We have all seen Kung Fu and Karate masters fight many attackers with a staff but have you ever questioned the effectiveness of a staff? I took a look on youtube and found lots of advice on how to use a staff and I will share a couple of these videos but keep in mind that most of these methods come from katas. Will the staff or bo really work in a fight? Maybe! It depends on how you use it. I’ll explain.

I will explore the differences in kata (forms) and kumite (sparring-fighting) with a staff. I will evaluate the effectiveness of the staff techniques through the filter of – would this work in a real self-defense situation? I will talk about some of the claims made on one of the videos from Fight Science. I will close with self-defense applications of the staff against armed and unarmed attackers and how I would use a staff/bo in a fight. Here is a video of some Shaolin monks demonstrating a staff fight.

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What do you tell your children about getting away from kidnappers! Do you tell your child to listen to adults? I remember when I was a child I was taught to answer the phone and answer questions politely to adults. I don’t remember worrying about an adult ever harming me. Well nowadays you simply not afford to take such a lackadaisical attitude towards bad guys – they are emboldened!

I found one story here (1/29/2009) where a guy stopped outside of a Canadian school with a loud speaker asking the girls to come and see his puppy. Soon adults came out so see what was happening and the guy took off! Never would I have ever thought that a molester would come out in daylight and call out for the whole school to hear – trying to get kids to come away with him. I was happy to hear on the video that some parents had already discussed this topic with their kids. I will close with a kid that was saved by techniques he learned at his karate school! Here is a short video.

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There have been a lot of good fights lately and I just saw Urijah Faber submit Jens Pulver in the first round on Sunday. For those of you who might not know – Faber won a decision over Pulver last summer and then went on to lose his belt to Mike Brown. Jens Pulver lost his last two fights so yesterdays fight was all the more important for both fighters.

The headliner fight was disappointing because Jamie Varner was slightly ahead in points and receive an unintentional foul by Donald Cerrone in the 5th round – grazing Varner’s temple with a knee (Varner was still on his knees). Varner was able to get Cerrone to the ground but Cerrone seemed to be more comfortable on his feet (although he took lots of face shots and was cut up). The crowd was unhappy that Varner could not continue and seemed to like Cerrone’s attitude. That will be a rematch to watch. 

This is a short post tonight as I wanted to say something about the Faber – Pulver 2 fight. Here is a clip.

I found this fight on youtube today and noted that Fedor won in the first round. Here is a review Sherdog did on this fight. Fedor has beaten lots of former UFC fighters according to the wikipedia article here. I watched this fight and then I would like to point out what makes fighters great and how even the great fighters can improve their game.

Get more pictures like this from SHERDOG

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It is time again for some good matches in the WEC. After the Faber vs Brown upset last year Faber is going back against one of his toughest opponents – Jens Pulver. Both Faber and Pulver are coming off of losses so this should promise to be a good fight. WEC 38 promises to have some good fights. 

I saw Miguel Torres against Manny Tapia last year amazed at Torres’s bag of tricks… As I recall he did an axe kick (just missing) shortly before ending the bought – totally dominating Tapia in WEC 37.

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I saw this story and was amazed at the boys quick thinking. The boy was walking home from school when a Pit Bull dog started attacking a girl’s dachshund. She stepped into save her dog and got attacked! Drew Heredia who just started taking Brazilian BJJ classes, came to the girl’s rescue by putting the dog into a rear-naked-choke hold for 20 minutes until the cops got there!!!

This is a very brave boy to step in and do what was needed in this attack. Children often start various classes but the BJJ really helped this boy out. When I was a kid this choke hold was called a sleeper hold. I found a video demonstrating its use.

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I don’t know about you but I have watched some martial arts flicks and only liked about 30% of them. Too often you will find stick banging for every punch and kick (to make noises for the kicks and punches) or the karate fighters flying though the air (like superman) to fight. One movie I could barley sit through was “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”  Well I will not bore you with a review of this type of film. I just watched the movie on IFC entitled, “Seven Samurai.”

This was a movie about some poor farmers dealing with raiding robbers. The village farmers had to decide what to do the next harvest because they knew the 40 robbers were coming back. The village elder told the farmers to seek samurai that were hungry (because the farmers did not have anything to pay) to save the village from the robbers! I will speak about the movie and tie this movie into modern self-defense strategies. Here is a trailer of the film.

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We here at MySelfDefenseBlog.com scourge the ends of the earth to bring only the finest content for your perusal. This time of year begs the question, ” have I been naughty or nice?” or “will I get a sugar plum or lump of coal in my stocking?”

Well if you have a beef with Santa, I may have just found the karate Santa solution! Depending on wether or not you have made the list (you know the list) this year, you may want to take a swing at Santa! I don’t really have a position on this as I have made the list this year but I wanted you to be aware if this Santa is any indication – you might have to get a black-belt before you try and take a swing at Santa!

Karate Santa Very Funny – For more of the funniest videos, click here

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

(citation of, “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clark Moore or Henry Livingston)