The “Dirty Dozen”:
These are a set of twelve warm-ups that serve not only to stretch the muscles needed to perform double stick, but to further develop the body mechanics for blade-work as well as develop well-balanced coordination and power in both arms.
The Attacks:
The Attacks are a set of twelve attack patterns which teach the practitioner various chambering positions, and how to deliver powerful strikes from these chambers without the weapons arms becoming entangled or trapped. The Attacks also teach how to use the different parts of the sword/stick offensively (e.g. the butt-end of the stick for punyo strikes or hooking; the side of the blade for witiks–or “fanning” strikes). There is also a Double Baston Abecedario of twelve attacks that closely follows the principles of the Solo Baston Abecedario.
The Drills:
These drills allow the practitioner to practice certain attack combinations against other attack combinations. One of the rationales of doing this is to take otherwise symmetrical drills and put them in a very unsymmetrical context, so that that the practitioner can see a particular attack and its virtues (and weaknesses) against different types of attacks. For example, working the hooking drill against the various attacks will show the practitioner when hooking could be useful to do and when one should not try it.