Sticks are easy to come by

PhotonGuy

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Some martial arts schools like to teach stick fighting because sticks are easy to come by and therefore its a good weapon to learn. Chances are you're not going to be carrying around a weapon such as a naginata or a pair of kamas nor are you likely to find such weapons lying around but with sticks its another story.

Some people here have disagreed with me about that, I've even been asked where I live, that I must live in an area where sticks are common such as the woods, but I have this to say, how would sticks be not hard to come by? You can find them just about everywhere. Baseball bats, umbrellas, chair legs, golf clubs, crowbars, canes, lamp stands, tire irons, fireplace pokers, the list goes on and on. I don't see how in most cases sticks would be hard to come by.
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

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Most of those aren't things that I have on me at any given point, or are easy to find at any given point. The only exception would probably be chair legs and umbrellas-with chair legs, most likely I'd get hit trying to rip it off the chair, and same thing with umbrella, trying to close the umbrella so I could use it.
 

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Some martial arts schools like to teach stick fighting because sticks are easy to come by and therefore its a good weapon to learn. Chances are you're not going to be carrying around a weapon such as a naginata or a pair of kamas nor are you likely to find such weapons lying around but with sticks its another story.

Some people here have disagreed with me about that, I've even been asked where I live, that I must live in an area where sticks are common such as the woods, but I have this to say, how would sticks be not hard to come by? You can find them just about everywhere. Baseball bats, umbrellas, chair legs, golf clubs, crowbars, canes, lamp stands, tire irons, fireplace pokers, the list goes on and on. I don't see how in most cases sticks would be hard to come by.
if you actualy want a stick, then carry a stick, for a time in my life i carried a kids base ball bat in a rucksack with the top few inches stuck out for quick draw , then after being repeatedly hasseled by the police , i replaced it with a ali teloscopoc walking pole. my car always had my two piece pool cue close at hand

finding anything close to those at effectivness at short notice is a tall order even in a woods
 

wab25

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So... I grew up on a walnut orchard... I stacked a lot of brush... I never found one naturally occurring hanbo, jo or bo. I did a lot of camping and backpacking when I was younger. Never found any hanbo, jo or bo in the woods. We found walking sticks once... By that I mean, we found young trees growing, we used a small hatchet to cut them down, and trim the branches off, used a pocket knife to make them smooth, then dried them by the fire...

The point is... everyone thinks that the easy place to find a stick to fight with... is in the woods. Try it some time... go off into the woods, or to a camping site and find a hanbo, jo or bo. A few things you will learn... if the stick is on the ground not connected to a tree... it is very brittle. If its not brittle... it is still connected to a tree and will take some work to get it unconnected. The worst part is... nature does not make long, straight and smooth sticks very often. And most sticks that have the length you want, are not an inch or two in diameter.

I think it would be easier to find a stick to fight with in the city... as there might actually be a pool cue, broom or baseball bat around somewhere. Still a fun game to play, would be to look around when you are out... find a stick to fight with. The billiards hall might be pretty easy... the grocery store maybe a bit harder... the parking lot, not so much...

Sure, you can carry one in your vehicle. But how useful is it really? No one will pause the fight, to let you open your trunk and get it out. If you got out of the car for whatever reason without it... you won't be able to get it. (if you can get back in the car... drive away) If they see you have the weapon before getting out of the car, they won't let you out...

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy training with these weapons. I just don't think they are as easily available as other folks think. If I am accosted out in the woods... I am not sure I could grab one to use from my surroundings. In the city, maybe... if I am in the right location at the right time. Note to bad guys: Do not attack me in the dowel section of Home Depot...
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

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So... I grew up on a walnut orchard... I stacked a lot of brush... I never found one naturally occurring hanbo, jo or bo. I did a lot of camping and backpacking when I was younger. Never found any hanbo, jo or bo in the woods. We found walking sticks once... By that I mean, we found young trees growing, we used a small hatchet to cut them down, and trim the branches off, used a pocket knife to make them smooth, then dried them by the fire...

The point is... everyone thinks that the easy place to find a stick to fight with... is in the woods. Try it some time... go off into the woods, or to a camping site and find a hanbo, jo or bo. A few things you will learn... if the stick is on the ground not connected to a tree... it is very brittle. If its not brittle... it is still connected to a tree and will take some work to get it unconnected. The worst part is... nature does not make long, straight and smooth sticks very often. And most sticks that have the length you want, are not an inch or two in diameter.

