GUIDED CHAOS CANE FIGHTING
by Ari Kandel
For demonstrations of some of what is described below, please see the Guided Chaos Cane Fighting playlist on YouTube.
The cane is unique in being the most decisively effective weapon that is universally legal to carry everywhere. It is effective, that is, provided you know how to use it. A good, heavy-duty cane offers greater stand-off range and potential stopping power than any street weapon short of a gun. A hard, heavy cane, properly wielded, can break limbs and skulls under real combative conditions. And, perhaps most advantageous of all, a cane can be kept in hand virtually all the time. A knife, gun, expandable baton, taser or other carry weapon must be accessed and drawn before it can be used. Unfortunately, the sudden reality of many violent attacks precludes this, or makes it exceedingly difficult. Having a weapon in hand before an attack begins is a huge advantage.
That being said, not knowing how to realistically use a weapon, or having unrealistic expectations about the weapon or the attack, can obviate the advantages of having the weapon in the first place. This is as true regarding the cane as with any other weapon.
There are many martial arts programs currently teaching a variety of “artistic” ways of using the cane or 3-foot stick as a dance accessory, exercise aid and “weapon.” As long as these methods are honestly portrayed as amusements, hobbies and aids to health and coordination, all is well. Some of the methods touted as “self-defense,” however, fall firmly into the realm of “remotely possible,” rather than “reliably probable.”
The surprise, speed and violence of predatory criminal attacks, especially those involving weapons and multiple assailants, and the environments that such attacks often take place in, preclude the use of such tactics as long swings, twirling and hooking maneuvers with the crook of a crook-top cane, as well as joint locking and controlling tactics using the cane. While such methods can make for interesting study, they are not usually useful when someone or a group is attempting to grievously harm you. The time, space and precision necessary to make such methods work against not only uncooperative, but lethally determined adversaries are usually unavailable to the target of a criminal attack.
What we're left with is very simple yet very powerful, adaptable and effective: two-handed short, sharp thrusts and hits at all angles (no “numbered” angles here), backed up by the body mechanics and movement skills necessary to make those strikes effective in any situation and environment. This is the basic program taught by John Perkins in his classes and in the DVD/download “Cane vs. Knife,” part of the Guided Chaos Weapons Series videos, available from https://digital.guidedchaos.com/. Note that this is only a small glimpse into the total training taught by John Perkins regarding the cane.
The basic strategy to employ these tactics is simple: If possible, attack the attackers pre-emptively, thrusting and hitting with the cane to the most vital targets available. Having a few well-practiced “opening gambits” can maximize surprise and effectiveness.
Opening Gambit 1: If you have or can create enough distance to use the full length of the cane, step back with your cane side leg while bringing your other hand up in front of your body as if preparing to execute a backhand chop. (Note that the chop can actually be thrown if the attacker closes distance before you can bring the cane into play.) Lift your cane straight up as you rotate it forward until it hits your “chop” hand, which grabs it about mid-way down the shaft. Then, drop step forwards with short, sharp thrusts. Target center mass first to minimize your chance of missing and to stop his forward momentum. Then thrust like a sewing machine to the throat and head. Depending on his reaction, transition to short striking.
Opening Gambit 2: In close quarters, if your hand is around the top of the cane, but not right on top of it, strike with the head of the cane straight up under the enemy’s chin, or into his groin and then into his chin. Grip the shaft with your other hand and drop step with bar smashes to gain distance to thrust and strike. Ideally target his throat with the bar smashes, but hit whatever you can to damage and drive him away.
Weapon Recovery: If an attacker manages to grab your cane, do not try to “cane-wrestle” or pry it from his grip. Instead, wrap cane with one arm while immediately advancing and furiously attacking his vital targets (eyes, throat, lower legs) with your hands and shoes until you can easily liberate your weapon and continue to use it.
If the attackers have the initiative, move offline and away from the attacks while hitting anything that comes into range, until you can safely escape. Hold your cane close to you so that you can strike instantly without snagging the cane on unseen obstacles or attackers. Keep moving if the environment permits to avoid getting flanked and to find an escape route.
If you end up on the ground, the same ideas apply.
If you consider your cane to be a self-defense weapon, you had better train to use it on the ground. While going to the ground is to be avoided in most self-defense situations, sometimes you’ll have no choice in the matter.
As an aside, if you have problems with one of your legs to the point where you require a cane as a walking aid, it is critical that you practice the Guided Chaos single-leg balance exercises with your most functional leg for a few minutes daily. This will significantly reduce the probability of a fall, whether under attack or under ordinary circumstances. If your damaged leg heals, the same exercises can be used to quickly bring it back up to speed. Of course, consult your physician before attempting any new exercises.
