A great technique that solves this problem is to use your palm to slap the opponent.  This is not, however, a simple slap to the cheek, which does no real harm.  Instead, we’re going to use a power slap — a technique that starts from the low line to take the opponent by surprise, delivering serious force that should take him off balance and may even knock him down or knock him out.

The photos below are captures from a video sequence in which I perform a power slap. From a neutral stance, I let my right arm fall to my side (if you’re just standing there, your arm is probably already in this position) as my left arm comes up to guard.  In this photo I’ve already got my palm ready to strike the right side of the opponent’s face, just over the ear and upper part of the jaw hinge.

 My arm arcs up, extended, starting to bend as my palm reaches the side of the opponent’s head.  In the photo below, you can see the head of the Body Opponent Bag (BOB) compressing as the shock of my strike travels through it.  My body has begun to torque to my left as I step into the strike and twist.

 An instant after the strike lands, my arm is starting to pull through the slap…

 …and you can see it start to slide down and off the opponent.  I’m still twisting, turning through to my left.

 When I’ve completed my follow-through, my arm has retracted and is up in a guard position, while I’ve completed stepping through the strike and am now oriented at a forty-five degree angle to the left (compared to where I started, facing the BOB straight-on).  You’ll notice also that I’m much lower now than when I started.  It is this sinking into the strike as you turn and torque that makes the slap quite powerful. 

Comparing BOB’s position from photo to photo should show you that he moves significantly from this slap to the head — no small thing considering how high-up he’s been struck.  (He’s returned to his resting state in the last photograph.)

Slaps of this type are used in many martial arts, such as Silat, and can be used to good effect without undue risk of injury to the practitioner.  With a little practice you can deliver these strikes without telegraphing them and while generating a great deal of power.

The photos below are stills from a single technique sequence.  In the first photo, I am just starting to step forward.  The first strike is an edge-of hand blow.  I am moving from a neutral stance…

…and as I step, my guard is coming up as my right hand starts to move:

The camera has rendered my right hand an arm as a blur as I lash out and whip my hand in a tight arc that uses both my arm and my wrist…

…to acclerate my whipping edge-of-hand blow towards the opponent’s neck:

The blow lands solidly in the neck of the Body Opponent Bag.  As it does so, I have completed my step, cork-screwing it into the floor in a drop-step that brings my body weight into play as part of the blow.  I also torque my hips slightly.

The shock of the blow causes my striking hand to rebound as I whip it back and down.  My goal is to reorient the limb so that I can immediately strike with it again.

My left arm has moved way from my body slightly to give me more space to protect myself in case my opponent tries to counter while my right arm  moves low.  In one fluid motion, my right arm comes from the opponent’s neck, to down across my body, to…

…start whipping up to the opposite side of the opponent’s body.

The goal here is speed more than power, so I don’t do much in the way of shifting or hip torque.  I’m not trying to load up the opposite strike; I’m just whipping it up and in to take advantage of the fact that the opponent is hopefully just now starting to think about the first blow.

I hit BOB solidly (though more lightly than the first, loaded, whipping edge-of-hand blow) on the opposite side of his neck. I now need to retract my right arm, quickly, down across my body…

…which is both guarding me low and enabling me to load up for a power punch to his ribs.

Again as part of the same (hopefully) fluid motion, I’m starting to torque into my already planted foot and use that as my “root” to deliver the punch on that same side.

The punch starts to move and my arm starts to blur in the camera’s view.  You can see the slight sinking in my stance as I corkscrew down into that already planted root leg, the forward leg here:

The strike lands, and BOB rocks back as my punch strikes his imaginary ribs. I’m even lower now than in the previous photograph, having reached the end of my torque-and-corkscrew to power the punch.

Finally, as I retract my punch slightly (and very quickly, using the “hot stove” metaphor — your punch lands and strikes through the target but does not linger on the surface of the target, as if punching a hot surface) BOB settles back into position, having bounced back from my punch.

There are endless combinations of techniques that could be used to apply this same principle.  the key is to strike both low and high, from different directions, in order to confuse and overwhelm the person you’re fighting.  It’s not a complex idea; it doesn’t need to be.  It works well, however, and should be come second nature in practice.

Please note that this is not the only way to deliver a palm strike in this orientation.  This is just one of a few possible methods.

The footage from which I extracted these frames starts with me standing at rest, with my arms down.  On my instructor’s signal…

 …I step forward, stepping into the strike.  This is a modified drop step approach.  (The strike can also be thrown from the rooted leg (the rear leg), but that’s not what I’m doing in this shot.) Simultaneously, as I step into the strike, my arm is coming up as my off hand comes up to guard…

 …and I torque my hips, corkscrewing my dropping forward foot into the floor while my hand starts to move fast enough to blur the shot…

 …resulting in my foot reaching its “deepest” point in the floor as my hand strikes the Body Opponent Bag (BOB).  I’m very slightly crouched and my off hand is guarding the upper portion of my body. The photo below is of the exact moment my hand strikes BOB’s ribs.

 There is, inevitably, follow-through to the strike.  At this point my arm is meeting no resistance because BOB is now snapping away from me in reaction to my strike.

