Expedient Weapons: General

The traditional weapons of karate, the sai, the kama, the yawara, and the nunchaku were originally common farm implements. In a sense they were expedient weapons of seventeenth Okinawa. But traditional martial arts continue to teach ancient Okinawan farm implements as weapons though they are no longer common or available and in some they are illegal.

Nevertheless the idea of expedient weapons has been “out there” in the martial arts literature for many years. I thought it was obvious that in case of need one would pick up whatever was handy to use as a weapon.

One of my Neko Ryu instructors, Sensei Danny Glover of Burlington, NC, once explained the various ways to use a salt shaker as an expedient weapon. I listened closely. His instruction made intuitive sense and I filed it away for future use.

A couple of years later Linda and I were dining in a restaurant near our home. Several tables away a group of six young men were talking loudly in Spanish. Three of them suddenly jumped up and started to fight in the middle of the restaurant. The other three followed them onto the floor but stayed back from the fight.

I judged them all to be drunk and potentially dangerous to Linda – primarily because their fight might end up on our table. I immediately stood up, not to intervene in their fight but to put myself between them and Linda. I watched the drunks flail their arms at one another to little effect. They were obviously not trained fighters and alcohol impaired their coordination. I was confident I could take one or two of them – I wasn’t confident about six though.

The three standing on the sidelines eventually broke up the fight; it never got closer than about six feet from our table. Then the manager persuaded all six young men to leave his restaurant.

My reason for telling this story is that throughout this stressful situation at no time did it occur to me to use the salt and pepper shakers on our table as weapons. And yet Sensei Glover had told me about them and I had “filed it away for future use.”

So what happened? I did what I trained to do. I evaluated the situation and correctly determined the level of danger. I prepared to deal with the situation in exactly the way I had trained for so many years. I assumed a relaxed stable Judo stance and watched expectantly every move of the those young men made..

I had never trained myself to pick up a salt shaker, a plate, or a fork – so I didn’t.

Sensei Glover is Professor Ernie Cates’ most senior student other than his oldest son. He is a 9th Dan in Neko Ryu and an 8th Dan in Isshin-Ryu Karate-Do but he still thinks about salt shakers when he is in a restaurant because his experience in violent confrontations taught him that a “force multiplier” is always desirable.

After that event I concluded that my mind and my body required training in the use of expedient weapons – at least in broad categories; my mind, so I will think to look for and actually pick up whatever weapons are at hand; my body, so I will be familiar with the capabilities and limitations of the various expedient weapons categories.

Link to other topics in the Special Report: Expedient Weapons