Happiness is a warm stick, Mama

 

Happiness is a warm stick, Mama

Happiness is a warm stick, Mama

Happiness is a warm stick, Mama

Happiness is a warm stick, Mama

Happiness is a warm stick, Mama

Happiness is a warm stick, Mama

Happiness is a warm gun – the Beatles White Album

 

I have been working stick technique since I began my study

Of the Bando form the Hidden Stick in 1983.

 

Most of the time I used a stick of rattan about 2 feet long.

I also found it works with anything in my hands

Including my empty hands.

 

Now disabled, I still care about

retaining as much martial effectiveness as possible.

So I work with sticks of varying lengths.

 

When I moved I kept one of my sticks,

A gift from one of my former students.

Cynthia Robinson,

Her then current Seattle instructor , gifted to me.

 

It was a rattan escrima stick and always had a nice feel to it.

My other sticks I gifted to my former students.

 

Now though I work frequently with very short hand held sticks,

Increasing my effectiveness with every kata I still do.

 

Another stick, about 10” was cut from a rattan staff

I once used to make a short stick for Reese Rigby, about 1986.

I also made this one for myself.

Reese often did his Bando Hidden Stick form with such a short stick.

I did not use it often,

 

But now I increasingly find it my favorite current stick.

 

Then again I never met a stick I didn’t like.