Chris, against a firearm, you need to either get away (running low and in a zig-zag fashion) and behind hard cover, KO the gunman or restrain the weapon arm and preferably the gunman too.
In some old manuals, I've seen pictures of the defender hitting the gunman's hand/wrist with the cane, but in my view you'd have to be very lucky to consistently get a disarm that way before the trigger finger could start squeezing and sending those bits of metal whizzing through the air! :(
Monstery, however, writes;
“Boxing will get a gentleman out of a great many scrapes into which he may fall, but in some parts of the Union he will come across men who habitually carry knives or pistols and in such a case a stout walking-stick, if he knows how to use it, may save his own life, and—what I consider more important—prevent the necessity of his taking the life of another. It may seem strange to some that I, who have passed my time in the profession of arms, and have lived so much in Spanish-America, where the use of weapons is universal and duels of everyday occurrence, should have a horror of taking life; and yet I can honestly say that I have always avoided it, except where there was an absolute certainty that the question lay between my own life and that of another who sought to kill me. For this reason I have always avoided the use of the pistol, except in battle. You cannot spare a man’s life with the pistol, and no generosity can be shown therewith. You must kill him or he kills you. With the cane it is different. Many are the pistols and knives that I have struck from the hands of men by a smart blow on the wrist with a cane, and many are the murderous brawls I have prevented in this way. As a queller of disturbances, I know of nothing better than a hickory or ash stick.”
----
An article on the martial arts New York website talks of 'Louis Tronchet, a French maitre d’armes, arrived in the United States in 1887......had graduated from the military academy of Joinville-le-Pont at the head of his graduating class numbering six hundred..................Tronchet was also a known expert at French savate, and offered instruction in cane self-defense for use in the street.'
That same website goes on to describe (and picture) an article of Tronchet that '...shows a handful of cane defense techniques, utilizing both single and double handed grips, and mostly executed versus a masked attacker armed with a pistol. Tronchet instructs the person accosted to put his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender, but all the while still holding the cane—assuming a position of readiness designed to give the illusion of submission. He proceeds to describe various ways to attack the shins, wrist, and head. For instance, Tronchet instructs,
The simple blow on the wrist is as effective as any blow can be. A right swing of the body and a quick, strong blow across the wrist with the cane causes the footpad’s hand to instantly relinquish the weapon and leaves an opening for an attack with the advantage in favor of the peaceful homegoing citizen. However, he is not quite ready for the homegoing yet. He prefers to see his footpad eating humble pie first.
The simple blow on the wrist is as effective as any blow can be. A right swing of the body and a quick, strong blow across the wrist with the cane causes the footpad’s hand to instantly relinquish the weapon and leaves an opening for an attack with the advantage in favor of the peaceful homegoing citizen. However, he is not quite ready for the homegoing yet. He prefers to see his footpad eating humble pie first.
-----------
An American wrestler called Roller, who developed a system of MMA for self defence in 1915 wrote;
'Fencing is one of the most beneficial of exercises, great fun and a very effective means of defence. Get the singlesticks, with mask and glove, at any sporting goods house, or you can practise the movement with any old stick. I never took a lesson in this work in my life, but I became so efficient in singlestick fencing that I defeated the best professional fencer on the Pacific coast and twice saved my life by knocking a gun or a knife out of an assailant’s hand by means of an ordinary cane.'
Roller (on right) demonstrating self-defense with a cane.
Roller explains this technique as follows:
“Fig. 4.—-A fencing stroke in self defence. The author saved his life in Indiana once by this exact stroke, disarming the assailant and breaking his hand. Step backward and a little to the left. Execute a complete circle from below upward and to the left with the forearm and wrist. The movement is as quick as a flash and very powerful if executed chiefly with the wrist, the elbow being elevated slightly to make the blow more effective.”
---------------------
The Marquess of Queensbury (son of the man who wrote the boxing rules)
-----------------
There are no doubt loads of other pertinent examples, but I'm getting drunk and I can't be bothered to trawl through internet research....! ;) LOL
No comments:
Post a Comment