One of the “comments” I got from one of my last posts was about the use of improvised weapons i.e. if you\'re overseas and can\'t carry a firearm, CS Spray etc what could you carry or use as alterntives. This is a subject that I feel many self-defense instructors take lightly or misinterpret and at the worst case point people towards “legal carry” weapons that actually disempower them.

A true “improvised” weapon can only exist once. The moment something you find in your environment is spontaneously used as a weapon it loses its improvised quality. The moment you realize an umbrella, pen or chair can be used as a tool for self-defense purposes, the next time you are in a similar situation you will be looking to find one of these items. I remember having the realization that a car radio antennae – the old telescopic ones from the 1980’s/90’s - would make a great flexible weapon. In that initial instance it was an improvised weapon. Every time after that when I was in a parking lot I was either subconsciously or consciously searching for cars with that type of radio antennae – technology is great but there is no car like a MK 2 Ford Cortina for defensively minded radio aerial design!

Time is great for progress but the ban on smoking in public places deprived many of us the chance/possibility to use those big glass ash trays as “improvised” blunt impact weapons. In one sense the smoking ban saves lives on the other hand…

The value of a true improvised weapon is that it demonstrates that a person is aware of and understands their environment. The irony being that if they truly understand their environment they shouldn’t need a weapon in the first place – obviously there are exceptions to this.

When people talk about the use of improvised weapons they are usually talking about how common household objects etc, could be used in an offensive/defensive manner. By definition you can’t create a list of improvised weapons, you can only teach people how to identify objects that can be used in this way. This is a skill, a mindset and one you have to develop. Learning how to fight with a chair is learning how to use a chair in much the same way as you use a “traditional” weapon such as a stick, a knife, or a gun – admittedly this isn’t the primary purpose of a chair but many “conventional” weapons have started out this way e.g. the PR-24 side-handle (fixed length and telescopic) baton is an interpretation of the Okinawan Tonfa, which in turn was the handle of a rice mill turned to militaristic purposes.
The skill/mindset of “discovering” items in your environment that could be used as weapons lies in understanding your environment. A colleague of mine who used to work in security in Russia tells of how there would be a meeting of individuals, in a bar/club, where everybody was searched for weapons – any being found were confiscated. Knowing that there would always be condom machines in the toilets, whoever was hired for protection would go down and by a pack and put a bunch of coins in one to make a flexible schlock. One person had the thought and the rest were taught and followed.

Many people see improvised weapon’s as a quick fix or even a starting point of self-defense, I see it as the pinnacle. If you can understand how to make a tool out of things found in your environment then you have an exceptional mind – you are going back to the basic instincts and ideas that first enabled man to discover fire, create the wheel etc. Improvised weapons are the height of invention – and necessity is the mother of invention. If in a moment you can create a “tool” whilst under emotional pressure, as far as I’m concerned you are at your most human.

Being curious about our environment is what allowed us to become the dominant species. Improvised weapons smack of this curiosity. If you can walk into a bar, pub, club or restaurant and identify 5 things that could double as a weapon then you are thinking like our forefathers. If you don’t have this mindset then teaching you how to fight with a chair, a pen or a flashlight is a waste of time. The person who instinctively smashes a fire extinguisher over somebody’s head or breaks a pool cue in two is thinking in the right vein as opposed to the person who starts unstrapping their belt because they were taught in a seminar that this was a good idea. There are no short cuts when it comes to self-defense and personal protection; it’s a way of thinking.

I could run seminars on fighting with a chair, using a flashlight etc, they’d be worth zero. If you’re not attuned to your environment you will never realize the harmful intent that is in it. If you carry a firearm and don’t have the time and room to pull it, why do you think you’d have the time to identify another weapon and improvise its use? If you want to carry a “legal” weapon that’s another matter, but understand what “legal” means. Also understand, that if it’s legal it’s probably been “compromised” in some way that makes it ineffective or it requires a lot of skill to make it work in a real-life situation. Don’t fool yourself that these “legal” tools are as effective as a knife, a TASER, CS Spray etc, they’re not, which is why they’re legal carry. I would rather have a hand free to scrape, gouge and rip than tie one or two hands up in a “weapon” that promises much and delivers little. A tool is only a tool if it empowers you. Don’t be fooled.

The martial arts industry has created many \"legal carry\" tools, some gimmicky e.g. baseball hats with lead shot in them, other more tactical and with genuine thought behind them, such as the \"Monkey Fist\" (a take on the Japanese Kusarifundo), the Kubotan Key Chain (an interpretation of the Japanese Yawara) or the now popoular \"stoppers\" - basically plastic one finger, knuckle dusters. From a traditional perspective these tools were taught as part of a martial arts system that viewed weapons training as an art, not like us in the West who see these things as quick fixes and equalizers - a Yawara is a very technical weapon that is used to apply painful wrist locks, controls and restraints etc but what business does a civilian on the street have for doing this type of action? When you look at the purpose of a tool, such as the Kubotan that is based on it and look at the goal of what you are trying to achieve, it may become obvious that the two might not marry up. If you\'re simplt looking to use the tool as an impact weapon, a bottle, pen, magazine or other hand held item will do the trick and may be more readily available.

This is one of the dangers of weapon training in general i.e. you become fixated on the weapon and mold your purpose around it. This is true of conventional, modified and improvised weapon. An improvised weapon should be drawn from the environment to solve the problem at hand - a broken pool cue might make a great weapon in one environment and be lousy in another - the situation determines the solution.

Being able to identify and use objects in your environment is a skill to develop, and one that can be done before the proverbial hit shits the fan. When you enter a room take a sweeping glance and identify objects that could be used as weapons and barriers etc as well as where the exits are. This is a great situational awareness excercise and will hopefully start to rase your awareness of the environments you occupy. It is this awareness that will save you, not the telephone directory in the corner....