“…when we meet would you teach me a little about stick fighting. I can't move as well as you now, but would like to practice, have a brace that I use to support my back. Wished I could have found someone to teach me to fight with a tomahawk. That would have been my weapon of choice.”
-Ishmael.
As a man that has missed about a year’s worth of work from occupational back injuries, resulting in the additional loss of house, vehicles, women—a dog even—I can really feel the frustration in a man’s soul when he discusses training while dealing with what is the most debilitating core injury, injury to the spine.
I have fought competitively with severe back sprains and severe sciatica. But whenever I had a disc actually protruding into the spinal cord the only thing I could work was my arms and feet—with no real interconnection. I could work on foot work or hand technique, but no pivoting, torque, twisting, none of the things that make a fighter really murderous in the ring.
My top fighter has some back problems due to his trade, and we have found that knife sparring aggravates it a great deal. The things that are safe to practice with a back injury, from among my boxing and weaponry skill set are:
1. Isolated footwork, without using the hips to transfer the power generated at the base to the weapon
2. The jab, in its many variations, with, and without, foot work
3. Light blade work requires no strength
4. Stick work without pivots and twists in the air and on apparatus
5. Specific forearm conditioning while seated, while lying, while standing, as it can be tolerated.
6. View our bag training video, and understand that you can practice the open four and fanning strokes, but must be careful of the cob-cob and drumbeat strokes as they tend to tighten the low back.
Ishmael, good stick footwork mostly consists of stepping patterns which can help rehab your back and hips. A man with strong forearms conditioned to stick stroking can drop a man with the stroke of a light stick to the jaw or side of head with only forearm action behind the stroke.
Make sure you:
1. Never reach, twist, hold your breath, or tense up
2. Use a stick that is shorter than your arm
3. Work on synchronizing your steps and slashes, slashing from chambering points at the shoulder, elbow and hip.
4. Keep the weapon very close to your body, like the Chinese broadsword forms. This works good weapon retention, integrates offense and defense, and limits strain on the rhomboids and quadrates lumburum.
5. Find a tomahawk haft and use that for your stick. It makes a nasty little club and is a good length to start working the wrist and forearms.
We will do a training video on this and hopefully post it this summer.
Thanks James, Ishmael