Iban Parang

Humans have been using weapons since the beginning of their existence, and for good reason. Weapons provide a massive advantage in both attack and defense.  Every martial arts practitioner interested in self defense should learn how to use weapons both to better defend against their use, and to gain an advantage in a serious self defense situation. You can see how I categorize weapons and their use on my self defense weapons page.

Although people in most 1st world countries no longer carry swords, practicing with them (or a stick of a similar length) can provide very valuable lessons in self defense. The methods of attack and defense that work with a sword also work with a stick, cane, hammer, wrench, knife, machete…even a household iron. You can learn to use a “stick” or any other long blunt or sharp object through the curriculum and videos on my single stick page, which I plan to add to in the very near future.

Parang Handle

Aside from the usefulness of sword and stick training for self defense, swords from different cultures can be fascinating. I recently posted a review of the Filipino ginunting, one of my favorite swords for functionality, and thought I’d add a few pictures of another favorite, an Iban parang from the island of Borneo. I purchased this parang in the state of Sarawak on the Malaysian side of Borneo. It’s about 100 years old, and decorated with human hair. The handle and scabbard are the most beautiful of all the swords I own.

As beautiful as the parang is, it’s hard for a modern westerner to imagine they were used on head hunting raids.  Up until the late 1800′s or so, several tribes of Borneo required heads for all sorts of ceremonies, from those related to the rice harvest to weddings. Imagine having to cut a person’s head off before you could be married…or walking through the jungle where people were looking for heads! In any case, the parang is an amazing sword, very similar to others used in Indonesia and the Philippines.  It’s designed for one handed use, fast, well balanced, and the design of the handle prevents the parang from slipping out of your hand.

Parang Scabbard

I’ve asked a few older Iban about their sword training, but never really gotten any detailed answers. They do have dances that involve the use of the sword and shield, but it seems that their “martial art” was lost when the practice of head hunting was abandoned.  If anyone reading this has information on the martial arts of the tribes of Borneo, I’d love to hear from you! I can’t imagine people like the Iban wouldn’t have had their own martial art. If you were living in a jungle at a time when nearby tribes wanted your head, wouldn’t you?

Palm Sticks

Many martial arts have their own version of the palm stick.  In Filipino Martial Arts it’s an olisi palad, pocket stick, or palm stick.  In Japanese it’s the kubotan or yawara stick.  A Vienna, Austria based school/organization has a modern website devoted to it, Self Defense Stick Concept International, where they offer classes and seminars.

But even though I’ve trained with palm sticks a good bit (you can see my most easily accessible ones in the picture above), I’m not convinced they’re a great idea…or at least not the most efficient and effective option given the alternatives.  Wikipedia (which I hesitantly mention) claims that Takayuki Kubot developed his version of the palm stick, the kubotan, “as a tool for police officers to restrain suspects without permanent injury“.  Now that, I can understand.  The article goes on to say “It is often touted as extremely effective in breaking the will of unruly suspects with painful locks and pressure point strikes.”  Again, that makes some sense for a police officer who is not acting in self defense, but attempting to get an unruly suspect to comply.  If a police officer was actually fighting for his or her life, they’d be FAR better off using their gun first, baton second, or pepper spray last.  I guess that’s the root of my problem with the palm stick.

"Self Defense Sticks"

Pure palm sticks are made for one purpose, hurting people by hitting, poking, or adding extra pressure/discomfort to a grab, pull, or press.  Without question I’d rather be hit with a hammer fist to the face, or even chest for that matter, than with a palm stick!  Getting hit with a palm stick definitely does hurt more than getting hit with an empty hand.  But does that make them better?

If you’re in a situation where you actually need to physically defend yourself, legally, you’re most likely in a fight for your life…not your ego.  In such a situation your goal needs to be to take your attacker out, not hurt him.  I’m not claiming you necessarily need to kill your attacker here.  But on the other hand, pain is not the goal.  Making him unable to continue his attack is the goal.  And let’s remember that someone who has decided to physically attack you whether that’s for your money, body, or life, is crazy in the first place!  We’re not talking about your training partner, who would rather not be poked in the chest by your palm stick during your evening martial arts class.  We’re talking about someone who very likely has no regard for his life or yours.  Where I come from these attackers are likely to be in their late teens.  They’re stupid, careless, and usually have a gun.  Trying to hit them with a palm stick will most likely result in you being shot dead.

