Cat Easton's defense is so good there was never a worry.

I'm glad the cat survived!

ScholaCATiatoria has no fear.

A huge thanks to Lucy and Cat Easton for helping Mat bring us this great video!

Glad both Lucy and the cat survived! Interesting show, Matt.

That cat was in grave danger there! 🙀😿

That's similar grip ice-hockey players use during the face off. Explanation is probably the stronger hooking action for the blade of the stick when referee drops the puck.

Cats are completely unconcerned with humans swinging sticks around

In Jo (the 150cm stick) method in traditional Aikido, as shown by Ueshiba and Saito, the first stab is choku-tsuki (thumb-forward grip) and the second stab is kaeshi-tsuki (reverse grip). The third stab is ushiro-tsuki (to the rear), which uses the same grip as the first but in reversed direction, so the back hand that has become the leading hand is now in reverse grip.

Back to discussing the cat...

Can’t go wrong with a pointy stick related video!

Was waiting for Cat Easton to meet their maker in this one. 😂

Lucy seems to have the super power of seeming both enthusiastic and not impressed at the same time.

“The Hidden Fortress” by Akira Kurosawa has the best Japanese spear fighting scene ever captured on film and this grip is used

In most Viking reenactment systems this used to give better control and generall force the spearhead down away from the face.

I was questioning that for years, some people tried to explain it but you've got the best explaination, thanks!

Public service announcement: no cats were injured in the filming of this video.

I practice aikido and we teach both grips for jo work (which is a proxy for a spear) - the reverse grip is known as gyakute and in our kata, we frequently switch junte and gyakute. Being able to use both grips simultaneously adds a lot of versatility.

NINJA REVERSE SPEAR? Hollywood's gonna love this one!

2:01 I can't speak of every culture and martial tradition out there, but I know that the Manchu (Qing) heavy cavalry wielded their lances/spears as their main weapon on the charge when they found a gap or thin area of a formation to exploit, and then after breaking through and rampaging though the backline, they'd draw their bows from its scabbard and use that as their primary weapon to wreak havoc and hit as many soldiers as they could at near point-blank range while staying out of the melee range of enemy combatants.

Thumbs up for the T-Shirt.