I saw two disturbing stories in the news. The first one is from Florida where six people were killed with bats and knives. The second is from my hometown here in Sacramento where a man went on a rampage with a bat and killed 1 man and injured 6, some of whom were children.
Sad incidents like these always reinforce my conviction that self-defense against a weapon is perhaps the most important real life technical skill that martial artists need to know. In both of these incidents the attack came out of the blue and was somewhat unavoidable at least at the moment.
Gun enthusiasts would be correct in saying that the assailants could have been shot. Dog enthusiasts would also be correct in saying that a guard dog could possibly have deterred the assailants. My concern is about their hand to hand against the bat. When I give demos or talks about FMA, I always stress the DOJ stats that say if you are going to be ASSAULTED most likely it will be without a weapon (2/3 w/o weapon, 1/3 w/weapons). But if you are going to be KILLED, it will most likely be with a weapon and close to half of those occur not with guns or vehicles, but with blunt objects, like a bat, and cutting instruments, like knives.
How much time does everybody spend on teaching how to defend against a weapon empty handed in a realistic manner? I'm not talking about disarms, because ultimately pursuing those as your primary goal is unrealistic if the opponent really knows how to use the weapon. Do you ever have people spar where one has a weapon and the other has nothing? Does anybody use improvised weapons in sparring? Currently when someone is disarmed in our sparring, I don't stop them. I let them continue fighting unarmed because of the self defense aspect of the sparring. Any thoughts?
Sad incidents like these always reinforce my conviction that self-defense against a weapon is perhaps the most important real life technical skill that martial artists need to know. In both of these incidents the attack came out of the blue and was somewhat unavoidable at least at the moment.
Gun enthusiasts would be correct in saying that the assailants could have been shot. Dog enthusiasts would also be correct in saying that a guard dog could possibly have deterred the assailants. My concern is about their hand to hand against the bat. When I give demos or talks about FMA, I always stress the DOJ stats that say if you are going to be ASSAULTED most likely it will be without a weapon (2/3 w/o weapon, 1/3 w/weapons). But if you are going to be KILLED, it will most likely be with a weapon and close to half of those occur not with guns or vehicles, but with blunt objects, like a bat, and cutting instruments, like knives.
How much time does everybody spend on teaching how to defend against a weapon empty handed in a realistic manner? I'm not talking about disarms, because ultimately pursuing those as your primary goal is unrealistic if the opponent really knows how to use the weapon. Do you ever have people spar where one has a weapon and the other has nothing? Does anybody use improvised weapons in sparring? Currently when someone is disarmed in our sparring, I don't stop them. I let them continue fighting unarmed because of the self defense aspect of the sparring. Any thoughts?
), but I don't think training full power with baseball bats is a good idea. Especially considering the fact that you'll be aiming for the weak spots on the head: temples, crown of the head.
