...and carry a big stick.

Since the dawn of time, the most common implement man had to defend himself with, was a club. Fashioned from a tree branch, or made from the bone of an animal, it was an easily available tool to fend off other humans and the bigger predators like wolves, bears and big cats.

Time went by, man learned how to fight with sticks more effectively and gracefully, implementing this tool into his martial arts. Conceiving various manoeuvres to allow himself to strike and pummel his opponent swiftly and with sufficient force to rupture flesh and break bone. Chinese and Japanese martial arts are famous for their staff techniques. The west also conceived their own stick fighting techniques, like Quarterstaff fighting, Singlestick, Bataireacht, Bartitsu, Canne de combat to name a few.

Of all the stick fighting martial arts, Eskrima stands out for teaching its practitioners how to fight with two sticks, along with how to improvise using both hands with different objects, like knives, glass bottles, machetes, axes…etc

As times became more civilised and peaceful, the club still accompanied man when he was tasked to enforce the law, for there is nothing more effective at stopping a criminal than a sharp blow to the head with a truncheon. And of course, anyone with a walking stick could use said implement against an attacker.

Time went on, man’s ability to invent allowed the basic and humble stick to be formed from materials that offered more benefits than mere wood and bone. Metals like aluminium, iron and its carbon enriched cousin known as steel, could strike with far more terrifying force than their organic predecessors of wood and bone. An expandable baton was proof of this, and its telescoping segments allowed for easier storage. Various plastics were also discovered to deliver just as merciless a force, with the advantage of dissipating shock that would damage the structure of metal. These implements are becoming more common, due to the use of synthetic plastics.

Today, even with so many weapons available, man still entrusts his life to the stick. It is his oldest ally against his enemies.