Stop! Hammer time!

 No no no no, not that guy!!!

And again - not MC Hammer

Seriously... From the legal perspective, what kind of personal weapon, suited for self defense is the easiest to obtain and least hassle to have at home or in the car? Definitely some kind of daily use tool. Basically, it really boils down to screwdrivers and hammers. After giving it some thought, analysis and experimentation, I tend to favorize the latter option. While the screwdriver is definitely easier and less conspicuous to carry around, and even a lot of the knife material presented on this blog is easier to adapt to it, from the perspective of home defense one thing seriously stood out as hammer's advantage - stopping power! Think having to face an attacker who is carrying a knife or a machete...which would you rather have in such a situation? After all, in a tool vs. tool "duel", would you rather be a person with a screwdriver or a hammer? 

As a support to that argument, take a look at the following video at around 00:10 and 00:30 to see who is backing away from whom. (WARNING: you may need to log in due to the violent nature of the footage)

So, if we settle on the hammer, one may naturally wonder how to approach its use. Well, depending on the size and weight of the tool, you can't go wrong with using any of the tomahawk instructionals I have featured earlier. It should give you a pretty good foundation in understanding the dynamics and control of the weapon. Both will inflict a lot of impact trauma with a good potential to quickly end the situation. 

That said, there are further options of use, for example if we have to act in a confined space or other circumstances, and in order to investigate, I suggest you try some of the handling grips I find to be practical. 

standard

When other weapons are held in this manner it is called a hammer grip, so that tells you something. Also, most of us are already used to it, so that is a good place to start, especially from the perspective of those tomahawk approaches. with this one, it develops most power, but it is accompanied with most inertia too, in case of missing the target. Therefore, proceed with caution in your training - go slow and with control, thus avoiding injuries and damage to unsuspecting furniture etc. I had bumps and dents in the wall to prove it. 

full choke

Moving the grip from the end of the handle toward the "business end" of the hammer is called choking, so the above grip is considered a full choke. It enables a much swifter maneuvering and less impact on the wielders elbow and shoulder joints. I find this neat because it doesn't take much to adapt a lot of punches to be used (boxing jabs, crosses, hooks and uppercuts all can be made to work fine), while the handle can easily be employed in manner taught by most reverse grip knife systems (search for "reverse grip" on this blog). The main shortcoming is a shorter reach than with the previous grip. 

inverted/reverse

This one may not come naturally, but has shown to be quite useful. Again, most punching techniques are easily applied here, and the term hammerfist gets its true meaning with it. Now the handle can be used as a short club, so any experience with sticks and other impact weapons should be easy enough to implement. Again, the shorter reach may be a disadvantage (or not), and it turns out that if you are not careful, it is easy to hit yourself with the tip of the handle when doing hooks or some other moves. Ouch! 

"concealed"

Probably the most unusual way of handling here. The term "concealed" isn't exactly adequate (hence the quotation marks), but it is the least conspicuous when standing in a natural stance. Be as it may, the advantages here are that almost any punching technique can be used, because the head of the hammer acts as a fistload, while the handle does not get in a way, if you experiment with the exact position a little bit. As a matter of fact, it comes in handy as a defensive tool/shield against slashing attacks with knives, sticks and other implements. This is, possibly, the fastest of these grips, but not suitable for all shapes and sizes of the tool. 

Could it be a wrench? Well...yeah. In all honesty, though, I don't find it as widely applicable and easy to use. Don't let it deter you, however, experiment for yourself. Hope this gave you some inspiration, and maybe I will post some more technical stuff in the future.