web hosting short URLs photo sharing

Outline:
Introduction
Materials and Tools
Weapons Configuration
Principles of Construction
Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Weapon
    1. Cut PVC tube
    2. Insert PVC tube into foam padding
    3. Size foam padding
    4. Seal foam padding
    5. Tape Up Weapon
            i.  Reinforcing the Seam
            ii.  Capping the Ends
            iii. Lengthwise Taping
            iv. Reinforcing Lengthwise Taping
            v. Handle Construction
    6. Gripping the Tape On
A Special Weapon - Making the Training Knife
Implementation and Training
Dangers and Warnings
 
 

PLEASE READ BEFORE PROCEEDING Disclaimer The authors provide the information set out in this article to the reader subject to the following terms and conditions, which may be updated by the authors from time to time without prior notice to the reader. By accessing, browsing, and/or using the information in this article, the reader acknowledges and represents that she or he has read and understood these terms and conditions and agrees to be bound by them.  Neither the authors nor the UBC Classical Ju-jutsu Club have any control over the reader's use of the information set out in this article and therefore the reader assumes all responsibility and risk associated with the use of this information. The reader agrees to indemnify and hold the authors and the UBC Classical Ju-jutsu Club harmless from any claims, losses, damages or injuries (including court costs and lawyer's fees) arising out of or associated with the use of this information. The information provided herein is for information purposes only and all information available in this article is provided "as-is" and without warranty of any kind, express, implied or otherwise, including without limitation, any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.  Redistribution of this article without the written permission of the authors is strictly prohibited.

Introduction:

Many martial arts include techniques in which an unarmed person defends against armed attacks. Often, the techniques and kata used against unarmed opponents translate closely, even completely, into applications against armed opponents. Properly executed techniques against armed attackers ought to work; however, the technical and curricular transition from unarmed to armed attacks is much more easily made than the psychological transition for the student. There is a tremendous difference between defending against an incoming, open-handed strike and defending against a solid, wooden club or other such training weapon rushing down upon one's head. Even though wooden weapons like the bokken, the wooden tanto, and various stick-style weapons are still considered relatively safe compared to edged, metal weapons like the katana or wakizashi, wooden training weapons are still quite capable of breaking bones. This fact is not lost on the student who must make the transition from unarmed to armed attackers in the martial-arts school.

The consequent fear of solid, wooden weapons can substantially interfere with the training progress of students. They are often intimidated by the weapons and may shy away from training against armed attacks, even though such training is necessary for realistic self-defence, not to mention the curricular requirements of many martial arts. Those who do not shy away may be unduly nervous during the training, and suffer more injuries. Instructors may be forced to sideline, even abandon,  training against armed attackers or, on the other hand, force students to continue, resulting in injuries and/or drop-outs. Therefore, some sort of intermediary training technique is required to allow students to train against armed attackers without exposing them to serious injury. Also the fact that the practitioner role-playing the attacker will tend to slow down their techniques when doing some swinging attacks for fear of causing injury, which takes away from the realism of the practice.
It is this imperative that drove the UBC Classical Jujutsu Club to develop foam-padded weapons.

Our club had three basic criteria: first, the weapons had to be adequately padded; second, they had to be rigid enough to be used like real, rigid weapons; and third, they had to be affordable. The final design required only three materials that could be purchased from the same store, and one found easily around the house. For about $12 (Canadian funds), we were able to make a set of 6 weapons of three different sizes: 40" / 100cm (bokken), 20" / 50cm (club or wakizashi), and 8.5" / 21 cm (tanto/knife).

Materials and Tools:
 

All three materials were found at The Home Depot, in Canada. However, it is likely that other home-improvement stores like Rona and Home Hardware, just to name two, carry the exact same products.

1. 1 roll duct tape (color is optional). This will hold it all together.
2. 3/4" Insulation tubing with adhesive lengthwise seam (buy enough to cover all the PVC tubing, plus enough to have foam-only ends). Test-wrap your PVC conduit with the insulation to make it fits around the PVC completely, but the PVC should still be able to slide a little bit inside the insulation tubing. This is the foam padding.
3. PVC conduit pipe, 12mm. This gives the weapon rigidity, so that it doesn't buckle during use.
4. Clean rags or discarded clothing (to make pads to cushion the tube-ends).

