Kubotan Techniques

Kubotan is a close-quarter personal defense weapon which was first introduced by Takayuki Kubota. It is the most versatile self defense weapon and kubotan techniques are the most common techniques used for self defense by majority of people in the U.S.

Kubotan

Kubotan, derivation of the yawara stick (popular Japanese weapon for self defense), is about 5.5 inches (14 cm) long and 0.56 inch (1.5 cm) in diameter. The little five to six inch tube or the cylindrical kubotan made of wood, plastic, or metal seems harmless enough as it looks like a marker pen. A keyring is attached at one end of the stick for convenience and concealment. It may be considered an offensive weapon in some regions. Official kubotan techniques can be learned from any of the kubotan institutes. Kubotan training can boost your confidence level. The institutes teach you how to defend yourself in a fight.

Self Defense with Kubotan

• Kubotan, just like a yawara stick lends itself to intuitive, reflexive methods. You are expected to explode with a primal scream or by yelling.
• You should stupefy the attacker with multiple whipping key strikes to the face using a figure-eight motion. The keys at one end of the kubotan can be used to deliver powerful blows on any part of the body, to shock and disorient.
• A kubotan with keys can become a swinging, stinging, cutting nunchaku (martial arts weapon), delivering lethal blows and painful abrasions to an attacker. No matter whether you are trained or not, you can use it effectively to fend off an attacker.
• If you learn the technique of kubotan attacks, you don't have to worry about any kind of strikes, grabs, or kicks. For instance, a kicking leg can be met with a side-fisted punch with the kubotan being the striking point, thereby causing great pain or even disabling the attacker's leg.
• The main areas which should be attacked in kubotan self defense include the center-line of the assailant (bony, fleshy and nerve targets), such as the shins, knees, groin, stomach, solar plexus, neck, under the nose, knuckles, forearms, bridge of the nose, spine, temple, ribs, eyes etc.
• Normally, swinging strikes are very effective against bony surfaces while pokes and jabs with the ends of the Kubotan can cause debilitating pain in the fleshy areas.
• Most people love kubotan because they don't need to be overly precise as they don't have to waste time or miss an opportunity by trying to remember particular strikes for specific targets.
• One typical kubotan technique involves a wrist 'gasket' lock. This is the position in which the attacker's wrist is captured and sealed around with both hands and the body of the Kubotan laid across the radial bone. If you then apply downward squeezing pressure to the bone then you can easily take down the opponent.
• You should learn the techniques of holding kubotan in a right way, for instance, it can be held either in an icepick grip (for hammerfist strikes) or in a forward grip (for stabbing and pressure point attacks). You can attack any point with kubotan with greater penetration than with a finger. The instrument unbelievably intensifies the destructive power of any blow.

Kubotan techniques remind me the techniques of martial arts. You must have observed an angry cat chasing away a dog ten times its size. Similarly, these techniques can help you in self defense, the size of the attacker doesn't matter. It's fun learning the official techniques. In the United States, there are few legal restrictions on the use of a kubotan. You cannot carry it while traveling by air. Spiked kubotan are now specifically listed as 'offensive weapons' on the British government's crime prevention site. It is a good policy to sell kubotan to only those who have been sufficiently trained in its use.