I think it would be easier to find a stick to fight with in the city... as there might actually be a pool cue, broom or baseball bat around somewhere. Still a fun game to play, would be to look around when you are out... find a stick to fight with. The billiards hall might be pretty easy... the grocery store maybe a bit harder... the parking lot, not so much...

Sure, you can carry one in your vehicle. But how useful is it really? No one will pause the fight, to let you open your trunk and get it out. If you got out of the car for whatever reason without it... you won't be able to get it. (if you can get back in the car... drive away) If they see you have the weapon before getting out of the car, they won't let you out...

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy training with these weapons. I just don't think they are as easily available as other folks think. If I am accosted out in the woods... I am not sure I could grab one to use from my surroundings. In the city, maybe... if I am in the right location at the right time. Note to bad guys: Do not attack me in the dowel section of Home Depot...
This is why you carry a counterpart of the weapon with you (for a stick, that would most likely be a cane).
 

wab25

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This is why you carry a counterpart of the weapon with you (for a stick, that would most likely be a cane).
My point was... finding a stick to fight with is harder than most people think. Especially out in the woods. Sure there are a lot of sticks... but not many you can fight with. And even fewer that resemble your jo. In fact, naginata might be a better training weapon for what you would find in the woods that you could fight with.... its going to be heavier on one end than the other, and you probably won't be wielding it from the center of the stick.
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

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My point was... finding a stick to fight with is harder than most people think. Especially out in the woods. Sure there are a lot of sticks... but not many you can fight with. And even fewer that resemble your jo. In fact, naginata might be a better training weapon for what you would find in the woods that you could fight with.... its going to be heavier on one end than the other, and you probably won't be wielding it from the center of the stick.
Yeah, I agree with you. My first post here was actually me stating something similar. Just elaborating on your (and my own) post with a possible solution.
 

frank raud

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Some martial arts schools like to teach stick fighting because sticks are easy to come by and therefore its a good weapon to learn. Chances are you're not going to be carrying around a weapon such as a naginata or a pair of kamas nor are you likely to find such weapons lying around but with sticks its another story.

Some people here have disagreed with me about that, I've even been asked where I live, that I must live in an area where sticks are common such as the woods, but I have this to say, how would sticks be not hard to come by? You can find them just about everywhere. Baseball bats, umbrellas, chair legs, golf clubs, crowbars, canes, lamp stands, tire irons, fireplace pokers, the list goes on and on. I don't see how in most cases sticks would be hard to come by.

And how many of these "substitutes" will you have quick access to in a self defense situation? A tire iron may be a substitute, but are you expecting a mugger to wait for you to go back to your car, empty out your trunk and retrieve the tire iron? Unless you are attacked on a baseball diamond or a sporting goods store, what are the odds of being close enough to a baseball bat to use one when you need it?
Do you have a better chance of finding something that can substitute for a piece of wood as opposed to a bladed weapon with a blade at a 90 degree angle (kama), or a bladed weapon on the end of a 6 ft stick (naginata)? Well, duh, yeah. But relying on being able to find a stick, or equivalent when you need it is foolhardy. Learn to stick fight because it improves eye hand co-ordination. Learn to stick fight because it's fun. But figuring sticks will magically appear when you need them is dumb.
 

dvcochran

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Some martial arts schools like to teach stick fighting because sticks are easy to come by and therefore its a good weapon to learn. Chances are you're not going to be carrying around a weapon such as a naginata or a pair of kamas nor are you likely to find such weapons lying around but with sticks its another story.

Some people here have disagreed with me about that, I've even been asked where I live, that I must live in an area where sticks are common such as the woods, but I have this to say, how would sticks be not hard to come by? You can find them just about everywhere. Baseball bats, umbrellas, chair legs, golf clubs, crowbars, canes, lamp stands, tire irons, fireplace pokers, the list goes on and on. I don't see how in most cases sticks would be hard to come by.
There is a big flaw in this logic. The main reason a stick is lying on the ground is because if is weak or dying and the wind has blown it off. It would be useless self defense tool.
 
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PhotonGuy

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Most of those aren't things that I have on me at any given point, or are easy to find at any given point. The only exception would probably be chair legs and umbrellas-with chair legs, most likely I'd get hit trying to rip it off the chair, and same thing with umbrella, trying to close the umbrella so I could use it.
If you have enough time you could rip off a chair leg, if you don't have enough time you could just pick up the entire chair and use that. Same thing with umbrellas, if you don't have time to close it you could fight with it open or the umbrella could be closed in the first place in which case you won't have to close it. Usually umbrellas are kept closed except when you're using them to keep dry.
 
