Safety first

Hey Russ, the way our culture is these days its a wonder why anybody would want to bother teaching anybody anything.I hear you about the bling bling, not so popular in canada, but I always have students take off all jewelry and watches before we do anything.There are a whole bunch of good scenarios, amybe try one where the defender is in a fence postion dealing with someone either being aggressive or deceptively peaceful and they suddenly reach for a knife.Or multiple attackers etc, I find not only are they good tools but it gets the students more involved and really shows them that the material "really does work in real life" Regards

Rus, I'm intrigued. When you run the knife drills, whats the aim? Control? Threat removal? Is it just you, empty handed? Can you use anything in the room to help? Do you put obstacles in the room? Do you shout & draw attention?

Always interested in how people do this. I will be doing the same style drill this evening. Not having seen Ritchies knife defence stuff (I think) wondered whether the aim is attack him or control the weapon? Think its attack him is'nt it? I've tried the control stuff that DBMA teach, could never get it to work successfully for me same with red zone knife defence, Attack the CNS is what I rely on now in drilling. Helps that I have a long reach.

Wish me luck. Got a bash night/grading tonight.

Hey Russ here is one you might like, have the class stand in a crowd in front of the designated defender snd at some point have someone come out of the crowd with a knife and attack.A variation is to allow them to pass the knife around between them and defender must identify who has the knife.You can alos add the crowd getting involved, that will really motivate them to blast the fuck out of there.I find its really good to give them the terrible experiance of being swarmed, even when its in training, with people slapping and shouting and swearing and restraining the person, it is so unpleasant that it installs a deep aversion to even letting that happen.Another good drill is to have two people ina clinch situation and the goal is to use tacticle sensitivity to detect an attempt to acces a knife(or gun) in the course of a fight and to try and suffocate it by controlling or manipulating thr weapon arm with the defenders free arm as he maintains a trap on the attacker.You could also try practicing for a live drill ie assuming the knife is already out trying to parry and strike at the same time, sometimes a good parry and an eye shot done to gether will shut down the attacker long enough to get away.Just some ideas, based on the many great drills I have done.They are effective and keep things interesting for the students, they lean so much when it is live drills, they see the chaos for themselves, they realise the dangers of trying to go force to force, they realsie how exhausting this is,richies material on the knife and mauling are really great to integrate as attacking the soft spots on an attacker is the best and fastes way to bypass the whole "who is tronger and in better shape" issue.Believe me Russ, I started doing this stuff at the age of 45 after being the King of Coach Potatoes for years and smoking too ( I quit that) training against young fit guys in theri twenties really made me realise the benefit if richies type of mauling material, the system in which I am an instructor is senshido, and works on similar principles, getting those hands and fingers into someones face while trapping him, adding knees , head butts , bitting spitting the wholel nine yards, is a great way to overpass those biger and stronger.Anyway I blab! enjoy.I can give you aa million drills of all kinds.Regards

Hey Danite.

I have a few of the Senshido vids, really like them the ethic they evince is well sound. Would like to attend a seminar when money & health & time allow. How are you dealing with the new holistic, vaguely spiritual approach the Rich Dimitri seems to be adopting. Whats your view on the new de-escalation direction you guys are taking? I use a shred-maul-bert poe style grab & rip a lot in training & it seems very effective.

Rus, knife drills for us are most of the time very similar to what Sharif was showing on his vid a little while ago. Personally, I dont do that grapple thing. I just try to smack the guy in the head as hard as i can, If i cant run or transistion to use a weapon & I favour the run!!! In fact last grading, I forgot to hit the attacker & just legged it out the door. (well it was a crowd drill & you dont usually know who has the knife but i saw him access it when he was a good 5 metres away so i just left whilst shouting lookout out!!! He's got a knife!) & then I ran back in & hit him whilst he was looking bemused. That got a laugh.

I think there is too much macho shit around knife defence to be honest, I always tell my son Nike defence first & foremost, that blade arm is too fucking hard to catch & the risk is so very great.

The drills we do are usually with crowds or drawing the weapon after the fight has started, or dealing with 1 guy & 2nd party enters with a weapon. Because I have to train with out glasses a lot of the time, I have to rely on the opponents posture & demeanour to tell me whether he is armed rather than seeing him cleanly access or carry the weapon.

In other words, pretty standard drills you would hope to see anywhere that the people who follow the ethos on this site would train.

Matt

Matt--Blakops
sounds good.
i case mine wasn't clear [often too cryptic--me], we never grapple per say. or grab
a knife arm as such. mostly hitting over and over and attempting to ram the person
against the nearest hard surface. this is the close quarters [in a room, etc...anywhere
that an exit isn't just ahead with the door wide open].

the rest is the same as you train, and Richie. when some escape is in view. to include
non knife stuff. alot of the multiples end in someone simply outrunning--and weaving,
their way out the marked exit.

just adding in case the entry wasn't clear. i still admit to liking this training more than
running. can't say why...okay, yes i can, because it develops the agro...or allows it
release [can't say which].

have a good training tonight--you'll probably be done when you read this...about 8pm
your time as i type.


