I tagged this for Let the Weak Fall. If you are not an experienced stick-fighter, that sentiment would best be expressed as "Let the Cute Fall."
The big point-scouring combination stroke in armored point stick-fighting with actual sticks—as opposed to the reprehensible practice of fighting in armor with hollow, padded plastic tubes—is the fanning stroke. The FMA term is pronounced something like abeneko or abineka, and the spelling is not important enough for me to look up online, as the maneuver is generally bullshit in terms of real combat value. Fanning with a bone-crushing club is impossible unless you have King Kong forearms, and is useless with a blade as it retards the cut. So it amazes me, when I mention the poor physics of fanning with a stick, that the FMA gurus that stress the fan tend to claim they are simply using the stick to train for blade combat.
Really?
Try tapping yourself with a blade. Even if you tap hard, you are just making a short bone deep cut. Unless you can specifically target an exposed blood vessel above a bone, what use could this be with a blade?
The fanning stroke is usually done while standing in the strike zone, and produces a “ching, ching, ching” ringing sound which alerts the judges, and is as much due to the acoustics of the WEKAF headpiece face cage and stick as to any effect. This is, in fact, a totally ineffective stroke against protected heads and will not KO the unprotected head unless delivered by a top flight stick fighter with freakish forearm conditioning.
If you are engaged in stick sparring or fighting against an armored opponent and he attempts this stroke, shift back and throw a murderous back hand or forehand across the middle, targeting his forearm. If this scores with power he is probably done for the day. If you just catch a piece of him or miss and he hears that stick cut air, then he will probably stop playing hotshot. The fanning blow in FMA is like the bolo uppercut in boxing, a showman’s gambit. Once you start feeding the jab and right to a fool swinging the bolo punch, he generally stops.
This said, I do practice the fanning motion, usually as a warm-up exercise with a light stick.
There are two methods I know of to effectively use the fanning motion. Before we continue let me explain the arm mechanics, for this is a weak arm-powered stroke.
The forearm is held parallel with the opponent’s head.
The fulcrum is the wrist.
The blow is powered by flapping the elbow back and forth across the line described by the opponent’s throat or collarbone. As the elbow swings to your outside [stick-hand side] the backhand jab is delivered to the temple. As the elbow swings to your inside [empty-hand side] the forehand jab is delivered to the temple. This is typically done as a two, three or four beat stroke combination against an opponent who is just standing there or is stalled.
Charles has used this blow on me by momentarily checking my stick-hand with his empty hand and rapping me on the head in a “rap-rap-pap” rhythm. This is essentially a form of humiliation, or a way of toying with an overmatched man whom you have worked into your strike zone. When Charles does this to me in sparring he is essentially saying, “Move old man, you’re getting static.”
When he does this to someone in competition it is either a protest about being taken to the floor, delivered as he is falling into the clutches of a beast, or, a way of drawing the audience’s attention to the fact that he is mastering the other man.
I am proud of the fact that no one has ever done this to me in competition, and have chosen to eliminate me with power shots anytime they put me in this poor of a tactical position.
You do not do this to a dangerous man until he is spent.
The Fan Slide
I have a method of using a modified fan, which Charles insists is not an application of the FMA fan, but is a bastard tactic of my own corrupt invention.
Never throw a fan with a stick that is too heavy, as you can rip your elbow apart. Find where your wrist and elbow tolerance is in relation to stick girth and weight by training with a variety of sticks on bags, posts and tires, in a gradual manner.
Never throw a fan against a free moving man.
Only throw a fan when you have your empty hand on your man.
Never stand still while fanning, but move a half step with every half-beat, as fan strikes are done on the half-beat.
Pull your elbow back way from the target so that your hand delivers diagonal strokes down on the neck and collarbone and shoulders of the man you are fanning. This permits you to put your chest muscle and front deltoid into the forehand rap, and apply your lat muscle and rear deltoid to the backhand rap.
I like the elbow back by my ear after the backhand rap, and down against my chest after the forehand rap, as I lean forward over him, as I have pushed him down somewhat by catching him with his weight forward and pressing on his big beefy shoulder.
Note, if you time this wrong you are on the floor with some man-beast getting prison-raped, so be careful. Don’t think in terms of doing this to a stronger man, but to a slower man off-balance due to forward commitment. It works that much better if you are stronger.
Try a three beat, 1-2-1, as you check his shoulder [you could check the head, but would then end up hitting your own forearm on the second beat] and then float from the pocket to his stick-side, sliding your checking hand down from the shoulder to the elbow, and then to the hand as you slide to his stick-side and beat him about the neck and shoulders. I have stopped big men with this. Good luck catching some little darting twerp with this gambit.
You could do a 2-1-2. Just make certain that you do not do this while traveling to his open hand side, but maintaining the slide toward and around his stick-hand. If he gets his empty hand on your shoulder, elbow, arm or hand, the fan has become a disarm trap and clinch entry.