 The “hot stove” metaphor applies here:  A proper strike thrown with intent doesn’t rest on the opponent, or remain extended; there’s a snapping of the striking limb that draws that limb back slightly, which lends speed and power to the technique. In practice, students are told to envision hitting a hot stove, removing their fits or palms from the hot surface as soon as possible after delivering the blow.  In the shot below, you can see me withdrawing my hand slightly after throwing the palm strike, as my off hand continues moving out from my body slightly.  I’m resetting, preparing either to continue delivering techniques or to assume a more formal guard.

As you can see from these photos, my stance isn’t even very deep, but BOB (who is anchored with sand in his base) is moving very nicely.  A properly rooted strike ,or one into which you step as you throw a slap, a palm, or a punch that has proper body mechanics behind it, can deliver a tremendous amount of energy to the target while using very little of your own. 

Especially for someone like me who possesses neither great endurance nor above average strength, this is a very important thing to know how to do.  It makes practical, reality-based self-defense possible to anyone.

I’m a big fan of several of SOG Knives’ assisted openers, including the Trident folder pictured here. There is a feature built into many SOG folders that acts as a safety mechanism to prevent the spring-assisted blade from opening unintentionally. In normal use, the safety can be used or not used as desired. If the knife is used extensively, however, the safety can sometimes become loose enough that it will engage of its own accord.

I do not use the safety feature and have never found it necessary. The lever is small enough, however, that I would find it difficult to disengage quickly if the knife unexpectedly failed to open because the safety was “on.”

One quick fix for this issue is to take a little super glue and, while the safety is engaged, coat the top of the switch. When you’re done, disengage the safety and wipe any excess glue from the handle. The resulting seal isn’t exactly unbreakable, but it should keep the safety from engaging accidentally if you never use it.

A more permanent solution would be epoxy, such as JB Weld, but of course that would be functionally permanent. It’s possible to break the super glue bond fairly easily, but not so easily (at least so far as I’ve found) that it doesn’t keep the safety “off” during extended pocket carry.

The New York Drop is the preferred opening method of RENOTT, a knife fighting school in Ohio. I reviewed some RENOTT materials and spoke about my reservations concerning this opening method in that review. (RENOTT, as far as I know, was driven off the Internet by The Martialist’s ridicule of its training curriculum.)

The “New York” open previously described appears to be the foundation for RENOTT’s knife defense, in that it is presented as the fastest way to open and attack with a knife. No repositioning of the hand is done (unless there is “time” for that). Rather, the RENOTT trainee opens his or her knife with the handle drop, and then, gripping the razor-sharp blade with his or her fingers, slashes with the exposed one or two inches of the knife. The companion text describes this as follows:

“How to execute the New York Open from a pocket draw. The only type of knife that should be carried is a blade-down clip-knife. The high profile blade (blade sticks up above the handle for gripping — a hole is not needed at all for opening) is gripped with the thumb pointed down to the tip and the index finger bent 180 degrees on the blade so it is pointed to the tang. Remove knife from pocket and keep the last three fingers of the hand off the handle. The knife will not drop out of your hand just because you hold it by the blade. Raise the butt of the knife from vertical in the pocket to horizontal with the ground or even higher.

“Keep the forearm steady and drop the wrist sharply into the body at a 30-45 degree angle. The handle will open and lock into place. If you drop the wrist straight down the handle will hit the palm and fail to lock. …AFTER the knife opens fully you can wrap the last three fingers of your hand around the handle. You cannot cut yourself with this grip. Your three fingers are locked onto the handle and your thumb and index finger are on the side of the blade away from the edge. You lose half of the blade length with a NY open…”

This technique strikes me as quite unsafe, anchored fingers notwithstanding. If my knife is sharpened to RENOTT’s razor standards, I can’t imagine wanting to hold it by the blade (even with two fingers) and execute slashes against resistance (clothing, muscle, skin with bone beneath it, etc.) in this manner. Additionally, I think opening a knife this way under stress would cause the user to drop it as often as not.

With practice it’s very easy to draw your knife by the handle and quickly snap it open as it was meant to be opened. The RENOTT NY Open is useful to know, but teaching it as preferable sounds to me like a solution to a non-problem.

The fact remains that while it is useful to know how to do this, I don’t consider it safe or preferable to a wrist snap (or to simply using your knife’s opening stud or hole if the knife is equipped with one).

PERFORMING THE NY DROP

To perform the New York Drop, grasp the blade of a closed folding knife between your fingers as shown. The more the blade protrudes, the better your grip will be. The New York Drop works very well with Spyderco knives, as most of them have pronounced “humps” in which the opening hole is set. (As there is no functional advantage that I can see to performing this opening over using the thumb hole or a wrist snap, I’m not sure why you would do a New York Drop with a Spyderco, but the fact remains that it’s easy to do with such knives.)

Holding the blade as firmly as possible, snap your hand sharply using the action of your wrist. The weight of the handle should cause it to arc down and lock into place. (This means, obviously, that the New York Drop is easier to perform with a knife that has a heavy handle. Metal or wood-scaled handles are preferable to plastic handles for this reason.)

When the handle snaps into place, aided by the force of your wrist and by gravity, you will be holding the knife by the blade. You could, I suppose, attempt to manipulate it while holding the blade (in the fashion recommended by RENOTT), or you could shift the blade in your hand so that you’re holding it properly.

