that the movements and reflexes you get from stick practice is directly related to empty hand. In a lot of FMA weapons systems and maybe all of them, you only have to learn one pattern of muscle memory. Once you get the stick movements wired and ingrained, it will be second nature. So when you adapt your stick moves to empty hand (and the empty hand moves are very similar to weapons moves), you don't have to change much. Your body will just moves as always, regardless of circumstances. you can have one stick, 2 sticks, a knife, two knives, an umbrella, a bottle, a pen, an icepick, a fork, a pencil....it's all the same. Oh and empty hand FMA is not just disarms... as for practicing on SD with a stick in FMA, that's part of FMA itself. As recent as the 1940s and even today, FMA is being used for life-or-death application, either by country folk in the Philippines or by the military. SD and application is and will always be the core of FMA, regardless of the style. Some may emphasize it more than others, but it will always go back to the basic idea of hitting someone else to kill or maim him before he does the same to you. Remember that in the philippines, a farmer always has his bolo (machete) with him. they always have a weapon with them so they train according to this situation. hth...
My rattan are about 1 1/4" thick and 30" long with 6 nodes i think they are called, they've had a good battering and are none the worse for it. when practicing the numerada (spelling) in my room i took a chunk out of my wall with one which my mom wasn't too happy about hehe. they only cost me £10 from my trainer. I also keep a pair in my car incase someone goes all road rage on me
Juramentado, I stand corrected, you are right. That's what I meant as far as it being useful for disarms and what not. But yeah also empty hand strikes too. After doing eskrima for a few years I finally put it together that the motions could be used as strikes as well without the sticks. Amazing. 8
Furniture Shop rejects: Escrimador Treasure! I get really cheap, 1" to 1.5" diameter, sometimes with nodes 4" close to each other from furniture shops. They reject it because, even when skinned, the nodes usually don't make it look smooth and "polished" enough, so they would just sometimes throw it away or make into charcoal. Unless we get to it first (hehe). But Kamagong hardwood, the supposed traditional duelling sticks, are a bit tricky. Don't get one so hard that it's brittle, or one that is to "soft" that it bruises into splinters. But they are really expensive, even in the Philippines and even from furniture shops. Rattan is still the tougher, more cost-effective alternative. (Why aren't there alumnum Arnis sticks?)
sorry for the late reply ive been busy. I train with Krishna who i think is the europeon grand master on a thursday and with a bloke called paul on a sunday. He spent 7 months training in the philipines, which is something im thinking of doing.
Furniture shops, i.e., the ones that make 'em and display 'em. I buy them from the rattan furniture stores in Pantranco along Quezon Avenue, and I purchase those that were meant to be used as chair or table legs; they have to, since we are looking for strength and density. However, those from Zapote are much better, as the rattan I got there was somehow treated to prevent or delay rotting when it gets wet. Very dense and heavy, too. I don't know any of the other stores, but I believe they offer good quality, too. Sometimes, I get very annoyed when I go into a sports outlet or a martial arts store and see them selling very thin and light rattan sticks that doesn't last a month, then sell it at very high prices (as in, nakakainis). Baguio also should sell good rattan and kamagong (I got my brothers kamagong sticks from over there), but you have to be careful about brittleness; my brother felt awkward once because one of the sticks was brittle and the other wasn't and it broke during a sparring match. Gatungan lang siguro. By the way, I admire the fact that you can fight single-handedly.