Tools:

1. Saw: any type that will cut PVC. A hand-saw for cutting lumber works fine. A hack-saw will do, also. A cutting knife will be much too hard to use. Very strong side-cutters may work, but may leave a sharp or jagged edge, which is not safe. Use a saw.
2. Scissors: to cut the duct-tape. Duct tape can be torn, but you'll want your tape edges neat so the weapons don't look ragged.
3. Tape measure.

Weapons Configuration:

You have choices, here. With a single 10-foot piece of PVC conduit, enough insulation tubing and a single, full-size roll of duct tape, you can make many combinations of weapons if you want to measure them out yourself. We have tested these following sets of weapons:
 

Set 1 - Classical Weapons 2 bokken (40" each) 2 wakizashi (20" each) 2 tanto (9" each)

Set 2 - Street-Defence Set 6 clubs (20" each) 2 knives (9" each)

Set 3 - Baseball Bats and Knives 3 baseball bats (40" each) 2 knives (9" each)

Other weapons you could make with these materials:

• bo staff
• padded escrima sticks / baton
• padded jo staff

1. Padded Ends: Leave a good 1/2" of insulation tubing beyond the ends of the rigid PVC conduit. This will allow you to make padded ends, which will partially protect students in case they receive an end-on thrust from one of these weapons. Feel free to increase the size of these padded ends, but more than 1" is not recommended, because students will tear the ends off when grabbing the ends of the weapons.

2. Measure First: Measure and cut your PVC first. Slip it inside the insulation tubing but don't remove the adhesive tape. Make sure that the insulation ends extend at least half an inch beyond the ends of the PVC conduit on both ends before you cut the insulation tubing.

3. Strong Criss-Cross Taping: Duct tape is cheap, so don't be afraid to use several layers. To make the weapons as durable as possible, remember to use different patterns of tape-laying. Use lengthwise taping, reinforce the ends and middle by winding around, use diagonal wind-arounds to make handles, and reinforce again with regular wind-arounds. When in doubt, criss-cross layers for long weapon-life.

Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Foam-Padded Weapon:

After you assemble your materials and tools, and decide upon your configuration (which weapons you're going to make and how many of each), you may begin. We make a bokken (40" weapon similar in length to a katana) in this example.

1. Cut a section of PVC conduit to about 39".

Cut the conduit outside in the yard if you can. Cutting PVC with a saw causes an unpleasant smell and leaves PVC sawdust. Clean this sawdust up.

2. Insert the 39" piece into the insulation tubing, in order to size the foam-padding section. Do NOT remove the yellow tape covering the adhesive.

Leave about 1/2" of insulation tubing extending beyond the edge of the PVC, and do this for both ends.  The empty space will be filled with cloth to make a padded end, and guard against end-on damage.

3. Size the insulation tube with enough room for padded ends and cut.

Notice:
1. The dark-grey insulation tubing extends at least 1/2" beyond the end of the light-grey PVC conduit, and this is true at both ends.
2. The yellow tape covering the adhesive is still on.

4. Seal the lengthwise seam of the insulation tubing.

• Grab both ends of the yellow tape.
• Make sure the seam is aligned before you pull the tape back.
• Pull away both tapes at the same time (otherwise, one side of your seam will stick to the remaining tape, and this section of insulation won't seal)

Seal the two sides of the seam together flush. Press hard to make sure the adhesive has stuck uniformly for the length of the tube.

5. Tape up the weapon. This is done in five stages:

i.   Basic wrap-around initial reinforcement of the seam
ii.  End-capping
iii. Lengthwise taping
iv. Basic wrap-around reinforcement of lengthwise taping
v.  Handle construction at both ends (because your students might not realise which end is the "right" end)

Stage One - Seam Reinforcement. Near the ends, and at least once in the middle, use a basic wrap-around. Each wrap-around should go at least twice around the weapon to make sure the seal is very strong.

Stage Two - End Capping. First, take an old piece of clothing you can cut up. Make sure it's clean - you don't want bits of cloth rotting away inside your weapons. Cut thin strips about 3/4" wide, and about 6" long.

Roll them and stuff them into the ends, until the hole in the ends are completely filled. They shouldn't be too tight, or they'll be very hard (and not much protection from end-on thrusts).

Cut 4 strips of duct tape about 12" long. Cap the ends like so.

Use all 4 strips so that you cannot see the dark-grey insulation tubing near the end any longer. This will reinforce the seam and keep the end-cap from coming off with use.

