The IMMERSION Foundation Presents Strands of Strife and Life Vol. II
THE BOOK OF THE
STICK
part 1
A Comprehensive Survey of the World's Stick Arts
Edited by Mahipal Lunia / Juha A, Vuori, Ph.D / Mika Harju-Seppänen
THE BOOK OF THE
STIC K
THE BOOK OF THE
STICK A Comprehensive Survey of the World's Stick Arts
part 1
Contributors CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Mahipal Lunia Explorer-in-Residence, The Immersion Foundation Executive Editor, The Immersion Review @theimmersionfoundation
@immersion.foundation
http://www.therenaissancepath.com http://www.theimmersion.foundation
Juha A. Vuori, Ph.D Professor of International Politics, Faculty of Management and Business Tampere University, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1487-2961
Mika Harju-Seppänen mika.harjuseppanen@gmail.com
PEER REVIEWERS Juha A. Vuori, Ph.D Mika Harju-Seppänen 2 Anonymous Reviewers
PRODUCTION Hana Shin Editor & Production Director Cover image by Jdcollins13 on Wikipedia.com (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silambam#/media/File:Silambam_vector.svg). Cropped from original image. Permission given by Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode).
The Immersion Review, founded by The Immersion Foundation, is a conduit for penetrating insights in combat and combative behavior. It is a space for the dedicated martial artist, who dares to seek ideas from diverse fighting systems. The Immersion Review is a peer-reviewed journal for the martial arts comprehensivist. FOR EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT: thereview@theimmersion.foundation
Copyright © 2023 by The Immersion Foundation. All Rights Reserved. First Edition published in 2023 by The Immersion Foundation. http://theimmersion.foundation No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
Acknowledgments
We would like to expresss our heartfelt graditutde to all the auhtors who contributed to this book, the anonymous reviewers who offered their time and critical review through the process, and the students of the Mountain View Aiki school who spent countless hours doing the unseen work behind the scenes. We would also like to offer special thanks to Michael Belzer for being thie guiding light on this journey and a bridge connecting The Immersion Foundation to Donn F. Draeger's work and legacy, and Michael J. Ryan, Ph.D for his contributions to the first two issues of the Immersion Review Vol. 1 - Stick Arts.
Left: Sir Richard Francis Burton [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Francis_Burton / public domain] Right: Donn F. Draeger [Photo courtesy of Michael Belzer]
Dedication
This work is dedicated to the two pioneers and leaders of hoplology: Sir Richard Francis Burton, who founded the field in the 19th century; and Donn F. Draeger, who revived it in the 20th century.
Foreword
Michael Belzer When Mahipal Lunia of The Immersion Foundation asked me to write the foreword for this 2000-page magnum opus, I was both honored and humbled. Mahipal originally contacted me to learn more about my experiences with Donn F. Draeger, the martial historian who was the founder of modern hoplology, which is the study of human combative behavior. From our very first zoom meeting I could tell that I was talking with a sincere and passionate researcher of worldwide martial culture. As I learned more about The Immersion Foundation and the different research expeditions they had already made into India, the Caribbean, Portugal, and Southeast Asia to document the various combative traditions found in each of those regions, I was reminded of listening to Donn Draeger discuss the 3-month research trips he made annually for his own hoplological fieldwork back in the 60s and 70s.
FOREWORD
· Michael Belzer | xi
The next generation of hoplologists were born and grew up reading the books of Donn Draeger as he opened the martial arts of the east to the world of western practitioners. I could tell that Mahipal was inspired by Draeger to continue in his footsteps and advance the study of hoplology through his research expeditions, publications, and his three-day Immersion Labs. Through the efforts of Mahipal Lunia and The Immersion Foundation I am seeing that many of the visions which Donn Draeger had for the development of modern hoplology are finally becoming a reality some forty years after his passing in 1982. I am so very pleased to be involved with The Immersion Foundation and Mahipal Lunia as they continue to carry on the work of Donn F. Draeger and the study of human combative behavior. I offered to share the private notes and audio tapes that had been given to me by Richard Hayes, who was to be Draeger’s co-author of the first textbook on hoplology. To do this, we met weekly via zoom and worked our way through the many letters and audio tapes that Draeger and Hayes made each other as they finetuned their concepts around the study of warriors, weapons, and their fighting system. This whole process took about a year to complete. We both thought it was important to do it in this way so we could talk about various items as they came up in our reading and listening. My own journey with the stick and hoplology began with my meeting Donn Draeger in Japan at the age of 18. By what I can only call “fantastic luck,” I had been invited to start training in a 450-year old classical martial tradition called Shindo muso ryu jojutsu. The dojo happened to be the dojo of Donn Draeger and my teacher was the 25th headmaster of the style, Shimizu Taka-
xii | The Book of the Stick
ji, who was also the sensei of Donn Draeger since the early 60s. The jo is a four-foot staff made out of white oak and in the nine months I was in Japan at that time, I learned the twelve basic movements known as kihon and the twelve kata (forms) of the beginning set known as the omote. I only had a chance to meet and train with Draeger Sensei a few times when he would come into Tokyo from his base in Narita. When it came time for me to return to the U.S. to pursue my college and university studies, Draeger Sensei was at the dojo and said to me, “We are modernizing an old discipline known as hoplology, which is the study of warriors, their weapons, and their fighting systems. If you would like to be involved with this, let us stay in touch by letter.” We did maintain contact by letters and four years later, in 1979, more fantastic luck landed in my lap as I was invited to participate in the First International SMR Jojutsu Intensive Training Camp which was held in Penang, Malaysia, and taught by Donn Draeger Sensei. I attended the five-day camp, and afterwards I was invited to accompany Draeger Sensei as he traveled around Malaysia to interview a variety of master teachers in fighting arts as diverse as pentjak silat, combat tai chi, Indian silambam, and Shaolin kung fu. As we traveled together, Draeger Sensei was able to help me deepen my understanding of hoplology, research methods, and interviewing techniques along with other conceptual tools that comprise the study of human combative behavior. When I was ready to return to Los Angeles from Malaysia, I asked Draeger Sensei what I should be doing in Los Angeles since there was no licensed teacher of Shindo muso ryu jojutsu that I could
FOREWORD | xiii
continue my training with. He told me, “You must find a weapons-based system as training with weapons will teach you things that an empty-handed system cannot.” I was aware that Dan Inosanto was teaching Filipino stick fighting in Los Angeles, and when I returned from Malaysia in 1979, I found my way to the Kali Academy in Carson, CA and was accepted as a student. It was here that I was introduced to several different styles of Filipino stick fighting which utilized different lengths of the rattan stick and had different training methods, and Guro Dan was able to provide the historical and cultural context for each of the styles that was being represented at the academy. The training at the academy was intense and I felt like I was in a martial arts “graduate school.” After five years of training under Guro Dan Inosanto, I decided that it was time to follow some more advice from Donn Draeger, which was to “go to the country of origin if you really want to learn about the cultural context of the art that you are studying.” I made plans to go to the Philippines for a three-month expedition to locate as many teachers of the Filipino arts as I could, interview them, and document their styles as closely as possible as I had learned from Donn Draeger. This was in 1985 and I was 28 years old. “Fantastic luck” was with me again when I landed in the Philippines and, on my first day in Manila, happened to meet a young man named Roberto Morales who said he could “. . . bring me to his escrima teacher, Antonio ‘Tatang’ Ilustrisimo.” Little did I know at that time, but Ilustrisimo was a grandmaster of his art and was well-known throughout the Philippines as a full-contact
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fighter with a fearsome reputation even at the age I met him, which was 82 years old. GM Ilustrisimo was very gracious to me and invited me to start training with his small group of students in Luneta Park early in the mornings. After about a month of this, Roberto came to me and told me that he knew I wanted to travel around the islands and meet different teachers and document their styles. He told me that GM Ilustrisimo was aware of what I wanted to do and offered to accompany me as my “interpreter and bodyguard—as he will need both.” Roberto also came with us, and we traveled to the islands of Mindoro, Negros, Cebu and far down into the southern Philippines to the small island of Jolo. We spent a month on this trip and then it was time for me to return to Los Angeles again. It is amazing to me how one person such as Donn Draeger could have inspired my own life as much as he did, and it was all from his responding to my letter when I was a 18-year-old kid just out of high school. Donn Draeger’s inspiration to modernize hoplology came when he read The Book of the Sword by Sir Richard Burton, which was published in 1884. It was the most comprehensive cross-cultural presentation of the sword that had yet been published. Burton was an accomplished swordsman himself who had seen battle with it and came with the scars to prove it. He was an adventurer who traveled the world and sought out masters of the sword in each country he visited. He documented the training methods and connected the weapon with its particular system of use, which was quite a departure from the way weapons were being featured at that time, which was to view it in a museum, removed from its cultural context with little or no explanation of its system of use.
FOREWORD | xv
The Immersion Foundation as led by Mahipal Lunia took its inspiration from the work of Donn Draeger and represents the next generation of hoplologists who will “stand on the shoulders of giants” like Sir Richard Burton and Donn F. Draeger. Before the sword, there was a simple stick. Sharpen one end and you have both a staff and a spear, which were among the earliest weapons devised by our prehistoric ancestors. The Book of the Stick will reveal the stick fighting systems of the world from the Filipino styles that have become so popular in the last two decades, to stick fighting systems from North Africa, Russia, India, Cambodia, Burma, Germany, Ireland, the U.S., Japan, China, Hawaii, New Zealand, and others, many of which have not been seen by the general public. Some of the training methods have been considered “secret” and through the efforts of Mahipal Lunia along with the support of The Immersion Foundation are being revealed for the first time. Presented in four parts, it contains 79 different articles authored by master-teachers of their individual arts, many of which will be presented to the public for the first time. Beautifully illustrated with over 1000 photographs, the reader will be able to see the various weapons and how they are used in each fighting style. Each article has been peer-reviewed by six different professors from a variety of academic fields, including anthropology, archeology, psychology, and hoplology. Mahipal has dedicated five years of his life and thousands of hours of work to see The Book of the Stick to its completion.
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The Book of the Stick will be an invaluable resource guide for anyone interested in widening their understanding of the versatile stick fighting arts of the world.
