Knife Reality v Knife Fantasy

After watching a clip today, i thought i would pen a few words on what I saw. To often knife sparring or fantasy techniques are put out there as a form of knife defence.

1) Knife sparring or duelling is not like the street. In the street, an attacker is going to move in fast and hard. The vast majority of the time you probley won't even be able to see the blade, and when the attacker moves in he will strike, and strike until the job is done, you will be pull, maul, clinched into a close range, and if you don't control the attacker knife arm you will not come of well, he will pummel you with strikes and it just takes just one of these strikes to end your ability to defend .. which brings me to next point.

2) Do not put one of your hand behind your back, whatever advantage you think you get by saving your free arm from getting cut, will definitely be overcome 100% by the ability of the attacker to cut the rest of your body at will. If it came down to it I would rather get my arm slash then have a knife stuck into a vital organ. Your free arm is not call your " Life Arm" for nothing. By having both arms protecting your body you simply increase your chance of survival then against one. Your free arm, can help control, guard and protect you. Maybe in the days of old with swords they might be some sense to have one hand behind your back, but not in 2013 against a knife or self-made weapon.

3) Never and I mean never ever.. ever.. turn your back on a knife attacker, or in fact any type of attacker, this is simply the worse, life threatening and most stupid thing you can ever do. I was watching a clip today where a knife expert turn his back 5 times on the attacker, completely exposing his back. The only exception to this rule is when you are running full force away. But spinning around exposing your back to an ongoing aggressive attacker is a one way street to meet your maker.

This is one of the problems with internet warriors and master, because they not testing what they do, and need to make up new material to keep the online student paying, always moving the goal posts, to keep money flowing. The teacher drift off to fantasy land to impress the students. Saying this new material is the most secretive, and has never taught before, is simply a clever marketing promotion, which engages the human ego, to believe there being showing something special. Believe me there are no secrets. Everything in combat that is functional has already being created and relive thousands and thousands times before. Thou there maybe is a reason why some techniques were not taught before, simply it doesn’t work in reality.

As a teacher myself i have a loyalty to my students to make sure what they learn is correct and practical, and when needed it will help them. What I teach is basic, very very simple and i will spend time on making sure the student can do it and in real time. I will make sure they can master one thing right then teach them 10 others that they can't perform in a stressful environment. There are many good styles of knife defence out there, do your research, make sure the teacher knows what he talking about and make sure you know the difference between fantasy and reality. Because the last place you want to learn the difference is in the street..

Inside our Pukulan Cimande System it is made up of a number of subsystems which each student will learn the technical aspects and the combat mannerism of. One of these is Monyet style for beginners and Kera for advance students. One of the core concepts of this system is the Decoy stances.

There are seven of these Stances, Horizantal, Vertical, Rib Opening, Tiger Cat, Roof Hit, Buddah and Back Open Decoy. There are use in a rapid moving forward manner, blending in with shielding and Bungai. Each decoy by it's very nature is offering a false target or opening to funnel in the attacker strikes to a kill Zone, where the defender can trap, lock or destroy the attacker ability to strike.

In this clip Guru Robert Scott is showing the Rib Opening Decoy and one of the many combinations that a silat student will develop from within to deal with an attacker. The student is taught to flow at will, against the attacker energy. In this particular clip Guru Robert is trapping the attacker, than learning to flank, and take the attacker to the ground. The Monyet and Kera systems, both operate in mid height and close to or even on the ground. The use of Elbows and Knees are often employ along with grabbing and tearing with the hand. Guru Robert teaches in Ballymena, classes are also available in Letterkenny, Firhouse, Walkinstown, Lucan, and Dundrum