Would you ever give up your weapon?

I have found from my experience the only time anyone lets go of their weapon is to avoid the pain that is already overwhelming them in the first place.

 

Well being a Stick and Dagger and Sword and Dagger ( both are different ) man myself I couldn't agree more which funny enough a lot of the tie ups in Eskrido follow the same principles.

 

Simon so far they have.

 

Sorry but can't help basing my opinions of experience. But then that's how I judge whether something is practical and worth it's value in training it. But that's just me I suppose ????

So what do you base your conclusion on?

 

Teacher says: "give up your weapon when the police ask you to"

 

Or as an old Manong once said to me. Why would you give up your weapon.

 

Because it's stuck in the other guy?

 

Sure, I'd give up a weapon if it wasn't serving me well in that moment. Weapons have ideal ranges. And, sometimes, once you're out of that range, it's more liability than boon.

Take the long staff (please!) I'd drop that thing in a hot second once we got to medio. Not useful to me. And really difficult to regain long range once you've reached a shorter range with an aggressive opponent.

Besides, these are FMA guys saying this. So the question, in my experience, is more "would you give up THAT weapon?" Because most of the FMA people I know probably have two or three OTHER weapons stashed on them somewhere.

That's not accounting for empty hand as a weapon either.

 

The stash! Shhhhh! Don't give it all away!

 

Had to laugh at the DC gathering a couple of years ago. One teacher was doing his thing, talking about weapon retention, etc. Then he goes from stick (discard), to knife (discard), to (rubber) gun. Obviously, not the ideal order, but he was making a point. I was just amazed that he had those squirreled away on his person.

I (despite wearing my tactical cargo shorts) probably had a package of tic-tacs and little else. :\

 

Tictacs? In the hard plastic dispenser? Man you could use those!

 

*quickly fashions his asthma inhaler into a makeshift blowgun, using green tic-tacs as ammo*

REAP THE WHIRLWIND!!!

 

Again as stated it all depends on the situation and range your fighting at which is why I pointed out that using the original video of Eskrido does not reinforce that need to give up your weapon as it is based on the opponent reacting to their weapon being tied up in order that they will respond in one of two ways. 1. You throw something else into the mix or 2. You let go of your weapon. And if you like 3. They get hit but either way they get hit and because you are at close range by the time you decide to either let go or hit with the other hand the person applying the principles of Eskrido is already 3 steps ahead of the game.

As for long stick / staff or spear it is a very effective mid range weapon which is employed to tie up the opponent. It becomes a problem at mid range if one of your hands is dislodged from the weapon then yes you may as well not have it.