“Hit Him With A Stick!”

Filed under Blog • General • 07-09-2010 •

I’ve posted my first guest post of the week over at Futurismic.

Click here to read ‘Stick Fighting’.

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One comment on ““Hit Him With A Stick!””

  1. Ben Cooper • September 9th, 2010 at 4:08 pm •

    I enjoyed reading about Bartitsu!

    I always have a character who is trained in boxing (if the story is going to involve combat) for similar reasons. Firstly because I’ve boxed as an amateur I understand the actions and can convey it realistically I think. Secondly boxing has a limited repertoire of moves that can be strung together in almost infinite combinations making it a particularly useful combat technique, something many martial arts lack – in Karate for example you cannot go from certain types of strikes into others due to the positions of parts of your bodies at the end, which often leave you very vulnerable to counter-attacks. Thirdly anyone who trains in boxing and competes at any level is used to being punched in the head hard, very hard (take it from me) so they tend to be able to take a shot and keep going, which means the scene can be a bit more action packed.

    I’m not saying boxing is the greatest martial art ever (though I happen to think it is for various reasons, but it’s all personal preference Judo fans will think Judo is of course!) but like the stick fighting its deceptive simplicity and ability to be used in any situation (without sufficient space many martial arts are compromised, much as grappling techniques aren’t much good if you can’t close the distance on your opponent and get inside to take them down) makes it particularly handy and not entirely unbelievable that a character could use it effectively. It doesn’t take years to be able to use boxing effectively as a real fighting technique but I’ve seen people who’ve practised some martial arts for years unable to put the actions into effect in a genuine fight. Of course just knowing how to do any combat technique doesn’t ensure victory at all, regardless of which it is…

    That was a verbose comment!

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