it's strange, I make this tool for a long time, (first Yawara I was meke year 2000 for Ninpo Kai Pakrac.) and somehow I simply forgot to write about it on this blog. I'm not going to debate much about the name of this tool, in book about stick's Hatsumi sensei names him Yawara, but people also call it a Koppo stick, I'll use Soke's name for it.
For start some basic training versions, normaly this could be use in selfdefence, but main purpose was for trainig. Since they do not have sharp edges, and they look simple, the possibility of unintentional injury is reduced to a minimum.
People make this tool from various materials and different types of wood. If we talk about training models it's good, however, if we know how to use Yawara and what is purpose of this kind tool, that is not good!
Why?
Yawara is a small weapon we use for self-defense, to be effective, for Yawara it is essential to be invisible!
So if you have black or shine metal yawara's, black plastic or yawaras from exotic wood which is darker than your hands skin, it is like you say "here is my weapon". In that case, you have taken the element of surprise to your weapon, and therefore the chance to defend yourself from the attacker is minimal.
This is reason why I make my Yawara's from beech wood, and leave them in natural color of beech wood, which is similar to the skin of the hands.
Below is picture where Dean Sensei use beech wood(SPECWOG) yawara, you could see how hard is notice Yawara in his hand.
Now few Yawar's that I make special for Dean Rostohar's SPECWOG combat sistem, is "SPECWOG" yawara. This version is special design for combat, it is create to causes maximum pain, as you see there is a lot sharp ends.
Nine years of research was spent on this design, so I took care of the smallest detail, such as the thickness of the human skin (by the way, the dimensions of the grooves on the yawara were made according to information on human skin).
I also make them into four different sizes, so each person can choose yawara according to his size of palm. If you remember before I say that Yawara need to be hidden by the color but also by size, after all Yawara is sneaky "toy".
soon more info
