As you are all no doubt aware, Dave Green is Practical StickFighting England Banner Representative and a Founder Member to boot.

Every year, Dave travels to Cornwall for a winter camp and was kind enough to offer his services as he passed in return for a warm bed and bacon butties. This is something that I felt I could not pass on and lept on the offer! Not only was I getting to meet someone that I'd 'known' since the start of the PMA list on Topica, but this was an ideal to hold PMA's first official 'Special Seminar'. For those who might have missed out on my advertising of the event, Special Seminars are closed door and completely free to PMA members.

Although attendance on the door was not as large as I hoped I was secretly pleased as it meant that I got more attention from Dave than I might have normally!

First of all we started with some simple warm up exercises. Dave was very keen to stress that a firm grip of the stick be maintained at all times whilst keeping the arms relaxed. I learnt why this was so the hard way as I quickly developed blisters from holding it too lightly.

Another aspect of the warm up that Dave took time to explain was that all of the movements were much larger than they normally would be, demonstrating just how tight some of the movements are when being used in combat.

By the end of the warm up everyone's shoulders were aching, those who had decided to use Japanese red oak sticks quickly swapped them for a rattan. Those who had blisters tried to improve their grip.

We then moved on to solo stick drills, again using larger circles than would normally be employed. Many of the drills taught not only continued to exercise the shoulders but were also designed to improve our co-ordination. Whilst learning to pass the stick from one hand to another, Dave pointed out how these drills could be used not only for nunchaku but also for blades.

We very quickly became aware that there was a whole science to hitting people with sticks and this was highlighted when Dave demonstrated the same drills with a sword. It became very clear as to why certain things were done with the sticks because if they were not performed correctly they would result in an opponent being hit with the flat of your blade (should you be using one instead) and not the edge.

Dave was also very careful to point out that whilst in certain drills the stick would continue far past the target, in combat the stick would travel just past the point of contact before returning. This again was centred around using a blade and demonstrated just how quickly and FMA practitioner could slice you from any number of angles.

Slowly we worked up to double stick drills using the 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 count before practicing with a partner hitting towards the targets and actually making VERY light contact. Dave was keen to stress that the stick should make contact on the correct point as it ensured you would hit during combat.

Finally we moved on to Eskrido, grappling with sticks. Dave demonstrated some very nasty and very painful takedowns. The most painful was when he used the stick to apply pressure to the dip at the end of the Calf muscle (Bladder 57 (b57)). Not only did this take any notion of wanting to resist out of me, it also set off amazingly painful cramp in the trapped foot. I'm still not sure which was more painful.

The whole day was excellent fun and the time flew by. Dave is not only a talented Martial Artist, he has a visible love for his art and is an excellent instructor and gentleman. Everyone who attended was visibly excited by what they had learnt and I'm hoping that I will be able to invite Dave down again in the near future to hold an open door Seminar.

From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank Dave for his support in Practical Martial Arts™ and the knowledge he imparted on the day. If you have a chance to attend any Dave Green seminars please do so! You can find further details of his seminars on http://www.jkdc.co.uk and http://www.docepares.co.uk.

Once again Dave, thank you for a most enjoyable day!

Matthew Sylvester has been training in the Martial Arts since 1991. He currently studies Ao Denkou Jutsu, Kempo Ryu Karate, Tae Kwon Do and Shunryu Kempo.