When I was on the Trinidad P.D., Trinidad Colorado, we couldn't have the great nightsticks. The instructors at the Colorado Law Enforcement Training Academy were on the koga kick, so we got a strait stick and were taught to do the damage with the ends of the stick more than the stick itself. Almost all the techniques were two handed blocks and thrusts, and leverage to move people who don't want to be moved. It worked, but it took a lot more training and practice. I wonder if the old fashioned stick would have been more intuitive and effective than the koga. I know that in the crowded bas on commercial street I'd have liked a shorter stick for the close quarters they were.
I remember talking with one of the old timer cops we had, and he said to pick a stick the length of your for arm from elbow to finger tips. He carried the old style nightstick, and it was a thing of beauty. Great grain pattern in the wood and beautiful lathe work. We younger cops were very jealous of it. Our Chief though, Dennis Dempsy, was into the modern koga and called it a table leg.
Carl.
