Carry the Coffin - Rince an Bhata Uisce Bheatha

Carry the Coffin Combination

Carry the Coffin is one of the basic combinations in the Rince an Bhata Uisce Bheatha Irish stick fighting style. (Each of the combinations is a sequence of moves with a different goal. Like "forms" in martial arts, a stick fighter practices these over and over until they become second nature.) The goal of the Carry the Coffin combination is to take out the opponent's knee. It starts out as a block of an opponent's 12 o'clock strike and transitions into a double knee whack.
A miniaturized version in film-strip form of all 15 photos in this sequence can be found at the bottom of the page for easy viewing. (You will need to scroll horizontally to see the whole strip.)
Click on any of the photos below to see an enlarged version.

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Phase 1: The block and slip
To block Oliver's overhead strike, Glen pulls his bata towards his chest and then up and over and down in a semi-circle. It is NOT a V-shaped move from chest straight out to the opponent's stick. Just as a boxer "slips a punch", Glen "slips" Oliver's stick and continues with his downward circular motion.

Oliver is using a make-shift bata because an authentic bata was not available at the time the photos were taken.

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Phase 2: Hit to the front of the knee
Glen "slips" Oliver's stick and continues moving downward. When he gets to Oliver's knee level, he rams one side of his bata straight forward into the front of Oliver's right knee.

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Phase 3: Hit to the back of the knee
The deflecting force generated at the new pivotal point (side/end of Glen's bata and Oliver's knee) easily allows Glen to flip his bata and jamb the back of Oliver's same knee with the "point" of the opposite end of his bata.