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HITS : Made from Hi-Impact plastic used for jet fighter canopies, motorcycle face shields and police riot shields, these 1” diameter hollow sticks are amazingly tough, durable and light. The 1/8” walls can stop a .22 caliber bullet at point blank range, yet a 28” stick only weighs 7 oz. (28 grams, or 1 gram/inch), same as 3/4” skinless tournament rattan! The first pair of these was used for 8 years for demonstration purposes, hitting full power against stop sign poles, light poles, car bumpers and buildings, plus used for hundreds of rounds of full-contact training against each other, different types of sticks, and the steel bars on face masks! These finally broke while attempting to demolish a brick wall. Unlike clear hardware store acrylics, if these break, they break cleanly, not with a jagged knife-like edge. I have actually re-ground the ends of broken HITS and continued using them much longer as shorter sticks! This is also the same material used for my shakuhachi flutes, a “take anywhere” stick.

You can see a video of a Dog Brothers style sparring match from Sweden. The winner used one of my HITS against a Cold Steel bokken!

Available lengths: 20”, 24”, 26”, 28”, 31”, 36”

HITS are so innocuous, they attract little attention. I showed my very first one to a cop eating on his break at a 7-11 store late one night, asking if he’d consider it a weapon, and he told me to leave him alone because I was wasting his time! Now here’s another thing you can do with these that you can’t do with any other stick: for those of you who know how to blow a bugle, the regular HITS can do that! You can always carry one so you can root for your favorite sports team. Go team! TOOT!

Occasionally some people note the vibration of these sticks in their hand, though most do not have any problems. All sticks have their frequency of vibration. Generally using a firmer grip with HITS will eliminate any problems. Putting decorative tape on these sticks can also easily increase weight, and adding mass this way absorbs vibration. That’s why I now have endcaps available. Since they are so light anyway, HITS are quite tunable in this regard.

Go here to check out the Shakuhachi flutes!