A STICK IS NOT A BLADE

No matter how many times I tell you that it is a steak, bologna is bologna.   The same holds true when it comes to stick arts vs blade arts.  It is very common to hear “yes we are a blade art” but then we see the art trained with sticks. 

 I personally fell into this trap not knowing any better as a young martial artist.  On a cursory glance the concept makes sense.  When you look at it a little deeper however things do not hold up so well.  The difference was driven home for me a few years back when I began working with my friend and training partner Mr. Guy Djinn.  One fine morning we had planned to start working on Japanese sword together.  I grabbed my favorite 36-inch wooden cane and showed up for class.  My cane quickly disappeared and in its place a wooden bokken.  Why? Because the bokken simulated the sword, more specifically it’s edge.  As the lessons progressed it became more and more evident that the nuanced lessons that I was learning with firm edge awareness could not be learned with a stick.  Other things became apparent as well.  The stick was lighter, the stick was evenly balanced and most importantly the stick behaved differently from steel when making contact with it’s target.   My light bulb turned on when  I was observing a frenetic two man drills where sticks were clashing at 100MPH with full power.  I looked on in awe of their stick work and realized….That is STICK work.

 Is an angle one-strike the same with a stick or a blade?  Sure.  But combat methods are not that simple.  Steel meeting steel is different than wood meeting wood.  Hell, steel meeting anything is different.  Once you get past the most basic techniques the stick is a blade, blade is a stick philosophy does not hold up.   We must be honest and aware of this in when creating our techniques, drills and applications.  Not doing so can be down right dangerous.  I remember once asking an old Vietnam Vet that I knew why he blacked a certain way with a Machete.  His answer remains clear in my mind almost 15 yrs. later.  “I block that way because in Vietnam, when I blocked a Machete like a stick it broke and a shard flew into my team mate’s neck.  That was enough of an explanation for me to take these differences seriously.