Stick-fighting

Stick fighting is a generic term for any of several martial arts which employ a small staff, cane or walking stick as a blunt hand weapon. Some of the techniques can also be performed with a sturdy umbrella or a sword in its scabbard. When the weapon is rather too thick and/or heavy to be wielded with such precision, so sheer force of impact is more important, we rather call it a club such as a cudgel or a mace.

Most stick fighting systems are serious combat techniques that were intended to be used if attacked whilst lightly armed, but a few, such as la canne and kendo, are also practiced today as sports similar to fencing.

Of course, stick fights are also still part of the anthropological heritage of various cultures, especially primitive tribes such as the Nilotic Ethiopian Suri (where "donga" is a general obsession and the best showing off to look for a bride, often naked or nearly)

Traditional European systems of stick fighting survive, with Portugal's Jogo do Pau France's grand canne and Italy's scherma di bastone. These traditions have their origins partly with medieval pole weapons and longsword fencing. Giuseppe Cerri's 1854 manual Trattato teorico e pratico della scherma di bastone is influenced by masters of the Italian school of swordsmanship, Achille Marozzo and perhaps Francesco Alfieri.

See also

• Bata (Irish)
• Bojutsu (Japanese, Okinawan)
• Egyptian stick fencing
• Eskrima (Filipino)
• Grand canne (French)
• Hanbo (Japanese)
• Jojutsu (Japanese)
• Juego del Palo (Canary Islands)
• Kendo (Japanese)
• La canne (French modern)
• Nguni stick fighting (African traditional)
• Quarterstaff (English mediaeval)
• Silambam (Indian)
• Palo canario (Spanish)

External link

• Self-defence with a Walking-stick... by E.W. Barton-Wright