Stage Three - Lengthwise Taping. Taping lengthwise at this point looks better than a huge, diagonal wrap-around, and it saves a lot of tape.

Stage Four - Reinforcement of Lengthwise Taping. Just as you did to reinforce the seam, do the same for the lengthwise taping. The following is a good set-up for this stage:

i. two wrap-arounds near the center
ii. two wrap-arounds at each end.

Stage Five - Handle Construction. You need just a little more taping around the ends to accommodate a lot of grabbing and slipping in hands. First, do a diagonal wrap-around for the 8" or 10" near the ends.

Then do two more basic wrap-arounds to keep the ends of diagonal wrap stable:

• at the very end of the weapon
• at the end of the diagonal wrap towards the middle of the weapon

6. "Gripping" the Tape On. Before putting these weapons into use, you want to make sure the tape is firmly stuck on. Take each weapon, and for the entire length of the weapon, really squeeze it, so that the tape on the inside sticks to every little surface of the foam padding, and so that the outer layers really stick to the inner layers.

And here you have it, a nice, shiny, padded, bokken-length training weapon. This one here cost about $2 to make. Similar products on the market, better-looking of course, cost a lot more.

A Special Weapon - The Tanto/Knife:

Even rubber and plastic training knives still have pointy ends on them, and this still represents a training hazard if that point hits someone in the eye or ear. However, you can make a fully collapsible and blunt training knife using this method. The only exception is that you DO NOT USE PVC tubing. Instead, fill the centre with a piece of rolled cloth. Ensure you pad the ends, still. Without the PVC inside, stabbing is relatively safe, because the "knife" will collapse. Still, be careful around sensitive parts, and use caution when in doubt.
 

Implementation and Training:

These weapons are generally meant to be used in place of wooden weapons, while training unarmed students to execute techniques against armed attackers. The techniques will vary from martial art to martial art. However, here are some general principles of implementation that take full advantage of these weapons and can facilitate better training for your students:

1. Train the "attackers" not to hit too hard, but to hit realistically enough to resemble the speed and force of real attacks. Be cautious - better too light than too hard.
2. Show students that a moderate strike does not hurt. Do not, of course, invite anyone to strike anyone full-force, or even particularly hard, with these weapons. But show that light-to-moderate strikes do not cause damage. The trick is to teach the students not to be afraid of these weapons.
3. Do not use these weapons as "pain-desensitization" tools.
4. Encourage your students, once this pre-training has been done, to realise that they need not fear the weapons. Rather, they can execute the techniques against the armed attacker, and concentrate on their techniques and training. So, for example, if your martial art advocates closing with the armed opponent to defend against an attack, then encourage students to do so.

Dangers and Warnings:

These weapons are foam-padded, but they are not miracle-weapons. They can and will cause injury under the following conditions:

1. End-on thrusts, especially to sensitive parts of the body, the face, and head. Remember that the PVC tube is rigid. End-on, it's almost as hard as steel. This is why the padded ends are such an important safety feature. Never use these weapons (except non-PVC knives) for training against end-on thrusts. Such training requires a different training weapon.

2. Excessively hard hitting. Be careful when using these weapons with children and people who may be susceptible to bone injury. Although the foam does protect against a substantial amount of impact, a hard enough hit will still hurt, or even cause serious injury. This weapon can cause a head injury when struck hard or repeatedly.

3. Any kind of joint-locking. While the PVC conduit is somewhat flexible, it is likely more rigid than most joints. Therefore, this training weapon has enough rigidity to sprain and break joints in any weapon-implemented joint-locking technique. Do not rely on this weapon to buckle in any kind of joint-locking.

4. Choking. The foam in this weapon will not protect someone who is being choked with this weapon in a weapon-implemented choking technique. The weapon's rigidity is sufficient to choke a person in such a technique. Do not rely upon this weapon to buckle before choking someone.

5. Any excessive use. This is a hard, but flexible, PVC pipe covered with foam. It may lessen the damage of impact, but is still dangerous when used with force. It is a training weapon. Use it carefully, and exercise caution. Instruct your students in the safe ways to use these training weapons before letting anyone touch them.

6. Uncontrolled use. Children and even adults may think these weapons are toys, and upon finding them, may pick them up and start "playing". Keep access to and use of these weapons controlled at all times.