- Michael Belzer Shindo Muso Ryu Jojutsu, Gomokuroku September, 2023
FOREWORD | xvii
Ireland United Kingdom France United States
Italy Canary Islands
Trinadad and Tobago Nigeria
Argentina
at a gla nce TH E B OOK OF THE STICK part 1 Scandanavia
Japan
Hong Kong The Philippines
South Africa
Cont ents Foreword
xi
Michael Belzer Introduction: Modern Hoplology and The Immersion Foundation
21
Interview with Michael Belzer Editorial
55
Mahipal Lunia, Juha A. Vuori &
Mika Harju-Seppänen Arnis and Barangay Tanod
76
Joel D. Anajao My Path to Menkyo
106
Michael Belzer Kalinda: An Introduction to the Trinidadian Stickfighting Art
154
Rondel Benjamin Life and Strife: An Ongoing Conversation
164
Rondel Benjamin & Mahipal Lunia The Long Pole: A Western Perspective
198
Michael Blackgrave Bonafont Cane Fighting System
218
Arturo Bonafont Documentary Analysis and Interpretation of the Juego de Palo Canario Alejandro Rodriguez Buenafuente
304
African Stick Fighting in Maguzawa/ Hausa and Zulu Cultures
328
Jigaba Bwaira The Pure Art of Angel Cabales Serrada ng Escrima
338
JC Cabiero Sticks and Chivalry
358
Bryan Cannata Stick Fencing and Canne Italiana
378
Guido Caporizzi Bataireacht: A Once-Famous Irish Martial Art Coming Back to Life
398
Maxime Chouinard & Nathan Featherstone Essential Kabaroan
430
Darrin Cook Sticks: Branching Out
480
Toby Cowern The Stick: Man’s Oldest Tool and Weapon, and Its Use by the UK Special Forces
490
Mark Davies Dog Brothers Martial Arts' Seven Ranges and Stick Grappling
508
Marc Denny Dog Brothers Martial Arts Marc Denny
524
Introduction: Modern Hoplology and The Immersion Foundation
Michael Belzer Interviewed by Juha A. Vuori and Mika Harju-Seppänen
Michael “Mike” Belzer is a lifelong martial artist trained to the highest levels in several martial arts traditions. He started his journey at the age of nine in Danzan ryu jujutsu receiving his Shodan in 1971 at age 16. Six decades of involvement in the art has earned him 9th degree black belt and the title of Professor in the art. In the mid-1970s, Mike traveled to Japan for nine months of training at the international headquarters for aikido and jodo. While in Japan, he began his training in Shindo muso ryu jojutsu, the practice of which he continues even today at the level of Menkyo. In 1979, Mike accompanied the noted hoplologist Donn F. Draeger to Malaysia, to the first international Shindo muso ruy training camp. During this trip he received firsthand introduction to hoplology fieldwork from the founder of the field himself. Working also with
INTRODUCTION: HOPLOLOGY & TIF
· Michael Belzer | 23
Richard Hayes, he has developed into one of the foremost experts on hoplology, being responsible for training such notables as Professor Dave Hall, Hunter “Chip” Armstrong, and—more recently—Mahipal Lunia in the field. In addition to the aforementioned arts, Mike has studied, for example, Kodokan judo, taekwondo, Shotokan karate, hapkido, Tai Mantis kung fu, savate, and pentjak silat. He also studied Filipino kali/escrima and Jeet Kune Do for over 14 years with Dan Inosanto, receiving Advanced Instructor level in serrada escrima. In 1988, he assisted Professor Wally Jay in producing his famous book, Small Circle Jujitsu, and he is featured in the illustrations of the book. Mike has received the «Instructor of the Year» award from Jujitsu America and is in the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame. As if this was not enough, and being a true hoplologist at heart, Mike has been active in applying the knowledge and understanding gained through traditional arts to the modern day environments, be it in the contexts of use of force or self-defense. He has, for example, served as a consultant to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Arrest and Control Unit, as part of their Civilian Martial Arts Advisory Panel (CMAAP) in developing their use of force protocols. In the civilian field, he is one of the pioneers of Adrenal Stress Scenario Training, working with several projects such as Impact Personal Safety, Blind Ambition, Esteem, and, most recently, with his wife Meredith Gold, running a program called “R-A-W (Ready, Aware, Willing) Power.” Despite all of his achievements and adventures, Mike is an easily approachable, warm, and open person—a true gentleman. He has a wealth of accumulated knowledge of all things martial and he is more than willing to share it with like-minded practitioners, no
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matter their level. He also has the courage to take, again and again, the role of a novice, constantly trying to deepen his understanding of human combative behavior. You just would not know any of this by observing his unassuming demeanor. He truly is an embodiment of the best qualities of a warrior. The following interview is left largely unedited in order to give the reader a window to Mike›s unique personality. Without further ado, here is “Michael Belzer Speaks from Glendale, California.”
INTRODUCTION: HOPLOLOGY & TIF
· Michael Belzer | 25
Donn F. Draeger and Modern Hoplology Donn Drager made annual research trips that were usually about three months long. He called them expeditions. Other people called them safaris, weapon safaris. He would usually take three to five people with him that were part of his, what I call “the inner circle.” Most of them were in Japan with him training various classical martial arts and doing hoplology with him. For myself, I was always interested in going on one of those long trips. Instead, I was able to travel with him to the first international Shindo muso ryu stick fighting intensive training camp that he taught. That was in 1979, when I was 22. After that, he had about a week before the group would come and then they went out on what turned out to be their last expedition. I had a chance to meet several of the master teachers that he was interviewing. I met Master Raman of Silat Seni Gayong and several others from combat tai chi, Shaolin kung fu, and silambam (Indian stick fighting). I was able to talk with and interview them. I was also able to experience how Draeger was gathering his information. Along the way, he gave me his personal introduction to hoplology, the study of human combative behavior. At the end of that three-week trip he said, “Next time you will come on the big one.” That was the plan, but that never happened because everybody in that particular event ended up getting poisoned by one of the members of the Aceh tribe somewhere in Indonesia. Everybody got very sick and they ended up in the hospital with amoebic dysentery. They eventually recovered, but it was kind of the beginning of a downward spiral for Draeger. He ended up having cancer of the liver and by October 1982, he was gone.
26 | The Book of the Stick
The way he worked, he had his inner group—the core people that were with him in Japan—and then he had a bunch of people all over the world that were interested in what he was doing and in hoplology. He would give them assignments like: “Look for this book” or “Investigate this particular art that happens to be in your country.” I was one of those satellite guys. Draeger had a solid plan: he was going to be relocating to the Big Island of Hawaii. They had, if not already purchased, at least access to 10 acres—which means somebody that was involved with them had the acreage and was willing to donate it. They would build some kind of hostel-type facility where people could come and stay for a few weeks. The plan was to bring in qualified teachers from different arts to teach the arts authentically. People would pay to come there and train, just like at an Olympic training camp. They had their own board of directors; there was going to be a nonprofit section, and a for-profit section. My name was on the list of people that would be staffing the original center for hoplology. But then, Donn Draeger’s health started to deteriorate and everything, of course, spiraled down. There were two main people that took the ball after this. They were Hunter Armstrong and Dr. David Hall. They continued Draeger’s work by producing Hoplos—which was the newsletter—which later became the Hoplite journal. Over a period of about 10 years, they really tried to keep what Draeger had done going: they led a couple of expeditions into India, and they kept on doing their own writing and research. But at the end of the day, everybody›s got to make a living, and people had to start to get real jobs. They got families and they have to pay for the house, and so on.
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· Michael Belzer | 27
Hunter Armstrong got involved with training the United States Marine Corps. One of the students that came to him happened to be a Marine officer who was very interested in Donn Draeger and saw the type of training that Hunter was doing. It was really classical Japanese martial arts, but instead of a sword, you had a rifle and a bayonet. He modeled the training after the classical martial art paradigm. Armstrong started that, and so he created his own training program for it. He is still running the International Hoplology Society. I have not been involved with it for many, many years, and I do not know what level it is at now. I had my own experience after Draeger died. I was concurrently having a pen pal relationship with the co-author of the first textbook of hoplology. That was the goal that Donn Draeger and Richard Hayes were working on. I started pen-palling with Richard Hayes probably in 1977-78 after he wrote to Donn Draeger. Hayes asked a question about Wally Jay›s small circle jujitsu and wanted to know some specific answers to some questions. Donn Draeger said to him in a letter, “Why don’t you write to my good friend Mike Belzer, who is an instructor of that style, the Danzan style. Maybe he can answer the questions for you.” So, he wrote to me and asked me questions about stepping, stances, and shifting, and if you change one part of a system then it affects other parts of the system, and on and on and on. I really had no idea what he was talking about. When I wrote him back, I was maybe 20-21 at the time, Sandan in Hawaiian jujitsu, and I said that I really do not know what you are talking about. Could you start from the beginning? He wrote back, and said, “Dear Mike, thanks for your letter of blah, blah, blah. First there was the Big Bang. And then the universe
28 | The Book of the Stick
was formed.” Then he continued on to the Stone Age, the tribal groups, the Bronze Age, the rise of the city-state, and on and on. This became a multi-letter thing per week, handwritten letters. Hayes had his own physical challenges. He was what is called a universal reactor. He thinks that in the Korean War he got affected by some sort of gas attack and became very reactive to all sorts of irritants. He had to eat very bland food, and he could hardly wear any clothes at all because he would start to asphyxiate. He was married to a Japanese woman, who lived in a unit next to his in Seattle. Her mother also lived with her and they took care of him. All he was really able to do was read, so he read everything. He read seven newspapers a day, a book a day, and all the magazines and journals. If he had a question, he would write the author. Sometimes they would write him back. Donn Draeger was one of the guys that would write you back. One thing led to another and they started a pen-pal-type of relationship, which is not easy with Donn Draeger. That was just because of all the things that he was doing and all the different people that would write to him. When I wrote to him, age 18, on my way to Japan, he wrote me back. That gives you a little window into his kind of personality and how open he was to helping people that were sincerely interested in learning about martial arts the way that they were really taught authentically in whatever country you were interested in. While I was on my trajectory to go to Malaysia and travel with Donn Draeger, I was corresponding with Richard Hayes multiple times during the week. He sent me books with highlights, dog ears, and arrows: very important, must read, follow up on this,
INTRODUCTION: HOPLOLOGY & TIF
· Michael Belzer | 29
write to this person, look up Science News. “We are trying to find this particular hormone that has been identified that affects the fear and stress response.” “Go to the cemetery, and walk and look at all the headstones on the veterans’ cemetery—come back and tell me your impressions.” Stuff like that. He gave me specific questions to ask Donn Draeger, but when I would ask questions, he would say, sorry, I cannot go into that, that is for the textbook. I got a lot of those things. I got the invitation to go to the stick fighting thing. There were specific things you had to do: you are going to arrive on this date, you are going to go to this location, and then you are going to take this bus, and go to this other school, and then you are going to check in. So I said, Yeah, I will do all that. I wrote to Donn Draeger, and I said, here is the plan, here is what I am going to do. That is when he said, “Awesome, sounds great. I know this was a big sacrifice. By the way, I do not want to mess up your plans, but if you are interested in going the cheap way like me, why don›t you just meet me in Japan, and then we will go to Thailand. We will take the train. It is a 25-hour train ride into Malaysia. That way we can do a little introduction to hoplology as we are doing that.” That is how that happened. I kind of thought that there was going to be a bunch of other guys that were going to meet there, like five or six guys, and we were all going to go together. It turned out that there was one other guy, but he got sick. So, it was just Donn Draeger and me. That is how I got to travel with him one on one. I did interview him on the train ride. That was an amazing experience and I learned about some of the goals and the vision that he had for the center. I made it to Malaysia, did the five-day
30 | The Book of the Stick
camp where you trained three times a day. Sometimes he would have different instructors of different styles come in the evening and give demonstrations. Other times we would go out into the areas of Penang to see demonstrations of different styles. After that, he said he had about a week before the rest of the guys come. If I was interested, we could go visit the various teachers he was interviewing for current books, like Shantung Black Tiger and Phoenix Eye Fist. He was also working on a book on silambam, and on another one on combat tai chi. We did that and I got a chance to meet the masters. I asked them, okay, if I gave you the punch, what would you do? If I gave you the push, what would you do? If I give you a headlock, what would you do? There are various pictures; there is no video, because this was 1979. All the pictures that were taken of me with these various guys were taken by Donn Draeger, which was cool. Then it was time to go. At the airport, he said that next time you will go on the big trip with us. After I got back, the plan was still to do the center. We were going to create a way for people to start practicing the authentic arts, in an authentic way, under qualified instruction. Then you flash forward 10, 20, 30, 40 years. During that time, various people were contacting me about my experience with Donn Draeger, because I wrote a couple of articles. I tried to share some of my experiences with people. One of the things that happened with Dick Hayes is he wrote to me after Draeger died and said, “I have got my own health problems and I don›t know how long I am going to live. So, I think I should transmit everything that I was working on with Donn Draeger on to you.” So, he started doing that. How could he do it? The only way was to handwrite it all over again.
INTRODUCTION: HOPLOLOGY & TIF
· Michael Belzer | 31
Once again, I am getting multiple letters a week under different categories like biomechanics, fear, and the place-time matrix. It was about eight different categories. From those letters I had to highlight the different sections in different colors, take it to a secretarial service that was using a word processor to type out these different sections. Then I mailed those sections back to Dick Hayes. He added, deleted, crossed out, made arrows, made charts, and sent it back to me. We do this, to the typist, back to me, up to him, back and forth, probably for nine months or so, until we finally create an inch-thick spiral notebook called The Theoretics of Hoplology. That is where the eight combative traits were listed, along with several other topics, but the eight combative traits were what can be considered the guts of hoplology. That is how Donn Draeger explained it. From there you could do a lot of different things; you could explain many things that you might not be able to really describe to somebody without having an understanding of how these traits work. Something like taking the initiative would be sen; force or yielding the force, we would start from goju; blending with an attack would be synchronicity or aiki. These traits apply not only to Japanese arts in which they were originally identified, but in other arts, too. Hoplology strove to take it out of its ethnocentric bias and to make it so that it could be universally described and universally applied across cultures and arts. Dick Hayes also gave me seven different audio tapes. He and Draeger exchanged audio tapes back and forth, and the tapes that Hayes received from him were sent to me. They were about kicking around terms, ideas, and plans, talking about what the goals were and projects they were currently working on. From
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those eight tapes, I edited together something that I called Donn Draeger Speaks from Narita, Japan, because that is how he would usually start the tapes: “Donn Draeger speaking from Narita, Japan,” and then he would go into it. I edited it together with the idea that, if somebody was interested, I could send it to them. I could say that they should just imagine that Donn Draeger is speaking to them, and then you would listen to what he had to say. I thought that was a very cool thing, and the people that received it really seemed to enjoy it. Decades later, I used that when I turned 60 as my touchpoint to begin my PowerPoint presentation on the life of Donn Draeger and his effect on the martial arts. In that, you would listen to a little bit of that CD, and then you would see maybe some pictures or a video.1 Then I would talk a little bit about his learning judo and jujitsu as a little kid, joining the Marine Corps as a young guy, age 15, moving to Japan to study martial arts, becoming the author, going out on the expeditions, and so on. At some point, I got an inquiry from Mahipal Lunia. The name was first given to me by my serrada teacher, Khalid Khan. He said that Mahipal was one of his students too, he was also an aiki jujutsu man, and someday you guys should get together. But of course, life happens, and that connection never happened until he contacted me about Donn Draeger and hoplology. We had the same type of talk you and I are having right now—I just gave him the story. He asked me whether those notes were available and I 1 You can see some of this material in the Immersion Talk, “‘Hoplology 101: An Introduction to Donn Draeger’ with Michael Belzer Pt.3” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWM-YJbvbwQ).
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· Michael Belzer | 33
said, yeah, here they are. Mahipal asked if I would mind having him read them, as he was archiving those types of things. I said, well, yeah, you could and it is not like, “Oh, I cannot understand this,” but because it is Dick Hayes writing about these different things, it is going to be better for me to actually do it the way I was told to share this information with Hunter Armstrong and David Hall. Remember, they were carrying the ball right after Draeger died. They were also having their own pen pal relationship with Dick Hayes, but Hayes was not giving them everything that he was giving me. I do not know why I got tasked for it, but I was. So, when we were all done, he said, “Now Mike, you need to get with Hunter Armstrong and Dave Hall.” I had never met them before; this was to be my first time meeting them. Dave Hall was up at UC Berkeley and I was down in L.A. I met them up in Berkeley, Dave Hall got us a room in the library, and my assignment was to sit them down and read every word to them. I know I did that, but I have no memory at all of actually reading it to them. I know I did, because we were there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It was torture, but that is what we did. It was because it really was an extension of Donn Draeger. Donn Draeger and Dick Hayes were writing it, and Draeger said this is what we are doing, so that was what we were doing. I said to Mahipal that that is what I did with them, and if you want, we can do the same thing. I said we would meet, let us pick a day, Thursday mornings work for me. He said okay, so we started doing it. I remember it was like going back in time, because how long had it been for me since I had been looking at all
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this stuff? 30 years? Yeah, 30 years! It was amazing to talk about it again, to see it again. Sure enough, one little sentence brought up the context of what was happening when we were writing it. It really worked quite well to do that. We worked our way all the way through it. It took two years of weekly meetings to go over the whole thing. But we made our way through that. Along the way, I was learning about the Immersion Foundation, its projects, the Immersion Labs, and all that. When I heard about the Lab, Holy Blood, Holy Blade (Lab #4, 2023) that we went to, I said to Mahipal, this type of thing is really a manifestation of one of the big dreams that Donn Draeger had: bringing authentic teachers into one location, having students come in one location, having authentic training methods given out the way they are supposed to be. He agreed, he said yeah. As I was just going over the different visions and goals that Draeger had, he was kind of smiling and saying we are doing this right now. I said, yeah, you really are. That really is what motivated me to stay involved. Go to that Immersion Lab; just the venue was so awesome. I felt like Donn Draeger was there, I could really feel his spirit. The expeditions that have been led by Mahipal are of that the high caliber that Draeger was really looking for. By that I mean, we are talking about people that are academics, masters, Ph.Ds, but also martial artists. Draeger was working with the people that were interested. He was raising them up,2 but somebody like 2 Draeger held a series of guest lectures at the East-West Center and the University of Hawaii. The International Hoplology Society made transcripts of the lectures.
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me, what was I, a 21- or 22-year-old kid still at UCLA working on my B.A. in sociology. But now, the Immersion Foundation is able to bring together anthropologists, archaeologists, psychologists, sociologists, all trained in various martial disciplines, and is able to record on high-def video that could be shown on a regular movie screen or TV special. Now everything is computerized and we can talk worldwide. We can scan this and send that. It is a completely different world. The fact that Donn Draeger was able to do what he could do was amazing. Why Do We Need Hoplology in Today’s World? Wide access to the martial art content in today’s world of YouTube is a two-edged sword, to use a hoplology example. Draeger talked a lot about the emic, or the inside view, and the etic, the outside view. The emic is the trained practitioner who is able to maybe discern things that an outsider would never look for, or had no idea existed. But the emic hoplologist has to be able to present their insight in an etic way. We can call it “user friendly”—it does have to become relevant. How do you make the study of, let us call it “killing people,” creating pain, or injuring people, relevant and user-friendly to people, so that there might be some understanding, so that it makes sense to look at this? One of the people that wrote about that in his book, The Buddhist Goddess Marishiten, was Dr. David Hall.3 He specifically wrote a chapter about how some of these rituals were used to treat the soldier coming back from the battlefield 3 David A. Hall, The Buddhist Goddess Marishiten: A Study of the Evolution and Impact of her Cult on the Japanese Warrior (Boston, MA: Brill, 2014).
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to reintegrate with society. He has taught that direct application to veterans today. You have to look at it as expanding rings. One of them is the way many of the military people that have been at war for over 20 years are able to come out and create different training programs for civilians and business people, people that are dealing with traumatic stress. They are taking the lessons that they learned from war, from dealing with fear, and coming up short, or performing amazing feats of courage and bravery that no one thought was possible. How are you able to apply that to starting your own business, to dealing with your own personal fears and anxieties, or beginning to work through trauma that you have already experienced growing up, but is still affecting you today? Is there a way to learn dealing with fear under a life threatening situation, as learned by the warriors of India or Japan, or in any particular country or discipline? They dealt with it like this, this, and this; they did their breathing exercises, they had their mudras, their hand-symbols. That might be a self-hypnotic anchoring method, it might be something that, by recreating a training scenario, you can put yourself into a similar situation that you went into as a kid, and got traumatized. You can work your way through, and have a feeling of, “I made it; I survived; now I have skills—there is something I can do now. I am not helpless. I am not a victim.” Never giving up, always getting up, creating an attitude of “I will survive, I will succeed, I am unstoppable.” Why is it that I feel like, “God, I do not know if I can handle that”? Well, there is a method for handling that. For example, how can you go into a Delta Force shoot house with live fire and have one of your teammates sitting in the chair with
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other people firing live rounds and going full speed? How do you do that and be successful? One way to do it is to do it slow-motion first; we walk it slow-mo. We figure out exactly what the plan is and how we are going to go left, how we are going to go right, who is going to get this sector, and how we are going to cover this particular angle. Then you speed it up, you speed it up some more, then you videotape it, and then you troubleshoot it. There are ways to do these dangerous things. They just have to be broken down. That is what I saw in the Immersion Lab (Holy Blood, Holy Blade). There were ways to break it down. Remember all the shoulder-touching stuff that was taught in La Verdadera Destreza? I thought that was so awesome, so amazing. I know that we did that as an exercise at the Inosanto Academy as part of the savate training camps. The national savate team from France was brought in twice, two years in a row. This was one of the exercises in the end. Back then I thought, oh, it is cool to touch the shoulder. When we did it now, I thought, okay, that is what we are going to do this time. But it went on for two hours. Two hours of touch the shoulder, touch both shoulders, do this, do that, do this, and do that. By the time you are done, hey, I could move. I thought I could move before, but I could really move now. How did that happen? It was broken down step by step. Same thing with the bowie knife fighting—where are you going to get that? Sure, you can see a YouTube video, you can get a DVD and all that, but to have it presented with experts› instruction taught in a way that gives you a chance to fail and be okay. Everybody in there was pretty high level. It is not easy when you are instructor level to go back to being a student. Not really. You do not want
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to look like you do not know what you are doing and you do not want to look lame. It is kind of a problem. When you are instructor level, you are in your comfort zone; who is really going to challenge you? Probably not many, because you are in your environment. But you go into another art, you go into another program, and now you are just a beginner. You get to have that beginning experience all over again. It is always a great experience. If you can just let loose and know it is going to be okay—that is exactly how I felt with the bullwhip. I knew Tony De Longis from way back in the 1980s at the Inosanto Academy. I knew he did bullwhip back then, but I never got into it. It was interesting, it was cool, but 30 or 40 years later, wow, here is Tony again. When you see the demo, and you see how fluid it is: you can hit every number on the clock. It is so amazing. And what is my problem, what is my excuse? Well, I got a hurt shoulder. My shoulder does not work anymore. I cannot do it right. So, I talked to him about that. He goes: it is okay, we just go slow; a lot of it really is not in the shoulder, a lot of it is in the wrist. I will break it down for you. And boom, there you go. It was just great to be able to do that and watch different people experience it. Wow, we got the crack. Do not chase that, do not try to chase the sound. But everybody wants that crack of the whip. That will come; you want to get the motion. Let us work on the motion. I saw with everybody how they broke down their art. All the footwork drills for the Jeet Kune Do, amazing. It felt like I was a beginner all over again. Coming up through the Inosanto Academy from 1979 through the early 90s, I went through all that JKD stuff. It did not feel like it was completely new, but remember when Joaquin Marcelo just put his head in his hand and almost
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started to cry: these are all basically experts that are in the room, and we cannot even do a step-and-slide, shuffle, step-through; everybody is just falling all over themselves. But they are having a great time. He was not laughing at us, he was laughing with us. It was all just awesome. I definitely think that emic hoplology is relevant. It is like with so many things: until somebody is interested enough to say, hey, tell me more about that, we will not have a chance to become user-friendly. But the term hoplology is interesting enough to pique someone’s interest: “What was that, what you say? Hopology?” “No, hopology is the study of bunnies. I am talking about hoplology.” “What is that?” “I will give you five minutes on that.” People start to get interested in that because I think it rings a little bell with them. There is a little warrior in everybody. Where does that come from? It comes from a survival instinct. If we start to drown, watch out, because, if you are in my way, I might be crawling on top of you. That is where I think there is a little hook: even if they do not admit it, people are interested in becoming more self-sufficient. Some of that starts with the question of, “Could I defend myself?” Even if I am a big guy, six-foot-five, but I grew up with a dad that told me I was nothing, that I was a loser, just a disappointment as a son. Maybe I was not so coordinated. Maybe I am a little overweight. But you know what? There is something inside of me that says, I want more. You meet that one teacher. I met a P.E. teacher when I was in eighth grade who called me champ. The other P.E. coaches all through elementary school always called me by my last name: “Hey, Belzer, get over here!” But I never felt like they really liked me very much. I was not the first person chosen for
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the team, if you know what I mean. But summer school happens. I am at a different school with a different guy. I just happened to ask him a question, and he goes, how you doing champ? Whoa, he called me champ. That just totally changed my attitude; I was now more excited about physical education and going to his class and interested in, what are we going to learn this time, what are we going to do. We have that ability, doing martial arts, sharing about hoplology, talking about the history of hoplology, about the people that inspired us, people like Donn Draeger. It is amazing that somebody like that is inspiring a generation of people that never met him. That is awesome. Hoplology and Societal Spheres of Martial Arts One of the things that Donn Draeger mentions in one of the tapes is that of course we study military science, military history, and the military, but in the whole scheme of human combativeness, the military actually makes up a very small slice. He said that it is combativeness on the civilian level, the non-military level, the tribal level, the level of the everyday citizen, that really comprises the majority of human combativeness. Draeger thought that hoplology covered combativeness at all levels of social complexity. This could even include species other than humans. One of the researchers that he felt really could contribute to hoplology was Dr. E. O. Wilson, out of Harvard, who was into sociobiology. They were corresponding back and forth about various aspects of the research he was doing, which had a lot to do with ants. I thought this breadth of social complexity and combativeness was a really important point. I think there is a feeling sometimes that, if I am not a military person with actual battlefield experience, I cannot really be a
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qualified hoplologist. Donn Draeger would not agree with that. He never encouraged any of his guys to join the military. He never said that if you want to get to where he is, you got to join the military. In fact, when I said I was interested in joining the Marine Corps, he did his best to talk me out of it. He said, look, you know, you are never going to be able to go all the way because you did not go to Annapolis or you did not go to one of the Ivy League military schools. You will always be passed over for promotion, and if you cannot go all the way, you are limiting yourself. He said that that was why he got out, because he could not go all the way. It is just a roll of the dice and how the cards are dealt, and it is what it is. I have been very interested in the police application of force and been quite involved with different groups. I was part of a group that looked at the entire use-of-force program of the LAPD for, really, several years and helped create a whole new training program for them. They were specifically required by the federal Christopher Commission to work with outside experts, martial arts experts, to look at what they were doing as police officers: how they get use-of-force training and troubleshoot it, and ask ourselves, if we had to do that, what would we do, and how would we do it? Over a period of time, we created different aspects, techniques, and ways to do it. They created their own program based on that. They came back to us, and showed it to us. We gave them some ideas and some tips. It went back and forth, back and forth. They created a 40-hour program that they eventually put all of their existing officers through in a five-day period, eight hours a day, and then they required recruits to go through it, too. I have always felt like being connected to groups that actually
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have to do that type of thing, whether it is the police, bouncers, or military people. They are something that can keep you on Planet Earth when it comes to the martial arts, which can easily deteriorate into what I call “ingenious solutions to non-existent problems.” It is very helpful, and hoplology helps us do this, because even though it is a slice, it is an important slice, and it is where we can get some very good information. People that have been there and done that can look and see, yeah, you know what, we did the same thing, or I had that same experience, or I do not think so, no, I would not do that, that would have a low probability of success. The Book of the Stick and Taking Hoplology beyond Asian Martial Arts The Book of the Stick is a great expression, again, of one of the goals of Donn Draeger and the hoplology research that he was doing. He was just one guy, a prolific author and somebody that could produce much content, but still just one guy. He was working on a three-volume series all about pentjak silat. That was going to be his, what he called his “magnum opus.” He did the Classical Bujutsu,4 Classical Budo,5 and Modern Bujutsu and Budo books.6
4 Donn F. Draeger, Classical Bujutsu: The Martial Arts and Ways of Japan, vol. 1 (Weatherhill, 1973). 5 Donn F. Draeger, Classical Budo: The Martial Arts and Ways of Japan, vol. 2 (Weatherhill, 1973). 6 Donn F. Draeger, Modern Bujutsu & Budo: Martial Arts And Ways Of Japan, vol. 3 (Weatherhill, 1974).
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He did the Pentjak-Silat: The Indonesian Fighting Art,7 and then he was working on these three volumes of pentjak silat, and that would have been it. He died at age 60. He would have produced that and then he would have been into the hoplology center for the last 20 years of his life, still doing some expeditions, but not many, and producing whatever content he was going to do. Would he ever have gotten around to The Book of the Stick? I do not know. I kind of do not think so. I see this as another realization of a dream of his that he would have liked to have done: the idea of going all over the world to bring out these different traditions, and to describe their training methods, interview the master teachers. That is the epitome of what he was all about and what he wanted his generation to do. All the big boys say the same thing: this is just an introduction, and I hope that you will be inspired to go on and do more research, because more research is needed in this aspect, this aspect, and that aspect. They are telling the truth, this really is an overview. Maybe you do not get that feeling when you read it, because it is so in-depth, but it is true, and that is what is happening with this next generation. It is great that the Immersion Foundation is doing what it is doing, because now there is a home for people that are martial arts nerds. A martial nerd is kind of an amateur hoplologist: “We do not know it, but we are interested.” If we are in Mexico, and there is a Mexican knife fighting guy that we heard about, we are probably going to go find that guy. We are going to be respectful, and see if we can get some information. Maybe he will let us take 7 Howard W. Alexander, Quintin Chambers, and Donn F. Draeger, Pentjak-Silat: The Indonesian Fighting Art (Kodansha International, 1970).
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some pictures or do some video. That is hoplology fieldwork 101. The Foundation is giving martial arts nerds a home and a place to go, oh, I did not even know there was a name for this kind of thing. I am really looking forward to The Book of the Stick. I think it will be awesome. Archiving Martial Arts Donn Draeger envisioned collecting and archiving martial arts knowledge in his time. In the tapes from Narita, Japan, he specifically talks about projects that were ongoing as well as plans for the future. One of them was creating the world›s largest library that would have everything related to weapons fighting, martial arts, and combative systems that there was. To create a library for researchers was one of the goals. This is back in the late 70s and the idea of having things “in the cloud” had not come into reality yet. A project that he would have was more of the sort where he would ask you to see if you can go to this library, find this book, have them Xerox this chapter, and then send it to me. It was that level of stuff. Another goal was creating a warehouse where he could have representative weapons from all around the world. But how are you going to do that? What kind of facility are you going to have? Some of these were dreams, some of them were visions. When you flash forward again to the Holy Blood Holy Blade Immersion Lab, the venue for the school resembled that. The collection of antique and replica weapons was just awesome the way it was. What a great place to have an event like that at the center. On the Big Island, it would have been something like that, it would have been some awesome experience. Not like a YMCA camp-out. It
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would have to be some amazing thing like, oh my God, I cannot even believe that I am here. That was the experience that I had when I came in just to the venue of the Lab. The logistics of it all: getting people from the airport, to the hotel, and getting people from the hotel over to the actual location, where we are going to have the event. Just doing that successfully is a huge undertaking: making sure there are enough snacks, making sure there is enough water, and making sure people are okay. All that would have to happen, if you are Donn Draeger running your Hoplology Center for International Training. How are you going to pay for that? We are going to get the money. You can write a grant for that. Oh, okay, that is awesome. That is great. Let me know how that goes. It is not easy. But the Immersion Foundation is doing it. It is manifesting. But the events, the Labs, need to get to the next level where they are not losing money. I know that is the goal for the next one, and that that will be huge. Somehow there has to be a mechanism so that that will happen. That was the goal for Donn Draeger: people would pay for the experience; people want this, they will pay for it just like they paid to go to an Olympic training thing, pay for a personal trainer. If people are interested, they will pay for it. How to Keep Hoplology Going One thing that I think is important in keeping hoplology going is reaching out to all original core members, and seeing if you can get them engaged. That is number one. Do not lose the connection. Mahipal and I had a Zoom meeting with Dave Hall last week, and invited him to come to the Shock and Awe speed Lab (Lab #5, 2023), and he is considering it. He is 77 now, he has got his own
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health issues. But he is still teaching and has a lot to offer: his connection with Donn Draeger, connection with hoplology, and teaching of more than one classical discipline of Japanese martial arts. There are other people like Larry Bieri, who went on several expeditions, Meik Skoss, who also went on several expeditions, and Hunter Armstrong. Unfortunately, with some of them, I think there might be a feeling of rivalry: Who are you guys? You cannot be doing that. If you run into that, you just have to let it go. Unfortunately, when somebody as charismatic as Donn Draeger dies, people start feeling possessive about their experiences and whatever they got, and maybe are not so open in sharing them. I do not know why. Donn Draeger was not like that. If you wrote to him, he wrote you back. I know, because I was one of those guys. Who am I? I am nobody. I am a kid from high school that wrote him a letter and he wrote me back. I wrote him back and he wrote me again. Just before I came to Japan, he gave me a way to contact him, even though he would not be in Japan when I got there. He gave me a guy to contact, and that guy invited me to train at the dojo of Donn Draeger, even though I did not know that at the time. Five years later, I am traveling with Donn Draeger getting a personal introduction into hoplology. How does this happen? It happens because of the personality of Donn Draeger: Are you interested? Come on over, let me show you around. That is what it was. When I arrived at the HEMA school an hour early on Friday, I arrived in the parking lot. There was a guy rummaging around in his trunk. He saw me get out of the car and walk through the door. He comes over, oh, hi, how are you? I go, hey, I am here looking for Mahipal. He is not going
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to be here for a couple hours. Are you here for the event? Oh, come on in, I own this school. Let me show you around. He took me on the complete tour. I thought: Donn Draeger 101. He could have just said, yeah, he will be back; you can hang out downstairs here if you want. He could have done that. But he did not. He took the extra step, went the extra mile. Dave Hall is certainly like that, and there are others that are like that, too. There are others that might not respond quite as warmly, and the question is why. It is their own particular “They are my marbles and I am the only one that is going to play with my marbles.” That is how I look at it. Reaching out to the core group I think is important. Mahipal and I have talked about that and made a list of people to contact. Dave Hall is definitely one of them. It is something as simple as what we are doing right now: hey, let us get together, just love to hear your experience. Here is what we are doing. We are inspired by Donn Draeger and his approach to hoplology, and would very much like to have you involved if you are interested. That would be part one, and then part two would be doing little public service announcements on Facebook, or Instagram or Twitter, or whatever the social media thing is—I am not that involved in that. But just: this is what we are doing here at the Immersion Foundation and here at the Immersion Labs. We are following in the steps of Donn Draeger, we are interested in studying the fighting disciplines and the combative traditions of the world. Wherever you are in the world, if you are connected to any of these types of disciplines and are interested in martial arts in general, we would like to talk to you, we would like to find out
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if we can connect with you and perhaps collaborate with you in any way that makes sense. Start building up a contact list there because we have got worldwide capability now. Look at how Gracie jiu-jitsu changed the face of modern martial arts. It changed the face of modern martial arts and then it became mixed martial arts. It is no longer style versus style, now it is “MMA.” Who knows MMA? Everybody knows about MMA. You have got to watch it now, because people know how to choke you out. People know the mount, and people know how to get behind. It used to be that people did not know. They had the street punch, the haymaker, and they would rush you and try to tackle you. They would push you and kind of stab you. But you got to watch it now. Just by osmosis of looking at these UFC fights, I will get you from behind, choke you, drag it down to the ground, and wrap my legs around you. What are you going to do? In five seconds, you are not doing anything. There is an interest in this. Where to Go with Hoplology One interesting topic for research is the evolution of modern martial arts turning into the combative sport idea. There is a book by Rickson Gracie called Breathe.8 I think it is an excellent book. I really highly recommend it, because it is specifically talking about not only his life, his experience, the history of the Gracie family, all the fights that the Gracie family got into, the evolution of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and all the politics and the infighting of the Gracie family and the other connected families like the Machados, but also what he calls the de-evolution of 8 Rickson Gracie and Peter Maguire, Breathe: A Life in Flow (Dey Street Books, 2021).
