Bryan Mossey - Knife Grappling

[Charlemagne]

I've been looking forward to seeing some of this material for some time now, and am glad that Bryan is starting to release it. For those who don't know who Bryan is, he is a Black Belt in GJJ under Pedro Sauer, a Full Instructor in FMA under Dan Inosanto, an Instructor in Silat under Dan Inosanto, an instructor in Muay Thai under Ajarn Chai, etc., etc. Several years back, he and Pedro Sauer started collaborating on some weapons grappling material, and it is my understanding that they are planning to release a DVD together at some point in the not too distant future. Bryan releases a video once and a while that he calls his Mossey Move of the Week, and this time around it is on Weapons Grappling.

For the record, I sure as heck do not want to find myself in a weapons grappling situation on the ground. But I am very glad that good people with legit credentials have started to take a serious look at this.

 

[Tames D]

Bryan has amazing credentials.

 

[Charlemagne]

Bryan has amazing credentials.

What's funny is I think that is only about half of what he has done. He is certified under Mark McFann also, shoots IDPA, has boxing experience, and I think he was a bouncer at a 1% Biker Gang bar back in the day. He also stated recently that for his 50th Birthday, he is going to train for an MMA fight. This is after coming off of multiple knee replacements.


He's a heck of a nice guy as well. He always gives credit to his instructors and he went out of his way to help me out when I was at my first seminar with Guro Dan.

 

[Tames D]

Absolutely!

 

[drop bear]

Unless he lets go of the knife.

 

[Buka]

I've been train knife/grappling with Mark Human out of South Africa for a while now. Eye opening. Mark is a knife man first, a grappler second. We train offense and as much as defense, which I find interesting, but I guess that goes with him being a knife man first.

The first thing that struck me in training was how I carried my knife and how I accessed it. Made me rethink a lot of things.

It's a lot of fun, too.

 

[Blindside]

We just finished a two month module on knife grappling, but this is a new option, and I have no idea why this didn't come up. I am also looking forward to Bryan putting out a DVD on weapon grappling.
(Which I of course will be unable to learn from because it is video, but I digress.....)

 

[Charlemagne]

We just finished a two month module on knife grappling, but this is a new option, and I have no idea why this didn't come up.

I think it is fair to say that the majority of FMA guys/gals don't really have a legit grappling background in an art that pressure tests their stuff the way BJJ does, and that most BJJ guys don't have a weapons background beyond the little that is shown in the Gracie Self-Defense curriculum. There are exceptions to that of course, but I have found it to be true more often than not. Thankfully, these two camps are starting to cross over more often, and I hope that this continues.

 

[Blindside]

I think it is fair to say that the majority of FMA guys/gals don't really have a legit grappling background in an art that pressure tests their stuff the way BJJ does, and that most BJJ guys don't have a weapons background beyond the little that is shown in the Gracie Self-Defense curriculum. There are exceptions to that of course, but I have found it to be true more often than not. Thankfully, these two camps are starting to cross over more often, and I hope that this continues.

I am quite sure my group is reinventing the wheel, but there is very little of it publicly out there. Most of my group are judo brown or black belts (not me!) and I bring kali into the mix. We have been coming up with "best practices" in the range and have come up with some useful stuff. This is all done through rolling and pressure testing, so I am curious how it winds up stacking against other instructor's stuff. But you need to find the right guys, rolling with a BJJ guy and you start talking knife they often get weirded out.

 

[Charlemagne]

I am quite sure my group is reinventing the wheel, but there is very little of it publicly out there. Most of my group are judo brown or black belts (not me!) and I bring kali into the mix. We have been coming up with "best practices" in the range and have come up with some useful stuff. This is all done through rolling and pressure testing, so I am curious how it winds up stacking against other instructor's stuff.

Awesome. The more people with legit credentials working on this the better in my view.

But you need to find the right guys, rolling with a BJJ guy and you start talking knife they often get weirded out.

Most do for sure, but there are a number of guys starting to use BJJ for legit weapons based combatives these days. In addition to Bryan, Craig Douglas and Cecil Burch come to mind, but I imagine there are several more I haven't heard of.

 

[frank raud]

Haa! I was going to suggest Cecil Burch and Southnarc. Have trained with both. Also suggest Paul Sharp.. No current DVDs from Paul but he does do seminars throughout the States.

 

[Blindside]

This was us two years ago, mostly dying. Unfortunately that hasn't improved that much as everyone has gotten better.

 

[Red Sun]

Why is the knifer holding his opponent in a guard, couldnt he try to get his legs under him? (they might talk about that in the video but i have no audio atm)

This was us two years ago, mostly dying. Unfortunately that hasn't improved that much as everyone has gotten better.

Hey, that's some really nice training! Do you have more vids like that?

 

[Charlemagne]

Also suggest Paul Sharp.. No current DVDs from Paul but he does do seminars throughout the States.

Hadn't seen him. I'll take a look. Thanks for that.

 

[frank raud]

Hadn't seen him. I'll take a look. Thanks for that.

Paul, Cecil and Southnarc are part of a team of instructors throughout the country that work together integrating grappling into a weapon based environment.

 

[Blindside]

Why is the knifer holding his opponent in a guard, couldnt he try to get his legs under him? (they might talk about that in the video but i have no audio atm)

There is no instruction, it is just us sparring. The guy in guard could improve his position but he was too busy cutting up the other guy, and he was too busy trying to work some counters to wrist and arm controls.

Hey, that's some really nice training! Do you have more vids like that?

Thanks, a couple, again not instructional, this one is mostly stand up:

This was us a couple of months ago doing training various takedowns from both the defenders and attackers point of view, you can see the judo influence.

Lots of other vids on that channel, but mostly matched weapon dueling and a couple of instructionals that are public.

 

[Red Sun]

There is no instruction, it is just us sparring. The guy in guard could improve his position but he was too busy cutting up the other guy, and he was too busy trying to work some counters to wrist and arm controls.

Ah! I was unclear - The 1st part of my reply was referring to the video in the OP, where the knifer is just sitting in the guard. In your videos there's alot of struggling and fighting, which makes alot more sense

 

[Blindside]

Paul, Cecil and Southnarc are part of a team of instructors throughout the country that work together integrating grappling into a weapon based environment.

I was familiar with Southnarc but not the other two. Thanks.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I've been playing a bit lately with grappling vs the knife. Unfortunately, most of the skilled grapplers I know aren't particularly expert with the knife and most of the FMA guys I know aren't really expert grapplers. I'm starting to work some things out, but I need to do a lot more practice and research.

I did practice the sequence shown in the original video with some friends last week. It seems pretty solid, with some good ideas which should be applicable to other situations. It was interesting to see the two guys I was training with (both BJJ purple belts) had some bad instincts with regard to controlling the knife which would have gotten them badly cut or stabbed in a fight. I had to work with them a bit to get them to where they could actually drill the technique as shown.

BTW - I strongly recommend Nok knives (sold by @Brian R. VanCise ) for training knife grappling. I picked up a pair for my birthday and have been very happy with them.)

 

[frank raud]

Tony, do you know Aaron Little at Performance Edge?