Self-defence with a Walking-stick

January 28, 2005 9:18 AM

Self-defence with a Walking-stick : The Different Methods of Defending Oneself with a Walking-Stick or Umbrella when Attacked under Unequal Conditions (Part I) (with pictures!) :: via The Journal of Non-Lethal combatives ::
posted by anastasiav (20 comments total)

Always wanted to learn La Canne, there's nothing better for beating back blackguards & street urchins bent on malfeasance
posted by leotrotsky at 9:41 AM on January 28, 2005

OR

beating back bilious blackguards bringing bad behavior, bent on breaching our blessed benevolent boulevards
posted by leotrotsky at 9:46 AM on January 28, 2005

Reminds me of this.
posted by bardic at 9:46 AM on January 28, 2005

beautifully brilliant, leotrotsky.
posted by Igor XA at 9:49 AM on January 28, 2005

No. 9. -- How to Defend Yourself with a Stick against the most Dangerous Kick of an Expert Kicker.

Awesome! Completely deraillish, but some years ago one of John Julius Norwich's Christmas Crackers contained a complete conjugation of a verb (from a language possibly spoken in Turkey? Turkish, maybe?) meaning "to kick"; one of them was a kind of imperative that implied continuous action, or something like that, and was Englished as "be thou a habitual kicker".
posted by kenko at 9:52 AM on January 28, 2005

The problem is, and maybe I'm the only one, after I read something like this . . . I really, really want to be attacked. "Give me a reason to kick your ass."
posted by ThePrawn at 10:03 AM on January 28, 2005

Cool. I knew of Barton-Wright because he provided the name ("baritsu") of the grappling art that Sherlock Holmes used to defeat Moriarity. However, I had never seen this article before.
posted by tdismukes at 10:05 AM on January 28, 2005

...how about a chair?
posted by leotrotsky at 10:08 AM on January 28, 2005

Suppose I'm attacked by a man with a banana and I haven't got a gun?
posted by beetsuits at 10:11 AM on January 28, 2005

Compare to Irish (or Whisky) stick fighting
posted by Hildago at 10:12 AM on January 28, 2005

Was I the only one that thought of the Indiana Jones classic scene of the sword master and Indy just pulls out his pistol and shoots him?

This is a pretty neat site though. They look so honorable in their poses, suits and hats.
posted by fenriq at 10:18 AM on January 28, 2005

This has been posted twice before, although each time the url's been slightly different. I know because I posted it the first time. Basically I'm just bitter because this post is getting a lot more comments than mine, anastasiav.

beetsuits, first you have to find out if it's really a banana, or if he's just glad to see you.
posted by iconomy at 10:18 AM on January 28, 2005

I really like ejmas. Lots of neat stuff on there, including manuals and stories of old. Like Greco-roman games in California in 1895, Red coat training in old england, The New Art of Self Defense from 1899 (part 2 elsewhere on the site), Boy Scout Quarterstaff from the early 1900s, Single stick fencing, Fiori dei Liberi's Flos Duellatorum from 1410, Vincentio Saviolo's His Practise. In Two Bookes, a rapier fencing manual from 1595 (other parts elsewhere on the site), and much, much more. A lot of which lends itself well to photoshopping, as we all know from fark :)

The site was put together by Kim Taylor. Probably unknown to most, but well known in the Japanese Martial Arts circles in Canada (and around the world). Steven Seagal sent down a limo from Toronto to Guelph to pick Kim up and make a cane for him, you know :) He makes some really nice ones, and has some skills in cane fighting himself. We had various Japanese sensei pass by over the years and he picked up a number of things from them.

Me, I just play with my sword. Make of that what you will, heh.
posted by splice at 10:19 AM on January 28, 2005

drats! this does me no good, as I've gone and left my walking stick with my parasol in my gyrocopter!
posted by crunchland at 10:30 AM on January 28, 2005

I'll read this while on the next autogyro to Siam!
posted by papakwanz at 11:04 AM on January 28, 2005

[this is good]
posted by dazed_one at 12:45 PM on January 28, 2005

An umbrella is a decent weapon, sure, but if John Steed taught me anything, it's that to be TRULY tough, you need an umbrella and a steel-rimmed bowler.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 5:30 PM on January 28, 2005

A brolly will surely do the trick. My reflexologist, Sunny, is also a geomancer and kung-fu master (professions that don't seem to pay as well as acupressure). After a foot massage, he gives free instruction in how to kill with an umbrella plus advice on how to arrange your furniture for good luck.
Sunny's first lesson was to jam the brolly into the top of your opponent's foot then proceed to target other sensitive spots about the nether regions. Mr. Barton-Wright's turn of the century code of conduct appears to restrict combat to above the waist. I'd like to see Mr B-W cope with the modern mugger. Should be good for a laugh...
posted by missbossy at 8:51 PM on January 28, 2005

I once used the umbrella! Not as elegant--just a tap. The harasser went away so it was good enough.
posted by dsaelf at 7:03 AM on January 30, 2005

A lot of martial arts have weapons forms & techniques using canes, fans, sticks & ropes, among other things. I mean, all martial arts have forms & techniques that use your hands and feet as weapons, so it shouldn't be a surprise that pretty much anything can be used.

Some techniques are absolutely beautiful to watch, but I also think of the indy jones scene sometimes :). A swordfighter should never be so far outside of range and act menacing, though. That's just dumb.
posted by mdn at 7:31 AM on January 30, 2005