As I said earlier, the risk of dropping a knife while performing this opening is very great, as is the risk of cutting yourself (you’re holding a knife by the blade, after all). Still, there may be times — particularly in utility scenarios — when it’s useful to be able to open a knife with one hand while taking advantage of the handle’s weight.

Decide for yourself.

It was during my college days that my friend Jay, a self-described redneck from rural Ohio, first taught me to open a lockback folder using the wrist snap. (It was Jay who first taught me to carry a boot knife inside the waistband of my pants rather than in my boot, too.) He was using the plastic-handled version of the Buck 110 (this was before one-handed tactical folders were well known), which required a tremendous amount of force to open with wrist action only. He performed the move without fail, though — and so I learned to do so, too.

When I read Michael Janich’s Street Steel: Choosing and Carrying Self-Defense Knives, I was delighted to see the wrist snap illustrated in it. (The book is an excellent one that describes things a lot of “knife people” take for granted.) Reading it prompted me to post a description of the technique here.

To perform the wrist snap, follow these instructions. If you are left-handed, simply mirror the movements here.

PERFORMING THE WRIST SNAP

Step 1: Grasp the folding knife as hard as you can to keep it from flying out of your grip. You must use the pressure of your fingers to retain the knife because you can’t take a true grip on it. Your fingers must be clear of the blade so they will not intercept its arc as it opens.

Step 2: Snap your wrist in a tight circular arc counter-clockwise. If you were to stop moving after this step, you’d probably find the blade half-open and pointing at a right angle to your wrist. On some very loose folders, this action alone is enough to snap the blade in place, but don’t count on that happening.  It’s important that you remember you are rotating your wrist, not trying to snap the knife forward, back, up, or down.  It’s the rolling of the wrist (as if you are turning a doorknob) that makes this technique work reliably.

Step 3: Snap your wrist in a tight circular arc clockwise. The blade will open the rest of the way and snap in place. Once this movement is complete, shift your thumb to take a proper grip on the handle.

Practice this until you can perform it in a single, smooth motion rather than in two discrete jerks.

The wrist-snap is not subtle and will startle people who fear knives because it can make any knife (particularly those that are very loose when closed) look and sound like a switchblade. Snapping a knife open in this manner also increases wear and tear on the locking mechanism, as parts that lock into place when the knife is simply thumbed open are slammed into each other when it is wrist-snapped open. (This increased wear is usually negligible in a well-made knife.)

LIABILITIES

From a “tactical” perspective, the wrist-snap has other liabilities. Making too wide and open a motion leaves you vulnerable during the snap. Snapping with the arm extended too far from the body leaves you similarly vulnerable during the motion. There is also the chance that, despite exerting all the pressure you can, you could snap your knife right out of your hand, throwing it across the room when you need it most.

CONCLUSIONS

My friend Jay first learned to do the wrist snap because his lockback had no other means of one-hand opening. Working on a campground, he frequently found himself in the field needing to deploy his knife while his other hand and arm were occupied.  The knife industry has since introduced many one-hand opening methods, especially for “tactical” knives.  In most cases, it is not necessary for you to use a wrist snap to deploy a blade.  However, on those rare occasions when you need to open a knife with one hand and there is no other way to do it, the wrist-snap is a useful skill to possess.

If you’re just joining us, as they say, a pocket stick is a pressure implement and striking device maybe six inches long (give or take) that can be carried on your person and used for self-defense. You’ve seen these referred to as Yawara and Kubotans, most commonly. “Pocket stick” is the catch-all term I use for these implements. There are pocket sticks on the market of metal and wood, but I’ve not seen too many plastic examples available commercially. In order to make a nice, lightweight polymer pocket stick – which won’t set off metal detectors unless you’re carrying keys and a split ring and which doesn’t suffer from your perspiration over time – all you have to do is obtain some plastic rod from a plastics supply company.

In the past I’ve made pocket sticks from Acetal (Delrin) and Nylon 6/6 MDS. Both of these are relatively soft polymers that can be drilled and carved without difficulty. (Wear respirator protection when working with any plastic material!) You might choose to experiment with other plastics that are more rigid. These are harder to drill and produce more dust, but they give you an even stronger implement when you’re done.

Multi-Craft Plastics in Portland, Oregon and from a local outlet of GE Polymershapes. A half-inch diameter is probably as small as you’d want to go. Three quarters of an inch is probably about as large as you’d want to get. The rest is entirely up to you. The neat thing about making your own pocket stick is that you can configure it to suit you. Length, diameter, placement of the holes… these are entirely your decision and they can be tailored to suit the intended use of your stick. You can choose to mount the finger loop at one or the other end, or in the middle. You are creating a custom item and the options are almost limitless.

The plastic you choose is up to you and I recommend you experiment. One fellow who responded to the first draft of this article prefers Lexan rod, for example. Different plastics are harder or softer and thus the degree of difficulty in working them varies.

For my pocket stick project I chose to create a stick for my loyal minion Kevin, a coworker and friend with whom I’ve been studying Silat. Kevin is, like me, a large white mammal. He had complained more than once about the size of pocket stick samples I’d shown him, pointing out that they were too small relative to his hands. I decided, therefore, to craft a Kevin-sized stick using an extra-large remnant of Nylon 6/6 MDS from a previous project. The exact size and diameter is unimportant because you’ll be sizing your own sticks to suit you.

