A lone figure in all black with a hood approaches you in a dark alley. He stops 5 feet in front of you. You are unarmed and cornered. Which of these weapons feels the least dangerous to you? Against which weapons would you rather defend yourself.
@James Driskill I'm going with the greased bat and pepper spray. Logic: If he is only 5 feet away, I'm betting on closing the distance to at least touch him. Hopefully, if I can touch, I can grab. Pepper sprayed or not, once I have contact with him, I will try to maintain it and use my grappling skills. Also hoping to be too close to take damage from the bat. Assuming I get the clinch without getting brained by the bat, I'll fight blind.
Have you been injured from training or fighting? Where was your worst injury? What part of your body bothers you the most with pain or dysfunction? What have you done to fix it?
Surgery on one meniscus. That was definitely from training. Full recovery. However, now both menisci constantly bug me. Right shoulder surgery, cut the bicep tendon, bone spurs, pretty bad arthritis. Surgery didn't help the pain much. Several months to a year later I got PRP shots (platelet rich plasma) which helped as much as anything. What I have done to help that, post surgery and shots, is simply to limit my rolling and who I roll with. I seldom go "hard" any more. I can do it, to a degree, but I am missing strength in some places and if I do roll hard, I pay for it for days. I have a mild interest in what peptides might be able to do. Especially for arthritis.
This isn't deep but I remember it because it was said by one of my favorite instructors (who has passed away): "It isn't a dick move if your opponent has a means of escape, its just good jiu jitsu."