What tape people use to protect hands when swinging stick, sword or tennis racket?

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Alan0354

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You should spar though, but with foam weapons. Where do you live and how old are you? Look for Larping groups called Dagorhir. There are dudes in their 70's playing that and they're really good.

The skills you'll develop is very realistic. These Larping people are just as good as FMA dudes with their Escrima sticks.

Also be careful on the type of cane you carry; depending on your City. You're not in San Francisco, are you? Like those massive, Irish Thorn or something, those are clearly weapons in some areas. I like the classic, old guy canes that are beige; carried by the Monopoly Geezer.
I live in Silicon Valley close to San Jose. I am 68.

These are my canes
3 practicing stick.jpg


#1 is for hitting the bag, #2 with foam handle and #3 with no foam. I modified the cane so they look innocent. They are United Cutlery Night Watchman cane, I cut the hook at the handle off. It's made of Nylon, about 20oz after cutting to this length.

Yeh, I know, They only want to throw the book on law abiding citizens, but they let the criminals out without bail.
 

jayoliver00

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I live in Silicon Valley close to San Jose. I am 68.

These are my canes
View attachment 27089

#1 is for hitting the bag, #2 with foam handle and #3 with no foam. I modified the cane so they look innocent. They are United Cutlery Night Watchman cane, I cut the hook at the handle off. It's made of Nylon, about 20oz after cutting to this length.

Yeh, I know, They only want to throw the book on law abiding citizens, but they let the criminals out without bail.

Ah, pretty close to SF. I used to live in the Bay Area of San Jose. Smart move on the type of canes. Older Black dudes in the 'hood are known to carry canes for protection; to the point that thugs recognize them as a sign that these old cats are willing to get down so they may go onto another easier target. They carry those Irish Blackthorns:

Spray is still the best though and should be your 1st line of defense, IMO. After that, cane. I just bought a pack of 4 at Costco for $28. 2 compact & 2 fogger + 1 jogging holster.

 

jayoliver00

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I live in Silicon Valley close to San Jose. I am 68.
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This is what you may want to try out. Look at this pic with the kid on the left with the purple shield; his club is about the length of a cane (10-12 oz). It costs around $40-60 but you can make your own. They will have loaner weapons for people to tryout.

You are basically training weapons. It's foam and doesn't hurt, although bring some thick gloves as the handle (unpadded) can hurt if you get hit w/it by accident. Most of these kids are Nerds and are very nice; not looking to hurt grandpa :p

highres_489332599.jpeg




There are groups in NorCal. Photos - Norcalia - Northern California Foam Fighting (Sunnyvale, CA) | Meetup
 
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Alan0354

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Ah, pretty close to SF. I used to live in the Bay Area of San Jose. Smart move on the type of canes. Older Black dudes in the 'hood are known to carry canes for protection; to the point that thugs recognize them as a sign that these old cats are willing to get down so they may go onto another easier target. They carry those Irish Blackthorns:

Spray is still the best though and should be your 1st line of defense, IMO. After that, cane. I just bought a pack of 4 at Costco for $28. 2 compact & 2 fogger + 1 jogging holster.

Oh yes, I have pepper spray in my left pocket!!! And yes, I carry the cane in my hand, not touching the ground and make it obvious I am not using it for walking!!!

That Cold Steel blackthorn is a weapon!!! There's no question about that. I would never carry that out. This is how my canes originally look like, see how innocent looking I made them?!!

https://www.knifecenter.com/item/UC...se-premium-adjustable-walking-cane-39-overall
 
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Tony Dismukes

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You should spar though, but with foam weapons. Where do you live and how old are you? Look for Larping groups called Dagorhir. There are dudes in their 70's playing that and they're really good.

The skills you'll develop is very realistic. These Larping people are just as good as FMA dudes with their Escrima sticks.
LARPing is a lot of fun and good exercise and even has a bit of overlap with actual stick fighting skills, but there are important differences between LARP sparring and actual stick fighting. Being good at one does not make you good at the other.
 