The fan slide is a close mobile tactic, which can be delivered with significant—though not stopping—power. Properly done, after perhaps six months of bag or post work, your power should be sufficient to stun a tough man.
Do not overwork your wrist training this stroke on the bag. It is not that important.
Treat this, primarily, as a conditioning exercise, and do not look for it in combat. Just drill it enough so that you can pop if off when the situation arises. First and foremost the fan slide is about the slide, about repositioning in checking range out of the pocket and around to a two-hand on stick-hand angle.
Don’t look for it.
Let it come.
It comes when he steps into the pocket, and shifts his weight forward of his lead knee, permitting you to press down with a checking hand and use his poor balance and weight to fix his position forward along the line where you were—as you slide around to the line you want to be on. This is like cutting the angle with a checking hand in boxing.
Work this on the bag and post and see how it feels. If it feels wrong, then just work the check and slide option, using this to line up a smash or set up a break away slash.
Your article is on point and accurate to my own experiences. If I may, I shall add my own experiences:
With my body structure (wide shoulders, short arms), I can not reliably hit with the back-hand portion of the fanning technique. I do, however, have the forearm mass and tensile strength in my arm and elbow tendons to really trip the forehand portion of the fanning technique. So, I use this particular side to press aggressive high-line attacks with a forward motion, to make up for my short stature.
I do like using the complete motion as a warm-up technique, stressing to my students to take it slow with this one (you can't do fast what you can't do slow).
FANNING THE STICK DOES NOT PREPARE YOU FOR BLADE WORK. This is the statement that you make that I agree with the most. The forehand stroke I value in stick fighting has no application in blade, and I have trained myself out of even attempting it with a machete in my hand.
In closing, I'll give the Fan Slide a try and let you know how it feels for me.
Thanks for the input, Adam.
The important aspect of trying the slide is getting your checking hand on him. Lure him into entering with a low stroke, and check him then, when he drops his shoulder.
"Unless you can specifically target an exposed blood vessel above a bone, what use could this be with a blade?"
That's actually how I won the few knife fights I have been in. Not using the fanning method but inflicting enough injury on my opponents to make them reconsider their intentions. These blows were to the hands/arms.
"When he does this to someone in competition it is either a protest about being taken to the floor"
Can you elaborate? Are take downs or throws not allowed?
For someone who has no one really to spar with this information is useful since I do most of my work with a bag. Having additional drills to work will help hone the few skills I have.
As a small critique if you hadn't just taught me the 1,2,3,4 strokes I would be at a loss as to the combos you are referring too. Not sure how you fix that but I remember reading some of your earlier articles and not knowing what the hell you were talking about.
Thanks for getting me to clarify these points, Sean,
That downward backhand strike across the top of the wrist and hand that you showed me when reconstructing your knife encounters, though it was not a slash, was a slice, or draw cut, a pressure cutting technique that is used by butchers and surgeons to shear away flesh. Although not a long motion, being from the wrist, you drew the blade across the target. The rapping motion discussed in this section would amount to tapping him with the edge if used with the blade, which means you might as well have slapped him with the flat unless you luck out and hit an artery, as your cut would only be about a quarter inch wide and would not shear.
The Fundamental Four is found at this link jameslafond.com/article.php?id=2600
To review the stick fighting basics content in previous articles just click on the Stick Fighting Basics tab at the top of the article.
When sparring we stop in the clinch, but in competition our only rules are let the guy quit, and don't attack the spine or drop him on his head.
Nice article....to the point and true. I agree. Ultimately any technique in a reality based setting comes down to timing and efficiency of execution in a biomechanical framework. I have been lucky to fight stick on every level, including no gear and full contact, some gear, and full monkey suits (wekaf gear). The dog brother or agonistics training process is really the only way to do it as it allows for a realistic assessment of skill, pain tolerance, and reactivity in the context of that pain tolerance. The FMA guys mostly fight wekaf, and only the traditionalists of older generations know what a real stick fight is now since the wekaf system totally bastardizes what a fight is supposed to be.
I'd like to say, never having to entertain judges because I don't compete in WEKAF, that the fan works and is applicable, only when broken down. If you pull off one complete 'revolution' (2 strikes) you've already spent too much time committing. Unless it's a noob, then you might time 2 strikes to his 1 in sombrada. Against a stick-god it's death. DEATH
Breaking it down it seems doable. Striking to the inside feels like an alternative to the tip-dump. I like it. To the outside it seems a little un-economic unless I really turn my forearm and/or body into it.
Tell you what I've been really lovin' on... is that blade-style draw-back & return rap (where you invert the hand like a fan) you showed me / that Swiss dog brother practitioner does. Tasty. Lot of power there.
Not a huge fan of training it as the elbow wrenching you mention is a big problem. In the few FMA privates I've had, I was told it is to illicit a response only then the follow up is the key. Using it as some sort of point-scoring "gotcha" move seems weak.
The illiciting of a response is at least logical, but probably a spurious explanation for the technique.
Honestly, it's a weak move, even when done in a sound manner. I only like it as part of an angling tactic.