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THE DEFENSIVE EDGE
A realistic look at knife fighting
By
Morné Swanepoel
President JKD Unlimited South Africa
www.jkd.co.za
President World Taiji Boxing
Association South Africa
www.freewebs.com/sataichi
The most constant thing in life is change. Everything
that has been mummified belongs to the past.
Mummification is a blockage in the body, there is no
spirit. We are all alive and need to progress and go
beyond…
In all of my training and experiences, the one area of
the martial arts or realistic combat that frightens me
the most is the knife. It is hard to convey the ugliness
of the knife as a weapon. Anyone, trained-untrained,
man-woman, is at a significant advantage with a knife
and a great disadvantage against one. So, how do we
prepare ourselves for this fatal encounter?
REALITY
is the key here, as most martial artists train primarily
to defend against a face to face ‘Hollywood’ type knife
attack. We need to distinguish between that which looks
good for demonstration purposes and that which will work
in actual knife fight. Look at the way you are training.
You need to develop your training to gain the necessary
skills and attributes to deal with high-speed aggressive
blade attacks. Training with edged weapons is virtually
useless unless it is balanced out with experience or
realistic training methods and functional techniques.
Research has shown that fine motor skill techniques
require a certain degree of awareness, skill, proximity
sense and exact timing to pull off, quite a bit to ask
in a real self defence situation. The best Techniques
are those you have tried and tested over and over again
in as close to reality environment as possible. Make
things simple so it works under pressure and ensure you
incorporate functional training methods to compliment
your techniques.
We get this experience via resistance training or
through actual sparring. Reality knife fighting occurs
at combative speed and this is where we need to be
functional and effective. This doesn’t mean that you
should neglect the various drills that allow for
creative, relaxed and playful training. When you are in
a confrontation that can cost you your life, you have no
excuses for not having prepared as thoroughly as
possible in your training. This means that your training
exploration has to involve everything that works in a
full resistance environment, and that you have to
thoroughly prepare yourself for these defensive and
offensive tactics.
So why then should you train in offensive knife fighting
skills? You need to understand the offensive elements in
order to develop defensive tactics for any offensive
techniques you might encounter. Knowledge of weapons
working will give you an advantage if you must defend
yourself against one. Improvised weapons are often
available, so we need to practice fighting with a weapon
to develop those skills. One needs to also focus on
Knife vs Knife and then working empty hand against a
weapon. You must always consider surrendering whenever a
weapon is used, unless you believe that doing so will
place you in greater danger.
When training with weapons it is also important to
understand the various levels of confrontation one
should implement.
1. Avoid.
Improve your awareness and avoid. There are various
ways to improve ones awareness
towards violent crime. From the training you do to
studying the criminal mindset and
statistics and cases relating to the topic.
2. Escape
Set up various scenarios in your training and
learn to always look to escape. Mentally
‘create’ various situations in your mind and plan
how you would escape from it. One can
also create a situation in your training where you
need to ensure the escape of a loved one
etc.
3. Use Environment
Throwing objects or putting a obstacle between you
and your attacker or using and object
to hit weapon hand or attacker. One can set up
various training methods to simulate this
i.e. using focus mitts, boxing gloves etc. which
will represent the difference between
objects one can throw and those you can use as a
weapon.
4. Mobility
Working on ones perception of distancing,
timing and accuracy not to engage and to
escape the situation as safe as possible. One needs
to also work one ones mobility tactics
when having a loved one with you to protect.
5. Engage
This is extreme and is really only worthwhile
if saving a loved ones life is at stake or if the
situation or environment requires one to engage
with attacker. When engaging it is
imperative that one grabs the weapon hand with
both hands to secure and to then
set up your escape or attack.
An important guideline is to avoid focussing on disarms
unless the situation presents itself. It is also
important to use various size training knifes and
improvised weapons to ensure a well rounded approach to
a realistic encounter. Add Realistic drills in your
training and ensure correct drilling before and after
‘techniques’. Train in various environments and test
your techniques all the time to ensure you get the
correct feedback with the ‘techniques’ you are using.
Adding blade training into your arsenal for realistic
Street Self defence is essential. One must not make the
mistake by thinking you are invincible and that it is
now OK to take on a attacker with a weapon. Avoiding and
Escaping should always be your first priority. This is
by no means a cowardly reaction. Your possessions can be
replaced your life cannot. There can only be one winner
in a knife fight and more often than not there are two
losers. There is an old saying that says ’ When two
tigers fight, the one will die today, the other dies
tomorrow due to all it’s wounds it suffered’ Don’t just
dismiss training with weapons because you think that
you’ll never use them and that you will be able to avoid
this type attack in the street. You will gain more
insight, be more prepared for any situation, improve
your attributes, and its loads of fun. Training with
weapons is part of becoming the best that you can be.
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