A scenario for you Nick

Here's a little scenario for you Nick.

There's two people with the same body dimensions, training and capabilities about to engage in conflict. One combatant has a knife, say 8 inches long (from base of handle to tip of blade), the other a kali stick of say 16 inches long.

Basically one combatant has a smaller but more lethal weapon than the other.

If you had to be one of these guys and there's no alternative but to fight, which one would you prefer to be and why??

Cheers.

Great question!!


Unequivocally the guy with the stick. In FMA they do a lot of training with stick v stick and knife v knife but rarely do they mix the two up. I had the good fortune to go to a force on force seminar where they mixed up weapons and went at each other full power. I never saw the knife guy get in on the stick guy once.

Since then, I've run the same drill at a few of my seminars with pretty much the same results. On about two occasions I've seen the knife guy get through to the guy with the stick (and none of the stick wielders had any FMA experience. Rather they just picked up a stick and used it like any untrained inidividual would). In one case it was a girl called Bambi in MD and the other was in the backyard once with some guys on a Saturday morning session.

The only downside to the stick for years was that, unlike the blade, it wasn't very concealable. Now, with ASP's (not the brand but all expandable batons in general) that's no longer an issue.

Hope that helps.

Nick

PS: The sticks we use were a tad longer than 16 inches...closer to 24

Nick,

Good answer thus far.

What do you see as the best approach for the guy with the stick?

I would have thought maximising the reach advantage would be the first thing.

But would attacking the knife hand be first and foremost?? Or if you got a head strike opportunity for instance, would you take it anyway, regardless of if he's still got the knife??

Your thoughts please.

Cheers.

From our training we've learnt two things...

1) You can go on the attack and utilize the length of the stick to your advantage - I wouldn't use something as short as 16 inches but rather 24"

2) Sit back and wait and pick off either his hand/wrist/weapon as he attacks.

What doesnt' work very well is standing your ground and taking pot shots at the guy without going in fully committed.

Getting hold of a "Softstik" and a training knife will answer a lot of questions.

Nick