“I'm interested in learning basic stick fighting. My background is in wrestling. I wrestled all through high school and college. I also coached wrestling [redacted] for four years. My last year at [redacted], we won the ACC. I've done Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and some striking. I'd say I'm intermediate level BJJ and beginner striker. Since I'm on the small side, I'd like to learn some stick fighting. Since you can't carry concealed in Maryland, I figure stick fighting is probably the next best thing that won't get you sent to jail (at least not as long maybe) if you have to defend yourself. I live in Anne Arundel County. I moved out of the city a few years ago as the crime got worse. Do you still teach?”

Also, what are the expenses and the gear requirements and what type of injuries should I expect?

-Jase

Jase,

I only charge for appointments at our host school, and that is a matt fee of $20.

We train as a network, by appointment at the host school and outside on available asphalt.

1. Cup

2. Batting gloves

3. Soft elbow pads [I forgot this in our phone conversation]

4. A saber or epee-foil fencing mask for between $50 and $110

5. Hockey gloves. Get used ones at a Play it Again Sports and try them on, knowing that you are looking for a compromise between handling and protection. Do not get lacrosse gloves. Note how much time I spent on gloves compared to the other gear and extrapolate the importance.

6. I will give you a training stick.

Light bruises and scrapes, mostly on the arms

The occasionally mashed finger tip [wear batting gloves for this]

Sprained ankles at about the frequency of boxing or baseball, not as bad as football and soccer

A stick-fighter can be coached up to being competitive with the top guys within a year. However, getting good enough to beat those guys takes another 10.

Knife training is part of our stick fighting set, as it is the weapon the person carrying a stick is most likely to encounter and has the most to worry about, and because learning how to use a knife improves your stick fighting form for reasons you will soon come to appreciate in sparring.

The mental conditioning for stick is less traumatic than boxing.

I’d say stick fighting trains up on a curve similar to grappling.

Using a weapon is natural, as is grappling, where boxing is fundamentally unnatural for most humans.

If you train once a week with us and five days on your own, within a year only ten guys on the east coast would be able to smoke you in a bout, and in a self-defense situation you’d be good for taking two unarmed and one knife-armed antagonist with high probability of success. [Your fitness level and age makes your likely aggressor three youths or men, with one having a pocket knife.]

An unmodified stick [not weighted barbed, carved into sword shape, spiked, wrapped with wire, etc.] is not regarded as a weapon unless it is being used as such. A stick gives the skilled user more options for limiting lethality than more dangerous weapons. However, in the hands of the unskilled sticks fail a lot against larger antagonists, and against smaller antagonists tend to cause more damage than the user wanted to inflict. Both of these aspects are a problem with blunt weapons of all types:

1. clinch nullification and

2. overkill.

As taught by traditional FMA people neither of these issues are effectively addressed, as the sticks tends to be fantasized into a sword. However, training with contact stick fighters using minimal gear imbeds the crux aspects of survival stick-fighting in the shortest time possible, with minimal expense. As a wrestler, imagine a guy hitting you with a stick and standing in front of you, which is exactly how most FMA is taught and practiced. Once he hits you, you are in half-shoot range, almost to pummeling range. You'd throw this guy and mount him unless he took you out with one shot. And guess what, very few stick fighting programs use striking apparatus, so no body develops stopping power like we do in boxing.

Take care, Jase, and I look forward to training with you.

PS: Texting me is the best way to set appointments as my email is habitually jammed with incoming site content.

I have published a book on basic stick-fighting. However, if you are training with us, you don't need it. You need the one linked below.