Hello,

I thought I would post this here as we tend to do Bo work in our Karate class.

Anyways, my question is that we do a Bo kata for our black belt grading and also we need to know some bo defence.

The Bo defence is being attacked with a Bo and you have to defend against it open handed and try and get the Bo off them or disarm them.

the attacks are,

1, An overhead strike
2, A poke to your stomach/head
3, A swing like you would swing a baseball
4, A Swing to the legs/thigh area.

I was wondering if anyone here has done this before or could anyone come up with some defence's.

As for the overhead strike, I would try and move out of the way and parry it away at the same time. Not an upper block though!!! more of a deflection.

The baseball swing, I was thinking of moving in quick as soon as they start to swing to get in close.

The poke would be either a step to either side and a wrist grabor a strike to the fist to make them drop it!!!

as for the strike to the legs, I would most prob jump!!! out of the way.

When I am getting attacked I would try to soften the attacker up with a few strikes/kicks to groin/eyes etc, before trying to get Bo off them.

does anybody else have other ideas?

Thanks

We train a lot of empty hands defenses against clubs (escrima sticks) less against bo. A lot would depend on the size of the bo. The bo we use is about the length equal to our height. Someone swinging something like that at you would make it very difficult to run in on it. You'd have to upset uke's sense of distance and timing by moving side to side (to get him to change his aim towards you sometimes at the expense of having less than ideal footing and body orientation) and also closer when you succeed in creating a tiny opening. Keep talking while you are out and trying to out maneuver him. This is distracting. Stepping back and out of the way lets you choose to be aware of the strike, instead of surprised, and maybe you feel more confident against a back hand swing.

If I succeed in charging in, I'm slamming his head and neck as much as I can and not doing much against the bo. Uke's brain and spirit are too invested in that bo and he may not be thinking about his own vulnerabilities like his head.

Why do you have to use open hands? Are you not allowed to use closed hand bo defenses?

Hello,

Yes you can use closed hand defences, I just said that as a figure of speech and that i applied that something in your hand was not allowed.

dont know if i have explained that good enough!!!

as in that karate is described as a open handed art, that might be better,

but yes you can use closed hands, as in your hands are closed when you block or deflect the bo.

the bo is about head height, im 5ft 10 so my bo is just a bit bigger than me.

craig

Okay, I understand now. However, I have always understood karate to mean "empty" hand and not "open" hand.

Tubby

Going empty hand against any weapon is very dangerous.

A bo is really good "force multipler" in that it don't take much to real build up some very dangerous speeds/forces.

I'd stick to the evasion stuff if I were you.

You might also re-think some of the techniques in that if the person is using it properly, they are going to kinda out of range for many techniuqes.....your going to have to get inside somehow---and that is going to be tough.

Better than nothing I suppose--but the best response to a weapon---if you don't have one yourself---is to run like heck!

yes that is what I meant, I couldn't think of 'open' till this morning!!! i too say that it is empty but anyway thats just a meaining of words.

I too am thinking of the evasion stuff, was jsut wondering if anyone had different ideas than little old me!!!

they will be about the same distance as you are when you are free sparring. or say just a tad further than in ippon kumite.

one of my plans is to evade and kick themn in the groin and run, hopefully my instructors will like that.

An opponent with a bo has a 6+ foot reach so they can and must maintain a much greater distance from you than you would see in an empty hand engadgement. Because of that distance evasion will only by you time until you have nowhere else to run. When you move away you work to the advantage of the individual with the bo and allow them to continue attacking you at range. If you move in you limit their ability to respond. So you’ve got to move inside, control the weapon and beat’m like a frick’n drum.

We do a lot of tonfa vs. bo and sai vs. bo yakosoku and limited free fighting with both. With the short weapons you must always move in to decrease the effectiveness of the longer weapon and facilitate your own attacks. It’s really not that different than empty hand fighting someone who is bigger and has a greater reach, you move inside their effective range stick to their chest and go to work.

Look at the attackers stance. You want to work to the outside of his lead foot. That way he has to turn further to attack you, thus slowing him down. This is especially true for thrusting techniques. As for swinging techniques, maintain distance and as soon as the tip of the bow passes your centerline come in behind the arc and attack. The last thing you really want is to trade blows with the bo, so once inside, think about grappling techniques or throws and takedowns, or hard in fighting techniques such as knees, elbows and headbutts.