Post by torpedo on Jan 5, 2020 16:05:58 GMT
Knife Fighting What You Need To Know To Realistically Use And Defend Against A Blade
Of
all the possible topics an instructor can misinform students about,
defense against a knife attack is by far the most dangerous. Anyone who
claims to be an expert with a knife and teaches blocking, empty-hand
disarms and low horse stances might as well be teaching students to
catch bullets in their teeth.
Because very few knife-fighting
tournaments take place in the United States, it is difficult for a
prospective student to gauge the authenticity of an edged-weapons
instructor. It seems that all an instructor needs to fool the public is a
pair of camo fatigues and a photo of himself with a nasty expression on
his face and his knife positioned against his opponent’s throat and —
shazam! — instant Rambo.
Martial artists often underestimate the difficulty of knife disarms, Vunak says.
In
my opinion, the most realistic methods for fighting with and defending
against edged weapons come from the Philippines. Because real
confrontations with blades are all too common in that Southeast Asian
nation, their fighting techniques have nothing to do with phony heroism
and everything to do with survival. This article will describe the
techniques and training methods you need to know to defend yourself
against a blade — and to use one.
The infrastructure for
knife fighting is footwork. It allows you to maintain the correct
distance between yourself and your opponent. Having a low stance with no
footwork is like having a Ferrari with no wheels. Being able to quickly
maneuver toward or away from your opponent is essential in any fighting
scenario — but when he is pointing a knife at you, the necessity
skyrockets.
When you think of proper footwork in boxing, you
probably envision Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard darting around the
ring — light, cat-like and constantly sticking and moving. That is the
type of footwork that is appropriate for knife fighting. Obviously, when
you have a sharp weapon in your hand, you do not need to plant your
feet to do damage to your opponent. It is far more important to stay
light and agile. One slice across the knife hand or a quick thrust to
the face may be all it takes to end the altercation.
Distance is key when a knife is play, Vunak says. Too close means too easy to cut.
The
distance at which you choose to fight your opponent is important. Many
instructors teach their students to engage in knife fighting in boxing
range. But if you were to watch one round of a boxing match and count
how many times each fighter gets hit, you would see that contact takes
place way too often. If the boxers traded their gloves for straight
razors, within 10 seconds they would be wallowing in a pool of blood.
There
are hundreds of drills that involve close-quarters knife and stick work
in boxing range, but they were developed to improve your attributes:
sensitivity, coordination, body mechanics, etc. That’s why they are
called self-perfection drills. They should not be confused with real
weapons fighting for the purpose of self-preservation.
In combat,
an experienced knife fighter always fights in largo mano range, which
is just outside kicking range. He can more easily avoid being sliced,
and he can still accomplish his primary objective, which is to cut his
opponent’s knife hand.
If you cut your opponent’s hand, you will
instantly disarm him. It is physically impossible for him to hold a
knife when the tendons, muscles and ligaments responsible for
controlling his hand are severed. Once you have defanged the snake, the
snake is harmless; you then have the choice of killing it or letting it
go. Correct footwork and distancing are crucial to making this strategy
work.
“Defanging the snake” also applies in stick fighting.
Unfortunately, in most modern tournaments you see fighters with
protective gear obsessively engaged in head-hunting. Although those
bouts do teach students how to deal with adrenaline and are a worthwhile
experience, that type of practice should constitute about 5 percent of
your training. It should not be your focus because the rules seldom
award points for smashing the opponent’s hand, and that is unrealistic
for self-defense. If a fighter were to defang the snake by striking his
opponent’s unprotected hand with a piece of hardwood or a pipe, those
neglected hand smashes would have the same effect as a hand cut.
Vunak (left) demonstrates "defanging the snake."
In
a knife fight, timing is as important as footwork and distancing, but
it is more ambiguous and difficult to explain. Timing can be described
as the ability to hit your opponent before, during or after he takes a
shot at you. You must feel that split-second opening for your technique.
