Inosanto Dagger Question

[ArmorOfGod]

I was reviewing volume 5 of Guru Dan's FMA series and noticed that when he and his partner hold their knives, they have their thumb straight up and not curled around the knife handle. Does anyone know why he does this?

AoG

 

[Blindside]

When you mean "straight up" do you mean laying along the spine of the blade in what some people call a "fencing" or "sabre" grip, or do you mean lifted off the blade so he is only holding the blade with the 4 fingers and not really using the thumb to secure the grip?

Sabre grip is often used because it aids in providing good tip control in use, alot of knives have a thumb ramp designed to rest your thumb there, you don't lose grip strength because the pinch is now front to back rather than side to side. If you mean lifted off the back, that is a bad habit derived from lots of drilling where you capture a limb (usually at the wrist) by pinching it between the back of the blade and the thumb. It can also happen with an "index grip" (index laying along the side of the blade) at long range when the grip is relaxed, the thumb tends to float off when you relax the grip, you are supposed to clamp back down when you strike (just like punching) but often at long range it can float to the side.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

He and his partner both have their thumbs lifted off the blade and handle, so they are holding the knife with 4 fingers (the thumb is not securing the grip).

AoG

 

[Mark Lynn]

Another use for the thumb off of the dagger is that it is used to trace or reference where you body is in relation to the knife. If you are doing real close in knife work by extending the thumb and drawing it across your body (say chest) then you know in a sense how close the blade it to your body so to speak. It didn't make a lot of sense to me when an instructor told me this but then I didn't study that blade oriented system of FMA. Mine being Modern Arnis is more stick based then edged weapon based.

Likewise the thumb off of the knife being used for pinching and or hinder the knife bearing hand, I have heard as well. As for the pinching concept it was explained that if a situation arose where blades were drawn and you didn't want to hopefully kill or severely injure the person, I think the example was used of a person being drunk at a party who pulls something and you draw the knife, then you could possibly gain control of the wrist and pinch or hinder the weapon hand as you deal with the threat.

I understand the the teachings here, but that doesn't mean I fully support them either.