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Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which is now sport versus self-defense. It was always for self-defense, unarmed self-defense. That is another big factor to talk about, because hoplology really has to do with the armed warrior. Yet warriors are never unarmed. They are always armed. Even if they are and they find themselves without weapons, then they can use their body as weapons, and pretty quickly, they are going to find some improvised weapon. But now, people can start training in these combat sports. They are imprinted with a sport mentality. When the real deal happens, sorry, you are going to do what you have trained to do. It may be effective, but maybe it is not such a great idea to be down on the ground in that figure four leg-lock choke when the other two guys are coming up from behind. It might not be the greatest move. If you are not aware that the knife might be there, then it might come as a shocking surprise after you have been punched two or three times in the gut, and all of a sudden there is all this wet stuff. Trying to understand that in combative sport versus self-defense—not that one is better than the other—skills may not be as transferable as you would think. There was a Thai kickboxing guy in San Francisco. I cannot remember his name, but he was working out in the gym on the Thai-pads in the Thai-shorts, with the gloves on and with the knee and shin protectors, and all that. Some dude breaks into his car, is stealing it, and drives away with his car. This guy rushes out of the gym and runs after the car. The car thief does not know this guy is running after him and stops at a stoplight. The Thai boxer comes up, faces the guy in the window, is like, get the f*** out of my car, in his boxing gloves and everything. The guy goes: no problem, pulls out a gun, blasts away through the window, kills the boxer.
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I am not saying I would do anything different. Somebody is stealing my car, I am sorry to say, I would probably go run after that and try to stop that situation. But there is not one self-defense expert that is going to say that is probably the first thing to do. Likely not: they are probably going to say if you can video it, video it, and call the cops. You do not know if he has got a gun. You do not know how this is going to turn out. So no, I would not recommend intervening in the theft. That is probably the advice from the professionals that have been there, done that. That is the advice, but this guy did not do that. Why not? Because: “I am a Thai boxer, and I cannot let this happen.” That is how I took it. These traits were imprinted. When you have no context, no frame of reference, and your teacher tells you: put your hands in the stance of a tee, have your feet like a fencer, and have your weight 70/30, your upper hand can block everything that is above that and your lower hand can block everything low. . . Well, guess what? That is what we are going to do. Why? Because, that is what my teacher told me to do. The first thing that happens is that if you are going to do that, because that is how you are trained, maybe that will work for you in the situation you get into, maybe it will not, I do not know. But you have to be careful about how you are being imprinted. There is only so far you can go in going for realistic training, because there are always safety issues and stuff like that. People are trying to get as realistic as possible. Let us take a look at the Real Contact Stick Fighting of the Dog Brothers.9 When I was coming up through the Inosanto Academy, Marc Denny was part of the 9
See the articles by Marc Denny in the present volume.
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group that I was with. I saw the whole evolution of it. Originally, of course, everybody thought they were completely crazy. Dan Inosanto thought the same thing: you guys are just like on another Planet Crazy. There is a hardcore group of people that are interested in that because they want to really know. They want that experience of what it is really like: can I handle it, can I do it? When you see the pictures of all the bruises, the broken fingers, and the broken bones, you go: no thank you. But then you start looking at it and go: well, I know that you have got to have the head gear. That already changes everything. Sorry, it does, and you also have to have gloves on to protect your hands. Without them, that kind of also changes everything. Are you going to benefit from going through that kind of training? Yeah, if you can handle it. Do you need that to become somebody that feels like, I can defend myself? I do not know. Out of a hundred people, how many are really going to feel that is what I am going to be doing Saturday afternoon? I do not know: one, two? My wife teaches full-contact women›s self-defense scenario training. I am one of the “muggers.” I am in full protective gear, which is a football helmet, two and a half inches of foam around it, football shoulder pads, knee, shin, thigh protection, super triple groin protection. I kind of look like a combo of if you morph together the Pillsbury Doughboy and Robocop. Even with this type of gear, we are pretty mobile: I can take a full throw, a full fall all the way through, I can still do a high kick to the head if I need to. I can be pretty mobile. You cannot choke me, because there is no ability to get your arm around my neck. But you can chop me in the throat, you can heel-palm me, you can elbow me, you can knee me in the groin repeatedly, as hard as you want. It will not do anything to me.
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I have to react to that, though, because, if I do not react to it, it is not realistic. If you kick me in the nuts, I am going to be at least dropping to one knee, probably both, maybe in a fetal position, and probably moaning if not screaming. If you kick me hard enough, I might even be going to the hospital. In this gear, I have to recreate that. So, bam, you knee me in the groin, I am doubling over, and I am verbalizing something that is exposing my head, and now the students are trained to do a hard knee to the head, as hard as they can. I will fly back a little bit. Students are having an experience of being able to defend themselves in various situations, full force, and full speed, just like you would have to have it. They also have a degree of freedom, because now they are not worried about hurting the guy in the suit. If you and I are working out together, and I smack you in the head: oh, sorry, you alright, sorry about that. If I backhand you in the groin: oh man, I am sorry. Look at the UFC where you get a thumb in the eye: my eye, hang on, hold on. They get kicked in the groin, while they are wearing a steel cup: whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on. They get up to five minutes to recover. They do not take it, but they get it. There are lots of different paradigms and formats to try to give people this feeling of reality, but it can only go so far. Then you go back to all these classical disciplines like what you will see as a demonstration in the Shock and Awe speed Lab. Katori shinto ryu will be there and show how they do their kata, which is very flexible and very fast. It is kind of an amazing thing to see. There are lots of different ways to try to do this type of thing. But they can only be approached and recreated on different levels of safety.
- Michael Belzer
INTRODUCTION: HOPLOLOGY & TIF
· Michael Belzer | 53
From the Editors
THE BOOK OF THE
ST ICK THE ORIGINATOR OF hoplology, Sir Richard Francis Burton, stated that “The history of the sword is the history of humanity. The ‘White Arm’ means something more than the ‘oldest, the most universal, the most varied of weapons, the only one that has lived through all time.”1 As the present four-part volume shows, we would like to go
beyond Sir Burton to argue that the history of the stick both preceded and transcended the history of the sword. Indeed, while swords have been discarded from military and civilian contexts with the evolution of the means of waging war, the stick remains in use in both. Even our genetically closest relatives, the chimpanzees, wield
1 Sir Richard Francis Burton, The Book of the Sword (London: Chatto and Windus, 1884), xi.
EDITORIAL | 55
sticks and stones as tools.2 Similarly, when we look furthest back in our own species’ history, at the oldest cave paintings of humans, they depict people hunting animals with spears. Indeed, it is notable that current archaeology puts the history of the spear back hundreds of thousands of years.3 Furthermore, the most primitive human societies lived in hunting-and-gathering cultures, the purest example of which may have been the Australian Aborigines before contact with Europeans.4 They carried—and carry—among their very few possessions quite many dedicated weapons: special spears, boomerangs, shields, and clubs, all used only for warfare.5 Thus, the 2 Doyne Dawson, (2001): The First Armies, (London: Cassel Co, 2001). 3 Zach Zorich, “The First Spears,” Archaeology Magazine, March/April (2013), https://www.archaeology.org/ issues/81-1303/trenches/523-south-africa-earliest-spears. 4
epilogue of the film classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is not so far off the mark—apart from for the monolith, of course. The archaeological record shows that, for most of human history, the tools used for hunting big game—spears and arrows—were also the tools for warfare. Over time, humans added special tools just for war: first, shields and clubs, and later, swords, battleaxes, and maces.6 It should, however, be remembered that hand-to-hand fighting between groups, rather than between scattered individuals or “champions,” rarely took place in band and village societies. Many primitive combats were just “firefights,” employing arrows, javelins, slings, and stones. Only after the other side “broke,” would clubs, axes, and lances be used to dispatch any enemies caught.7 Virtually all the important weapons of the pre-gunpowder age were
Dawson, The First Armies.
5 Steven A. LeBlanc and Katherine E. Register, Constant Battles: Why We Fight (New York: St. Martin›s Griffin, 2003).
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6
Ibid.
7 Lawrence H. Keeley, War Before Civilization (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).
in widespread use by the end of the second millennium BCE.8 Thus, spears and other kinds of polearms played major roles in city-state and state warfare in the time of massed infantry as well, the most celebrated examples perhaps being the Greek hoplites of Antiquity and the Swiss pikemen of the Early Modern period. This was also the heyday of the sword, although more often than not, it was relegated to the position of a back-up weapon or sidearm, possibly reflecting the near-universal urge to have more distance against one›s enemies. In the early Medieval period, even the famed Japanese samurai, known for their affection with the sword, rode to battle with bows, arrows, and a variety of polearms.9 One example of an exception here might be the Roman legions that fought in close order with their gladius swords and shields—but even they started the combat by throwing
8 Karl F. Friday, Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan (London and New York: Routledge, 2004). 9
Ibid.
their pilum spears.10 One could also argue that the primary weapon of the cavalry was the horse that provided mobility and ability to use mass—in its literal sense—to break up enemy formations, rather than the swords11 they wielded. The legacy of clubs, spears, and other such wooden weapons is still present in the naming of contemporary weapons like SIG MCX Spear—the newly adopted U.S. Army assault rifle—and the Javelin anti-tank weapon that has shown its effectiveness in the Ukraine war. Despite the prevalence of the perennial phenomenon of war, the level of violence in human societ10 Harry Sidebottom, Ancient Warfare: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2004). 11 It needs to be noted that not all cultures used cavalry as shock troops in conjunction with swords (and, later, pistols) like in the Westerns tradition. The most obvious example is the famed Mongol horse archers that conquered a vast empire ranging from Korea in the East to Vienna in the West and Siberia in the North to Southeast Asia in the South.
EDITORIAL | 57
ies has decreased over time.12 The alteration of societies and their material realization has made it possible for less violent forms of power to prevail, thus making the use of force more and more a means of last resort. This development has been accompanied with the disarmament of civilians in most societies, laying the monopoly of the legitimate use of force on states and their representatives. As the sword was developed strictly for killing other humans, its disappearance from the civilian sphere is understandable in this evolution. Knives have other uses, which explain their prevalence in societies around the world in various contexts. Similarly, the stick has multiple functions and uses, which is why its history transcends that of the sword that has been overtaken by more efficient means of killing from afar. Indeed, in the era of sticks, they too were used 12 Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes (UK: Penguin Books, 2011).