It is imperative to practice Guided Chaos balance and footwork exercises in order to minimize the possibility of being taken to the ground in a violent attack. If you can quickly sidestep (not necessarily far, but efficiently and with good balance) and simultaneously strike shortly, powerfully and accurately with your cane, odds are good you’ll be able to decisively crack an attacker in the head as he tries to close distance to take you down, either high or low. The stopping power you can generate with the cane in this situation far exceeds what you could dish out bare-handed, especially against hard targets like the top of the skull if the attacker tries to shoot for your legs.
Given that no one is perfect and real attacks are unpredictable, it behooves you to practice striking effectively with your cane while falling and rolling out of falls and takedowns. This skill is a staple of the Guided Chaos Native American-inspired groundfighting methods. Certain tactics originated for use with the tomahawk and war club can be adapted very successfully to the police baton and cane. These methods of falling and rolling differ significantly from the Judo-based “breakfalls” taught in most martial arts schools, as they are intended to flow directly into powerful strikes with the weapon and legs while keeping the practitioner mobile and intact after a fall on hard and uneven ground.
Once on the ground, rather than locking up with individual attackers and attempting to “stick-grapple,” keep moving to stay as disengaged as possible in the manner of the Guided Chaos Native American-inspired groundfighting methods. Using these methods, the cane becomes a fast and unpredictable primary striking weapon, powered by the rolling and twisting of the entire body, augmented by the kicking legs.
Drill for adaptive full-body striking:
Use a padded cane in this drill for safety. (34 inches of 1-inch PVC pipe, covered with pipe insulation and duct tape, with a couple extra inches of padding at the tip, works well. You want it to be rigid, with some mass, but not so hard and heavy that it’ll break bones if you hit your training partner.) Stick a piece of duct tape horizontally across the middle of a kicking shield. The shield holder holds the shield at various angles. Your goal is to make your cane hit flush across the duct tape (i.e. with uniform contact all along the length of the tape, straight through the shield) by adjusting your entire body, including your feet, in one motion as you strike, with no backswing. Apply dropping power to each strike (see the book Attack Proof, now in an expanded second edition, for details). After each strike, freeze in place at the end of the strike as the shield holder adjusts, then hit to the new position in one motion without any preparation, backswing or twirling. Do not change your grip on the cane during the drill. At a basic level, whatever grip you start out with is what you’ll fight with. To try to change your grip during the chaos of combat is to invite loss of your weapon. Train your body to adjust instantly to create any angle of strike you need. In reality, as opposed to this drill, you don’t always have to produce a “flush” hit. (People are not shaped like kicking shields!) Often you won’t even need to change angles, as your cane will damage virtually anything it hits on the enemy, using quick, simple “Punch and Judy” straight hits. This drill trains your ability to use your body to produce the short, non-telegraphed, quickly repeatable power you need to counter threats armed with knives or other contact weapons, while moving to evade their attacks and change targets. To up the ante, add another shield and shield holder. You must move your body to sequentially hit both targets flush, regardless of location and angle, as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is an excellent exercise for improving your balance, body unity, dropping power and footwork for hitting with or without weapons.
Drill to stop a knifer:
Using your padded cane, do your best to keep your training partner, armed with a rubber knife, at bay. Move your body and feet to get offline of his attacks, create angles that minimize your chance of missing with your strikes, and maintain optimum cane striking distance (which happens to be outside of effective knife distance). Hit whatever is closest. If he leads with the knife, hit his knife arm. If he leads with his other arm, hit that. If his head is available, crack it. From wherever your cane is moment to moment, you’ll have to use short, sharp strikes that penetrate their targets a few inches and immediately bounce back to a neutral position in front of you (almost like a compressed Kendo ready position) or to the next strike. Skip strikes off his arm and head as if skipping a stone across a lake. If you stroke far through the target or draw the cane back behind you, expect to get stabbed up by your training partner. Do not try to block or intercept with the cane. Simply strike him whenever he tries to come in, moving your feet and body to remain safe even if your strikes fail to stop him. Keep both hands on your cane and do not attempt to switch grips to gain angles. Move your whole body instead, applying the coordination developed during the kicking shield drill. To up the ante, add a second attacker.
Once you have mastered the basics of defending yourself with a cane, further training does NOT consist of anything fancy or inefficient. Instead, you will continue to develop your balance, looseness, body unity, sensitivity and freedom of action with the cane, better enabling you remain unavailable yet unavoidable to attackers, always out of the way of their attacks yet able to apply devastating strikes with the cane (or any other weapon) to the best available targets to facilitate your escape.
