Learning the attacks - Step two

Now, placing the students in pairs, instruct one to use his staff as a target in order for his partner to practice the strikes.

This is done the following way:

- The person holding the staff as a target holds it by placing one hand in each extremity;
- Then, the staff is placed in 7 different positions as shown bellow (repeat positions 2, 3 and 4 on the opposite side);

- The person striking should start by extending his arms and letting the hands almost join and, using this stance, position him or herself at a distance from the target that has him / her reaching the target with the forward extremity of the weapon (sensibly one palm). This means that the distance shouldn't be measured by the waiting guard stance, or else the distance will be too close (and the strike will either be finished with the elbows flexed or striking the target with the middle of the staff);

- Then, the person striking should be instructed to target the middle of the partner's staff and with a perpendicular strike (in relation to the target), thus striking with a vertical descending (rebate), horizontal (redondo), oblique descending (enviesado) or oblique ascending (arrepiado) for each of the drawings placed above.

This strategy will create a context that, according to the target's position, a specific type of strike is solicited, thus inducing one to initiate the strike's rotation to the opposite side of the target and, simultaneously, placing the forward extremity with the desired angle.
Therefore, this will allow practitioners to execute the strikes while understating their application and having the strikes flow in a natural way (which will increase combat effectiveness).

Don't be a robot executing biomechanical actions

(acting by thinking of your body's and the staff's positioning).

Be an actor.

A person in a specific context, going through emotions that produce goals.

Focus on the outer environment (the opponent), thinking of tasks / goals

and letting the body act, almost by instinct.

Finally, by placing yourself in the correct striking distance at the beginning of the drill, perform it without stepping actions. Use this training step to focus on the strikes while getting familiarized with the striking distance (bigger than the waiting guard stance) in a static situation. In the next step you'll be introduced to the stepping actions.

LFP

PS - When applying the same drill for the baton, I recommend that the target be a staff for safety reasons. In a future blog we'll also cover some differences between the staff's strikes and the baton's.

Learning the attacks - Step one

In learning the strikes I recommend that one starts by holding the staff with the hands together (not overlapped and with the dominant at the back and in the thinner extremity) and place them (and the staff) above the head (with the staff pointing directly upwards).

From this position, they should let the staff drop forward and downward on one side (the non dominant side first) and, after a few repetitions, on the other side. This will promote a circular motion by the staff in which it travels downwards in the second half of the circle, when going forward (a descending strike).

After practicing this drill on both sides, repeat the beginning position, but this time let the staff drop backwards. This will produce a circular motion that sends the staff upwards as it goes forward (an ascending strike).

Note that in these two first drills the arms are kept flexed at all times (meaning that they don't extend forward in the second half of the circle made by the staff), as they are just drills to get the fell of how to execute rotational actions with the staff and not actual strikes.

LFP

Desciption of the rotational attacks

To learn the rotational attacks on the dominant side*, one can start by learning how to position the staff for each attack.

*we'll use images simulating a right handed executor. However, for left handed people the principles are the same but on the opposite side. Starting from a waiting guard position with the staff on the dominant side, pointing forward at the waist's height and with the hands at shoulder distance, the strikes are initiated by lifting the arms and letting the forward hand approach the dominant hand slightly (leaving a distance of one to two fists between them).

At the same time, the staff should be positioned in a manner that allows for the execution of the rotational attack one desires (vertical descending - rebate, horizontal - redondo, diagonal descending - enviesado, diagonal ascending - arrepiado).

This means that for the oblique ascending (arrepiado) the hands are risen near the jaw with the staff pointing upwards and inward (like a roof of a house).

For the horizontal (redondo) the hands are risen just above the head with the staff parallel to the ground.

For the vertical descending (rebate), the forward extremity of the staff is dropped (almost pointing towards the ground) at the same time that the hands rise just above the head.

Finally, for the oblique descending strikes, the previous two strikes are conjugated, having the staff pointing just a bit downward (with the forward extremity at shoulder height).

From these positions, the front hand should put the staff in rotational motion, by giving it a slight pull (and relax afterwards as the staff rotates using the dominant hand, which is placed at the back, as the center of the rotation).

The same principles (limbs and weapon positioning are applied for the strikes on the non dominant side.

On the next article we'll cover strategies for developing these actions together with space management skills.

LFP

Technical development: Teaching principles

On the previous articles I stated that the goals of the technical elements of a given activity are to allow the practitioners:

1. Effectiveness (achieving the result);
2. Efficiency (maximizing force application and body placement to develop force, in order to spend the least energy possible);
3. Have harmonious actions which don't go against the body's natural alignments, thus reducing the chances of overuse injuries.

