Hitting People with Sticks
Post-X-mas class. Only the crazy people showed up, so we had just green-belt on up. The tai sabaki warmups actually included some of the extra exercises that they do on Friday’s advanced class (close-the-window entry, ippon seionage entry, step to the middle, but not kotegaesh-10 entry). The main focus for this class was using the stick as a supplement to technique.
So, for example, on straight-punch, you can step to the outside and strike with the stick across the lower rib cage, then use the stick to aid in the kotegaesh (with the added bonus of hitting uke in the face while swinging the stick into the kotegaesh position) — the emphasis is of course still on the throw. Somewhat less nice is the step-to-the-side and strike the side of uke’s forward knee with the stick. The stick can be used to aid close-the-window against roundhouse, of course, but can also be effectively used as an extra lever to pull the elbow back, if close-the-window didn’t work. The lever effect comes from angling the stick horizontally, so that the stick runs against uke’s neck. Uke can protect himself by grabbing the stick in front of his neck, but it doesn’t matter too much. The stick is used as lever, with the elbow as fulcrum and the defensive hand or neck as the load being moved. Either the elbow will move, or uke’s head is forced back, both of which will quickly break balance to uke’s rear. Turning the hip helps with this.
Another straight punch technique strikes the stick across the middle of the chest, and then uses the back of uke’s elbow as a fulcrum, with the chest as the far load. The resulting armbar can be used to bring uke down, but there might be a tricky hand position switch as the stick moves from the striking grip to the one used to control uke.
Defending against uke’s attempt to grab the stick mainly involves rotating the stick around uke’s wrist while stepping out of the way. I’m not sure what happens if uke grabs two handed, and starts rotating the stick before you do.