Actually, as I recall, Segal only has an Honorary Black Belt. According to my Akido Wimp friends, he only knows 2 moves or so.
For stick boy (JohnQ?), there's nothing wrong with some stick fighting. According to legend, the swordmaster whats-his-name-who-wrote-the-book-of-five-rings (miyamoto, the name comes to me finally) himself was brought to a draw by the guy who developed Jo stick style fighting. And Miyamoto eventually quit using real swords and started using stick swords, just because he didn't need a sword to kick butt anymore (yes, he was that good, 60 wins kind of good). Note, losing back then meant being dead, so 60 is impressive. And the fact that retired to a cave to write a book says a lot.
Anyway, for Jo stuff, learn to hold the stick with both hands gripping the stick, thumbs facing each other. Hold the stick with both hands near the the top end, hands at your right side, stick pointing back, as if you were about to draw a sword. A good Jo guy can snap that sucker out, slide it back to his left, whack you again, slide it into a wide grip, block, trap your sword and squish your fingers between his weapon and yours. Cool stuff. It's all mostly about learning to change your grip and smoothly sliding your hands up and down the stick as you change postures.
Then you can get into the short sticks, escrima. They can be fun too. And they look like a stick for your dog to chase, and they hide behind your leg pretty good (the stick, not the dog).
Weapons, gotta love em.
Janx
For stick boy (JohnQ?), there's nothing wrong with some stick fighting. According to legend, the swordmaster whats-his-name-who-wrote-the-book-of-five-rings (miyamoto, the name comes to me finally) himself was brought to a draw by the guy who developed Jo stick style fighting. And Miyamoto eventually quit using real swords and started using stick swords, just because he didn't need a sword to kick butt anymore (yes, he was that good, 60 wins kind of good). Note, losing back then meant being dead, so 60 is impressive. And the fact that retired to a cave to write a book says a lot.
Anyway, for Jo stuff, learn to hold the stick with both hands gripping the stick, thumbs facing each other. Hold the stick with both hands near the the top end, hands at your right side, stick pointing back, as if you were about to draw a sword. A good Jo guy can snap that sucker out, slide it back to his left, whack you again, slide it into a wide grip, block, trap your sword and squish your fingers between his weapon and yours. Cool stuff. It's all mostly about learning to change your grip and smoothly sliding your hands up and down the stick as you change postures.
Then you can get into the short sticks, escrima. They can be fun too. And they look like a stick for your dog to chase, and they hide behind your leg pretty good (the stick, not the dog).
Weapons, gotta love em.
Janx