Tools and supplies included drill, lighter, saw, knife, polymer rod, paracord.

First, I assembled my tools. I needed a saw to cut the remnant to size, a knife to cut paracord, a lighter, an electric drill, and the paracord itself. Using my own hand as a reference point and comparing it to Kevin’s, I cut the stick to length. As I said before, when drilling and cutting material like this WEAR RESPIRATORY AND EYE PROTECTION. It’s not good to breathe things like Delrin and Nylon.

Cutting the length of Nylon rod to the size selected.

Pocket stick length sized for my loyal minion Kevin.

Once you have the length of rod you want, it’s time to drill holes. What we’re doing is drilling holes to mount a loop for paracord. We’ll be knotting the ends and hopefully concealing the knots within the body of the stick, so you’re making a total of four passes with the drill. The first two passes should be of a diameter just large enough for the paracord. The second two passes are to countersink holes on one side only using a larger drill diameter. You’re going for a cross section that looks something like this:

On the first pass (top), drill two small holes big enough for the paracord.
On the second pass (bottom), use a larger drill bit and drill only part of
the way through the smaller holes, creating a larger opening on one side.

Measure the holes, mark them with a Sharpie marker or similar
instrument, and drill all the way through.

Your two smaller holes should be just large enough to fit the paracord
Then select a larger drill bit and countersink holes large enough to fit
the knots you’ll be making in the ends of the paracord..

Don’t forget to drill a third small hole in the end of the stick for a split
ring if you intend to use your pocket stick to carry keys.

Drill a third small hole in the end of the pocket stick for a split ring if you want to make this a keychain. Get the hole as close to the end of the stick as you can. The thinner the wall between the hole and the end of the stick, the easier it is to get the split ring on.

Once you have drilled and countersunk the paracord holes, use the awl blade of a Swiss Army Knife or multitool to scrape out any irregular protrusions from inside the holes. Get them as smooth as possible. If you don’t, the plastic shards will tear the paracord when you draw it through.

Scrape the paracord holes clean after they’re drilled.

If you miss any shards inside the holes, this is what happens.

With your holes drilled, countersunk, and smoothed, the construction phase is over. Add your split ring and then get the paracord and lighter, because it’s time to fit the finger loop.

Construction is over. Time to fit the finger loop.

A reader of The Martialist who read the first draft of this article suggested burning uncut paracord to fuse it at the point where you will cut it, then cutting cleanly through the fused portion. This is a very good idea and makes working with paracord a lot easier, because you don’t get the clumping at the ends that sometimes causes the core to come out of the sheathing. Failing this, always burn and twist the ends of the paracord to make it easier to feed the ends through the holes in your stick.

Knot one end and feed the other end of your paracord through one of the enlarged holes on one side of your stick. If you’ve done this right, you’ll be able to see how that enlarged, countersunk hole will contain the knot when we’re finished. Feed the paracord through the other hole, making a loop. DO NOT KNOT THE OTHER END YET. You cannot knot the second end until the loop is sized to your fingers. It’s okay to trim and burn the first knot, though.

Knot one end of the paracord and feet it through the countersunk side.

Pull the paracord through and make a loop. Don’t knot the second end.

Once trimmed and burned, the knot should fit into the countersunk hole.

The smaller diameter of the paracord hole forms a stop against which
the knot will sit when you pull the loop taut.

It doesn’t matter when you add the split ring and any keys. I would do so about now, but that’s up to you. With the split ring added and the paracord threaded and knotted on one end, all that’s left is sizing the loop to your fingers.

On my sample, I got the hole too far from the end, making it difficult
but not impossible to fit the split ring. Try to drill closer to the end.

Kevin’s polymer koppo stick, ready for final sizing to his fingers.

When I reached this stage of the project it was time to go get Kevin. I had him thread the finger loop over his middle fingers so we could tighten it to exactly fit him. If you’re making a stick for yourself, you’ll obviously be doing this on your own hand.

Kevin wears the stick in preparation for sizing.

When you size the cord for your fingers, make it tighter than you think you will need. It will stretch a little when you knot it off. This may take a few tries, so do yourself a favor and don’t knot the cord fully until you’re sure you like it. Once properly knotted, you won’t be able to get it undone. When Kevin was satisfied with the fit of his finger loop, I knotted the cord and trimmed the excess. Then I burned the knot and melted it into a single lump.

Trimming the excess cord.

Melting the second knot to make it permanent.

As long as you have extra paracord you can always cut the old loop free and replace it. That’s the nice thing about a koppo like this. It’s easy to refit the loop if it gets too loose or has gotten grimy with wear.

Kevin gets into the spirit of his new tool.

When you’re done, you’ve got your very own polymer pocket stick, perfectly sized to you and configured to your preferences. Project cost isn’t much for materials. Your effort will be determined by your relative skill working with your hands. Personally, I find it very satisfying to make my own self-defense tools. I take a lot more pride in a simple plastic keychain tool I made myself than I do in the latest super-expensive knife or flashlight.

The finished koppo, sized to Kevin’s hand and ready for keys.

With a little experimentation and some practice on the details, you can produce as many of these as you like to whatever specifications you choose.

That’s self-reliant self-defense.

