Flying Crane said:
I understand the point here, but we have to keep in mind that any weapon, whether it is a traditional weapon such as a sword or spear or staff, or a weapon that could be used on the streets today such as a knife, stick or gun, is employed using a proper series of techniques. At some point, if one is to become proficient with the weapon, they have to begin training the technique and understand how to properly handle the weapon. No matter how well trained someone might otherwise be, until they begin training with the weapon they will be unable to use it effectively and efficiently. An otherwise well trained individual does not simply pick up a weapon and intuitively understand how to properly use it, at least not beyond a superficial level.
I see you're repeating the sale job that has been put out there. Think about it. On one level you are correct. However given a stick, or knife, or a gun to almost anyone makes them a threat. No skill needed at all to inflict damage. So it comes down to priorities. Why does a person need to be a trained knife fighter in our society? Or an expert with a stick? Now I admit the bulk of my students do carry firearms and I have enhanced their shooting skills with simple body mechanics, but their occupation and my own require us to be proficient with firearms, most don't.
Mr. Parker reasoned HIS American Kenpo was a self defense art, and the carrying of weapons by most was not a part of our modern society. He was right. People are if at all, more likely to be attacked empty handed and the stretch between being attacked with weapons, to needing to be proficient with weapons is a part of the sells job of the commercial arts, or simply personal artistic expression. People do it for the same reasons the average person learns to shoot. They just like it.
The argument that you need to be proficient with a weapon to learn how to defend against it, doesn't hold water. Those of us who have these confrontations on a regular basis are usually attacked empty handed, and rarely train specific defenses for all the many types of weapons that exist because the stats show it just doesn't happen. Besides we'd go crazy trying to anticipate all the many different weapons available. I work the hardcore 'hoods' and ghettos, and truth be told, you're more likely to get shot at if someone wants to take you out. Even a knife requires 'up close and personal' guts most don't have. Or like Mr. Parker said to me, "When a guy says he wants to kick your a$$, he has to bring his a$$ with him."
Even if you carry a weapon, you're limited to perhaps a 'buckknife.' Two long sticks in your back pocket? Nunchaku? You'll be arrested and get pretty tired of carrying them around if you don't. Truth is the best weapon you can train is you. It's the one you're mostly likely to need and use. if you want to do these things, then do so but not under the guise of 'I need to know this to defend myself against all those weapon carrying ninjas out there.'
Properly handle a weapon? Other than a firearm, it doesn't matter. How do you properly handle a 'stick?' Any idiot can pick up a stick a be a threat. A person in the arts should spend time on learning proper mechanics, not flinging around a weapon they'll never use especially when their body mechanics suck so badly.
Mr. Parker gave me a lesson in a restaurant to illustrate his position, (and now mine) on the subject. He picked up a couple of spoons and whipped off some variation of what I knew of Five Swords and blew me away with the lethality of what he demonstrated. Then he said, "You thought that was cool, check this out." Then he picked up an astray and a bottle of ketchup and did Reversing Maces with equal devastation. Then he said, "I spent many years working on my spoon, ashtray, and ketchup skills in the monastery." with a big grin on his face. His point was well taken for me.
And what did he do when students kept asking for a "club set?" He gave them a set that was nothing but techniques they were already supposed to know, with sticks in their hands. Of course if they had the underlining mechanics, it might actually work. But they don't and it doesn't, anymore than it does for an unskilled guy off the street.
