Improvised Weapons Web Movie - Part Two
In Albo Kali Silat, stick training teaches knife technique and knife training teaches empty hand technique. Of course, this holds true in the most basic sense. Using a stick or fighting against a stick does not teach blade orientation. Unless a student is made aware that he or she should focus on the stick not only as a weapon in itself, but as a training device and simulator for a bladed weapon, many bad habits can be formed. In Albo Kali Silat, students are taught to think of the stick as a bladed weapon and not to focus on stick disarms and other stick specific techniques that will result in serious injury if conducted against a live blade. Blade techniques help teach elbow and empty hand strikes, as well as passing, checking, blocking, tapping, locking, and limb destruction. Knee strikes and kicking are taught separately, and many of these techniques come from the Albo Kali Silat low-level techniques which allow the art to be so effective in fighting in the vertical as well as horizontal planes. Flexible weapons, to include sarong fighting or cipecut, are also taught separately within the art.
Many Albo Kali Silat techniques can be applied with various improvised weapons, as is the case with most forms of kali. Improvised weapons usage occurs when stick, knife, flexible weapon, and empty hand techniques are applied and used to enable items not normally considered weapons to be used in combat. Many common household items can be used as impact, cutting, stabbing, or otherwise effective combative devices.
This video was cut into two parts for ease of loading on your computer. Each segment is slightly less than eight minutes long. In these videos I covered the use of only a few improvised weapons. To be perfectly honest, the list of potential weapons is almost endless. There are ways to utilize such seemingly inoffensive items as a plastic drinking straw and a paperclip in combat. In reality, many improvised weapons offer little or no advantage compared to using elbows, knees, feet, hands, and other natural body weapons. The objects that I utilize as weapons in these two videos, however, can provide an advantage in combat. Please note that improvised weapons are best when utilized by those with skill in the handling of more conventional weaponry and skill in unarmed combatives. Picking up an improvised weapon and trying to use it may help you stay alive in a bad situation, but it is not likely to help you much unless you have training that will allow you to easily and fluidly integrate the object into that most treacherous and ever changing environment: actual combat with someone who really wishes to do you harm.
In video one I demonstrate the use of a magazine, a pen, and a flashlight. In video two, I utilize a belt, a flashlight with lanyard, a jacket, and a coin. I would like to thank Joe, my student and assistant/attacker in this video. Being the attacker/demonstration target when metal (flashlights, a pen, a coin, etc.) is pressed into nerve clusters is not a very fun experience.
I hope that you have enjoyed these videos and further hope that perhaps something depicted here may one day assist good people who have to defend themselves from someone who intends them harm. Thank you for your interest.
Tuhan Holloway, June 2008
