# How are policemen trained to fight in hand to hand confrontations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 28, 2004, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-policemen-trained-to-fight-in-hand-to-hand-confrontations/242560 "2004-04-28T21:40:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Badge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-policemen-trained-to-fight-in-hand-to-hand-confrontations/242560/21 "2004-05-05T05:26:41Z")
> [@Lissla Lissar](#): > > What sort of baton training do you get? I’ve been wondering about this question for a bit. My husband takes Kobudo (ancient weapons) and he’s started training with paired tonfa (nightsticks). He’s learning a lot of very complicated stuff with them. I had about eight hours of training in the basic academy, and we have a refresher (usually 2-4 hours) every year. Basically it’s just practicing hitting where you’re supposed to hit and missing what you’re supposed to miss. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’ve been at this for 18 years and have yet to hit someone with a stick. But I know that the day will come. ---
**Author:** ![Badge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-policemen-trained-to-fight-in-hand-to-hand-confrontations/242560/22 "2004-05-05T05:28:15Z")
> [@Saltire](#): > > For anyone not aware of it, **Badge** has a long-running thread in MPSIMS called [Ask the cop](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=147494), in which lots of questions like this have been asked and answered. Thanks for the plug, bro! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Badge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-policemen-trained-to-fight-in-hand-to-hand-confrontations/242560/23 "2004-05-05T05:37:54Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > The answer was because there was no way to spray her without also taking a very big risk that at least (probably more) one of the officers would also get hit with the spray. Yeah, we all pretty much assume that if someone gets sprayed, we **all** get sprayed! And getting it in my eyes doesn’t bother me nearly as much as breathing the stuff. With the slightest whiff of pepper spray, I start coughing like crazy. A few years ago one of our officers really hosed another officer. They were fighting an assault suspect, and Officer 1 decided to use pepper spray. He warned Officer 2, who pushed the suspect away from him so that he could be sprayed. Officer 1 sprayed the suspect but then his gloved finger got caught in the cap on the pepper spray cannister so that he couldn’t stop spraying. As he pulled his hand back, he completely sprayed his partner. Not a happy man! ---
**Author:** ![Badge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-policemen-trained-to-fight-in-hand-to-hand-confrontations/242560/24 "2004-05-05T05:40:29Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > Have any of you law-enforcement types ever encountered a person on whom the joint locks and pressure points you’ve learned don’t work? I’ve never had it not work at all, but sometimes it is definitely less effective. The answer to that is try something else until something works, and that may mean moving higher on the “Use of Force Continuum” - from hands-on to pepper spray to TASER (if you carry one) to baton. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Deschain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@Roland\_Deschain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Deschain)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2004, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-policemen-trained-to-fight-in-hand-to-hand-confrontations/242560/25 "2004-05-05T07:32:26Z")
I once dated a girl J.R. Zienty who later became a police officer. We took karate together at the YMCA, and she was able to more than hold her own against me despite my outweighting her by fifty pounds (sorry to say that was seventy pounds ago). From what I here she is one of the most effective police “people” in her area. In any case, I think many women can be very effective in hand to hand combat especially if they keep in shape and practice resistence training. However, I think they probably do best with “non grappling” techniques (although they should be familar with these since these situations will occur). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-policemen-trained-to-fight-in-hand-to-hand-confrontations/242560.md?page=1)