The first time I saw a balisong being “flashed” open was at the school bus stop when I was in sixth grade.  An older boy was opening and closing his brass-handled butterfly knife.  In those days, kids carried things like that without being sent to concentration camps for reeducation.  While I’m sure he shouldn’t have had the knife, he wasn’t looking to murder anyone.  The same boy was in my Boy Scout troop and always had a thing for knives, now that I think about it.

I was fascinated by the way the handles opened and closed.  I couldn’t figure out how he did it without flaying his fingers.  At the time I assumed it took a great deal of skill.

Well, opening a butterfly knife “the pretty way” (as a young woman I knew in college put it) isn’t really all that hard, nor is it unsafe if you know what you’re doing.  The first thing you have to do is determine which of the two handles is the “safe” handle.  On most examples I’ve seen, including my legal Benchmade Trainer, this is the handle that does not bear the latch.

Manipulating the balisong is a simple matter of keeping track of the safe handle versus the “live” handle — the handle facing the blade.  When you hold the safe handle, the opening action of the knife puts the blunt spine of the knife in contact with your hand, but not the edge of the knife.

There are plenty of books out there on flipping balisong knives, including Jeff Imada’s excellent texts.  Presented here are the methods I use most often.  They’re not particularly complicated, but they work.

Simple Flip Opening to Forward Grip
	Grasp the balisong in your hand so the latch handle  is accessible to your smallest finger.  Squeeze the handle or flip the latch with your pinky to disengage the latch.
	Shift the closed knife to put the live handle to the outside, away from your palm.
	Flip the live handle out and away from your palm while grasping the safe handle.  As you flip the handle open, rotate the safe handle in your hand…
	…and let momentum swing the live handle around as you do so.  Done properly, the first shift, flip, and rotate are all one motion.
	As the safe handle rotates, snap your hand to flip the life handle back against your hand.  The spine of your balisong will slap lightly against your hand on the outside.  If you’re using a double-edged balisong, you have to learn to time this just right so the momentum of your flipping stops the blade just short of your flesh.  (Double-edged butterfly knives are not recommended for beginners.)
	Snap your hand again to let the live handle snap back down, into your palm.  The act of rotating the safe handle to snap the blade spine and live handle against the back of your palm, then into it, is what gives this opening its flashy look.

Closing the Balisong
	To flip the balisong closed, snap the live handle up and over the back of your hand, rotating the safe handle as you do so.
	As the live handle comes around and falls down, snap it against the back of your hand…
	…and as it stops, snap it closed, moving your fingers out of the way to let the handles close.
	When you’re done, you’re back where you started.

Streamlined Balisong Opening
	Release the latch as before and shift the knife so the live handle is pointing out, away from your palm.
	Flip the live handle out and away, rotating the safe handle as you do so…
	…and letting it come down and around in one fluid motion.  Open your fingers to receive the handle…
	…and the knife is open in one simple rotate-and-flip without flashy handle snapping.  You can arc the knife closed by reversing the flip and arc.  This was the first opening and closing I ever performed.  It’s pretty intuitive.

Reverse Grip Balisong Opening
	Grasp the balisong with the handle pointed up.  Release the latch and make sure the knife is oriented with the live handle pointed out, away from your palm.
	Flip the live handle down, rotating the safe handle as you do so…
	…And jog your hand to snap the handle back up as the knife rotates.
	If you’ve done the steps in one fluid movement, you can open your fingers to accept the handle as it snaps up and into your palm in a reverse grip.

If balisongs are legal where you live, make sure you take the time to buy or make a trainer.  You must have a dull edge with which to practice.  I know a young lady who permanently disfigured one of her knuckles playing with a “live” butterfly knife.  

Train safely and flip actively.

Thanks to restrictive weapons laws, the push dagger is not a weapon I would recommend for daily carry. In many localities it will be seen as a “dirk or dagger” and thus restricted. In others it is banned explicitly. Push daggers are, to my understanding, not legal in Canada, for example. You may well encounter the push dagger, however – wielded by those who have less respect for the law than do you. The design of this knife limits what it can and cannot do when used as intended, making it relatively easy to understand. Understanding the push knife makes it easier for you to defend against it. Be warned, however: I can cover only the basics here. I cannot possibly mention every conceivable permutation, nor can I predict or anticipate all of the knife’s applications.

Cold Steel Safekeeper II push knife with Concealex sheath.

Understand, too, that dealing with anyone armed with a knife is an inherently dangerous (and possibly fatal) activity. I do not in any way encourage you to engage in it. The reader assumes any and all risks associated with self-defense in this context.

The push dagger, when gripped as it is designed to be gripped, can do two things. It can thrust forward and it can be used for lateral slashes. Lateral moves generally feel more awkward than do thrusts – and thrusting is what is supposed to make the push dagger so intuitive. When facing a push dagger, it is these knife-punches for which you should be most on guard.

Push daggers vary, but they all conform to this general T-shape.

The two basic thrusts you’ll encounter are a standard straight punch with the knife and a an upper-cut style shove that might come in straight or might be canted upward. The blade might be held vertically or might be held horizontally, depending on the type of punch used. In the pictures blow, the straight punch looks like a vertical (sun fist) strike. The upper-cut style thrust is canted to come in under the rib cage into the gut. Any possible variation on these angles could be used, at any “altitude” on the body. The upper-cut thrust can be delivered with savage power and is particularly dangerous because it can come in below the level of your vision.

Straight thrust with the push knife.

Upper-cut thrust up and into the belly below the rib cage.

Slashes with the push dagger can be straight (including diagonal, but straight in relationship to the lateral movement of the arm) or they might be canted, with the blade held at an angle and moved through the same horizontal arc. A knife slash is a knife slash, really; what you’re hoping for will be an opening to trap the elbow or shoulder of the knife arm. In the completed canted slash in the figure below (left), the trap to the shoulder and elbow should be obvious. The picture shows the slash almost completed.

Slashing with the push knife. Canted (left) and simple horizontal (right).

Two of the more common and traditional locations for carry of a push knife are the waistband (in front, behind the hip, or at the small of the back) and the boot. Boot carry is generally quite awkward for all but back-up carry (or for drawing when seated). Waistband carry, by contrast, can be adapted for a variety of body types and clothing. If you’re a large man like me, you find carry behind the hip to be most comfortable. Some advocate small-of-back carry, but it’s best to avoid any carry method that puts a piece of metal directly over your spine.

Carrying the push knife behind the hip (not over the spine).

Some knives may be carried clipped inverted inside an outer piece of clothing like a vest. Keep an eye out for movements that are precursors to a draw, including going for something inside an outer shirt (very obvious), dropping to access boot carry, or distracting hand movements and verbalization that mask what the other hand is doing.

Going for something inside a shirt or vest (left) is pretty obvious, as is
dropping to access a knife carried in a boot or around the ankle.

When someone gets aggressive or starts waving one hand around,
you had better start looking for the other limb. Where is it?

A precursor to drawing from behind the hip could be a clothing sweep, often in conjunction with raising the guard hand to cover the draw. If you’re thinking of charging the guard hand when you see this, reconsider. Controlling that extended limb will do you no good if he’s stabbing you with his other hand.

There is little you can do to counter savage, reciprocating thrusts except not to be there. You can try to get off the line of the attack, you can try to arch your body and then perhaps backpedal to put you out of range, and you can try to slap down at the incoming limb. None of these options is particularly attractive (and this is why facing someone intent on killing you with a knife is not something you want to do).

This is a quick swivel of the body in which the drawing hand goes
behind the body as the guard hand comes forward. The weapon
hand then comes forward as the guard hand comes back.

While slashes are nothing you wish to suffer if you can help it, a much greater risk of death is presented by thrusts into the body. A thrust into your vital organs can kill you. A slash can kill you as well, of course, but unless you are hit in an artery, a thrust represents more immediate danger. As such, the push knife is a weapon designed to kill you.

Respect it and understand it to better defend against it.

Five or six inches of wood, plastic, or metal doesn’t seem like much, does it? A dowel not much bigger than an ergonomic writing pen is actually among one of the most effective close-quarters self-defense weapons you probably aren’t carrying. Innocuous, usually legal, and very useful, the pocket stick is an accessory that everyone can afford. 

Pocket sticks go by various names. Many people call them kubotans (named for Tak Kubota) or yawara sticks (which might strike some as calling a bo a “bo staff,” but let’s not get picky here). Don Cunningham, in his book Secret Weapons of Jujutsu, indicates that fist loads were sometimes referred to as tenouchi (literally, “inside the hand”). There is also the koppo, a pocket stick with a loop of cord for the index and middle fingers. (The concept is similar to that of the suntetsu, also described in Mr. Cunningham’s book — a metal pocket stick with a metal or flexible loop for the middle finger.)

The reality of the pocket stick is that it really is a weapon — a rigid length of material that concentrates and therefore amplifies the force of your strike into a  smaller area.  The pocket stick doesn’t feel pain and is less vulnerable to breaking than the bones of your hand.  This is simple physics and biology at work. Anyone who tells you they “don’t believe in pocket sticks,” or who offers a variety of excuses for why such simple implements don’t work, can’t work, or don’t work as well as using your bare hands in self-defense, simply doesn’t know what he’s talking about. There are no shortage of those prepared to pontificate from ignorance where the pocket sticks are concerned… but their inability to recognize the utility of this tool has no bearing on the truth.

USING POCKET STICKS

Techniques used with pocket sticks can be as simple or as complex as you decide to make them. There are various resources available on the yawara, particularly, and of course there is (are?) the manual(s) written for Tak Kubota’s kubotan. To summarize, however, pocket sticks can be used in the following ways:

• As fist loads (though the weight is negligible, pocket sticks lend rigidity to the fist)
• For hammerfist strikes
• For open-hand strikes and blocks (in the case of the koppo and suntetsu)
• For thrusting attacks to vulnerable points (eyes, throat, pressure points, certain muscles)
• To facilitate joint locks and control/compliance techniques (most often as a lever)

Many people carry the pocket stick as a keychain, which makes good sense. Keychains are seen by most others (including authority figures) as just that — benign, everyday items. On a trip to a large amusement park not long after September 11, 2001, I was confronted by metal detectors at the main gate. My tiny Swiss Army Knife and Leatherman Micra were confiscated, but park security personnel let me walk away with my polymer koppo without giving it a second glance.