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to provide some security to their wielder in the form of distance, whether one thinks of staves or arrows. The deployment of black powder and then gunpowder to turn battlefield combat into kinetic forms has been accompanied with more and more precise forms of artillery and even nuclear weapons that can cover the globe with intercontinental ballistic missiles, thus making swords obsolete as weapons of war. Despite such enhancement in the means of waging war, the stick has even military applications still today: special forces are taught to use it in survival training, military police can wield a baton, and some soldiers elect to carry a “tactical tomahawk.” The uses of the stick are even more contemporary and broad when we expand our view from military contexts to combativeness in other forms of human interaction. Indeed, in the present volume, we are using the stick as a window into societies, and as a means of thinking through human behavior. We find that the stick is widely present in societal
contexts that are relevant for the study of human combative behavior, whether those be civilian, constabulary, or military in nature. In the civilian sphere, sticks have and continue to have multiple uses that range from fashion (walking canes), health (crutches), free-time activities (sport), to utilitarian uses in work (herding) or survival (in the wilderness or in self-defense). Sticks can be used to expand our haptic sense of touch whether in feeling the depth and solidity of a riverbed, or aiding a blind person in sensing where they are walking. Weapons are often characterized as the extension of a fighter’s hand, yet the same can apply in non-combative situations, too. Indeed, sticks can be used to measure distance, time, and direction. In the constabulary field, sticks are still used in crowd control, and in subduing individuals. With the invention of the police, these representatives of a city’s or state’s splendor were equipped with batons or dowels. Still today, the extendable baton is used in many countries,
while riots are controlled with batons or even sticks that require the use of two hands. As noted above, the stick, especially when combined with blades or sharp points, has had an immense historical role in the waging of war. Even modern military forces can wage skirmishes with sticks to avoid escalating a conflict, like what has happened at the border of India and the People’s Republic of China in the 2020s.13 The stick has also been a symbol of military authority, as is the case, for example, with drill sergeants and the swagger sticks of officers in some countries. Indeed, beyond functional uses, the stick has also had symbolic roles and positions in many societies throughout history, and even today. As such, sticks have been deployed as symbols of power over 13 Jessie Yeung, “Indian and Chinese troops fight with sticks and bricks in video,” CNN, Dec 15, 2022, https:// edition.cnn.com/2022/12/14/asia/ india-china-border-tensions-video-intl-hnk/index.html.
EDITORIAL | 59
the self and others.14 The stick is part of the symbol for European medicine, many forms of royalty have held scepters, and many religious figures like the Pope hold a staff. The stick is present in magicians’ acts in these forms of entertainment. Even the Church of Satan displays a stick in its symbolism.
tion and salvation of their flock.15 This type of technology of power was eventually translated from the religious sphere to those of governing modern societies and individuals in them. The stick, whether in the hand of a school teacher or police officer, has been used to discipline behavior into forms authorities desire.
Political figures have used the stick as an analogy for their capacity to use force, as in Theodore Roosevelt’s creed of speaking softly and carrying a big stick. Even theories of political power have used the stick as a metaphor, as in Michel Foucault’s notion of pastoral power: like the sheep-herder, the pastor is responsible for the protec-
Yet, where there is power, there is also resistance. When such dynamics take on more violent forms, sticks are easily deployable for civilians, whether they find themselves in a terror attack or an uprising against a political leader. Sticks and edged weapons can still be used in asymmetric and irregular forms of conflict.
14 This symbolic power is true of the sword, too. For example, when confirming a doctoral degree from a Finnish university, the freshly minted academic receives a sword. Likewise in many militaries a graduating officer— and in some cases even a non-commissioned officer—receives a sword to be carried in special occasions in dress uniform.
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While a stick can be used without much training, the way the use of the stick as a weapon has been taught has taken on many pedagogical forms throughout his15 Michel Foucault, Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977–1978, trans. by Graham Burchell (New York and Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
tory and different cultures. The factors that have had an impact here can be categorized in various ways, like whether one was training in the context of royalty or a court, as part of a tribe or clan, or within a family. Another aspect is whether the skill is taught or developed within a professional school under a master of arms or some other class of teacher, with a coach or trainer sans a school, or one-on-one with a member of the extended family or even the closest relations. Another aspect here is whether the use of the stick for combat was a full-time effort or a profession, whether it was present in the everyday beyond its combative uses, or whether it is learned as a hobby. Finally, whether the stick is being learned as a means of organized conflict as part of a unit, as a tool of a constabulary or security profession, or as a means for self-defense will have a bearing here.
used sticks to enhance combative skills (like how to work as part of a phalanx) and attributes, whether physical (strength and coordination) or mental (like bravery and teamwork). Some of today’s non-combative sports still use a stick in their play. At the same time, combat sport itself has become more widely popular, as exemplified by Mixed Martial Arts. Weapon-wielding combat sports, whether one looks at forms this takes in la canne in France, the various associations of arnis in the Philippines, or the Real Contact Stick Fighting of the Dog Brothers in the U.S., remain a more niche type of sport, though. Like with many other kinds of sport, its combative forms can also be appropriated and fueled by forms of nationalism.
As the previous paragraphs have shown, the stick is present in many human activities. In the past, many forms of sport also
EDITORIAL | 61
THE BOOK OF THE STICK OVERVIEW
The present four-part volume focuses on how sticks have been used in various ways of combat, yet some bring out the complexities of its other uses. We thought about various principles of ordering the volume, but in the end we thought that organizing the chapters in alphabetical order by the author’s last name was the way to go: 1. Joel D. Anajao introduces us to the Filipino barangay tanod, community civilian police aides, and shows us how training in the art of arnis can sharpen their skills in tactical self-protection. 2. Michael Belzer recounts his experiences as a life-long student of the Japanese art of Shindo Muso ryu jojutsu, offering us a glimpse of a past era of martial training and pioneering international exploration of Japanese martial arts. 3. Rondel Benjamin highlights how, in the Trinidadian art of kalinda, fighting with sticks is part of a larger system which incorporates spiritual, educational, cultural, and healing aspects. 4. Rondel Benjamin and Mahipal Lunia discuss the ways in which the practice of kalinda is not only a way to recover old ways of being, but also a way to rejoice in the building of a better future. 5. Michael Blackgrave shows us how Wing Chun›s six-and-a-half-point pole can still be used to develop relevant fighting skills. 6. Darrin Cook›s English translation of Arturo Bonafont›s “New Ways of Self-defense on the Street with a Cane” shows us his unique cane fighting system utilizing the rarely seen reverse grip in its entirety.
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7. Alejandro Rodriguez Buenafuente takes a look at the native art of the Canary Islands, juego de palo canario, and shows us how different motives for training may take the art in diverging directions: one, toward maintaining folk traditions, and the other, towards pure sport. 8. Jigaba Bwaira introduces us to three African warrior cultures and stick fighting traditions, namely Maguzawa/Hausa and Zulu, noting that these arts are still valued and treated as relevant and enduring methods of preparing young men to withstand the vagaries of a modern world. 9. JC Cabiero takes us through his fascinating insights into the pure art of Angel Cabales› Serrada ng Escrima. 10. Bryan Cannata shows us how the teachings of pre-modern European chivalry can help us acquire skill at arms. 11. Guido Caporizzi explores the role of stick fighting in Northern Italy and France and shows how a few committed practitioners have sought to preserve these arts to the present. 12. Maxime Chouinard and Nathan Featherstone show how the Irish stick fighting art of bataireacht has been preserved, is still practiced in the margins, and also adopted for use in Dog Brothers Gatherings. 13. According to Darrin Cook the art of Kabaroan, meaning “the newest,” breaks with the traditional Filipino martial arts in its use of a heavier and longer weapon and its tactic of merging with the incoming attack. 14. Toby Cowern looks at the multiple attributes a simple stick possesses and how it can aid one in a wide range of everyday challenges.
EDITORIAL | 63
15. As Mark Davies intimates, the use of a stick as a weapon is still very much alive in the UK Special Forces due to the close-quarters nature of today›s counter-insurgency warfare. 16. Marc «Crafty Dog» Denny reveals that, in the Dog Brothers Martial Arts, understanding distance is a much more nuanced thing than the plain old largo, medio, and corto: there are actually seven ranges, starting from controlling the moment of contact and ending with grappling on the ground. 17. In his Stickmata interview, Marc Denny speaks about the beginning and development of Dog Brothers Martial Arts, leading into the credo: “Walk as a warrior all your days.” 18. T. J. Desch-Obi presents us with a history of the origins, development, tactics as well as some of the life histories of practitioners of the Venezolano Moderno style of the Afro-Colombian art of grima. 19. In his Stickmata interview, T. J. Desch-Obi presents a bird›s-eye view of the history and development of Colombian grima from the days of slavery to the present, including a brief discussion on the common characteristics of the different styles. 20. Bethany J. Dillon offers us a historical journey across the Americas and through time to explain how the indigenous peoples armed themselves, trained their youth, and fought their rivals and enemies. 21. Michel Farivar discusses the Japanese staff arts of Geijin ryu, which emphasizes the seamless transition between armed and unarmed techniques and the avoidance of blocking, which hinders the flow of bodily movement. 22. Steaphen Fick summarizes the available European manuscripts on long weapons through several centuries and thus informs us how to reconstruct the ancient art of the quarterstaff.
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23. Jeffrey Finder delineates the development of training weaponry through time and argues for the use of modern high-impact plastics. 24. Speaking in his Stickmata interview about the Barbadian art of sticklicking, Philip Forde reminds us that engaging with other arts in training or fighting guards against your own art becoming so insular, so incestuous, that it loses its value as a fighting system. 25. Dean Franco, Dwight Woods, Mahipal Lunia, and Mark Stewart share their ground-breaking discussion about how Filipino Martial Arts, after entering the United States, has gained an identity of its own so that we can now talk about Filipino American Martial Arts—and how this new version of the old arts is gaining a foothold even in the Philippines. 26. Darren Patrick Friesen notes that the possibility of facing actual real-life violence on a day-to-day basis brings with it a host of considerations rarely encountered in most martial artists’ training. He shares his insights about these factors and outlines his no-nonsense approach and methodology of using a baton in security work. 27. George E. Georgas›s piece on Greek staff fighting points to the importance of understanding the relevant historical and political context while reconstructing ancient arts from manuscripts, myths, legends, and stories. 28. David Giomi takes a look at how the Shaolin staff works as an implement for learning how to cultivate and concentrate the kinetic energy of the body. 29. Jeevan Gowda interviews Srinivasan Sastri Sensei on his views on the way energetics are used to charge and manipulate the jo staff in Japanese martial arts.
EDITORIAL | 65
30. Mukatder Gül gives us insight on how Wing Chun kung fu uses the six-and-a-half-point pole and argues that this weapon form’s roots date back to the end of the 1800s and early 1900s, to the famed Red Boat Opera Company. 31. Nicole Holzmann takes us through the evolution of the French art on la canne de combat from its beginnings as a substitute for a sword to its present status as a formal sport. 32. Damon Honeycutt discusses the staff work within Chinese monkey style kung fu, noting that the staff is more than just a practical implement—it maintains cultural traditions. 33. Mark Human explores how traditional skills in fighting translate to knowledge of modern weaponry and how security officials in South Africa continue to adapt their training to counter the threats they face. 34. According to Benjamin N. Judkins and Jared Miracle, the (invented) tradition of Jedi Lightsaber Combat is much closer to traditional martial arts in its values and myth than we might want to admit. 35. Riichi Kitano discusses how, in the classical Japanese weapon art of Katori Shinto ryu, the pole weapons—yari, naginata, and bo—are studied to instill in the practitioners› minds the necessary flexibility to survive in the battlefield, and to also thrive outside of combat. 36. Dexter Labonog explains how his teacher, Leo Giron of Giron Arnis Escrima, transformed his art to ensure its practicality and survival in the Western world. 37. Mahipal Lunia shares a variety of solo training methods from several systems to cultivate specific skills in order to grow as martial artists. 38. Romeo Macapagal discusses the concept of measure in Antonio «Tatang» Ilustrisimo›s fighting system, the most famous of which is to have the opponent miss you by «one inch» while you are able to reach them.
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39. Michelle Manu presents us with the history and weaponry of Lua, the ancient combat art of the indigenous people of Hawaii. 40.
Jerry Walker, writing about the weapons of Lua, notes that, in contrast to most arts taught openly today, Lua teaches both formation fighting and melee combat, in addition to one-on-one fighting.
