Basics of Short Baton

Shamuel B. Kohen

Basics of Short Baton First edition manual copyright 2006 Haganah Security International Amanuut Krav Maga Written and composed by Shamuel B. Kohen CSO CTO Haganah Security International Finland All rights reserved. No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission from the author. If you violate the copyright legal action will be taken against you and/or your organization. Publisher Shamuel B. Kohen

ISBN-13: 978-952-92-0711-4 (sid.) ISBN-10: 952-92-0711-5 (sid.) ISBN-13: 978-952-92-0712-1 (PDF) ISBN-10: 952-92-0712-3 (PDF)

Printer Printed in

Cityoffset Oy, Tampere, 2006 Finland

Contents
Introduction ..... 5 Purpose ..... 7

Practice tools and safety

Safety .... 9

Holding the short baton

Point down method ..... 11 Chain method .... 11 Thrust point .. 11

Stances and foot work

Positioning .. 12 Natural stance .... 13 Reception/analytical stance ... 13 Ready stance ...... 14 Boxing stance ..... 14 Forwards ..... 15 Backwards . 15 Stepping to the right and to the left ... 16

Strikes
Forehand strike ....... 18 Backhand strike .. 18 Backhand jab ....... 19 Thrusting jab ... 19

Body part targets

Effectively utilizing body parts as targets ... 22

Defense against standing grappling

Throat grab against a wall .... 24 Front body hold over the arms 26 Front body hold under the arms ... 27 Rear hold over the arms ....... 28 Head lock . 29 The rear neck hold .. 32

Shoulder grab ... 34 Opposite hand wrist grab . 36 Two handed wrist grab .. 37 Double arm wrist grab .. 38

Defense against punches - Stop hits

Defense against empty handed attacks .... 39 Push against the breast bone ....... 40 Defense against a grab ............ 41 Defense against a punch ... 41 Defense against a kick . 42

Defense against a stick

The ranges ... Basic side block ... Over head strike ... Low backhand strike . 44 45 46 46

Defense against knife

Stab to the stomach .. 49 Slash towards the face .. 50 Slash towards the stomach 51

Defense against take downs

Street fighter head lock .. Bear hug ... Hip tackle ... Rear grab .. 54 55 56 57

Defense on the ground

Defense against a mounted position . 60 The street fighters head lock on the ground . 62

Closing comments About the author

Introduction
This manual has been written for the training and use of the short baton, or as others may call it Kubota, yawara or pocket stick. This manual is one out of three manuals for the use of the short baton; it will help promote the proper use of this non lethal defensive tool for civilians, police and security professionals. What you will find in this first volume, is the basic idea and concepts of using the short baton in combination with proper foot work and body movement. These techniques come from my own experiences using this self defense tool, as well as other professionals that have used the short baton as a defensive tool. You will not find combination techniques in this volume; I have found in the course of teaching that the basics are very much neglected. Mastering the basics should be the goal of all serious students of self defense, and my hope is that the student that chooses to use the short baton not only masters the basic hand techniques, but also the foot work. As with any defensive non lethal self defense tool, in the hands of the non-trained person the short baton can be turned into a lethal weapon. In this manual we will cover the non lethal target areas of the body; it doesnt take much thinking to figure out how to make this tool lethal. If the person chooses to use this defensive tool in a non legal and offensive manner, then that person must take the responsibility to answer for those actions when brought before a court of law. The techniques found in this book are built from a non combat readiness. This means that as you are going about your daily business and are in a level of alertness that comes from thinking safety and security, but you are not walking around with the long baton or firearm in your hand. In our training we use the idea of pressure testing and defending from a non fighting mode situation. This helps build techniques that can be used from most any posture and builds body language awareness. Many people in every day situations do not walk around as though they are ready to fight the guy just passing you. Nor is the security person doing his/her duty in a frame of mind that every person they come into contact with is ready to beat them down. That type of person is in a state of mental illness, and is called paranoid schizophrenic. I am not addressing that group. The short baton is called by many names such as: Yawara, Kubota, judo stick, pocket stick or the mini-mag light as well as any other fancy name one chooses for this tool. We simply call it short baton.

Purpose
The purpose of this first manual is to teach the basics of the short baton in a defensive manner against the different ranges of combat you may find yourself in. It is not the purpose of this book to introduce the students to the more complex defensive combinations which we will leave for the next volume of this series. The purpose of this book is not to get into the details and all the possible combinations of the short baton with the hand technique combinations. The idea here is to teach the civilians as well as the protective professional on the basic combinations of this most useful self defense tool. I would like to advise the reader that the techniques shown in this volume is how the short baton can be used as a striking defense tool as well as a pain compliance tool for defensive purposes. The reader is advised to use the amount of force necessary to stop the attacker and to keep you from harm and possible death. Like any defensive tool the short baton can also be used as a weapon of aggression by the criminally oriented individual. The short baton has many designs including the most popular key chain style for street and work carry. For the purpose of this book we will cover only the keychain style and the mini-mag style.

