Yeah, sure. What weapons? Have you ever seen a Taekwondo school teach weapons? Lemme guess: sword, staff, and/or flail (nunchaku)? I’m not surprised.
By definition, Taekwondo is an unarmed martial art. Many schools that teach self-defense do so against unarmed assailants, despite that one should never assume an assailant is unarmed. So how to defend against a weapon when we are not taught how to use the weapon? What are the ideosyncrasies of each weapon? What are it’s vulnerabilities? It is really necessary to know how to use the weapon to defend against it?
Weapons are extensions of the body. Each weapon, due to its reach, size, weight, and shape has specific characteristics that can be a weak point against the wielder. Guns, knives, bats… they all have vulnerabilities that, if we explore and exploit them, can be used for a reversal. And it is reversals that attackers fear most.
There are two important notations by Sun Tzu:
- “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
- “Carefully compare the opposing army with your own, so that you may know where strength is superabundant and where it is deficient.”
If we subscribe to these ideals, it becomes important that we know the enemy’s weapons and tactics before we know how to fight them. If we didn’t know that a knife was sharp, or that a gun expels a projectile, then, we would not take action to avoid being struck. I don’t want to violate the tenet that Taekwondo is an unarmed martial art. But I believe it is important that training should include some study of weapons. We need not be masters or proficient in their use. But certainly a cursory knowledge of how they can be used is important.
For those schools who do teach weapons use, why teach old weapons? There’s nothing wrong with it – it is part of history. Some martial arts, like Aikido, model their techniques after weapons usage, so knowing those weapons helps with performing the techniques. But for Taekwondo schools who teach nothing of weapons generally teach techniques as-is. That is, without teaching how the techniques can be applicable for different scenarios. In these places, learning traditional weapons provides neither practical purpose nor tactical advantage.
Does it then make sense to teach about modern weapon use? Should Taekwondo schools teach contemporary weapons, like knives, bats, guns, poles, sticks, bottles, and propellants? A self-defense program should include defense against these weapons. These are, after all, the modern choices of weapon – not chuck sticks or sais. One may argue that many contemporary weapons have traditional counterparts. Spears and swords, for instance, are present today in the form of poles and long sticks. Knives, bottles, and short sticks have similar properties that they can be categorized as short singlehanded weapons that can be thrust, slashed, or struck. But some modern weapons have interesting features that don’t fit into the molds of weaponry of yore. A broken bottle, for instance, leaves the additional problem of having to deal with detached broken glass, either on the floor or in our (or the opponent’s) clothing. Propellants have limited range, and if not used properly can be ineffective or self-reversed. A defender need only use the wind for advantage, or perhaps nearby water for quick first aid. Not knowing these things could land the defender in very hot water – it could cost a life.
Sometimes, I’ll come across a place that teaches how to use a walking cane. The cane is versatile, and if you buy into the hype that a cane can be taken anywhere where other weapons wouldn’t be allowed, you would be wrong. The reality is that few healthy people want to be bothered carrying around a carry-anywhere weapon. Really – would you walk into a dark alley carrying a cane or a gun? (Assuming, of course, you have the cojones to walk alone into a dark alley in the first place…) A supermarket? A bar? A baseball stadium? To work and back? To the gym? Out for dinner with the family or friends? You might do this for a week. After that, I guarantee, you’ll be thinking this is a total waste of time. Because the first time you forget your cane, that’ll be the last time you carry one around again. If you are the type of person who willingly carries around a walking cane, just because you can, you are better off moving to Texas or Oklahoma, where getting a concealed carry permit is not only easy to do, but, allows for such carry into any courthouse, police station, and bar. About the only place a CW cannot be brought is in a school.
Realism with self-defense is superficial in all of the Taekwondo schools I see or hear of, particularly sport-oriented schools. Peruse their websites, and some will even claim to teach defense against weapons – without using weapons.
Knife and gun disarms are dangerous, but unfamiliarity with the business ends of these weapons can cost your life.
As you train, be careful of the weapons you use. If you are learning to use them for historical context, that’s fine. But if you are learning from a self-defense application, be careful to choose weapons with modern applicability. It does little to help you to know how to fling nunchaku like Bruce Lee, as these have no modern applicability. Use a staff, long or short, which has some modern applicability such as broom sticks, bats, and poles. A butterfly knife is a fancy, useless gadget, although the business end of it certainly has modern applicability. Same with stilettos and switch blades. The are comic-book weapons, and anyone seriously training for self-defense will skip these weapons. To that end, realism is key, but real knives are dangerous to train with: use rubber ones instead. As you practice, you will inevitably drop or disarm your opponent, and will want to repeat over and over again. Take care that when you return the weapon to your opponent, that is a task done deliberately complicated: you don’t want to be in the real world disarming your attacker and then give him the knife back as you’ve been training. And gun disarms? Go ahead, but be real. You’ll find that there are millions of videos showing gun disarms and most are a joke and the techniques just don’t work. They’re great for fancy, razzle-dazzle demonstrations, but have useless in-the-street applicability.
