Devil in the Details.

            I was watching a video of a well-known knife-fighting instructor and one of the sequences he showed reminded me of Long Har Ch'uan. That really wasn’t that surprising since LHC drills are designed to teach the essence of efficient defence. What really caught my interest was that I was struck by a sudden nagging impression that something was wrong.

            The sequence was as follows, and is illustrated assuming the attack is coming from the foe’s right hand. You “give a little wave” –make an outward parry with your left hand. Take over the defence against the right with an inward parry with your right hand. You then perform a “dip and slip action” on his right hand that takes you to his outside gate on his right side.

            If this had been a Long Har Ch’uan drill it might have been as follows. Parry the right with an inward parry with your right. Take over the parry with an outward parry with your left. Use your right to make an outward parry on his right arm and take you to the outside gate.

            The two sequences seem similar but “the devil is in the details!” On the second parry the knife-fighter is turning his right flank towards his opponent while his right hand is occupied with the right. He is on the inside gate so there is nothing to stop the enemy using his left hand against any available target. In the LHC sequence we started off with an inward parry while on the inside gate but immediately switched to an outward parry with the left, freeing the right hand for further action. The right hand was used to move to the outside gate but it could have been used to defend against any attacks by the left hand if necessary.

            If you parry an enemy’s attack he may not leave his arm there for you to manipulate. A fairly common reaction will be to withdraw the parried limb and make an attack with the other hand. Thus in LHC we are taught to have the other hand ready for other actions when making an outward parry and to convert inward parries into outward parries to free up the other hand.  An even simpler LHC sequence in the above example would have been:- “give a little wave” –make an outward parry with your left hand and simultaneously smash your right palm heel into his face.

            For more on the principles the training drill of Long Har Ch’uan can teach please read the section in my book or consult the older compilation of Erle Montaigue’s works edited by myself.

 

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Posturing or Placating

            Until a few years back I used to run first year classes at a major university. As an incurable people watcher the first few weeks of the first term were always entertaining. Something interesting I observed when it was time for the first large practical class. This was a stressful time. There is a big room of people you don’t know and you are not sure what to expect. I would usually be standing near the door and would be one of the first things the student would encounter. I am big, ugly and look like I own the place. Here is what I noticed.

            Young males would enter the room, obviously nervous and uncertain. On seeing me they would puff themselves out and try to walk with a swagger. Didn’t fool anyone and I would often have to repress the urge to laugh.

            Young women, on the other hand would usually smile at me and would often say hello. Interestingly many of the more mature male students also would acknowledge or greet me.

            What has this got to do with self-defence? Quite a bit really, since the first stage of defence is to avoid a fight entirely. The young male response was to posture, the female to placate and establish a rapport. Something to think about.

 

FBI Baton

            Thinking about the previous post and the scenarios of Police officers faring so badly against a suspect with a knife the question arises “Did these cops try to use their batons?” If the knife was drawn first I can see that the suspect could be all over the cop before he can draw the baton or gun, but it the baton is in hand one would expect the knifeman to take a couple of hard hits to his knife arm or shoulder. Here is the FBI manual on the baton.

FBI-Baton-1967

 

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21st post! Invisible Knives.

            A few days ago I came across this interesting article. The whole thing is worth reading and thinking on, but I will reproduce a few key points here.

“... in early 1992 I conducted an empirical video research study. I had 85 police officers participate in a scenario based training session where unknown to them, they would be attacked with a knife. The attacker, who was dressed in a combatives suit, was told that during mid way of the contact, they were to pull a knife that they had been concealing, flash it directly at the officer saying "I’m going to kill you pig" and then engage the officer physically. The results were remarkable:

• 3/85 saw the knife prior to contact
• 10/85 realized that they were being stabbed repeatedly during the scenario
• 72/85 did not realize that they were being assaulted with a knife until the scenario was over, and the officers were advised to look at their uniforms to see the simulated thrusts and slices left behind by the chalked training knives

..... It also explains why one officer, who had actually caught the attackers knife hand with both of his hands and was looking directly at the knife, stated "I didn’t see any knife" It was not until I showed the video that he believed there was a knife.”

            There are other reasons why you might not see a knife in addition to stress and adrenaline. Knives are often used at night or in dark places, the attacker may be actively concealing the knife or may not draw it until he feels he needs it.

            Many self-defence books like to tell you that in a real fight there are no rules and then give you specific techniques for an unarmed foe, one with a knife, one with a club and so forth. The “Pat, Wrap and Attack” system of controlling the weapon delivery system that Darren Laur mentions seems technically sound, but is based on the assumption that you are aware a weapon is involved.

            This leads me to the following conclusions:-

• In a real fight always assume that a weapon might become involved. Just because you do not see a weapon does not mean that it is there.  Deliberately going to ground and wrestling may get you cut.

• All of your primary offensive and defensive techniques must be practiced as though your partner had a knife in his hand(s). Strikes and parries must be withdrawn or they will get “cut”. Use evasion and manoeuvre in preference to blocking and parrying.

Naturally after reading the above article and deducing these conclusions I read through the book to make sure none of the techniques I suggest contravened these ideas. They didn’t

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