As far as weapons go, knife sounds good and fits the boxer and the grappler as I see it and is easy to hide. In the twilight zone we live now between the comming modern middle Ages and Anarcho T(y)ranny I can‘t use a knife. I carry a pen with me, a habit I got from my last Job, I don‘t care about comparing pubic hair length in public so if someone is after me it means they mean it and I couldn‘t get out of it and since I am not the first person to be a target (at least nowadays) they must be either big, strong, very mean or many and going at me or a person I must protect, in any case with my pen their eyes will never be the same again and I can carry it everywhere I go.

I don‘t have modern Agonistics around here what I can find is a lot of Kali (and Silat, Panantukan etc.) even in mma schools, European Long sword, Japanese Sword, Chinese sword and Fencing. I would like maybe something like La Canne or Jogo do pau for the Euro flavor or better yet Monsieur Lafond as a trainer, but they are not available around here, what should I choose from that?

PS. Thank you very much for the PDF, I just saw it while connecting to send the mail

PS2. Can you say to Lynn from me that one of your listerens says she has a lovely voice

MRT

I have told Lynn that a listener says she has a lively voice, and I agree. I sometimes listen and wish I would shut up so I can hear her silvery voice.

You need to learn the knife and the stick and the machete in order to counter them, as these weapons will be used by your homeland's invaders. Kali and various Filipino arts will cover all of these. I would suggest Kali.

The Chinese Sword is beautiful in straight and curved forms but focuses on ritualized sequences and not combat.

Japanese sword is very bad as it is almost always taught as a two handed art, despite the fact that the greatest duelist of Japan, Miomoto Musashi, insisted that serious swordsman must use the blade in one hand. This is because you need to be able to use another weapon in the offhand, or carry your child, or hold your woman by the hand, or tuck your bag of groceries under the other arm, or open a door behind you to escape the mob, or spring over a barrier with the aid of the empty hand...

Modern Fencing is bullshit, unless it is part of a resurrection of lethal fencing traditions. Foil, epee and saber in modern competition impart lower leg, knee lunging and point control abilities, but also—like the Japanese sort of kendo—cleave to such unrealistic rituals of sports convention, that very little of your lessons will translate into actual combat effectiveness against some African with a machete when you have a stick.

European Longsword is functional, 600 years ago...

Go for the Kali and find an instructor who permits sparring with real sticks, not padded boffers.

Pens, pens, pens—good man!

Carry more than one.

Always have one clipped to the collar or breast pocket of your shirt.

Practice hammer grip, saber grip and ice pick use.

Ice pick is tops.

Do not just go for the eye. Go for the throat too.

Also, stabbing someone in the arm pit or neck, or even belly with a hard pen at night might convince them that they were stabbed and that they should head to the medical center and leave you alone.

Test your pens against melons and meat and keep the best model.

Practice punching with a pen in hour hand, against hanging paper, and then hammer-fisting the pen into the side of his head or neck after you have punched him.

When punching with a pen, aim with the three small knuckles so that if you miss, you rake his face or eye with the pen.

To develop power in your pen stroke with the ice pick grip, empty your hand and hammer a wall or beam or pillar with the meaty portion of the bottom of your fist.

Hang a sheet of paper from a doorway and practice stabbing it with your pen.

Enjoy your pens, MRT.

Thanks for your interest.

Fighting Smart: Boxing, Agonistics & Survival