Style, Study & Self-Defense: My Philosophy Explained

3:23 AM 10/31/2023 Tue

In the introduction to this book, I talked about how my own journey into learning the cane arts began, fifteen years ago; in the final chapter of this book, I'd like to spend a bit of time discussing how I took all that I learned and came up with my own way of doing things along these lines.

It all got started with a conversation I was having with one of my personal self-defense instructors; he was a PTK expert (Petiki Tirsia Kali) and he wanted to know exactly why I wanted to learn the basics. I expressed the desire to learn both empty hand, knife and stick fighting from the Kali perspective, but also wanted to incorporate moves from other fighting systems, such as the Keysi Fighting Method, and some other cane and sword-related systems. That's when he exclaimed, "You're a Jeet Kune Do guy!" - and it stopped me right in my tracks. See, I had heard of Jeet Kune Do, or "JKD" as it was also known, and I knew who its creator was - the legendary Bruce Lee - but I had never actually studied it. I thought it was a martial art that Lee had come up with totally on his own.

As it turned out, I was a bit mistaken.

My Kali instructor, who was also very familiar with JKD, explained to me that Bruce Lee's system was more a philosophy than anything else, and it was really all about ONE thing: Finding out what works best for YOU. Bruce Lee was all about finding what worked best for him - taking the best or most useful parts of whatever fighting system, stripping out what he didn't think would work best for him, and putting that together with other fighting systems, repeating the same process. The result was a unique, eclectic approach that was highly effective, specifically tailored for Lee himself. To that end, Lee wasn't a "slave to form" so to speak; he focused on efficiency and effectiveness, and wasn't afraid to jettison "the old ways" if they didn't prove effective "in the now" so to speak.

My PTK instructor said to me that, because of my desire to learn self defense methods that would be both applicable to the cane and empty hands and willingness to incorporate at least three if not more of them, really getting to "what works on the street and in real time", I was essentially following Bruce Lee's JKD approach - I just didn't know it.

And, as soon as my instructor explained that to me, I instantly began to see what he meant, and ran with it. I decided to make Michael Janich's "Martial Cane Concepts" or "MCC" style my base, but also incorporated other moves from the Filipino Martial Arts such as Kali, and added in other moves, from the world of Kendo, a bit of Hapkido, and others as needed - always with an eye to "play to my strengths" - using my cane for giving me additional reach and leverage, augmenting my inherent strength, and making myself "appear weak when I'm actually strong" to borrow a line from the great general Sun Tzu. This "weak" appearance is enhanced by my being shorter of stature and older, too. It all comes together when the bad guy finds out that I'm A LOT faster, agile and stronger than I might appear - but by then, it's much too late, LOL.

So, that's how the "Self-Defense" aspect of my own way of doing things came about.

So, there's that part of it, but wait, there's more. After I got the cane and self-defense part down, taking what I had learned over the years and "mashing it up" into my own style as it were, I also branched it out into the idea of the combat cane as a fashion accessory for the well dressed gentleman - something else that I learned in my research and study on the cane fighting arts from the past. As noted previously, the cane was indeed such an accessory in times gone by, and since my own inherent sense of style and taste was high, and I needed a cane to assist in getting around, I decided to bring that notion back - and it has always been noticed when I'm out and about. Hence, the "Style" side of my own way of doing things was born.

And finally, because all of this required years of study and research, lots of reading and thinking about all of this, putting as much as I could into actual practice in real time and working through what works and what doesn't FOR ME, and because there is no such thing as an illiterate or unlearned or uncurious gentleman, I decided to make "Study" the third and final part of my own way of doing things.

And there it was: The three basic but vital elements of my own personal philosophy to life: "Style, Study, & Self-Defense" - and I took inspiration from the circle and triangle of the Filipino Martial Arts, PTK/Kali in particular, which I would learn in my study and research (see what I did there?) hailed from the Filipino ancients' observation of the orbits of the planets (circular) and constellations in the night sky (triangle) - in other words, that Kali was at least in part, greatly informed by the movement of the planets and heavenly bodies, and the groupings of stars in the sky. That deeply intrigued me, and so I decided to borrow that aspect of Kali and it's symbolism to come up with something new and unique of my own: "Style, Study & Self-Defense" - or, put another way, "A gentleman is always well-dressed, well-read, & well-armed".

As I close out this book, I want the reader to understand that what I am talking about here should NOT be seen as a dogma - indeed, the three "S"s if you will, is anything but. In my way of doing things, much stress is laid on the individual way in which you should find your own expression - I highly encourage individualization and customization of my basic system and outlook. Just as every man's fashion sense will be different, so too should be his self-defense style(s). All of it is a very personal thing that I recognize, and strongly encourage of the men that I work with on a regular basis.

And this is the approach that I take at the Black Manosphere Conclave every year - an annual gathering of Black men from across the country who want to be all that they can be. This book was in fact bourne of last year's conclave in Atlanta, based on my presentation there, and which was so warmly received that I knew that I had to write this book to serve as a supplement to what has now become an instant hit and feature of the event. And for those who have never been, it will also serve as an introduction to the cane arts, from my own point of view.

I hope that you, dear reader, will have found this book to be helpful. As mentioned before, this book is by no means intended as the be-all, end-all to cane self-defense - indeed, quite the contrary, it is my hope that this book will be the beginning of your own journey to learning the ways of the combat cane. As Obiwan Kenobi told a young Luke Skywalker just starting out, "You've just taken your first steps into a new world".

*From the upcoming "The Boof of Cane: Self-Defense for the 21st Century Black American Gentleman" in 2024!