But what about when your attacker does not have a gun, and is not likely trying to kill you?  What if he only wants to rape you, or beat half the life out of you?  Would you be better off with a palm stick, or an expandable baton?  Would you be better off with a palm stick, or a knife?

Knives

A closed knife can be used as a palm stick if you like.  An open one can be used as a tool to cut boxes, open envelopes, or even to cut flowers off a branch.  And if you’re attacked by someone who actually wants to do you great bodily harm or kill you, it can be used to kill them a hell of a lot faster than a palm stick.  I’m not necessarily advocating carrying a knife for self defense…just pointing out that it’s likely a better thing to carry than a pure and simple palm stick.  Most decent knives also have clips to fasten them to a pocket or waistband, which makes them easier to carry and access than a palm stick.

Delta Dart

You could also carry something like the delta dart above, but that’s clearly and obviously only a weapon for killing.  I’d highly recommend against that.

Flashlights

Even a solid flashlight can be used to beat someone with.  And with a flashlight you have the advantage of being able to light up dark places, or temporarily blind an attacker at night…with night adapted vision…provided you have a bright enough light.  So if you’re going to carry a palm stick, why not at least carry one that serves multiple functions?  Getting back to using a palm stick for self defense at all though…

Let’s quickly consider three typical self defense scenarios:

First, the rear bear hug:  You’ll often see people recommending to smash the attacker’s hand with your palm stick against a rear bear hug.  I admit, that would hurt.  Your attacker might let go of you.  Or, he might throw you on your head.  Wouldn’t grabbing and crushing his testicles be a better option?  You wouldn’t even have to reach for your palm stick!

Second, the front two handed choke: I’ve seen people demonstrate striking the attacker in the arms with a palm stick to make him let go, or even jabbing it into his throat.  How about just nailing him in the throat immediately?  Why would you need to first go for your palm stick?  It’s highly like that your attacker is not going to be standing still, just holding your neck.  He’s probably going to be slamming your head into a wall as he chokes you.  If you’re still standing, nail him in the throat immediately, kick him hard in the balls, knee him in the face, elbow him in the head, etc.  All of this is better than trying to smack him with a palm stick.

Third, the punch:  Lots of people who practice with palm sticks train either striking the incoming fist (good luck!) or doing “nerve destructions” on the arm, then moving on to striking the opponent’s head/body with the stick.  I’ve done my share of this kind of practice.  And yes, it hurts a lot.  BUT, imagine you’ve got a real attacker coming at you with a crazy, non-stop barrage of punches…moving forward…not standing in one place so you can practice your fist and arm destructions.  His punches aren’t likely to be coming in on a straight line, just perfect for you to hit with your palm stick.  Just trying to do that in real life is probably going to get your slaughtered! Wouldn’t it be a lot smarter to crash in and take the attacker out?

My friend James Wilson, an eskrima instructor, recently wrote on the subject of palm sticks:

I see pocket sticks as more of a training device for improvised weapons or reverse grip knife. Learning how to move smoothly and generate some power is what the pocket stick is about. Sure you can carry a little stick around, but you’d be better served by carrying a good pen. At least you can use it for something. If you’re carrying a weapon around, it might as well be a knife. A knife is a tool, and a weapon. A pocket stick serves one purpose… As part of a weapons system I see some value in the training aspect of it, but again I think there are better tools out there (expandable batons come to mind).

I do like the idea of the palm stick. It’s a cool tool, and there is some appeal in believing a “little stick” can solve all your self defense problems. I’m still not ready to disregard the palm stick all together, but I think it’s most important to keep in mind what James pointed out…that the pocket stick makes a good training device for improvised weapons, and that there are better tools that serve the same purpose.

Ginunting

As a practitioner of Filipino Martial Arts, a great sword is a necessity. I’ve been meaning to post a review of a Ginunting I purchased a while back, and am finally getting to it now. I bought my Ginunting from Ron Kosakowski’s Traditional Filipino Weapons. I’ve bought plenty swords over the years, probably 20 or more.  I bought a samurai sword in Japan from the 1800′s, a Laotian soldiers sword in Laos from the early 1900′s, several Iban head hunting swords on the island of Borneo, a Filipino Pinute, etc., etc. Of all the swords I own, if I had to take one into a sword fight it would be my Ginunting from Ron’s store. (By the way, I do not know Ron and am not profiting in any way from writing this review…and of course I will hopefully never be in a sword fight!) Here is a comparison of the similarly priced Pinute from another company, and my Ginunting from TFW:

Pinute and Ginunting

You probably can’t tell much of a difference from the above photo, other than noticing the cheap scabbard that comes with the Pinute (top).  But take a look at a close up of the blades…from the back:

Blades

The Ginunting is on the left.  As you can probably see, the steel is twice as thick and a much higher quality on the Ginunting.  Here’s a close up of the scabbards and handles:

Scabbard and Handles

The handle on the Pinute isn’t all that bad, but the scabbard is such junk that it falls right out.  The Ginunting fits perfectly in the scabbard.  It’s snug, and definitely won’t fall out.  It handles like no other sword…amazing.  So if you’re looking for an excellent quality Filipino sword, order it from Traditional Filipino Weapons.  I’ll be ordering a couple more styles in the near future…

The same “defense” is done again at the 15 second mark. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that if the attacker really swung hard and followed through, the “defender” would have a really messed up hand and arm. The rest of the video is more of the same. Here’s another:



It’s hard to say which of these videos is worse…but I’ll go with the second. These guys are playing stick patty cake. They’re tapping their sticks with ZERO intent, stopping them in mid swing, putting their hands in places where they’d get nailed in reality, etc. Seriously, this is stick patty cake. The guys move into Pekiti’s “thrust on tapping” drill and also into hubud. All of it is done as if the target is in the middle of the air. Another:



This one looks a lot better on the surface, and to many people not familiar with real stick fighting, it’s impressive. The guys are moving all over the place, and going relatively fast. However, the footwork is not done with a purpose. It doesn’t help with evading, entering, etc. The “checking hand” positions will not work in reality. The only reason they work in this drill is because the practitioners are stopping their sticks in mid swing.

I should add here, there’s nothing wrong with stopping your attack in mid-swing in order to do a drill like sumbrada. The problem is when that action stops you from realizing your technique will not work otherwise. When we trained sombrada we often stopped our sticks in mid-swing also. The difference is that our checking hand position was either out of the way of the follow through, or would have stopped the swing itself. For anyone who hasn’t seen our sumbrada video, here it is again:



Notice the details. When the checking hand is used (in the case of the inside swing or #1 for example), it checks/stops at the wrist, not on the hand. Checking on the hand will not stop the swing. It will follow through and nail your hand.



I think this was the best video I found, but still not very good. In general these guys have “better” hand positions, and sometimes they’re even almost realistic. Take a look at second 2:18. This obviously will not work, and that’s the checking hand position used against the #1 swing in the majority of the video. The idea/position at second 2:23 is far better than at 2:18, but I seriously question whether the structure of that check/grab would hold up under a full power swing. The swing goes directly against the weak part of the grip.

Some people may argue they know all of the above, and the poor checking hand positions are only used in training. But why? What’s the point of training positions that will not work, when it’s just as easy to train positions that will work?!?!?!?

So why are people training sombrada this way? I have no idea. But just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean it works!

I’ve been meaning to post for months now, but haven’t had the time recently.  Last week I was able to film a couple of videos, one on Pekiti Tirsia Knife Tapping and another on wing chun trapping and boxing.  I’ve just put the PT video up, which you can access from the previous link, and in the next few days I’ll get another up on wing chun and boxing.  Let me know what you think.

I’ve just added a new video on sumbrada, along with pictures and a description of how to do the drill correctly. Sumbrada, along with hubud and other pre-arranged patterns, trapping, etc., has been the subject of much controversy over the years. In 2000 I had a long argument on the old Inosanto forum, and another in 2002 on the old MMA.TV forum with Burton Richardson and Matt Thornton in which Marc Denny (Crafty Dog) also chimed in. Actually, most of the video I’ve posted above comes from a DVD I made to send Denny in 2002 after the MMA.TV discussion.

Richardson and Thornton don’t see the value in sumbrada type training. They both seem to disagree with the pre-arranged patterned drilling AND the techniques used in sumbrada. Denny on the other hand, along with most of the Dog Brothers, uses drills like sumbrada to ingrain good responses through repetition of patterns. Most people who disregard sumbrada do so because they’ve seen it done and/or learned it incorrectly. If the techniques are done right, they work. And there’s nothing better than repetition to learn to use an effective technique…as long as it’s combined with realistic, uncooperative training, and as Denny would say, “the fighter’s understanding”.