I just returned from the Philippines and posted this new video about a souvenir I acquired, the palo-palo, a short, heavy club that is used to beat excess water out of clothes when washing by hand–think of a woman doing laundry on the banks of a river. I’d seen this in the province years ago, but once I got my hands on it, I was surprised by how solid and heavy it is.
a woman doing laundry, with her palo-palo upraised
I’ve been interested in real-world weapons for some time, the type of weapons you would pick up if you got jumped a la Jason Bourne, and had to snatch something off the kitchen table or office desk to save your butt.
A common belief in the FMA is that you can take any short stick move and just apply it to anything you pick up. As I’ve shown previously, it’s nonsensical to do a series of striking moves like the Inside move depicted in the video above, with a screwdriver. If I have a screwdriver, I’m going into knife moves, and even then I have to realize that I can’t cut, so I’m limited to thrusting and striking with the butt. The weapon dictates the techniques that I can do, and which techniques are more likely to be successful. On the other hand, if I try to wield the palo-palo like a screwdriver, with more than 90% thrusts, I will also be unsuccessful.
It has been my discovery that almost nothing handles like the classic eskrima stick. Real-world weapons are often tools, and tools are heavy because they’re designed to take punishment. I’ve come to believe that it’s best to recognize certain categories of impromptu weapons, and train to use techniques for those groups, such as puncture weapons, including pens, pencils, screwdrivers, tire gauges, meat thermometers, etc. A puncture weapon stabs, but it doesn’t cut.
The palo-palo falls under the category of a club, which includes impromptu weapons like tire thumpers, bottles, some flashlights, etc. But then I realize it’s best used like the old-school police sap. One of the principal rules of the sap is to strike with the flat face of the sap against bone, and to chop with the thin edge against muscle groups. A frying pan would also fall into this category of weapon.