41. William McGrath shares with us a short spear form, called Tapada staff, from the island of Cebu. 42. Nick Merchant compares and contrasts the two most widespread stick-fighting rule sets of the day—WEKAF and Dog Brothers—noting that while WEKAF fighting tends to develop speed, accuracy, combinations, and endurance, the Dog Brothers style stresses versatility, power, movement, and strategy. 43. Scott Meredith describes the physical and energetic dynamics of yiquan long staff training for internal energy. 44. Mark Mikita explains how the cuentada drill, found in some Filipino arts, advises us on how to identify and unlock the logical progression of possibilities that arise when two weapons cross. 45. In his first Stickmata interview, regarding Filipino arts, Mark Mikita notes that true mastery is found in understanding distance, time, and position with reference to your own physical capabilities which may be lacking. 46. In his second Stickmata interview, Mark Mikita argues that the widely used sumbrada drill is not a simple 3- or 5-count drill, but a way of training immediate spontaneous flow of actions in preparation and in conjunction to cuentada, which, then, can be seen as prioritization of actions.
EDITORIAL | 67
47. Ethan Minor enlightens us in the ways the Burmese art of bando views the staff not only as a fighting implement, but also a vital tool in everyday life. 48. Michael Mulconery provides us with a detailed introduction to the Tobosa School of Arnis-Kali-Escrima from Hawaii and how the art developed into Estilo Casag, which, simply put, uses all of the eight directions to drive an opponent to angles that disadvantage them. 49. Michael Mulconery also provides us with a brief primer on how to use the Barabara staff on its own or as a part of Estilo Casag. 50. Adam H.C. Myrie takes a look at stick fighting in North Africa through the history of the region, the basic techniques, and the current role of stick fighting there as an effort to preserve the history of these arts. 51. Roger Norling introduces us to the use of polearms presented in the 16th-century fencing master Joachim Meyer›s weapon manuals. 52. Te Waitere Jason Paahi demonstrates how traditional Māori martial arts of New Zealand contain a comprehensive set of weapons and a holistic worldview. 53. Scott Park Phillips traces the roots of the Chinese Shaolin monk staff performances to the seasonal festivals predating the temple and shows their connection to the Chinese literary classics. 54. Stevan Plinck provides an overview on how to use the deceptively simple concept of base-angle-leverage to maneuver any sized weapon in the West Javanese art of Pukulan Pentjak Silat Sera. 55. Paul Porter shares his 50+ years of experience in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) full-contact armored fighting, touching on physics, biomechanics, and tactics, all of which can be readily applied to other forms of stick fighting.
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56. Luis Preto shares his valuable insights into injury prevention and power output within stick fighting, offering the reader different strategies for both. 57. Writing about the Argentinian Bonafont cane combat system, Jorge Prina tells us about the new cultural forms arising from the blend of the old and the new, and the new ways of fighting emerging from this jumble of people, technologies, and times. 58. Marco Quarta provides us a panorama of armed combative traditions from the Italian peninsula, starting from the Middle Ages and ending up at the present day. 59. Miguel Quijano and Miguel Machado give us a unique look at the Afro-diasporic martial arts of maní of Cuba and cocobalé of Puerto Rico, that trace their origins to the slave owners’ policies of appeasement and interactions with other martial arts. 60.
Mahesh Kumar Ramakrishna, while ostensibly identifying the use of the lathi staff in the combative traditions of India, provides a fascinating overview of the multitude of indigenous combative traditions still extant in India today.
61. In his article, Burton Richardson explores the commonalities and differences between Filipino and South African martial arts traditions. 62. Andrea Rollo takes us through different formats of stick dueling in the Philippines, ranging from friendly plays to serious challenges. 63. Harjit Singh Sagoo contrasts the Indian arts of shastar vidya and gatka, and speculates that the later inclusion of weapons other than the stick to gatka may have been brought about by the desire to revive the largely lost art of shastar vidya.
EDITORIAL | 69
64. In his piece, Ron Saturno explains the hidden knowledge contained in the basic drills of the Filipino art of Serrada Escrima in order to make the art more efficient and, thus, more effective. 65. Daniel Schultz shows us the different ways the staff is used in the Chinese art of Drunken boxing: first, as a single-ended then as a double-ended weapon, and finally, as an «old man staff»—all the applications concerning profound principles and philosophical ideas. 66. Pedro Silva describes some of the strategic and tactical issues between one-on-one and group fighting in the context of Portuguese art of jogo do pau. 67. In their Stickmata interview, Pedro Silva and Oscar Cunha describe how traditional jogo do pau prefers asymmetrical group “games”—one vs. all, two vs. five, and so on—because that is how the art was used in the old days to defend oneself. 68. Vincent Tamer shares his experiences as part of The Immersion Foundation›s expedition to film and learn jogo do pau in Fafe and Cepães, the highlight being seeing the twelve different schools of the art in action. 69. Maija Soderholm writes about Sonny Umpad›s random flow, which is a training method to connect the nervous system and the conscious mind through dance-like play with blades, rather than a collection of techniques or set patterns. 70. In the Filipino art of Kali Abtik Largo, intimates Mark Stewart, it is necessary to learn to fight at all ranges, but the optimal range for a given weapon is its longest reach, and the aim is to utilize distance, evasion, and deception to deliver surgical strikes while avoiding weapon-to-weapon contact.
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71. Mike Sutherland presents us with an overview of the staff training— both as an attribute developer and as a weapon—contained in Choy Lay Fut kung fu, offering some invaluable insights about fighting with four different kinds of staves, and also touching on some weak points in CLF staff curriculum. 72. Keegan Taylor tells us about his personal journey through the Trinidadian monastery of kalinda. 73. Keegan Taylor also has a deep talk with Mahipal Lunia about warriorhood and the meanings involved in a free play with gilpins. 74. Henri-Robert Vilaire discusses the principles, weapons, and ways of using different lengths of sticks in the Japanese art of jo jutsu. 75. In his Stickmata interview, Henri-Robert Vilaire reveals that the jo jutsu tradition views the staff as a rope, a flexible weapon to be used at any distance to block, parry, strike, choke, and lock. 76. Martin Wheeler offers us a short primer on how to train fighting with sticks in the Russian systema way. 77. In his Stickmata interview, Martin Wheeler explores the systema mindset, according to which you do not fight with weapons or techniques but with your instinctual system and your natural movement that you re-learn through training. 78. Geoffrey Willcher shares with us his experiences with the Burmese art of bando and shows us how the system reflects the pragmatist and naturalistic worldview of the Burmese people. 79. Finally, Roedy Wiranatakusumah and Gending Raspuzi shed light on the history, development, and philosophy of Ulin Limbuhan, an Indonesian system of pentjak silat specializing—perhaps surprisingly in the context of Indonesian arts—in the use of sticks.
EDITORIAL | 71
There you have it: 79 chapters on various ways, approaches, and styles in which the stick has been used as part of human combative behavior and martial cultures around the globe. The chapters are divided into four parts that come to over 2000 pages and are accompanied by over 1000 photographs. It has been a long time coming, but The Book of the Stick is finally here. Now is the time for us to pass the baton over to you.
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Mahipal Lunia Executive Editor
Juha A. Vuori, Ph.D Managing Editor
Mika Harju-Seppänen Managing Editor
EDITORIAL | 73
Joel D. Anajao
PHILIPPINE COMMUNITY POLICE AIDE & THE ART OF STICK FIGHTING Joel D. Anajao
ARNIS IS THE PROCLAIMED national martial art and sport of the Philippines; it is practiced in educational institutions and private martial arts organizations. Among the barangay tanod, the legal community police aide, the use of arnis as a tool of self-defense, criminal apprehension, and crime prevention in the community is the manifestation of community acceptance of arnis as national martial art. Since arnis was
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ARNIS FOR BARANGAY TANOD
· Joel D. Anajao | 77
Michael Belzer @michael.belzer.3
MY PATH TO
JODO MENKYO Michael Belzer
WHY SHINDO MUSO RYU? Over the past decade, I have dedicated myself to walking the path of jojutsu—the art of Japanese stick fighting. I could not have had a better introduction to the art than when I was 18 years old and training at the Rembukan dojo in 1974 under the 25th Headmaster, Shimizu Takaji, and later in 1979 under Donn F. Draeger Sensei in Malaysia. Although I was occasionally able to pick up a jo and practice with some folks between 1979 and 2007 (a break of 28 years), I really thought that my experience in Shindo
Muso ryu was limited to an excellent introduction and that was the end of that chapter in my martial career. As fate would have it, in 2007 I took my wife, Meredith, on a trip to Kyoto. While I was in Japan, I took the opportunity to visit Otake Sensei of the Katori Shinto ryu and also Ono Sensei of the Takenouchi ryu. The experiences I had at both of these dojo reignited my interest in the koryu of Japan. When I returned to Los Angeles, I decided to Google around to see if, after 30 years, there were finally any qualified teachers of the art that I started a lifetime ago—Shindo Muso ryu.
The Rembukan dojo, 1975. Back row: Mike Belzer (far right), Larry Bieri (3rd from left). Front row: Nishioka (2nd from left), Shimizu (center), Kuroda (3rd from right), Kaminoda (far right).
Shimizu Takaji (25th Headmaster) & Kuroda Ichitaro (Shihanke).
SHINDO MUSO RYU JOJUTSU
· Michael Belzer | 107
Rondel Benjamin @rondel.benjamin
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KALINDA AN INTRODUCTION TO THE TRINIDADIAN STICKFIGHTING ART Rondel Benjamin
THE ART OF KALINDA IS AN ancient art form traditionally played in Trinidad and Tobago during the carnival period from January to February. It is uniquely indigenous to the island but interestingly blended with various elements of visiting fighting arts from other diasporas and cultures, such as gatka from the Sikh Indian traditions and some Venezuelan garrote.
KALINDA I
· Rondel Benjamin | 155
The conversation below is part of a larger project of The Immersion Foundtion, for putting two long-term practitioners of martial art traditions in dialogue with each other in order to: 1) push them to explain aspects of their art in greater depth; 2) to push each other to bring out other equally interesting aspects of their art they both find interesting; 3) and finally to find a common ground where these arts or their concepts come together.
Rondel Benjamin: I would like to lay out the structure of what we are doing in the Bois Academy. I think this will allow us to see some of the key concepts and core areas of study that we use. The Bois Academy is a collection of practitioners of the three central kalinda arts. As practiced in Trinidad and Tobago, kalinda comprises stick fighting, also known as the bois, the gilpin or machete or
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LIFE & STRIFE AN ONGOING CONVERSATION Rondel Benjamin & Mahipal Lunia
Michael Blackgrave @Michael.Blackgrave
THE LONG POLE A WESTERN PERSPECTIVE Michael Blackgrave
“Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.” - Leonardo Da Vinci
THE ARTICLE YOU ARE ABOUT to read will be on my understanding of the look dim boon quan or “six-and-a-half-point pole,” “dragon pole,” “long pole,” and how I use it. I approach this article as who I am—a westerner. I am not a master of the pole, just a humble practitioner who sees deep value in the long pole work of Wing Chun. I will present my approach to the pole, and more so, how I use it for my daily training and in daily life. The History There have been countless articles on the Wing Chun long pole, along with numerous premises as to where it originated. Many people believe the pole was used as a boat-pusher by various individuals in the time of the "Red Boat Days." This premise holds in many ways. In those bygone days, river transportation was frequent; there had to be a simple way to propel the craft, and seeing how the boats would often use much shallower canals, it was practical to use a long pole to propel a vessel. The pole is also believed by many to have doubled as a spear. The spear is an ancient weapon that comes in various lengths and adorned with multiple types of points—some
steel, others carved down—and fire-hardened wooden points. In ancient times, the possession of steel weapons by the common man were forbidden by the Qing dynasty. The Qing dynasty, who persecuted the commoner of the time, made it quite clear that the possession of a weapon was an offense punishable by death. The long pole was an everyday tool used by farmers, fishermen, and boatmen. A simple tool, it could also be utilized as a weapon quite easily. It would not take a considerable amount of skill to wield it in such a fashion, and it was simple enough to blend into daily life. So, which view is correct? In my opinion, they all hold merit as they all make practical sense. The pole as a weapon has been used in many formal systems, and informally by people who just picked it up and smashed someone in defense of oneself or one’s clan. While the history of the long pole and its inception into Wing Chun has always been a mystery, there is no doubt that this tool is both lethal, and in this writer’s opinion, the backbone of Wing Chun.