The cane is unique in being the most decisively effective weapon that is universally legal to carry everywhere. It is effective, that is, provided you know how to use it. A good, heavy-duty cane offers greater stand-off range and potential stopping power than any street weapon short of a gun. A hard, heavy cane, properly wielded, can break limbs and skulls under real combative conditions. And, perhaps most advantageous of all, a cane can be kept in hand virtually all the time. A knife, gun, expandable baton, taser or other carry weapon must be accessed and drawn before it can be used. Unfortunately, the sudden reality of many violent attacks precludes this, or makes it exceedingly difficult. Having a weapon in hand before an attack begins is a huge advantage.
That being said, not knowing how to realistically use a weapon, or having unrealistic expectations about the weapon or the attack, can obviate the advantages of having the weapon in the first place. This is as true regarding the cane as with any other weapon.
There are many martial arts programs currently teaching a variety of “artistic” ways of using the cane or 3-foot stick as a dance accessory, exercise aid and “weapon.” As long as these methods are honestly portrayed as amusements, hobbies and aids to health and coordination, all is well. Some of the methods touted as “self-defense,” however, fall firmly into the realm of “remotely possible,” rather than “reliably probable.”
The surprise, speed and violence of predatory criminal attacks, especially those involving weapons and multiple assailants, and the environments that such attacks often take place in, preclude the use of such tactics as long swings, twirling and hooking maneuvers with the crook of a crook-top cane, as well as joint locking and controlling tactics using the cane. While such methods can make for interesting study, they are not usually useful when someone or a group is attempting to grievously harm you. The time, space and precision necessary to make such methods work against not only uncooperative, but lethally determined adversaries are usually unavailable to the target of a criminal attack.
What we're left with is very simple yet very powerful, adaptable and effective: two-handed short, sharp thrusts and hits at all angles (no “numbered” angles here), backed up by the body mechanics and movement skills necessary to make those strikes effective in any situation and environment. This is the basic program taught by John Perkins in his classes and in the DVD/download “Cane vs. Knife,” part of the Guided Chaos Weapons Series videos, available from https://digital.guidedchaos.com/. Note that this is only a small glimpse into the total training taught by John Perkins regarding the cane.
The basic strategy to employ these tactics is simple: If possible, attack the attackers pre-emptively, thrusting and hitting with the cane to the most vital targets available. Having a few well-practiced “opening gambits” can maximize surprise and effectiveness.
Opening Gambit 1: If you have or can create enough distance to use the full length of the cane, step back with your cane side leg while bringing your other hand up in front of your body as if preparing to execute a backhand chop. (Note that the chop can actually be thrown if the attacker closes distance before you can bring the cane into play.) Lift your cane straight up as you rotate it forward until it hits your “chop” hand, which grabs it about mid-way down the shaft. Then, drop step forwards with short, sharp thrusts. Target center mass first to minimize your chance of missing and to stop his forward momentum. Then thrust like a sewing machine to the throat and head. Depending on his reaction, transition to short striking.
Opening Gambit 2: In close quarters, if your hand is around the top of the cane, but not right on top of it, strike with the head of the cane straight up under the enemy’s chin, or into his groin and then into his chin. Grip the shaft with your other hand and drop step with bar smashes to gain distance to thrust and strike. Ideally target his throat with the bar smashes, but hit whatever you can to damage and drive him away.
Weapon Recovery: If an attacker manages to grab your cane, do not try to “cane-wrestle” or pry it from his grip. Instead, wrap cane with one arm while immediately advancing and furiously attacking his vital targets (eyes, throat, lower legs) with your hands and shoes until you can easily liberate your weapon and continue to use it.
If the attackers have the initiative, move offline and away from the attacks while hitting anything that comes into range, until you can safely escape. Hold your cane close to you so that you can strike instantly without snagging the cane on unseen obstacles or attackers. Keep moving if the environment permits to avoid getting flanked and to find an escape route.
If you end up on the ground, the same ideas apply.
If you consider your cane to be a self-defense weapon, you had better train to use it on the ground. While going to the ground is to be avoided in most self-defense situations, sometimes you’ll have no choice in the matter.
As an aside, if you have problems with one of your legs to the point where you require a cane as a walking aid, it is critical that you practice the Guided Chaos single-leg balance exercises with your most functional leg for a few minutes daily. This will significantly reduce the probability of a fall, whether under attack or under ordinary circumstances. If your damaged leg heals, the same exercises can be used to quickly bring it back up to speed. Of course, consult your physician before attempting any new exercises.
