With more and more people buckling to the selfie-stick trend, a self-defense sports school in Moscow has come up with a unique combat class where students learn to use the stick as a weapon.

“In many countries, assaults on tourists have become a frequent occurrence, and the only instrument of self-defense that travelers always carry on themselves is a selfie-stick,” the M-PROFI sports center said in an online statement. Clicking photographs on an expensive smartphone attached to the end of a stick can easily mark a person out as a tourist, making them a vulnerable target for robberies. In such cases, it only makes sense to wield the tool for self-protection.

Photo: video caption

The self defense classes are supported by a group known as the ‘Association of Safe Selfies’. “It’s time for the selfie-stick to be used for a purpose other than to take photographs,” the group’s president said, adding that self-defense methods using the tool have actually become a worldwide trend called ‘mpd-fight’, short for monopod-fight.

Photo: M-PROFI

Becoming a proficient mpd fighter only takes five training sessions, and according to an M-POFI spokesperson, the self(ie)-defense art can be very efficient in fighting off practitioners of boxers, wrestling and mixed martial arts.

Photo: M-PROFI

Unfortunately, mpd-fighters might not be able to use their skills in public places where selfie sticks are banned, like Disney parks and football stadiums in the United States.

Source: The Moscow Times