Offense or defense, its all in perception.

[arnisandyz]

I brought this up last week in our small training group. Several years ago I was teaching some FMA in my friends TKD school, all were his TKD students. I was showing them knife tapping and some transition drills. (Knife on empty hand). Something I noticed was that most if not all of them were doing it under the assumption that it is "knife defense". Where as most of you know, although the empy handed person gets training, this is to primarily train the knife person how to get his cuts against people of varying skill levels. I have even heard Chris Sayoc say "as a feeder based art, knife person gets 500% training, the empty hand person 100%".

The people actually feeding the knife were not trying to cut, but instead, present the knife so that it could be "blocked". This is not a knock on TKD or other styles, I just found it interesting how an empty handed system percieves our weapon training drills.

 

[arnisador]

I know what you mean--it's potentially a dangerous case of training for what you can handle, not what you're likely to see. I was the same when I did karate (prior to my involvement in the FMA).

 

[Yari]

I think it's the same when learning to defend yourself against punches and kicks (or the like). Alot of people present the arm or leg. I think it's OK for starters, but it has to move on for a more realistic movement.

/Yari