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Alan0354

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I don't mind going to some school if it is in my area. Problem is what school to go to? I looked into Filipino arnis , but they do single hand, I really don't think it's that practical after practicing for close to 3 months. Their sticks are too light, and they use single hand swinging. I changed to two hands swinging after that so I can use a heavier cane. Maybe someone strong can swing a 20oz cane single hand effectively, I am not strong enough. Of cause I can twirl it like arnis, but it's slow. If I accidentally hit furniture during a fight, the stick definitely goes flying. All these reasons made me decided to go two hands like Katana to hit harder, hold onto the cane more secure. Then, the problem, where can I go to hone my skill that fight with 2 hands? I don't know of any style of stick fight that do that. Learning Katana is not the same, they are more into cutting than striking.

Maybe it still be useful to train in single hand arnis, but how useful? I heard of a school close by, but they are not open due to covid. I still question even arnis is fast, but hitting with a 6oz or 7oz stick, does it really have stopping power? I saw on youtube one video where they have competition, the two people just hitting each other non stop with very fast swing, nobody goes down, they just keep hitting each other and LANDED on each other over and over and they keep fighting. I did not even finish the video!!! Why do I want to learn something that won't drop the opponent in an all out competition?!! That really got me into 2 hands heavy sticks.
 

frank raud

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Yes, and a 3rd would be Taz who is largely retired but jumped in again at the last Tribal.
I don't know Taz, the Dog Brothers I know are from Ottawa or Montreal, and I don't know them all. I was originally thinking of Chili Pepper Dog, but he's in his early 60's, maybe late 50's. Several others I know who are not full Dog Brothers yet are in their late 50's, early 60's.
 

jayoliver00

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LARPing is a lot of fun and good exercise and even has a bit of overlap with actual stick fighting skills, but there are important differences between LARP sparring and actual stick fighting. Being good at one does not make you good at the other.

Have you tried both, extensively? I have, and spars this FMA instructor that runs his own school. He always comes to a sparring meet with a bag full of his propylene sparring weapons; but only 1 or 2 people want to play with weapons. With me using his weapons, that he's well used to, it was about 50/50 out of at least 20 exchanges.

My training is 15+ years of Muay Thai mostly + BJJ/MMA but only ~3years of Larping and nothing else formal for weapons. There are many Nerd Larpers that will beat me 70/100 times consecutively; despite my being much more athletic than them. The top 10% will beat me 80-90/100. S

Larping is a real skill set as it's applying HEMA. It's not just Asians that know how to swing sticks and blades.
 

angelariz

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For sparring I use hockey gloves. For training, I have never used gloves. If you are getting that much friction it is a grip issue.
 
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Alan0354

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I almost recover already, I am swinging without the tape and slowly add up the sets.

Tape is THE BEST bar none in my case. cotton gloves doesn't work because it stick to the stick more than my hand, so it's still rubbing against my fingers. Using tape without pads is the best. It stick to the finger, so the stick is riding on the tape.

The best is to NOT swing to the point of breaking skin, tape before that stage, use just tape without padding to stick to the finger. Believe it or not, electrical tape do work, just a little stiff.

I don't want to go to thick gloves, I do want to train my skin to be tougher. Hopefully the worst has passed and I don't need anything anymore. definitely no hockey gloves. I am training for self defense, I cannot say "halt", let me put on my hockey glove before you attack me!!! I never see a hockey glove, it must be huge and very sticky to hold onto the stick. Maybe that's the reason people don't lose their stick that often during matches. Losing the cane in self defense situation is very real. I even have a thread here on that. I need to practice how to hold onto the stick in all situations. This is real world, not a competition or a match that the worst it can be is losing the match. Actually at this point, I find swinging the stick is easier, learning to hold onto the stick when swing and miss, or hitting furniture accidentally in the surrounding and cause me to lose the cane is much harder.

Thanks
 
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