BJJ black belt and Kung Fu master Thomas „Gong Fu“ Holtmann loves to use his grappling skills when he has weapon based sparring matches within the Dog Brothers organisations which he is an active member of.

About Dog Brothers

The Dog Brothers are a group of martial artists that have gained notoriety in the Filipino Martial Arts community for the group’s annual “Gathering of the Pack” collectives. These collectives feature dangerous weapon-based sparring matches that they have copyrighted as “Real Contact Stickfighting”.

This form of fighting takes place primarily between two practitioners who agree to enter into a no-holds-barred match, with the understanding that they will be “friends at the end of the day”, wearing very little protective gear and fighting with single or double sticks. Matches between opponents have been held using a variety of weapons including staff, bokken, whip, shock knife, aluminum practice knives, Nunchaku, mae sawks, chains and three-section staff. Impromptu, unorthodox weapons such as canes and garden hoses have been used as well.

Defensive gear usually consists of light gloves, soft knee and elbow pads, and a fencing mask but some fighters choose to fight solely with a fencing mask for protection. If the mask is removed the competitors make a choice to continue or stop. The kali sticks can be any length, circumference and density as long as the opponent approves. The average length of the sticks is between 30 and 36 inches and fighters can fight with one or two sticks. The participants are not expected to have matching weapons; in fact, experimentation is encouraged. A competitive round lasts from two to three minutes but the ringmaster may let the fight go on longer until it reaches a conclusion or the action stalls. Read more about Dog Brothers…

Holtmann has been so successful using Grappling that he has even released his own instructional, which you can order here.

Here he shows two ways in which he applies BJJ principles in stickfighting: