The short stick (that for eskrima is generally 27,55in in length) is a great weapon to protect yourself in close spaces and expecially at home.
In a quite big room you can use it with just one hand or with both hands on the same side of the stick (as you do with a baseball bat).
But, of course, at home we often have narrow spaces where it is difficult, if not impossible (and in some cases it is impossibile), to handle the stick like that, because we would hit the walls or any other kind of object, loosing the control of the stick or the stick itself.
So, in narrow spaces, the best way to handle the stick is with one hand at each extremity of the strick, leaving a little space between the very end (called punjo) of the extremity of the stick and the place where we put our hand, in order to hit the enemy with that space.
Which side should you use to hit the enemy?
1) with the frontal part of the stick;
2) with the extremity (punjo) of the stick both by the side and by the top;
3) you can use the extremity to make a clinch and than hit the enemy with your knee.
How to hit the enemy?
Trying to imagine an octagon could help you to perform many different combinations of the stick defense at home.
Start from the upper angle of the octagon and move the punjo to the specular point in the lower part and than do it again. It is also great to perform this movement with one extremity and than repeat it with the other.
Mix the hits among them
Here you have and example: start from the upper angle of the octagon, go down to the lower specular angle, than hit orizontally with the other extremity of the weapon.
Following this methods you want to create (using both orizontal and vertical line) a “star” shape in the space.
Rafael