Once you develop an expert sense of timing, you can literally move at
one-tenth speed and still connect. In sparring matches, Filipino martial
artists in their 70s have struck me 10 times more often than I struck
them because they possessed near-perfect timing.
To develop
timing, you need awareness and line familiarization (knowledge of all
possible angles of attack), both of which tend to improve with age and
experience. After sparring briefly with Cacoy Cañete, who at age 65 was
still able to basically use my body for target practice, I asked him at
what age he was in his prime. He replied, “In about another 10 or 15
years.”
As with most things in life, perception is everything. If
you perceive the points mentioned above as the most important parts of
knife fighting, you are concentrating on the finger and missing all the
heavenly glory — to paraphrase Bruce Lee.
So what should you do
if you are attacked by someone with a knife? First, you should run. It
has been said that to defend against a blade, you must first learn how
to fight with one; and the more you learn about fighting with one, the
more you will respect the damage that it can inflict. All a blade has to
do is make contact with you. The attacker does not even have to be
particularly skilled to seriously hurt you. Instructors who would have
you disarm a razor-wielding attacker are living in a fantasy land. They
do not understand the grim reality of knife fighting because they
haven’t experienced it. However fun or romantic it may be to picture
yourself snatching a knife from a mugger’s hand, the decision to try
could be the last decision you ever make.
A simple test will
demonstrate why: Buy a red magic marker, go to a confined area and have a
training partner “assault” you at full speed with the marker acting as a
live blade. No matter which blocking or disarming techniques you try,
you will soon discover red lines all over your body.
Obviously,
the best option when facing a knife is to run. If you cannot get away,
you need to find an equalizer. If you carry a knife, pull it out. Or
pick up a bottle or an object to throw: a pool ball, chair, table, pool
cue, hot soup, etc. Use anything necessary to distract him so you can
escape.
If there is nowhere to run and no equalizer available,
you will have to rely on your empty-hand skills. I would probably
attempt a well-timed low double-leg takedown, then smother the attacker
and use techniques from kina mutai, the Filipino art of biting and eye
gouging. Still, I would most likely get cut, perhaps even fatally.
That’s all the more rason to fall back on plan one and run away.
all the possible topics an instructor can misinform students about,
defense against a knife attack is by far the most dangerous. Anyone who
claims to be an expert with a knife and teaches blocking, empty-hand
disarms and low horse stances might as well be teaching students to
catch bullets in their teeth.
Because very few knife-fighting
tournaments take place in the United States, it is difficult for a
prospective student to gauge the authenticity of an edged-weapons
instructor. It seems that all an instructor needs to fool the public is a
pair of camo fatigues and a photo of himself with a nasty expression on
his face and his knife positioned against his opponent’s throat and —
shazam! — instant Rambo.
In
my opinion, the most realistic methods for fighting with and defending
against edged weapons come from the Philippines. Because real
confrontations with blades are all too common in that Southeast Asian
nation, their fighting techniques have nothing to do with phony heroism
and everything to do with survival. This article will describe the
techniques and training methods you need to know to defend yourself
against a blade — and to use one.
Silat for the Street is the
title of a new book by Black Belt Hall of Famer Burton Richardson and
Black Belt magazine.
title of a new book by Black Belt Hall of Famer Burton Richardson and
Black Belt magazine.
knife fighting is footwork. It allows you to maintain the correct
distance between yourself and your opponent. Having a low stance with no
footwork is like having a Ferrari with no wheels. Being able to quickly
maneuver toward or away from your opponent is essential in any fighting
scenario — but when he is pointing a knife at you, the necessity
skyrockets.
When you think of proper footwork in boxing, you
probably envision Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard darting around the
ring — light, cat-like and constantly sticking and moving. That is the
type of footwork that is appropriate for knife fighting. Obviously, when
you have a sharp weapon in your hand, you do not need to plant your
feet to do damage to your opponent. It is far more important to stay
light and agile. One slice across the knife hand or a quick thrust to
the face may be all it takes to end the altercation.
The
distance at which you choose to fight your opponent is important. Many
instructors teach their students to engage in knife fighting in boxing
range. But if you were to watch one round of a boxing match and count
how many times each fighter gets hit, you would see that contact takes
place way too often. If the boxers traded their gloves for straight
razors, within 10 seconds they would be wallowing in a pool of blood.
There
are hundreds of drills that involve close-quarters knife and stick work
in boxing range, but they were developed to improve your attributes:
sensitivity, coordination, body mechanics, etc. That’s why they are
called self-perfection drills. They should not be confused with real
weapons fighting for the purpose of self-preservation.
In combat,
an experienced knife fighter always fights in largo mano range, which
is just outside kicking range. He can more easily avoid being sliced,
and he can still accomplish his primary objective, which is to cut his
opponent’s knife hand.
If you cut your opponent’s hand, you will
instantly disarm him. It is physically impossible for him to hold a
knife when the tendons, muscles and ligaments responsible for
controlling his hand are severed. Once you have defanged the snake, the
snake is harmless; you then have the choice of killing it or letting it
go. Correct footwork and distancing are crucial to making this strategy
work.
“Defanging the snake” also applies in stick fighting.
Unfortunately, in most modern tournaments you see fighters with
protective gear obsessively engaged in head-hunting. Although those
bouts do teach students how to deal with adrenaline and are a worthwhile
experience, that type of practice should constitute about 5 percent of
your training. It should not be your focus because the rules seldom
award points for smashing the opponent’s hand, and that is unrealistic
for self-defense. If a fighter were to defang the snake by striking his
opponent’s unprotected hand with a piece of hardwood or a pipe, those
neglected hand smashes would have the same effect as a hand cut.
In
a knife fight, timing is as important as footwork and distancing, but
it is more ambiguous and difficult to explain. Timing can be described
as the ability to hit your opponent before, during or after he takes a
shot at you. You must feel that split-second opening for your technique.
Once you develop an expert sense of timing, you can literally move at
one-tenth speed and still connect. In sparring matches, Filipino martial
artists in their 70s have struck me 10 times more often than I struck
them because they possessed near-perfect timing.
To develop
timing, you need awareness and line familiarization (knowledge of all
possible angles of attack), both of which tend to improve with age and
experience. After sparring briefly with Cacoy Cañete, who at age 65 was
still able to basically use my body for target practice, I asked him at
what age he was in his prime. He replied, “In about another 10 or 15
years.”
As with most things in life, perception is everything. If
you perceive the points mentioned above as the most important parts of
knife fighting, you are concentrating on the finger and missing all the
heavenly glory — to paraphrase Bruce Lee.
So what should you do
if you are attacked by someone with a knife? First, you should run. It
has been said that to defend against a blade, you must first learn how
to fight with one; and the more you learn about fighting with one, the
more you will respect the damage that it can inflict. All a blade has to
do is make contact with you. The attacker does not even have to be
particularly skilled to seriously hurt you. Instructors who would have
you disarm a razor-wielding attacker are living in a fantasy land. They
do not understand the grim reality of knife fighting because they
haven’t experienced it. However fun or romantic it may be to picture
yourself snatching a knife from a mugger’s hand, the decision to try
could be the last decision you ever make.
A simple test will
demonstrate why: Buy a red magic marker, go to a confined area and have a
training partner “assault” you at full speed with the marker acting as a
live blade. No matter which blocking or disarming techniques you try,
you will soon discover red lines all over your body.
Obviously,
the best option when facing a knife is to run. If you cannot get away,
you need to find an equalizer. If you carry a knife, pull it out. Or
pick up a bottle or an object to throw: a pool ball, chair, table, pool
cue, hot soup, etc. Use anything necessary to distract him so you can
escape.
If there is nowhere to run and no equalizer available,
you will have to rely on your empty-hand skills. I would probably
attempt a well-timed low double-leg takedown, then smother the attacker
and use techniques from kina mutai, the Filipino art of biting and eye
gouging. Still, I would most likely get cut, perhaps even fatally.
That’s all the more rason to fall back on plan one and run away.