...

Danite,
thanks for the drill tips. i don't get the opportunity to do knife drills with my 18 yr olds,
the school is not that open minded

all my knife drills at the moment, are one on one--with my mate that i've been doing
MA with for over 20 years. there's alot of trust as we push the envelop and beat the
shite out of each other.

i can't wait to get more of my after hours folks on board to knife drills and multiples.
still awaiting my big school drop out nephews to join--supposedly after the new year.
i'll try ALL the drills you have for me mate. i'm saving the one you posted.
tah

Hey Black Ops, just one word on knife defence.I agree fully that the focus should be on escape, but some attention must be paid to having no choice but to deal with the attack by coming to grips with the attacker in some form and trying to control ( via manipulation even , ie getting your hand into the web of his arm) the knife arm.I am glad you like the senshido material.Rich will be shooting new dvds at an upcoming seminar in sheffiled ( I can get the dates for you if you wish).De -escalation has always been a major part of senshido training.Getting really conmfortable with working from the fence and working the fence for all its worth is really worthwhile.Being adept at it alows for both the option of getting out of the situation without violence, or dealing explosively with the need for violence.As well doing alot of realistic scenario training with the fence and attempting to de -escalate( which should include real and loud levels of extreme verbal abuse and button pushing) makes on much less sensitive to the whole thing.After a while you ignore the shouting and the insults and concentrate on the important stuff, like where his hands are, what his friends are doing and what your plan is.I think working from the fence with de -escalation techiniques is a very important element of street survival skills.I have seen a thousand times.The big new guy in the class, the real "tough MMA guy" who gets to play the heavy in his first scenario session, he comes on real strong as he should supper secure in himself and his stuff, and then he freezes when a hand is simply put in his face from the fence position( and so delivered non telegraphically, thus he can stop it).It is them pointed up with the ways that freeze even for a seconf can be followed up.They are much more careful after that.The average thug in the srteet is not expecting these kinds of responses and techinques, it puts suprise on our side,which is what he figured he had on his.Regards

Hi Russ, glad you liked the drills,by the way if you really want people to take the knife seriously use an aluminum training folder knife.Stab full force, they arent dangerous but they will take little chunks out and scratch and bruiise a bit, nothing too serious, but you feel it when it goes into the ribs.We did that for the advanced classes, it ups things a notch.Let me know if you want other drills of all kinds , I have many.Enjoy

Good stuff Danite... Have you tried using a stun gun (hand held) as a knife yet. It's a real shocker and will get your attention the first time or two.

Hey Roadkill, no I havent had the pleasure of trying the stun gun , but I have trained with elcetric knives, they also make you take things seriously!.Another good tool is the no lie blades training knives, which allow you to see the hits scored with a knife.That will quickly show anyone the reality of the horrid difficulty it is to deal with a knife.In fact I have tried to make the knife my "specialty" over the years and have trained it alot.I remember when we do a week of really hard core knife classes,dealing empty handed with someone from the fence seemed like a walk in the park.Regards

Danite. I have a few of the senshido vids. Never seen them control the knife arm. Shred seems to be the order of the day, any vids to demonstrate your point? Would like to get some idea.

Roadkill, shocking!!

Rus, I am battered and bruised & got double leg tookdown that nearly folded my left leg the wrong way at the knee, I thought it was broke it felt so wrong!!! Just extremely swollen & a little muscle tearing i think but fuckit still hurts. just pleased that the direction of force was straight back through it, not side or I really think I would have snapped one of the ligaments in my knee.

Hobbling around like a three legged dog.

Otherwise, Great energy tonight, really good bunch of guys, a few ego's in the first mins & then just cool serious take care of each other whilst punching the shit out of you drills!

I dont feel I was as good or sharp as I could be but I didnt fail in any drill or holdback if I was the attacker, Got complimented on my strikes by a few guys whos opinion I really value. One of them a Prison Guard at a local Cat A/B prison.

Guy who took me down is a first Dan Judoka & probably out weighs me by 4 stone.

Especially pleased because we started with a groundwork drill to warm up. First playing aggressor against a resisting but passive opponent then other way round. As aggressor I tapped all but one (aforementioned Judoka Paul) & as passive no-one got me. one of them is an MMA guy, been training three years. Couldnt choke me, couldnt armbar me or triangle. & you could see he was pissed off about it, still a great guy.

Anyway not sure whether i passed & to be honest not bothered. As you can probably tell I am on a bit of a high! The grading bullshit is just that. its working out with a great bunch of lads in a pressureized environment & not embarrassing myself. No end of confidence booster. I will just have to keep working on my sprawl! (to be fair, he was only 6 inches away, we were running a drill to wrestle standing in jackets ala the vids someone put up a few weeks ago, gotta prepare for these cold winter evenings

Anyway I am gonna crack a can. Good night all.