Welcome to the Jogo do Pau International Study Groups Program.

This website is a center to help and manage study groups dedicated to the Portuguese staff and baton combat system.

Our goal is to start and follow the development of Jogo do Pau groups around the world.

The director of this program is Luis Preto, a respected jogo do pau instructor, with a degree in Sport Sciences and author of the book "Jogo do Pau: The Ancient Art and Modern Science of Portuguese Stick Fighting", so you know you are in good hands and learning Jogo do Pau from a valuable source. You can know more about Luis Preto HERE. Introductory note from Luis Preto:

Introduction

I’d like to start by welcoming all who are interested in getting to know Jogo do Pau (AKA Staff Fencing, AKA Lusitan Fencing).

Through this website and the great efforts put forward by myself and, above all, Frederico Martins (responsible for all of the site’s management as well as having the patience to get me on board for this adventure ), we’re going to put forward the first ever internet teaching service of Lusitan Fencing. Therefore, whether you desire to include this art in your study group or become an official instructor, you’re all welcome as we’ll certainly be able to learn a lot from each other.

Feel free to contact me or Frederico and we’ll do our best to answer your questions and satisfy your learning goals.

Friendly blows,

Luis Franco Preto 

About the art …

This is a combat art developed throughout time intended to solve people’s need for “real life” combat effectiveness.

Hence, and since Portugal has had an objectively very demanding and successful military history against other countries, from having to both conquer its territory by force as well as protect its independence by staving off their arch rivals (nowadays known as Spaniards), to discovering the world as we know it and thus establishing many colonies, among many other relevant and undeniable facts, our antecessors’ main concern was with successfully overcoming battlefields, where they fought several opponents at the same time, and coming from all directions.

Thus, this is a combat art which was born and specifically created for combat in outnumbered scenarios while armed, which is the first reason why the main strikes used are rotational. This allows one to attack opponents from different directions in one single movement.

Of course that during these medieval times people also practiced grappling, since both combat distances invariably appeared during the very confusing fights characteristic of battlefields.

Only more recently, and especially away from the military context, were civilians able to apply this art in less complex scenarios (against less than 8 to 10 opponents) without the need for grappling. It was from this event that a division between these combat arts was produced which, up to that point, had joined to form an all round combat training system, thus enduring a kind of symbiotic relationship.

Whenever people had to fight one against one combats (conflicts surrounding a woman, etc) they would do so while using the technical elements trained for combat in outnumbered scenarios (in motion guards, waiting guards with the weapon pointing backwards, etc), which are similar (although not totally identical in terms of footwork) to what  I’ve seen many medieval reenactment groups practice nowadays.

Only after the industrial revolution gave birth to big modern cities where people stopped walking around with staffs, did this art take on a more sportive context. It was in these cities that people started focusing their practice of this art as a leisure activity, thus focusing on one on one combat. New strategies were developed for this type of combat which, up to that point, had been somewhat and comprehensively neglected, due to all the focus on combat against several opponents.

For a while this practice of one on one combat was known as Lisbon’s School, while the combat practice against several opponents was designated as Game from the North (a more rural part of Portugal at the time of the creation of big industrial cities).   

About the weapons used …

Running the risk of being perhaps a bit too much down to earth for my own good (since I’ve seen time and time again people preferring to be dazzled by fantastic – an unreal - stories and explanations, than the simple and logical truth), Man’s use of weapons to fight with has simply followed its technological development.

By this I mean that, logically, the first weapons used by Mankind were stones and staffs, since they are easily accessible. This also signifies that there must have been staff combat systems all over the world, as everyone had to both hunt and protect themselves.

Later, as Man began being able to forge iron weapons, the first swords were eventually created. Since in these pre-historic and medieval times effectiveness prevailed over honor (most like in most of our professional environments nowadays), the swords created were thick and somewhat heavy, so as to be capable of sustaining (without breaking) their opponents’ strikes (unleashed with any type of weapon or instrument).

Therefore these ancient medieval swords were barely bladed (at least here in Portugal), being intended more to hit the opponents than to cut. This is the second reason why this system is focused on rotational strikes. This art is a combat system originally oriented for combat in outnumbered scenarios using somewhat heavy and / or barely bladed weapons, thus focusing on rotational strikes both to powerfully hit opponents and from all angles, almost simultaneously (in a single movement), and applied both to staffs and medieval swords.

Another factor that enabled civilians to stop relying on grappling as stated above, was the fact that some people placed special iron tips and blades on the staffs’ extremities, thus maintaining their personal perimeter from being perpetrated with greater ease, as the risk of injury was much higher for the opponents.

Recently, the need to adapt the art’s self defense essence to today’s society led Master Pedro Ferreira’s initial applications to the walking cane and, later on, to one of his students, Master Nuno Curvello Russo to comprehensively study the application of the staff technique to the walking cane and baton.

This same Master also travelled all over Portugal (mainland) and gathered all the different technical contents from each school under one technical program.  

About the art’s name: Jogo do Pau, Staff Fencing and Lusitan Fencing …

As the medieval weapons were substituted by firearms, this art was kept alive through the self defense use given to staffs in rural environments. Therefore, and since in ancient Portuguese it was common to use the verb to play to designate the action of throwing something, the skill of throwing the staff (jogar o pau) led to the art being called Game of Staff (Jogo do Pau), from the end of the XIXth century.

Nevertheless, because this designation is not totally correct (it is not a game) and, additionally, it generates an identity crises (people don’t realize that it is a combat art just by hearing its name), one of the most well known Masters from the XXth century teacher, Frederico Hopfer, tried to implement the name Staff Fencing.

Left: Jogo Do Pau - "National Fencing" by Master António Nunes Caçador, 1963.
Left:" Teaching program for staff fencing instructors" by Frederico Hopffer.

Although this is a better term for the art, as was explained earlier, this is a combat art that, historically, has been used for outnumbered scenarios using somewhat heavy and barely bladed weapons, adjusting the weapons’ material and length to the society in which one lives in:

• Open space medieval long swords and rural staffs;
• Short space one hand swords and urban baton & walking cane.

Therefore, because the particular version / school that I practice and teach, focuses on maintaining its historical roots, thus using different weapons (swords / staffs as well as walking canes / batons) for both combat against several opponents and one on one, it is called Lusitan Fencing.

Additionally, Lusitan Fencing aims at being a Martial Sport, meaning that it enables people o practice and develop a combat functional and martial technique while splitting their training time with traditional wooden and iron weapons and sportive padded ones. This way, Lusitan Fencing practitioners are able to learn combat functional motor skills, by safely perfecting them in terms of distance and timing with the padded weapons, while also developing a traditional martial spirit by also practicing with traditional weapons, requiring more concentration, strength of will, respect for your fellow citizen’s physical integrity, and many other important educational and psychological aspects.