Hi Lads, reading the newest reply today here I started this letter, its more rambling, agreeing with most of what is said and then qualifying anything that I did not totally agree on, and note when I make a general statement its based on the Majority of teachers out their not a personal representation of your teaching methods or programs.
Chiduce Wrote " Heck, a knife is no more dangerous than a gun attack at close range! It is when you distance yourself from the oncoming weapon that you may be fatally injured. If you are close enough, just about any reasonable technique that you had learned in the dojo will work! The point is Fear! The more you fear the blade the less likely you are defend to against the attack! "
With training, i would say the knife is actually less of a danger then the gun,
First the gun, agreed that you really dont have a lot of practical options with defense against the gun unless you are in close quarters range, until you can get close enough to move the gun out of range and have it pointed back in their face in a return control and restraint tech, joint lock, your basically a sitting duck, but thats sort of the deal with a loaded gun and the attacker, if he is not going to bother to get close to you and is only mugging you, i.e. telling you to toss him your wallet or purse, your best defense is to try and either lure him in to closer range, or give him your damn money....
You get them in close enough i.e. to come and take the money from you as you hold your hand just out of reach, with the right training and tech, the gun should become much more deadly for the attacker then you....
Knife, first anyone that turns their back to an attacker with any weapon has a very likely chance of being a dead runner, Backing out yes, creating a distance yes, turning your back on an attacker NO NO NO, so i totally agree there to be sure. and except someone using the knife as a projectile or throwing weapon you cant get cut by a knife unless your in close physical contact with them.
What gets me is that most traditional martial arts teachers take years if they do it at all to teach you the realties of what you will face in a real attack with a weapon based on all the issues, out on the streets as you say its a totally different ball game then what your going to learn in most Dojo's. I find if very disconcerting to know how little most teachers actually push the realty of what a real attack is like from someone that is either deranged, drunk, on drugs, filled with rage or anger, or worse trained and you are their intended victim or prey. Once committed their is not much that is going to change their minds about attacking you, once committed to the fight their not going to back down easily and just decide its not worth it. The mind of these kinds of people put them in a place that once committed to the action their is little to loose and little reason to backdown.
Fear... again the only answer for fear as you say, is desensitization and training, flat out until your comfortable with a weapon your going to take the risk of freezing up in a confrontation when facing a weapon of any kind. The flight and fight response is a very real physiological response.
There is no easy tech to learn or fast guarantee that you will not fall into blind panic or total stone frozen, unless you test your techs and become familiar with the weapons you may face, and no you dont necessarily have to learn knife fighting to be able to learn enough of a comfort level to face a weapon.
In are level one testing, in are Filipino martial arts core " NOTE: are level one takes a year to get though and thats training at least 3 days a week in the system" you have to demonstrate at least free flow returns and solo work with the live blade. If your not comfortable enough to do this in a flowing manor, you dont pass your test.
Here is something standard i tell all my students about-facing weapons,
1) You cant dodge bullets.... this is not matrix
2) If your goanna face the knife be prepared to get cut, its not about not getting a slice here and there its about minimizing the damage, in a real knife fight its very different and most dont get that part for sometime as a new student.
3) Dont expect to learn self defense and awareness in a long term traditional martial art, use the long term training for personal growth and skills to make sure you dont freeze up and for all the other huge positive benefits that come with training long term, but make sure you augment your traditional stuff with realty based self defense and awareness training, or a realty based martial art.
Yes, many have incorporated the realty-based awareness and facing the techs, you learn and teach in the dojo to include what is needed to stay safe on the streets, but the majority do not, and all the reasons they dont are very very wrong.
Chiduce Wrote " If you are close enough, just about any reasonable technique which you had learned in the dojo will work!"
I dont know about that i have seen a lot of Dojos and traditional core arts that dont teach street applicable defenses for a knife, for instance i have 3 students that have been training and fully ranked in a number of arts, these men have over 25 years of long term training in a number of arts, Judo, Hapkido, TKD, and large number of the core Karate based arts.
Each of these men came and started taking gun and knife street defensive tactics on a private level from me after almost taking a knife to the gut.... and they all used the same tech, this same tech is used in all of the above listed arts and taught as a block and knife defense. Not good and i would love to someday get the block that is used outlawed for teaching for a knife defense. However, it is such a core move that it has been totally muscle memorized in these men and most students that take these arts.
just like IFAJKD, i wanted to cry at the thought that these men spent there whole lives learning a tech that almost got them killed.. when they came to me the concept of what i was trying tell them was hard for them to grasp because of the long term training in MA with no core street stuff to back them. i had to litteraly show them physicaly when facing my knife and the block and then comming back and slicing and dicing them when they used it, trap, slice up though the block and go deep into the gut.
scary stuffs to be sure........
but its the only way i was able to start breaking 25 years sometimes more of a block that was practiced over and over......
Yeah its cool i have students with so much experience coming to the old, slow chick for education in realty based knife defensive tactics, but what sucks is they all could have died..........
Last rambling:
What is a weapon, this is a core concept that has been taught as part of are weapons 101 format for over 10 years, everything is a weapon in the hands of someone that is either realty based trained as a criminal or someone trained in weapons professionally
Ms. J Bows deeply
BTW I will be releasing a book in the next few months that covers realty based level one on the streets self-Defense and Awareness education this book also includes the outline for are level one Weapons 101 defensive tactics course, level one TAO SDA, and our level one Lifestyles Realty based Senerio training program