It is imperative to practice Guided Chaos balance and footwork exercises in order to minimize the possibility of being taken to the ground in a violent attack. If you can quickly sidestep (not necessarily far, but efficiently and with good balance) and simultaneously strike shortly, powerfully and accurately with your cane, odds are good you’ll be able to decisively crack an attacker in the head as he tries to close distance to take you down, either high or low. The stopping power you can generate with the cane in this situation far exceeds what you could dish out bare-handed, especially against hard targets like the top of the skull if the attacker tries to shoot for your legs.
Given that no one is perfect and real attacks are unpredictable, it behooves you to practice striking effectively with your cane while falling and rolling out of falls and takedowns. This skill is a staple of the Guided Chaos Native American-inspired groundfighting methods. Certain tactics originated for use with the tomahawk and war club can be adapted very successfully to the police baton and cane. These methods of falling and rolling differ significantly from the Judo-based “breakfalls” taught in most martial arts schools, as they are intended to flow directly into powerful strikes with the weapon and legs while keeping the practitioner mobile and intact after a fall on hard and uneven ground.
Once on the ground, rather than locking up with individual attackers and attempting to “stick-grapple,” keep moving to stay as disengaged as possible in the manner of the Guided Chaos Native American-inspired groundfighting methods. Using these methods, the cane becomes a fast and unpredictable primary striking weapon, powered by the rolling and twisting of the entire body, augmented by the kicking legs.
Drill for adaptive full-body striking:
Use a padded cane in this drill for safety. (34 inches of 1-inch PVC pipe, covered with pipe insulation and duct tape, with a couple extra inches of padding at the tip, works well. You want it to be rigid, with some mass, but not so hard and heavy that it’ll break bones if you hit your training partner.) Stick a piece of duct tape horizontally across the middle of a kicking shield. The shield holder holds the shield at various angles. Your goal is to make your cane hit flush across the duct tape (i.e. with uniform contact all along the length of the tape, straight through the shield) by adjusting your entire body, including your feet, in one motion as you strike, with no backswing. Apply dropping power to each strike (see the book Attack Proof, now in an expanded second edition, for details). After each strike, freeze in place at the end of the strike as the shield holder adjusts, then hit to the new position in one motion without any preparation, backswing or twirling. Do not change your grip on the cane during the drill. At a basic level, whatever grip you start out with is what you’ll fight with. To try to change your grip during the chaos of combat is to invite loss of your weapon. Train your body to adjust instantly to create any angle of strike you need. In reality, as opposed to this drill, you don’t always have to produce a “flush” hit. (People are not shaped like kicking shields!) Often you won’t even need to change angles, as your cane will damage virtually anything it hits on the enemy, using quick, simple “Punch and Judy” straight hits. This drill trains your ability to use your body to produce the short, non-telegraphed, quickly repeatable power you need to counter threats armed with knives or other contact weapons, while moving to evade their attacks and change targets. To up the ante, add another shield and shield holder. You must move your body to sequentially hit both targets flush, regardless of location and angle, as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is an excellent exercise for improving your balance, body unity, dropping power and footwork for hitting with or without weapons.
Drill to stop a knifer:
Using your padded cane, do your best to keep your training partner, armed with a rubber knife, at bay. Move your body and feet to get offline of his attacks, create angles that minimize your chance of missing with your strikes, and maintain optimum cane striking distance (which happens to be outside of effective knife distance). Hit whatever is closest. If he leads with the knife, hit his knife arm. If he leads with his other arm, hit that. If his head is available, crack it. From wherever your cane is moment to moment, you’ll have to use short, sharp strikes that penetrate their targets a few inches and immediately bounce back to a neutral position in front of you (almost like a compressed Kendo ready position) or to the next strike. Skip strikes off his arm and head as if skipping a stone across a lake. If you stroke far through the target or draw the cane back behind you, expect to get stabbed up by your training partner. Do not try to block or intercept with the cane. Simply strike him whenever he tries to come in, moving your feet and body to remain safe even if your strikes fail to stop him. Keep both hands on your cane and do not attempt to switch grips to gain angles. Move your whole body instead, applying the coordination developed during the kicking shield drill. To up the ante, add a second attacker.
Once you have mastered the basics of defending yourself with a cane, further training does NOT consist of anything fancy or inefficient. Instead, you will continue to develop your balance, looseness, body unity, sensitivity and freedom of action with the cane, better enabling you remain unavailable yet unavoidable to attackers, always out of the way of their attacks yet able to apply devastating strikes with the cane (or any other weapon) to the best available targets to facilitate your escape.