Now, focusing on point one (effectiveness), I consider that one's actions are about applying force in order to promote motion of one's body, of another object, etc.

Therefore, one can have a task of applying force against an object that either doesn't change its settings or does so in a predictable way (such as the ground when running in a track, where there are no obstacles) or, on the other end of the spectrum, applying a force against an object that changes its settings, and sometimes, with a wide range of variability (intercepting the opponent's strike and striking a moving opponent).

This being said I consider that in JdP the attacking and defensive techniques involve both having a high inner control of one's movement in order to perform actions that maximize the force development, but also taking into account the development of external coordination of space (positioning) and timing management with the opponent.

Therefore, (for begginers) all practice should be specific, meaning that there shouldn't be attacks without targets, parries without attacks or stepping actions without offensive or defensive space (distance) management goals.

I have found that this type of training is more enjoyable, but also more effective in developing combat skill, and not only because of the reasons pointed above.

My philosophy (developed by practical experience but also by reading about the principles and studies from the area of ecological perspectives of human movement) is that we aren't robots, but people who, in certain contexts, go through emotions that establish goals (tasks / events - emotional actions and not merely bio-mechanical actions). This means that, instead of thinking of our body when performing our daily tasks, we simply think of the goals we wish to attain (catch the car keys that are thrown to us, ties our shoe laces, etc) and our body, by knowing itself and focusing on the object of our goal, simply acts.

Therefore, considering that there must be a connection (meaning / purpose) between our body's movement and the object that is to "receive" our action, I see no other way to develop this "software" than to incorporate this into the training exercises (as it is common practice in other activities, such as tennis and grappling students who don't learn to hit a ball or throw their opponent by imagining them, and much less forgetting about them and focusing on how to execute their movement in a non adjustable way).

For those who haven't been discouraged by these theoretical and philosophical first articles, my congratulations and thanks. Now let's start having fun with the practical stuff, let's start looking at the strikes.

LFP

First note on Technique

Much is said, and rightfully so, about technique.

However, I feel that it is very common to hear many different opinions and views on technique, in part, because few explain what they mean by technique in the first place.

I think that this should be the first thing to clear, in order to guaranty that we all speak the same language, interpret each others ideas objectively and ultimately start achieving some consensus.

Since I like to keep things simple, the definition that technique is the word used when referring to the motor actions that we perform under specific scenarios (actions intended to achieve goals related to a specific context), works for me.

However, when a person produces a movement what are (or should be) his or her intentions in doing so? (and thus determining how technique is produced).

1 - I think that most, if not all, will immediately answer that the goal of techniques is to enable one to achieve success in the task at hand, thus being considered effective.

I too agree with this assumption of having one's body move in a way as to allow for greater effectiness, which is depended on either finding ways to have greater skill (targeting, etc) or higher power output (developing higher force in the same amount of time or decreasing the time for the development of a certain force), depending on the action's nature.

2 - However, a second and third purposes should also manifest themselves in the development of ones technical repertoire: delaying the onset of fatigue and reducing the chances of getting injured.

a) Compare two individuals performing Cleans.
One of them performs the movement using only his arms, while the other starts by doing a little squat to help overcome the weight's inertia. If they are to perform this movement until exhaustion, which one of them do you think will experience a reduction in speed of movement first (and ultimately stopping)?

Naturally it will be the one who uses only his arms, thus neglecting both the leg force and elastic movement component that a slight squat provides.

Therefore, all techniques should seek ways to make the best possible coordinated use of our body's different components. Such a strategy may help improve effectiveness right from the first movement but, even if that isn't the case, it will decrease the energy required to function and thus improve effectiveness after something the 10th action as well as help prolong the work output.

b) Now, imagine a basketball player always landing on one foot (and always the same) after each jumpshop.

After something like 20 jumpshots per session, 100 per week, 400 per month, ..., the extra stress placed on one knee, will more than likely produce an injury, and when this happens, most people will simply say that it was bad luck. While some injuries are worse than others, I think that all are to avoided if possible.

Therefore, this type of functional knowledge of the human body should also come into play when designing an activity's technical fundamentals.

With the establishment of these principals, we're now able to start discussing the specifics of JdP's technique and training methods.

LFP

Comments

On comments to my articles ...

Since people have been experiencing some difficulties in performing the steps to become a member of this blog, I've set that all readers with a Google account are to be allowed to post comments.