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PhotonGuy

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if you actualy want a stick, then carry a stick, for a time in my life i carried a kids base ball bat in a rucksack with the top few inches stuck out for quick draw , then after being repeatedly hasseled by the police , i replaced it with a ali teloscopoc walking pole. my car always had my two piece pool cue close at hand
That would work. I keep a baseball bat in my car. You could carry an umbrella, that most likely won't draw unwanted attention.

finding anything close to those at effectivness at short notice is a tall order even in a woods
Are you saying tree branches won't work?
 
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PhotonGuy

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Sure, you can carry one in your vehicle. But how useful is it really? No one will pause the fight, to let you open your trunk and get it out. If you got out of the car for whatever reason without it... you won't be able to get it. (if you can get back in the car... drive away) If they see you have the weapon before getting out of the car, they won't let you out...
I know a case of this fellow who was out on a date when him and his girlfriend were attacked by these thugs, he was able to retrieve a tire iron from his car and use it to stop the thugs. At least one of them he killed and the others he put in critical condition.
 
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PhotonGuy

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If I am accosted out in the woods... I am not sure I could grab one to use from my surroundings.
If you're accosted in the woods it will most likely be by a large dangerous animal such as a bear. In that case the kind of "stick" I would recommend carrying would be a high powered rifle, which for obvious reasons would be very effective at stopping human assailants as well, and if you're trained in stick fighting it can be an effective weapon even if unloaded.
 
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PhotonGuy

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And how many of these "substitutes" will you have quick access to in a self defense situation? A tire iron may be a substitute, but are you expecting a mugger to wait for you to go back to your car, empty out your trunk and retrieve the tire iron?
A fellow I know of was able to retrieve a tire iron from his car when him and his girlfriend were attacked.

Unless you are attacked on a baseball diamond or a sporting goods store, what are the odds of being close enough to a baseball bat to use one when you need it?
You could be attacked in a locker room or gym where sporting goods equipment happens to be lying around, which includes baseball bats. You could be on your way to or from a baseball game and be carrying a bat with you. You could keep a baseball bat in your car, as I do.

Do you have a better chance of finding something that can substitute for a piece of wood as opposed to a bladed weapon with a blade at a 90 degree angle (kama), or a bladed weapon on the end of a 6 ft stick (naginata)? Well, duh, yeah. But relying on being able to find a stick, or equivalent when you need it is foolhardy. Learn to stick fight because it improves eye hand co-ordination. Learn to stick fight because it's fun. But figuring sticks will magically appear when you need them is dumb.
Obviously sticks aren't going to be magically available whenever you need them but they're more likely to be available than just about any other kind of weapon. You're much more likely to find a stick or something that can substitute as a stick than you are of finding other martial arts weapons. I do think that you shouldn't rely on the chance you might find a stick as a substitute for learning good unarmed fighting skills, but learning to fight with sticks can help if you're in a situation where you have one available.
 
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PhotonGuy

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There is a big flaw in this logic. The main reason a stick is lying on the ground is because if is weak or dying and the wind has blown it off. It would be useless self defense tool.
Its better than nothing, and there are other types of sticks you can find besides fallen tree branches. Crowbars, baseball bats, lacrosse sticks, golf clubs, hockey sticks, broom and mop handles, umbrellas, tire irons, fireplace pokers, tennis racquets, you name it.
 
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PhotonGuy

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Even lightsaber blades can be used as sticks, if you have them around.
 

wab25

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If you're accosted in the woods it will most likely be by a large dangerous animal such as a bear. In that case the kind of "stick" I would recommend carrying would be a high powered rifle, which for obvious reasons would be very effective at stopping human assailants as well, and if you're trained in stick fighting it can be an effective weapon even if unloaded.

You were the one to bring up the woods as being an area where sticks are common.

I've even been asked where I live, that I must live in an area where sticks are common such as the woods

Sure, sticks are common in the woods. Just not sticks that are viable for self defense or martial arts.

If you are attacked in the woods... chances are you will be attacked by a snake or spider.... not a bear or other large animal. I wouldn't advise using a high powered rifle on a spider... unless you last name is Baggins.
 

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