Sean Ertsgaard’s steel cane helps him maintain his balance and step forward without falling down.
It’s also part of a self-defense arsenal the 31-year-old with cerebral palsy can use to injure an attacker and escape to safety.
“Rake, Bite, Poke,” Ertsgaard said as he demonstrated a few of the tactics he’s learned while studying adaptive self-defense at southeast Bend’s Smith Martial Arts for the past four years. “You don’t want to stay there (when someone is attacking you). You want to get away.”