If you do carry a pocket stick as a keychain, avoid the ridiculous advice to use it as a handle with which to flail your cluster of keys at an attacker. This might irritate someone but is of very little offensive (or defensive) value. Keys are just too light to accomplish much when used in this fashion (though of course flicking them to the attacker’s eyes will have some effect).

I carry my car key on my koppo. The key is attached with a quick-detach keyring so I don’t have to leave my koppo if I need to surrender my car key to a mechanic or rental agency. (Quick-detach rings are cheap and readily available wherever car accessories are sold. Buy yourself a few to keep for each pocket stick. If possible, buy the same brand so you can detach your key from one pocket stick and attach it again to another one if you feel like switching them.)

CARRYING POCKET STICKS

One of the most common questions people ask about pocket sticks (after inquiring about how to use them for defense) is how to carry them. Everyone is different. Depending on your body type, you may find them uncomfortable to carry in your front pockets. I’ve read accounts of people who carry them upright in their back pockets next to their wallets, with or without paracord lanyards to facilitate pulling them out (some people find that keys on the pocket stick get in the way when using the stick for defensive techniques or locks or what have you). You might choose to carry the pocket stick in the front or inside pocket of a jacket. You might also simply carry it in your hand all the time, if you’re one of those people who almost never carries keys in his or her pockets when out and about.

My own preference is to carry a single car key on my koppo. The key dangles freely from my pocket as it would if the keys were attached to one of those belt rings some folks wear. (Yes, it jingles about a bit, and yes, if you’re afraid of muggers running past to snag lanyards or other items hanging from your pockets, you will not be comfortable with this method.) The key keeps the pocket stick more or less in the same position all the time and provides me with an easy means of drawing it.

When I draw the koppo (with my left hand — I have become accustomed to performing pocket stick techniques with the left hand because that is where I carry my keys in order to leave my right front pocket free for a tactical folding knife), the key helps me index the pocket stick automatically. As the pocket stick is drawn up, it is in the perfect position for hammerfist strikes while the key is in my hand and ready for a quick entry to the automobile.

As with everything, how you choose to carry and deploy your pocket stick is a function of what works best for you. You still have many options before you, however. You must choose from wooden, metal, and plastic pocket sticks from a variety of manufacturers and sources.

SELECTING POCKET STICKS

The standard kubotan is fairly widely available and a pretty good choice. I’ve seen them of plastic and metal. The same basic shape can also be had in wood. What you prefer will depend largely on the relative weights of the sticks.

One substitute for pocket sticks that is even more innocuous in appearance than these keychains is small flashlights. The standard AA maglight is the perfect size for use as a pocket stick (though striking with real force is almost certain to damage it in some way).  You can wrap these with paracord as discussed on this site.  There are other methods of applying finger rings to these tools, too.

“Koppo-ized” flashlight — an AA Maglight wrapped in paracord.

There are quite a few tapered metal pocket sticks on the market. The taper makes blows with the tip of the pocket stick more powerful by concentrating the force in a smaller area. This may or may not be a good thing. Some may find these types of sticks are actually less comfortable in the pocket. Others will worry that a tapered stick is more likely to be seen as a weapon should the owner be stopped and searched by a police officer or security guard.

Tapered pocket stick in anodized aluminum.

Pocket stick lengths vary a bit, with the tapered aluminum sticks often a bit shorter than the nontapered wooden, plastic, or metal sticks. This may make a difference to you depending on how you choose to carry your pocket stick. I know that the length of my polymer koppo is perfect for the size of my pockets, while a shorter or heavier stick might slip inside rather than sitting where I prefer to keep it.

Be advised, when selecting a pocket stick, that if you carry it as a keychain and use it with your car keys, it might be possible for the weight of the stick and keys to cause some kind of problem with your ignition. I’ve never had this problem myself and find it hard to believe, but I’ve been told by others that the possibility exists. Personally, I think you’d have to have a brick attached to your car key before it would be an issue.

If you prefer your pocket stick smaller rather than longer, which puts it in the “fist load” category as it shrinks to fit completely in your palm, you may prefer the no-longer-available (as far as I know) Shomer-Tec Ti-Bop, if you can find one. This titanium fist load is very comfortable (the knurling is just right, in my opinion), light, strong, and has an elastic finger loop that eliminates the need for tedious sizing and resizing of the loop. The Ti-Bop cannot be used as a keychain, however, so be aware that you’re now carrying something that a police officer might consider “reverse brass knuckles.”

Shomer-Tec Ti-Bop.

ITEMS TO AVOID

There are a few pocket-stick-style implements on the market, relatively common in martial arts catalogs and stores, that I do not recommend. Any of the metal pocket sticks incorporating concealed blades are poor choices. Such a device will get you in a great deal of trouble if its true nature is discovered by a curious law enforcement officer. As the blade takes a great deal of time to remove and reattach to the body of the “stick,” it cannot be employed when you need it anyway — rendering the whole device an exercise in folly. The risks outweigh the dubious benefits. The same is true for the pocket sticks that look like metal kubotans and are hollow inside for carrying metal “throwing spikes.”

The “Ninja Keyrings” available that have metal protrusions that thrust out between the fingers are similarly poor ideas. For one thing, it’s difficult to see these devices as keychains — they practically scream “offensive weapon.” For another thing, they’re bulky, awkward, and difficult to carry comfortably. Don’t waste your money on these.

