|
||
|
||
|
In 1971, Lon Anderson adapted the tonfa to police work. Anderson sought
to improve on the police impact weapons of that era; the billy club, night
stick, and riot baton--all still fundamentally bludgeons. Monadnock Corporation
of New Hampshire released the first Prosecutor PR-24 baton in 1974.
Side-handle baton techniques are largely similar to those used with traditional
tonfa, except that since only one tonfa is used, the other hand is used
as a guard or to reinforce blocks and strikes.
The same public outcry occurred recently in Britain, when police officers
there began adopting the side-handle baton. As before, the new weapon was
foreign and untested. As martial arts become more mainstream though, adoption
of traditional weapons for modern uses will become easier.
The
new side-handle baton soon gained popularity across the United States.
These days, it's not unusual to see a patrolman walking a beat with
a tonfa slung on his hip, but when the weapon was first introduced
it was moderately controversial. Those were the days when the martial
arts were still new to most people; when Bruce Lee ruled the cinema
and news of warring schools, like the dojo of the notorious Count
Dante, was front-page news. Equipping police officers with "funny
karate sticks", equated in the public's mind with the popular
nunchaku, was alarming.
Original 1974 patent for Monadnock's
PR-24 Prosecutor baton (click for larger image).
Next page > Simple grips and techniques > Page 1, 2, 3