Pummel

            Looking through my video files I found a brief clip that included a few seconds of a Krav maga instructor. He was showing a dummy knife to some students and commented.

            “The knife can be used three ways. You can use this..” (he taps the tip)

“…or you can use this” (he runs the edge of the plastic blade across the sides of the neck of a nearby student)

“..or use this.” He taps the pommel of the dummy knife on the student’s temple. He seems to think for a moment and then adds:-

“The last is probably the most deadly!”

As I have pointed out in my book, there may be times when hitting the enemy with the pommel of a weapon may be better than using the blade. The head, for example, is a hard target and may cause the blade to jam or break. A blunt strike to certain parts of the head may have a more immediate effect than a cut. Our verb "to pummel" is believed to orginate from striking with a sword pommel.

One of the most important weapons I cover in the book is the Kongo, which I suppose can be thought of as a knife handle without any blade. Do I expect you to carry a Kongo or Kubotan on your person? No, I don’t but familiarity and practice with a Kongo will develop your appreciation of many other common objects that can be used in the same way. If you park your car in a dark garage it is not unreasonable to have a small torch in hand to illuminate the dark areas. If you jog, then you may hold a waterbottle (see last blog). The other night in the pub my girlfriend produced a tube of mascara. I just closed my hand around it so the ends projected. She knew exactly what I was telling her (and she then went back to painting purple splotches on my arm…) Could she find that tube in her bag if attacked? Probably not, but she is wise enough to know to use something to hand if available and not regard its absence as a distadvantage.

 

This item, btw, is a foot massager sold by at least one well-known high street chain. They actually work very well on tired feet and are a reasonable thing to carry in a handbag if you are in heels for hours at a time. I brought one for my girlfriend soon after we met.

Have you got the Bottle for a Fight?

            This is an interesting device. One part of me wants to point out that for emergency self defence use a standard bottle cap will be more than adequate. The “sip-nipple” type caps will concentrate the force on a smaller area.

 

            On the other hand, this product does raise  the user’s awareness that a bottle in hand can be used for defensive purposes against an aggressor. There is also a nagging part of my mind that insists this thing might be adaptable to applications other than just on bottles.

            I see quite a few joggers carrying bottles such as these.

 

            The hand grip and the fact that they tend to be carried in hand rather than worn on a belt gives them good defensive potential and I wonder how many joggers are aware of this fact.

            Even without a fancy cap and design a bottle of water can be a good weapon. Water is incompressible and has weight. A filled half litre bottle will add an extra pound to your strike, which can be concentrated into the small hard area of the cap using the Kongo techniques in my book. The surface of the bottle can fend off a knife edge. It may damage the bottle but may buy you enough time to escape. A bottle can also be used as a missile to distract a foe long enough to counter attack or escape.

Kama twirling

            Distant decades ago, eager for knowledge of martial arts I brought a set of four books in a deal by a mail order company. Three of them on Chin-na and Shuriken I still have on my shelf. The forth was called “Kusari-gama” and was not as expected.

           Rather than being about the weight and chain weapon familiar to me it was about twirling Kama by means of a butt-loop, rebounding it from the shoulders, ribs and thighs. I couldn't see how you ensured the blades arrrived point first, but did think it might have been an interesting thing to try with a nightstick. The book now goes for a hefty amount of money, and if I recall it was one of those publications rich on photos but thin on information.
           Here is a video I found of some of these techniques.

Fight against Junk!

            Changing my homepage from what I wanted it to be is not going to make me try your product. Quite the opposite.

            Trying to installing Google Chrome and Toolbar when I update something else will not encourage me to use it.

            I never buy anything from an unsolicited email. I do not buy anything from cold callers on principle. I encourage everyone reading to do the same and perhaps this whole obnoxious industry will wither and die.

            Sending me junk mail will not achieve anything positive. You are just wasting trees. Sending me a pension plan for the over-50s when I was only 43 ensures that I will never, ever deal with that company (Sun Life), ever! Junk mail with prepaid envelopes does offer some amusement. If you send them back the company has to pay, I believe. Stuff your prepaid envelope with any other junk mail you got. I am sure the man trying to sell you overpriced aluminium windows needs a pension plan.