Knife Fighting

Patrick is an old friend who was my Atemi Ju Jitsu brother in the 90s. Pat moved to the UK where he became a certified instructor in Jeet Kun Do Concepts and Kali under Terry Barnett (www.integratedarts.co.uk). Pat also trained with Mauricio Gomez and his son Roger Gracie in the UK and obtained a blue belt in Brazillian Ju Jitsu. Several years ago Pat visited us and we were fortunate to have him share some of his JKD and BJJ knowledge with us. Here are his thoughts on knife fighting…

Philip

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If you have the opportunity to train with a good Kali man (for knife fighting and defence), seize the opportunity. I must warn you that their are a lot of bad Kali, Escrima and Arnis Instructors … probably because of the commercial aspects of martial arts teaching. Let me explain further …

A lot of people in the Inosanto Lacoste Kali System (it is a good system, if not one of the best FMA, depending upon who is teaching it) became discouraged when many techniques that they had learned could not be applied under the adrenal conditions of battle or full contact sparring (fencing mask & training weapon – baton or blade). The type of fighting that I’m talking about, well you can see video clips on the dog brothers web page, its not for everybody and I respect that.

In the FMA their are two arts: “Entablador” and “Matador”. The first refers to a stage art (like a show) and the second is a killing art. People become impressed when they see empty hand defences against a blade and the master is causing the blade to fly out the attacker’s hand, just missing a spectator. People are more likely to sign up for a class that looks good, than something that is effective, but is boring after two minutes of practise. This is why hundreds of drills have been created in the FMA. Their are only a handful of core drills that you really need … the rest is the same material, just packaged differently.

Learning knife fighting is important as it will enhance your empty hand training and understanding of the blade as well as developing an enormous respect. Many martial artists don’t respect the blade and what damage it can do so they train immaturely.

There are are four basic categories of Filipino knife fighting: (1) single knife (short blade) (3) double knife (two short blades … “espada y daga” and long and short blade (3) “sinawali” (two long blades) and (4) matched and mismatched weapons (i.e. single vs. single, single vs. double, etc, even triple – three short knives loaded vs. single. The reason for triple is sometimes in the interplay, you may start with double knives and end up disarming your partner hence three blades.

To be brutally honest, and this is only my opinion … their is no counter against a skilled blade master because they are trained to counter the disarms (There are six methods of disarms: hit, lock, throw, give back, take way, strip or a combination of those).

Against somebody who is not a knife fighter, your chances of survival improve by your training, however, its a very, very dangerous situation which is why we first escape if possible, if not possible, draw an equalizer (you can’t believe how many blades some of these Kali men carry … boot knives, back of belt, side of belt, etc). Only if cornered or with family or friends will we resort to empty hands.

The Atemi Ju Jitsu system is good because of the nature of the clinch. You are taking away the 2nd and 3rd chance of being hit with the weapon. If they manage to stick the blade (maybe we have a chicken wing latch-on which in grappling we call a over hook or over wrap … even if our grip is not tight, we will only get minor stab wounds which is better than someone striking with the blade at punching range), however, these defences work well only against a committed opponent at close quarters. Somebody that is moving really well, sticking it out and retracting it like a fast jab is a different animal and a different approach or method is needed. The Kali system will give you the sensitivity training for e.g. if you make contact and the opponent suddenly changes the route of his attack or retracts his arm, you are able to adapt through sensitivity and not necessarily what you can see. The blade or hand is quicker than the eye. You need to find someone who can teach you “tapi tapi” this is the sensitivity training. I’m sure their is an example or video clip on the net. If not I will run you through how to train it and it will blend with the Atemi Ju Jitsu.

If knife fighting is what you want to learn then learn to defang the snake (i.e. an opponent strikes, step back and slash his wrist … he wont have the tendons or mechanics to grip the blade). Its the easiest of disarms. This is applicable for “largo mano” range (i.e. where you can safely cut his wrist, but his knife is out of range for cutting your body or arm). The next range in, you incorporate a slash to the wrist, but now the knife is in danger of cutting your body or arm, so you insert a safety check with your alive hand or unarmed hand.

The best way to begin training knife vs. knife is to do isolated sparring (i.e. you and your opponent may only attack the hand and forearm). There is not much technique to it, but you learn the three best ingredients for knife fighting: (1) spatial distance, safe distance (not trading like a boxer), (2) footwork and (3) timing (more and more sparring increases timing) … no sparring no progress … just have fun.

Pat

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