Eskrima Kombat

Here are the last of my notes on real-life incidents that appeared in the Philippine news.

Rubber Training Knife

In one incident, two teenagers robbed a taxi driver, fatally stabbing him in the head with “an improvised sharp object.” My guess is that it may have been a screwdriver. Citizens who witnessed the robbery and killing caught one of the robbers and “mauled” him, as the term is commonly used by Philippine journalists. Think of it as street justice. At least one of the bystanders clubbed him in the head with a rock, leaving the teen in critical condition.

In the US, a hot dog vendor was attacked at a Home Depot and beaten with a hammer.

What I believe these two incidents illustrate is a gap between the show weapons that many styles train with (If they train with weapons at all.)

Real-Life Weapon

and the kinds of real-world weapons that are used in actual conflicts on the street. I’ve found that most impromptu “knife” weapons aren’t really knives at all, but what I call puncture or stabbing weapons. Suppose you must defend yourself with a pair of scissors or a screwdriver. You can thrust with the point, but you can’t cut with the edge. How many people actually spar or train under these conditions, with a training weapon that can stab but not cut?

How similar is a hammer to a rattan stick? It’s a good idea to go out to the garage, get a hammer, and figure out how to use it as a weapon. (I would suggest two-handed strikes like Big Stick Combat due to its weight, combined with light stick moves.) Here is yet another example of something as mundane as a rock nearly killing someone.

Training Sticks

In another Philippine incident a man was carrying the Filipino equivalent of several hundred dollars in order to buy livestock when he was robbed. While one robber held him from behind, another robber cut his throat, fatally wounding him. This is another tragic incident that shows you can’t afford to grapple, not so much because of what the grappler is doing, but because of what his buddies are doing. This also illustrates the need for greater awareness, as well as a knife or knives that can be instantly accessed.

 

 

Real-World “Stick” Weapon