Stick Ubiquity

My last blog explained that wrestling is an inevitable martial art for most cultures to develop in one form or another. The next martial step for a culture after developing wrestling is NOT some form of boxing or striking, but rather some type of stick fighting. There are two reasons for this.

First, sticks are practice weapons, that take the place of blades, maces and spears so that people can train more safety with weapon technique. This is the reason why cultures start to have stick fighting:

 

Second, sticks have incredible self defense value, which is why cultures keep stick fighting around even after they stop using swords. In most cultures throughout history, if someone was going to attack you, they were coming with a knife. The best available answer for dealing with someone with a knife is to grab a stick and use the superior range to beat back the attacker until you knock the weapon out of their hand. This might seem like an unrealistic movie stunt, but it's pretty easy to learn how to do with a decent amount of stick sparring.

"When will I have time to pull out a stick if I am getting attacked with a knife?" YOU are going to run away, but SOMEONE has to go stop the maniac running around with the knife. That someone is going to grab a staff or a stick to do that with, if not some weapon with even more reach. Some people do carry sticks, walking sticks, canes, umbrellas, collapsible batons, large flashlights, etc. If they have trained in stick fighting, they have probably trained in footwork, and will be able to buy more time to deploy their weapon in a deadly situation with a knife or multiple attackers than most other victims:

The most obvious example of stick fighting is from Kali, traditional Filipino martial arts:

In Chinese Martial Arts they like their sticks staff length, but you will notice that even the 3 sectional staff uses some of the same moves as Kali for basically the same reasons:

And let's not forget Maori staff fighting:

A form of Single Stick fighting is at the core of Sihk martial arts:

Quarter staff fighting has been a thing in England since people first inhabited that place:

Irish stick fighting is no urban legend:

And of course the French would not be left out of such a phenomenon:

Then we have the "Jogo do Paul" from Portugal and Spain:

Then there is the brutal Donga from Ethiopia:

Not to mention the sophisticated Zulu style of stick fighting:

And of course we have the traditions of Law Enforcement in the USA:

 
This is not a comprehensive list, probably not even half of the stick fighting styles I have heard about from around the world. The point here is that stick fighting arts could be more culturally ubiquitous than grappling, and they are certainly more ubiquitous than unarmed striking arts. This is not to say that stick fighting in today's world is as important as grappling. As Icy Mike pointed out recently, pulling out a stick on impulse can really backfire on you: