The Art of Fighting with Tools

[Monk]

Re: The Art of Fighting with Tools

I was pulled over once by a police officer while riding my bike with a certain sword you(Corbin) now have in your passion strapped to my back. He spent ten minutes on his radio trying to find something to give me a ticket or arrest me for but ended up letting me go because I had broken no laws.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: The Art of Fighting with Tools

...that is why you should consider being the eccentric fellow with a hiking stick, lol

LOL - it's kind of funny - when you see a medieval picture of a traveler with a staff (like Gandalf wizard staff) most people don't realize that the staff is being carried for self defense - if you look closely at a picture by, say, Durer, you'll notice that there is a spike on the end of pretty much all sticks that people are carrying. The walking stick of the 18 & 19th century gentleman was also carried for self defense (before they became fashion statements). Doyle mentions occasionally in his stories that Sherlock Holmes was a master of "one stick" and "two stick" (along with marksmanship, fencing and boxing). One stick and two stick are largely forgotten Western Martial Arts which make use of either one or two walking sticks.

So yeah... I'll be that eccentric guy. Don't mess with my stick - I know how to use it!

[B. de Corbin]

Re: The Art of Fighting with Tools

Maybe - if you live in an urban area, especially if there is a college campus nearby, there might be a group near you. There are a lot more than there were a few years ago, but it's not like Asian Martial Arts where there's a dojo in every crossroads town. Try doing a search using a city near you and "Western Martial Arts" or "WMA" as search terms.

It's also possible to set up your own group and directly study and work with the texts. Everybody who is teaching today either learned through books and practice, or was taught by somebody who learned that way.