The rear neck hold

The rear neck hold is a very surprising hold that can be applied against you. Notice again that the defender is holding the choking arm of the attacker. By holding the arm of the attacker the defender can pull it away a little from the wind pipe, giving the defender a little breathing room. Here are some basic rules you must know if you are attacked from the rear.

1. Make space for your wind pipe to breath by pulling the arm off of it
downwards.

2. Try getting your chin in tight (against your chest) giving you a bit of a time
to act.

3. Close your mouth and bite your teeth together and breathe through your
teeth. By closing your mouth and keeping your teeth together will tighten the muscles around your neck area giving you a little more time to act. The attacker chooses a rear neck hold that will set the defender slightly back and off balances.

1. The defender bends the knees to

lower the center of gravity and to keep the balance against a throw that the attacker may do.

2. The choice of defense here is the

forearm nerves. By grinding in deep and not striking the forearm, the defender will give enough pain that the attacker will loosen the hold and the defender can escape. This is not a very high use of force technique, but it will produce the result needed. If it doesnt then more extreme techniques can be used as you shall see in the following illustrations. When using this technique against the forearm, try not to hit and pound on the forearm but rather try to give a ripping and grinding motion. By doing a grinding motion, you will keep in contact with the attacker so that you will know where he is for when you choose to do a follow up hit.

Again, finding your self being grabbed from the rear neck hold.

1. Bend your knees and

lower your center of gravity to give you balance. 2. Make a little space between you and the attacker. 3. With the point of the baton you can strike to the face area to cause the attacker to let go or loosen his grip (Picture 1.). You can also follow up with another technique that will free you, such as striking to the groin area and biting his forearm.

1.

If you choose the groin area first as the target, then you can also reverse the follow up attack to the face area (Picture 2). You can also bite the forearm if you must to help free your neck from the gripping arm. You can use all 2 or 3 sets of combinations to secure your escape.

2.

Opposite hand wrist grab

In this set of techniques we will use the wrist lock with the help of the short baton. For the same reason as in the previous techniques, you trap the attackers hand to keep him from defending or striking you.

1. Trap his hand on top of

your hand so the attacker cannot let go.

2. Drop your center of gravity 1.

a bit by bending your knees to give your body strength and balance.

3. Circle around the outside of

his hand with the short baton putting the point of the baton on top of the attackers wrist and press downwards. You can either put the tip end of your baton over his wrist or on top of the wrist. Either way it will cause pain to the joint.

2.

3.

Two handed wrist grab

The attacker applies a two handed wrist grab on your short baton holding hand. With a small circular motion you turn your wrist. As his arms are tied up with your small circle motion you press the point end of the short baton into his wrist causing pain and releasing of the grip. If you must, you can apply a push with your free hand or a strike if the situation calls for it.

1.

2.

Defense against stick

This chapter deals with defense against sticks/batons and other blunt force weapons. As with any defense against weapons you would look for distance. But at times that is impossible to achieve. I choose to use Filipino Escrima techniques against baton attacks. I have studied the Filipino martial arts for most of my adult life and I have found it to be the best method for me to use against blunt force object. I will introduce the reader to the basics of Escrima techniques in this book. The techniques that will be used are empty hands vs. baton. My purpose is not to teach Escrima here, but the techniques I have used with success against blunt force objects. The purpose here is to strike the hand, to either disarm or stop the continual attack. After the basic defensive techniques are done, it is up to you to counter with a strike of your own if needed. Within Escrima the footwork is a very crucial element to the practitioners techniques. If you have studied and practiced the foot work drills I have showed you in previous chapters, then this should not be very difficult for you to use at this stage of your learning. From the strikes in the previous chapters, it is up to you to use the simplest and most effective technique possible. You can use all techniques in this book in a combination format. An important factor to remember against an attacker that is about to use a baton to assault you with is that if youre in tight and close to him when he strikes, then the strike will not be hard enough to hurt you badly. If youre far enough, he may not even reach you. But if youre right at that distance where the weapon has the impact point or in baseball they call it the sweet spot (this is the place where the stick has the best impact area to the target), then you can be severely injured. If you find yourself too close, you may be hit with the fist, but at times with not enough force to do damage to you. As you will see in the following illustration, the mid range is the place that is the best preferable place to be if you cant get out of the way.

The ranges

Close range Mid range Sweet spot Danger!

Out of range As you can see we have four ranges.

1. Out of range: This is the best place to be, get distance, get an object
between you and the attacker, i.e. car, table or trash dumpster.

2. Danger range: This is the contact point of the weapon, this is where you will
most likely take the full blow of the stick and the hit will do the most damage.

3. Mid range: This is the area where you can attempt to do your techniques
and counters. The most the weapon will do to you is push you. There is a danger of being punched. But your counter should be fast enough for you to stop that.

4. Close range: This is most likely grappling and trapping range. Not much
danger of the weapon, but it will put you very close to hitting and being wrestled.