STRIKING AND TARGETING WITH THE POCKET STICK

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s talk about striking, and the targets to strike on a human being.  We won’t be covering joint locks and other compliance techniques that use the pocket stick for leverage, however. Generally speaking, these are sometimes too complicated for pragmatic street defense and too involved for the average person’s use. We also won’t cover using the pocket stick as the handle of a key flail. Flails, even when performed with a gigantic wad of keys on the end of the stick, simply aren’t effective. A flail to the eyes has some value, but this is nothing you can’t accomplish with a wrist flick or bil jee (finger jab) to the same target.

For the sake of simplicity we will focus on two striking methods: forward thrusts and reverse hammer strikes. The forward strike is one in which the pocket stick is held like a saber and used with a forward thrust straight into the target. This is a good linear technique, though the saber grip is not the strongest for a pocket stick.

When gripping the pocket stick like a fist load, it will project from one or both sides of your hand. The most powerful blow you can deliver using this grip is a downward hammerfist strike. (You can also deliver upward blows if sufficient stick length projects from the top of the fist, but I favor the reverse strikes because they are stronger). Those same downward hammerfist strikes can be delivered laterally as backhands.

The nature of the pocket stick as a daily companion implies that you’ll draw and use it from virtually any posture. I won’t recommend specific modes of carry or draw. I think these are very individualized and therefore up to you to discover and practice through experimentation. This isn’t rocket science, after all. It’s a tiny stick that you carry until you grab it and poke someone with it.

If given the luxury of preparing for an assault, you may choose to adopt a specific ready posture. I’ve used variations on the following stances to deter aggressive street people. These are nothing more than interpretations of the double wu sao guard of Wing Chun or the staggered “fence” or “de-escalation” Reality Based Self Defense stances. In one, the stick is in a forward grip for thrusts, while in the other it is readied for backhand hammer blows. The weapon is forward, where it should be, between you and the assailant.

Forward thrust and backhand hammerfist ready postures.
The forward thrust would normally be oriented more
towards the assailant’s eyes than vertically as shown here.

It goes without saying that you’ll only use a weapon to hit someone if you are justified in using multiplied force in defense of yourself or someone else. I can’t address specific scenarios here, so we’ll stipulate that you have a need to and are justified in planting the end of your stick in another person. This will be done to damage or deter the attacker. The mechanics of striking someone while protecting your own vital areas are outside the scope of this article, but you’re not going to learn the totality of self-defense reading a single online description. What we can cover are the vulnerable points you should or could target in defending yourself.

WARNING! The techniques described are potentially lethal and could, at the very least, cause severe or permanent injury. The following is presented for information purposes only. The Martialist and its staff cannot be held responsible for the misuse of this information. The guidelines given do not constitute legal advice.

Tak Kubota, who popularized the kubotan keychain, offers the following diagram of striking points in his manual for the device:

We’re going to keep things a little simpler than that. The head and neck are the most vulnerable to pocket stick strikes. Using either the saber or hammer grip, you can drive the pocket stick into the general zone of the eyes, into the cheeks) less vulnerable to quite painful), under the chin (and anywhere in the neck area), and into the hollow of the throat. You can also jam the stick into an ear or into the temple, with varying results. Do what you must.

Eye, cheek, and neck targets. Don’t be afraid to put the stick
straight through spectacles.

The hollow of the throat, which is
very vulnerable (but a small target).

Strikes elsewhere on the body create varying degrees of pain and debilitation. I cannot guarantee that any given strike will “stop” an attacker, but there are a number of body options. Blows to the side of the lower torso or to the armpit cause pain, as do strikes to the pectorals, to the biceps, inside the elbows, and to the gut. Kidney shots are unpleasant, too, as are strikes to the thighs, shins, and calves. Obviously, a shot to the groin will generate some notice.

Striking area inside the elbow.

The sides of the body under the arms and the pectorals are also targets.

When striking a grasping or grabbing limb – say, the hand or arm of someone poking you, grabbing your shirt, or reaching into your car – the backs of the hands are quite vulnerable, as are the areas of the arm inside the wrist and forearm. One technique used against a “bear hug” is to grind the knuckles of your hand into the back of the attacker’s exposed hand. This is very painful with just knuckles but becomes even more so when grinding with a pocket stick.

Inside the wrist is one good target area.

The back of the hand is vulnerable.

The techniques shown with sticks here will obviously work with any small, similarly shaped object. These include small flashlights as well as pens and pencils. Any item that is sharp like a pencil will penetrate flesh if used with sufficient force, so keep that in mind. A simple pressure strike with a kubotan can become a stab with the tip of a ball-point pen.

A pocket stick is a remarkably powerful tool in a very small envelope. It is potentially lethal and must be considered a deadly weapon, even if it is not used to deliver fatal techniques. The average citizen with a little training and a pocket stick is well equipped for many self-defense scenarios.

The pocket stick is not a magic wand, but it does a lot for such a simple tool.

CONCLUSION

There is no excuse for not carrying a pocket stick, provided there are no laws where you live forbidding them. A powerful, portable, simple device that greatly amplifies your ability to deliver force when necessary, the pocket stick is an overlooked and underestimated self-defense tool. While the material, shape, length, and design of your pocket stick is a matter of personal preference, the basic concept behind the device is one that has been applied successfully for centuries.

Do not ignore it.