This morning I was getting some pointers from a friend on stick fighting. He contends that most of the FMA stuff taught isn't effiecient and concentrates too much on dueling (lack of commitment when attacking), concentrates too much on the stick and doesn't bring the whole body into play. In his words you're a stick fighter rather than being a fighter with a stick. Trying to defang the snake from the inside didn't work on him and got me dumped in the mud. His background is in Japanese and Okinawan martial arts and stick fighting, a little FMA and a long career in the military.
I've sent him the URL for the Dog Brothers site to see what he thinks.