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Piper and the Internet Warriors
(I wrote this article a week before the marketing article and only edited it slightly before putting it on the site. So yes, I know that I am repeating a few things). I’m not much of a forum kind of guy. When I first got onto the Internet, about six or seven years ago, I once made the mistake of getting into an argument with some schoolboy on the Underground Forum on a question of martial arts history. Although I had every English language book ever printed on the topic to back me up and had spoken to masters in the Far East about the issue when I had been over there, I was told that I was an ignorant fool and that his teacher had said I did not know what I was talking about.
That was the end of that, as far as I was concerned. I prefer to discuss things with people who are physically present. The two times I have had to listen to fellow Chinese Martial Arts instructors telling me how their art could beat Brazilian Jiu Jitsu the discussion ended a few minutes later with them tapping out (not that I am trying to claim any authority in BJJ, but even a blue belt BJJ combined with a lot of attitude works wonders against doubtful traditionalists).
Before you get the wrong idea here, i.e. that I am trying to come across as Mr. Tough Guy, that’s not the point. The point is that unfortunately my time is limited, I have two beautiful kids who take precedence in my heart over everything else, I massage, teach classes, train, write, spend time with family and friends, I sadly do not have the time for discussions or long individual explanations. As for unconstructive criticism, when it comes to unarmed combat, as I said in other parts of this website, that is one of the reasons why we are putting on the “Piper Challenge” next year.
My expression of Piper works for me. I enjoy training it and, when the time comes to use it, I trust it will work. The last time I got into a situation in which it might have worked, I was unfortunately shot and fell down before I managed to get into knife range. This happened about two years ago, in an attempted car-hijacking. Three shots fired, two missed, one got me in the leg. Lesson learnt: Its iffy charging in from six or seven meters against a gun-man. As for just giving them what they want, that does not necessarily work either, at least not down here. A sixty five year old massage client of mine was robbed by three men about a month ago. He did not resist, gave them everything and they still stabbed him twice, partially collapsing his lung.
I see on the various forums that Lloyd has pointed me to that there is a lot of discussion as to whether Piper is or is not more deadly than Escrima, Silat, Systema or Mongolian Goat Herding. That’s why I said I don’t want to get into any discussions here, I mean, come on, guys. Sure, if I was doing my TRS imitation a la Chris “The Gladiator” Clugston,whose videos I reviewed for MAVR, the correct marketing answer would be: OFF COURSE. Used by criminals to kill thousands of other criminals plus the more than occasional mugging victim, how could it not be? And once my e book is up, expect some of that marketing stuff on the products page, I’m trying to earn a living here!
Let’s get real, though. As a Zen master might say, show me this “Piper”. Where is it? Where is Piper as a separate, individual entity that could be compared to a similar, separate entity representative of some other system? Let’s fast forward twenty years into the future. Let’s say some nice, mild mannered twenty-five year old from a nice, safe place, say Kopenhagen, who has practiced a large variety of Piper techniques with fellow enthusiasts visits Cape Town and gets into a situation where he finds himself, knife in hand, facing some seventeen year old street thug who knows only three or four Piper techniques but has used these to kill a few people. I know, it’s a very labored and unlikely scenario, but whom would you bet on? Yup, me too. But then, if intent and viciousness is what really matters, why bother at all?
Well, for starters, in the above scenario, if it were really to happen, the criminal would more likely than not back down, so in that sense your Piper would actually beat him. I know this from personal experience. In my first bouncing job, at age 18, I interfered with what was clearly a gang member/ criminal (clothing, hairstyle, posture, language) who was throwing darts at passers-by outside the club I was working. He immediately pulled out his Okapi but at the same time I brought out my hand from behind my back, in which I was holding a mini-baseballbat-like baton.
He laughed, put away his knife and left. He came back the next week, we talked and, in response to my asking, he showed me how he was able to open the okapi so quickly.
So is Piper more deadly than method X? Yes it is and no it is not, the question is fairly meaningless when you look at it more closely. With all my Piper, my other arts, my bullet hole scars and knife scars and everything, I would not have wanted to tangle with old Master Illustrissimo. Does this mean I think his method is dangerous when practiced by someone who has never been in a fight, practices it as an art form and does not even spar much….no, not really. As a guideline, the closer a weapons art is, historically, to people who used it to kill armed, resisting opponents, the more likely it is that its techniques are useful in a similar situation.
Right, the next issue. From seeing what limited footage is available folks are jumping to conclusions that all of Piper is really contained within the sinawali drills of art X or the whatever of art Y. The implication then being, of course, since it is a subset of their own art, they can now stop thinking about whether there might be anything worth learning in it. Well, as has been pointed out by both Nigel and Lloyd, you have only seen a fraction of what there is. Having said this, where is it written that you need to know every possible technique or strategy of every art out there? As someone much wiser than I once said, you do not need to know every technique but you do need to know how to defend yourself against every technique (or at least against every technique that might be used against you).
Having said all that and having been oh-so-logical, I still prefer Piper to every other weapon art I have come across and, no, that’s not because it’s African and I’m African. I’m not. Says so in my passport: G-E-R-M-A-N. Fair enough, every time I’m on a plane and we’re about to land at Cape Town Airport I see Table Mountain and get a lump in my throat and a feeling in my chest that tells me I’m home, but the whole “proud to be African” thing is not me, although it is horribly politically incorrect of me to say so.
I like Piper because I like stuff that works, stuff that is clearly hardarse and viciously effective. I have had that same feeling a few times in my life: when I first saw the clinch work and low kicks of Muay Thai in Thailand. When I saw BJJ used in the early UFC’s. When I saw an old black man using a folded umbrella and a knopkierrie to beat the crap out of several street thugs outside Cape Town Station. And when I first saw Nigel demonstrating Piper. It’s not an intellectual thing. It works at gut level, at least for me it does, I see it, my eyes widen, my heart beats a little faster and I get a wolfish grin on my face. I think: “I want some of that!” Kind of similar to when a sexy woman in a mini-skirt smiles at me. OK, well, maybe not quite the same, but maybe you know what I mean?
By comparison, I sometimes meet teachers who impress me as being hard cases who can definitely handle themselves, but their art does not give me this feeling at all. Abner Pasa giving a seminar here in Cape Town many years ago is a case in point. So, to summarize: here we have Piper. There we have you. How you react to Piper is your choice. Whether you get anything of value from it is your choice. But it’s here, it’s functional and has been pressure tested and refined for the last century or two and it’s not about to go away. And the handful of techniques you may learn from it may one day save your life. Your call.
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