Styles Stick-fighting

an artwork depicting stick fighting

stick-fights between individuals or large gatherings between sub-tribes men fight duels important part of anthropological heritage of various cultures, tribes such surma people of ethiopia, donga stick-fighting important cultural practice , best means of showing off bride, nude or so, , more warlike neighbors, nyangatom people, fight duels bare-chested, aim being inflict visible stripes on of adversary, using not plain staffs sticks flexible, whipping tail-end.

traditional european systems of stick-fighting included wide variety of methods of quarterstaff combat, detailed in numerous manuscripts written masters-at-arms. many of these methods became extinct others adapted , survived folk-sports , self-defence systems. examples include portugal s jogo pau, related juego del palo of canary islands, france s canne de combat or la canne, poland s palcaty , italy s scherma di bastone. giuseppe cerri s 1854 manual trattato teorico e pratico della scherma di bastone influenced masters of italian school of swordsmanship, achille marozzo , perhaps francesco alfieri.

the french system of la canne still practised competitive sport. self-defense adaptation of la canne developed swiss master-at-arms pierre vigny in 1900s has been revived part of curriculum of bartitsu.

nivkh people sakhalin used long sticks called z ar t ar sacralized ritual fighting.

in during years of 1900s, fencer , self-defense specialist a. c. cunningham developed unique system of stick-fighting using walking stick or umbrella, recorded in book cane weapon.

singlestick developed method of training in use of backswords such cavalry sabre , naval cutlass. popular pastime in uk 18th 20th century, , fencing event @ 1904 summer olympics. although interest in art declined, few fencing coaches continued train stick , competitions in style of stick-fighting reintroduced royal navy in 1980s commander locker madden. art continues gain small following amongst martial art community in uk, australia, canada , us.

latin america has share of martial arts devoted stick-fighting, including venezuela s juego del garrote, brazil s palo brasil , maculelê, trinidad s calinda , south americans eskrima kombat.

sticks , staves of various sizes common weapons in asian martial arts, in vary in design, size, weight, materials , methodology, , used interchangeably , alongside open-hand techniques. example, eskrima, of philippines uses sticks traditionally crafted rattan or butterfruit tree , may wielded singly or pair.