Use
The use of the cane as a weapon, as originally taught in weapons schools, was codified by the Masters of Savate so that the cane was taught as a weapon of self-defence. The French tradition includes techniques of medieval stick fighting (bâton français), excepting those techniques considered too dangerous to be used in sport. The medieval stick is too heavy a weapon to be used in competition.
Its use has thus been lost and today Canne de combat itself is disappearing. There is, however, a martial tradition passed down to the Swiss Master, Pierre Vigny in the 19th century which was used for codification of techniques using the Indian cane at the beginning of the 20th century, forming a separate tradition from the more common sporting cane seen in France today. The cane, first used for support and then as a gentleman's accessory, also provided a useful weapon. A normal walking stick is usually within the boundaries of legal self-defence, but the loaded cane (weighted with lead at one end) may be considered a weapon in some legal systems.
Read more about this topic: Canne De Combat
Famous quotes containing the word use:
“... it is use, and use alone, which leads one of us, tolerably trained to recognize any criterion of grace or any sense of the fitness of things, to tolerate ... the styles of dress to which we are more or less conforming every day of our lives. Fifty years hence they will seem to us as uncultivated as the nose-rings of the Hottentot seem today.”
—Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844–1911)