Many criticisms of contemporary stickfighting training (be this Kali, Arnis, Escrima, or whatever you want to call it, in whichever lineage and in whatever school) revolve around the static nature of some of the training.  "Pattern drills," I have heard it said, "exist to be smashed."  It is very easy for stick training to devolve into an elaborate system of patty-cake, with practitioners listlessly moving their sticks through the same series of movements over and over again.  Angles get sloppy, the orientation of the students' knuckles start to drift, and the blade applications of the stick get lost in the rote repetition of an increasingly meaningless game of two-handed rattan tag.

Assistant instructor "Norm" (background, facing camera) leads an
intense stick class at the Syracuse Wing Chun Academy.

Take, for example, the shallow walk, a double-stick drill that beings with high forehand and backhand strikes with each stick, then to high-low-high strikes on each side, then to Heaven Six, then to Standard Six, and finally to a redonda variation in which the first striking stick comes around the back of the head to strike again after the second striking backhand.  This is difficult enough to learn simply as a series of patterns for beginning students – but once learned, it is useless if always performed as a static series of movements.  How, then, does one make stick training more dynamic, less predictable, and more applicable to realistic self-defense?

The author (left) works his way through the shallow walk pattern.

First, let's be clear about one thing from the outset:  a pattern drill is not a fighting application.  Pattern drills help the practitioner become accustomed to moving the stick.  They develop coordination and help the student to master, conceptually, the idea of wielding the weapon in specific ways.  In a self-defense scenario, I'm not exactly going to square off against a would-be mugger and start going through Heaven Six and Standard Six, hoping he'll be impressed (while standing there to absorb my blows).  No, I'm going to use simple forehand and backhand strikes, flowing into him and chopping away at his head, his hands, and his knees.  The muscle memory and weapon familiarity developed in pattern drills will help my limbs perform those strikes with (one hopes) proper angling and speed.

Learning the basics of motion and mobility is just the beginning.

One simple and extremely effective means of pushing students out of their comfort zones, while helping them develop the ability to deal with the unpredictable, is to take something which which they are familiar and have them perform it in an unfamiliar environment.  Once students know the shallow walk, for example, they could easily become complacent, perhaps moving faster in the drill but never really doing more than the same rote motions.  We can mix this up by having them perform the drill while in constant motion, moving around each other, laterally and forward or back.  This is a fairly simple transition to make – but then we make it harder.

First, find a doorway, preferably one you're to which you're not too attached.  Have the students perform their drill while moving into and out of that doorway.  They'll discover that it's extremely easy to miss a shot or a block thanks to the close environment.  Suddenly, something to which they're accustomed because much more difficult thanks to factors beyond their control.  They'll start to learn to position themselves for tactical superiority, using the obstructions to make their opponents' tasks more difficult while making their own easier.

A doorway is an obstruction that does not change, in that it is always in the same place.  Next, students perform their pattern drills while coping with a constantly shifting barrier.  The most expedient of these is a "roof" made of a simple staff such as a long "dragon pole."

Students performing a pattern drill under a pole barrier.

Dealing with a low ceiling prevents problems even in static training.  The ceiling panels at our school bear the scars of many a class and boast marks made by an impressive diversity of weapons.  While students perform their drill and try not to make contact with the pole barrier, the partners holding the barrier begin to raise and lower it at random.

The pole barrier is raised and lowered at random as students practice.

Students performing a drill under these conditions must learn to lower their bodies and modify their footwork accordingly, all while performing their strikes and blocks.  Missing a block means taking a painful shot from the stick.  As the variables increase, the brain teeters on the edge of (or goes over into) overload.  This is a good thing;  it forces you to stop thinking about what you must do prompts you simply to do it, relying on your training and instincts.

We must not lose sight of what we are doing.  We are training the
the stick in order to more effectively wield the blade.

Performing pattern drills with a lack of parity also increases variables and force students to learn to apply their skills in different contexts.  Have one student in each pair perform the drill while lying prone on the floor, or while sitting up, or while sitting in a chair.  The angles change for the partner who is standing, while for the other partner the mechanics of using the sticks must be modified.

Changing parity:  students practice with one partner on the floor...

...with one partner sitting up...

...and with one partner fighting from a chair.

Once students have learned to perform their drills in varied environments, you can get more "freestyle" with the exercise, going outside and ranging all across the available training space.  Learning to maneuver one's opponent into positions of environmental disadvantage is an extremely important, extremely useful skill for realistic self-defense.

Norm "right" has just finished working his partner into a wall.

Simply changing the number and type of variables with which students must deal greatly improves any training.  As we apply familiar skills in an unfamiliar context, we learn to adapt and to cope with the unpredictable.  It is vital that we do this in training in order to apply it in self-defense.