WING CHUN LONG POLE I
· Michael Blackgrave | 199
Arturo Bonafont
BONAFONT CANE FIGHTING SYSTEM NEW WAYS OF SELF-DEFENSE ON THE STREET WITH A CANE Arturo Bonafont (Translated by Darrin Cook)
*Originally: Nuevos Modos de Defenderse en la Calle con un Bastón (illustrated edition with seventy-two photographs)
To the Prestigious Institution, The Fencing and Physical Education Club of Buenos Aires, on the 11th of November, 1930 (the 50th anniersary of its founding) the Author dedicates this modest work. ~
BONAFONT CANE
· Arturo Bonafont | 219
Alejandro Rodriguez Buenafuente @alejandro.rodriguezbuenafuente
DOCUMENTARY ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE
JUEGO DE PALO CANARIO Alejandro Rodriguez Buenafuente
Translated by Michael J. Ryan, Ph.D. Generational Transmission: Ángel González Torres (1949), Tomás Deniz Hernández (19001983), Nicolás Morales Martín (1865- 1944), José Morales Martín (1854-1935), Pedro Pestana Gevara (1832-1905)
THE JUEGO DE PALO OR THE juego de garrote is a tradition stretching back centuries. On the Canary Islands, when two people demonstrate their skills of the juego de palo in private, or more often in front of an appreciative public, the intensity of these matches can vary. Matches can range from a performance-oriented exhibition during celebrations to a match with a more severe intent that might occur during a more private duel. In the Canary Islands, beginning around the middle of the 1970s, there have been several ongoing disagreements over the terminology and techniques of the juego de palo canario. These disagreements have, thanks to the internet, even turned into transnational debates. As a result, there is a broad range of opinions about the art ranging from the introduction of “invent-
JUEGO DE PALO CANARIO
· Alejandro Rodriguez Buenafuente | 305
Jigaba Bwaira
AFRICAN STICK FIGHTING IN MAGUZAWA / HAUSA & ZULU CULTURES Jigaba Bwaira
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WE ARE AN ORGANIZATION called Mukhanda International; we research and practice African martial arts both in Africa and the African diaspora, such as the Caribbean, North and South America, and ancient black peoples in Asia, e.g., Negritos in modern Thailand. This article will explore African stick fighting among the Maguzawa/Hausa and Zulu cultures, together with is’cima or the Zulu empty-hand combat never seen outside of Africa, and Kadiya Maguzawa or Hausa stick fighting, as seen in the context of an older and broader Maguzawa/Hausa martial culture. Finally, we will conclude with a brief discussion of stick fighting in Rwanda.
MAGUZAWA/HAUSA & ZULU STICK FIGHTING
· Jigaba Bwaira | 329
JC Cabiero @jc.cabiero
THE PURE ART OF ANGEL CABALES
SERRADA NG ESCRIMA JC Cabiero
A MAN FROM BARRIO IGANIA, Sibalom, Antique, the Philippines of the Visayan Islands, once decided to expose to the public his weapons close-quarter fighting art, which he called Serrada Ng Escrima. This man was Angel Cabales (1917-1991), escrimador. Let us digress a bit to put this into a meaningful context. The term escrima-
dor is a marque bestowed only to a deathmatch-proven skilled fighter by other escrimadors in the Philippines. More importantly, only an escrimador can develop a fighter into another escrimador, thus proclaiming that fighter as an escrimador—not a self-proclaimed escrimador. It was in Stockton, California, in 1966, where Angel
ANGEL CABALES SERRADA NG ESCRIMA
· JC Cabiero | 339
Bryan Cannata @bryan.cannata.5
STICKS AND CHIVALRY Bryan Cannata
MOST MARTIAL ARTISTS ARE familiar with the work of the Dog Brothers and their dedication to full-contact stick fighting or the various Filipino martial arts and their use of sticks in combat. Another lesser-known form of full-contact stick fighting has been and is continuing to evolve across the world, this one with a medieval flavor. In Berkeley, California, on the first of May, 1966, a themed party was thrown, and a medieval tournament held. From that tournament, an entire martial art and culture grew. It is likely that right now, as you read this, on a field in a camp-
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ground or perhaps a public park or even someone’s backyard down the street, two people circle and stare at each other through the ocular openings of heavy iron or stainless steel helmets, their breath even and controlled. Narrowed eyes measure the slightest movement or shift in weight. A gauntleted hand tightens against the grip of a 36-inch-long rattan baton with markings to represent the edge of a sword. Wooden shields adjust fractions of an inch to cover a leg better. A foot shifts and sinews tighten. The tension in the air is palpable.
In a fraction of a second, one of the combatants explodes forward with speed surprising for a 200-pound man in 30 pounds of armor. Shields and bodies clash with a sound reminiscent of two cars in a head-on collision. One of the combatants nimbly sidesteps to gain position on the unprotected flank of his opponent. A baton lashes out. Its tip moving faster than the strike of a rattlesnake.
The blow finds its target. The crack from the impact, as loud as a gunshot, explodes through the air. The struck opponent shouts in a loud voice, "Good!” He then bows his head, takes a knee, and offers his baton, handle first, to his opponent as an acknowledgment of defeat. The winner salutes the loser as the next contestants make ready. Or perhaps the two combatants reset for another pass.
STICKS AND CHIVALRY IN SCA
· Bryan Cannata | 359
Guido Caporizzi @guidonair
STICK FENCING AND CANNE ITALIANA Guido Caporizzi
"The effectiveness of the cane can only derive from a broadly developed movement that launches it with vigor. Tightening the moulinet would mean depriving the sport of the cane of its substance." - Bernard Plasait, French savate champion and politician
Stick Fencing and Canne Italiana Known in France as la canne and in England as a cane, the walking stick was a self-defense discipline practiced in Europe from the time of the Romans. Throughout history, the walking-sized stick contests enjoyed a popularity between the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Particularly widespread in Italy and later in France, only from the second half of the 19th century was it practiced as a real regulated discipline. At first, it was restricted to military training in the Italian sale d’armes, as preparatory to the study of the saber, later spreading to the military barracks of France, Belgium, and Hungary.
CANNE ITALIANA
· Guido Caporizzi | 379
Maxime Chouinard @chouinard1
Nathan Featherstone @nathan.featherstone.3
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BATAIREACHT A ONCE-FAMOUS IRISH MARTIAL ART COMING BACK TO LIFE Maxime Chouinard & Nathan Featherstone
IF YOU GO TO IRELAND today, it is unlikely that most of the people you will meet will be aware that a martial art was once extremely popular in their homeland. Mention that it was called bataireacht, and you will undoubtedly raise eyebrows. Explain that this was the art of using the shillelagh, and you will get many varied reactions.
BATAIREACHT
· Maxime Chouinard & Nathan Featherstone | 399
Darrin Cook @BigStickCombat
ESSENTIAL KABAROAN Darrin Cook
WHAT IS KABAROAN? Kabaroan, pronounced “kah-bar-wahn,” is an Ilocano term meaning “the newest.” The northern Philippine provinces of Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte are the ancestral home of the late Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos. Their language, Ilocano, serves as a trade language throughout much of northern Luzon, the main island where the capital of Manila is located, and is either the second or third most
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commonly spoken language in the Philippines. So, even though the late Grandmaster Leo Giron of the Philippine province of Pangasinan was not from the Ilocos provinces, he and Grandmaster Estalilla communicated in the Ilocano language. The Filipino martial arts are generally weapon-based methods that train with sticks and blades, and Kabaroan is the distinctively Ilocano style.
KABAROAN
· Darrin Cook | 431
Toby Cowern @tread.lightly.14
STICKS BRANCHING OUT Toby Cowern
MANY ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE will rightly address sticks in the martial arts and self-defense context. I want to widen the scope a little and consider sticks, staves, and similar on a broader front, which I would classify more in the realm of personal safety. I’m approaching this not only from the martial perspective but also, and extensively, from the survival instructor’s viewpoint, which I work in extensively. In the historical record, and even in some modern-day areas, we can see sticks carried and used extensively in hunter-gatherer and herding societies. It is quite fascinating to look at the logic behind
this not only for an understanding of legacy but also to see what is still valuable and applicable in today’s living. I’ll highlight four of the many predominant reasons why people still carry sticks. Typically, we need to think more about staff than stick as most carried are on average approaching 2 meters (6 ft) in length or more and typically 2½ cm (1 in) or more in thickness. Our four reasons are: 1. Stability 2. Investigative / Assistive tool 3. Direction indication 4. Protection
Stability
1
They are visible in the modern landscape. Canes, crutches, and variants thereof abound to assist people with varying mobility problems. The more undulating the terrain, the more use a staff becomes to everyone, whether it be in general ascending or descending of terrain, all the way through to specialized techniques in higher-risk features, such as crossing rivers, illustrated here:
USING STICKS FOR SURVIVAL
· Toby Cowern | 481
Mark Davies @Tactical.Edge.Boss
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THE STICK: MAN'S OLDEST TOOL AND WEAPON, AND ITS USE BY THE UK SPECIAL FORCES Mark Davies
IT IS VERY LIKELY THAT THE stick was man’s first weapon. In today’s era of high-tech weaponry, many people may be surprised to learn that the humble stick still plays a role today. As a trainer within an element of the UK Special Forces (UKSF), I look in this article at the stick from the viewpoints of: a bush-craft tool, a hunting tool, an improvised weapon, and an actual baton, such as the ASP.
UK SPECIAL FORCES
· Mark Davies | 491
Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny @marc.denny1
DOG BROTHERS MARTIAL ARTS’ SEVEN RANGES AND STICK GRAPPLING
Marc Denny
Does Grappling Happen in Stick Fights WHEN OUR INSTRUCTIONAL series came out in 1993, one of the most controversial aspects was our use of BJJ-influenced grappling. We heard things like, “You didn’t see that in the death matches in the Philippines!” or “Your grappling only happens because of your head and hand gear!” The first assertion is in error. Grappling did happen in stick fights in the Philippines. For example, I remember when GM Atillo of Balintawak Eskrima came to teach an evening seminar at the Inosanto Academy. One of the things GM Atillo was famous for was a fight in Cebu, which he lost to GM Cacoy Canete of Doce Pares.
DOG BROTHERS STICK GRAPPLING
· Marc Denny | 509
*The following article is an edited transcription of the Stickmata Talks interview conducted by Mahipal Lunia as part of The Immersion Foundation's Stickmata Lab (2019). To listen to the origianl interview, visit: https://soundcloud.com/theimmersionfoundation/sets/stickmata.
DOG BROTHERS MARTIAL ARTS AN INTERVIEW WITH Marc Denny
The Beginning of Dog Brothers Martial Arts I MOVED OUT TO CALIFORNIA in 1982, where I began training at the Kali Academy of Guro Inosanto and sifu Richard Bustillo, and trained for a few years with Paul Vunak. I continued my training with Guro Inosanto’s Academy and met Eric Knauss around 1985 or 1986. I have been training in the Filipino arts because they resonated more with what I was looking for as I grew up in a dangerous time
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in New York. I remember that one time three junkies were chasing me on the elevated subway in the Bronx at three o'clock in the morning. I was looking for skillsets that were relevant to that, and Guro Inosanto’s book1 had inspired my imagination. When I met Eric, I could say that here is where I am going to really test and adrenalize my art, and be true in my path. 1 Dan Inosanto, The Filipino Martial Arts as Taught by Dan Inosanto (Know Now Publishing Company, 1980).