Wish you all a great week,
LFP

Technique - The Grip

Jogo do Pau has suffered many changes as a result of the changes that society has also gone through.

As the (long) staff was used in rural locations to help during walks, and therefore, also used for defense,different techniques were developed so as to enable one to fight in different environments (narrow places, open fields, using the dirt from the ground towards the opponent's eyes, etc).

Attacks in open fields consisted of grabbing the staff in one extremity and striking the opponent with the other extremity, in order to take advantage of the full staff's length. On the other side, in narrow places, people resorted to grabbing the staff in the middle (and therefore having two extremities with which to strike the opponent), so as to adjust the movement's amplitude to the space limitations.

However, as society changed into industrial cities, people stopped carrying long staffs with them on a daily basis, and the substituted these with walking canes and batons.

This led to the art's specialization on long range strikes (mostly performed with a full rotation), and hence, choosing the weapon's length (staff or baton) depending on the conflict's environment.

Therefore, having already stated in a previous post that:

• the staffs have one of the extremities thicker than the other one;
• this thicker extremity is placed forward;
• the strikes are mostly performed by swinging the weapon through a full amplitude rotation (full circle);

this means that placing the most skilled hand at the back, where the rotation will have its center, improves one's control over the weapon.

Additionally, even when parrying, as the weapons hit each other, it is the back hand that has to stabilize the defender's weapon (or else it will oscillate on the forward hand, and therefore making the parry weaker and eventually making the strike slide towards the forward hand).

Finally, the non dominant hand is placed forward, approximately at shoulder distance, in order to be able to parry immediately, if needed. When striking the forward hand approaches the dominant hand (keeping a slight distance nevertheless), and then slides away from it again when going from attack to parry.

With the baton, only one hand is used on the weapon (the dominant hand), grabbing the baton in the thinnest extremity.

Friendly blows,
LFP

About Jogo do Pau

Jogo do Pau is the Portuguese defense system with staffs.

It was initially developed through the use of long staffs (varapaus, which literally means poll staffs), as a consequence of the fact that people lived in rural environments where the walking staffs were always at hand during one’s daily living.

At the end of the nineteenth century, big industrial cities were formed, which led to the distinction between rural and urban Jogo do Pau. The first centered its practice around combat in outnumbered scenarios for self defense purposes, while the second focused on combat one against one for recreation and, later on, transferring the system to the walking cane and batons.

Master Nuno Curvello Russo, still alive, teaching, sparring and considered the most effective Jogo do Pau combatant of recent generations, traveled all over Portugal and was able to gather the most effective techniques of each school under one technical program. Later, Master Russo also conducted several biomechanical studies at a Portuguese Sport Science University in order to perfect the technique’s effectiveness (speed and power) and, at the same time, improve its efficiency (reducing the energy needed to perform).

This art is practiced with staffs (1,55m) / batons (0,80m) mostly made of quince or lotus. Of the two extremities that these staffs have staffs one is thicker (like a baseball Bat). This way, the weapon has added resistance for the parrying and achieves greater speed when performing rotational attacks.

Training and sparring is divided between combat one against one and in outnumbered scenarios, having their respective contents organized in a technical program which is formed by four training levels (yellow, green, red and black). There is also the color purple, but it is just the symbol worn by the eldest master alive.

Friendly blows,
LFP

Introduction to blog

Greetings to you all,

My name is Luis Preto.

I'm a Jogo do Pau instructor and I've created this blog for those who are interested in learning Jogo do Pau.

I'll present regular articles on its technique and training methods and answer questions on these same subjects. Additionally, I'll will give you, the reader, the opportunity to give me feedback on both the contents covered and the subjects you wish to gather more information on (but for this, please participate the pools and other initiatives of its kind).

For those who have already been introduced to JdP this will be an added tool to help improve your training and, for those new to this art, this can be the ignition to set up a study group with your friends and start having loads of "martial" fun.

Those who practice other MA but are nevertheless interested in either this art's articles or its training methods are welcome to join this blog anyway (since comments are restricted to approved members).

The only demand that I place to this Blog's participants is for everyone to respect one another.

I'm open to questions and I don't even mind people disagreeing with some of my views, but I ask that people try their best to participate with an open mindset and using logic and common sense to state their views.

As all hypothesis must go through practical testing before being upgraded to theories, this will require sparring. Therefore, let's do our best to save our emotions for these moments.

This way, we can all hopefully end up learning from each other, while enjoying thought provocative but non personal discussions.

Welcome and friendly blows,
Luis Franco Preto