The Edged Weapon Threat – Michael Janich
My primary focus has been Isshinryu empty hand and Isshinryu kobudo as I’ve written. I’ve never been particularly interested in inserting knives into peoples bodes. My father was a Pennsylvania Butcher after all and I was raised knowing what knives are used for. But I understood if you don’t understand how to use a knife you’re at a real handicap trying to understand how to stop one. My first answer for my students on what to do when faced by a knife is ‘Run like Hell’, and knowing what I know today I still consider that the best response……. But there are times.
When I started training with Ernest Rothrock in Tai Chi, I saw his students working Chinese knife forms in their studies, and for fun he worked with me to adapt the Yang Tai Chi sword form he taught me to Kukri after Charles Murray gave me one as a gift, but that was more an exercise than anything.
When I studied Bando Short stick, I came to realize it’s potential as knife study and that has remained a private practice for me. It’s not surprising considering the relationship between stick potential and that of knife. Dan Insanto’s “The Filipino Martial Arts” had clarified that relationship to me before I studied stick and all my efforts just confirmed what he wrote.
I was also training with Tristan Sutrisno during that time and towards the end of the 10 years he started sharing some of his knife studies. His arts consist of extremely logical starting points of study. Karate kata and kata technique drills to interlocked two person sets. Tjimande basics to forms to interlocked two person sets. Aikido multiple attack drills to aikido study. Bo and Kama studies where the forms build upon the previous forms with more and more advanced skills. The little I saw of his knife studies the more the pattern remained the same, and as follows the more impressive the actual skills sets involved became.
First I was shown 7 defensive response drills against attacks. Then he shared a piece of a knife kata. Very complex blade shifting skills and knife handoff techniques. There was never one technique that I was shown by him in any study over 10 years that wasn’t enough for a lifetime of study in it’s own right. Working on those studies I came to see a relationship between his Tjimande basics and them being done with a knife too, which he acknowledge in private discussion.
I was living quite a distance away from him and as time passed our time training together came to an end. I never stopped practicing, but aging, arthritis, etc. made some of his skills very hard to work less try to maswer. Then last year I found one of the video’s of him doing a clinic with my students and had forgotten he had drilled my basic knife drills at that time. As I was working a technique, behind me he was working variation after variation on those techniques, and the underlying logic of his arts made more sense to me.
The hardest skills were the continual knife shits from open to closed to open and the smooth handoff so it was impossible to ‘guess’ which had was striking with the knife. Other principle studies have also made me more fully understand his arts targeting at touch range where the knife functions.
Of course with Sutrisno Sensei what you really learn is you have no idea of the depth of his arts. A few years ago I discovered he was promoting his Siliat studies on the net, and watched his Siliat knife technique, even more impressive, fluid and flowing. No wonder he’s developed a following around the world on his arts.
Some time after discontinuing training with Sutrisno Sensei one of my senior students, Mike Cassidy, showed me how the aikido drills I had learned from Sutrisno Sensei were knife attack counters too. Those drills were about the first thing I had studied with him. You’re surrounded by a series of attackers and one after another you shift use an aikido technique to move and lock your attacker and then ground with them to finish the lock (in most cases).
What Mike had discovered was when you did the sequence grabbing the hand with a thrusting knife the technique was even more effective. For one thing it explained the manner in which some of the techniques were executed instead of other alternative movement choices, you were moving to keep a hand holding a knife away from your body at all times. (I don’t know if Sutrisno Sensei follows those choices but I’d never suggest he doesn’t or more importantly cannot use them as knife defense.)
Where the knife becomes an important force multiplier for the attacker, if you can get your hands on the hand holding the knife it becomes a great force multiplier too, generating pain in their fingers as their hold is used against them. Of course how you enter the space they provide when they attack is most critical, but the aikido technique study addresses that too.
Then somewhat later in time I obtained a copy of the 1938 “Karatedo Taikan” by Nakasone Genwa. It contains the ‘Tanken Dori Nana-Hon no Kata’ – Surface Knife Defense Kata by Otsuka Hironori. Ceremonial Kinfe Defense kata from Shindo Yoshinryu Jujutsu. (I don’t read Japanese and my friend Joe Swift provided a translation of that chapter title for me back when I obtained a copy of this work. Those techniques are eerily similar to some of the Sutrisno aikido techniques, of course as his father had trained in Japan in the 1930’s the similarities between different studies countering a Japanese style thrust attack must have been similar. (See the following article showing one of those techniques).
Of course Japanese style knife attacks only are one way the knife can be used. If you’re living in Japan where almost everyone was using the same style of attack, answers are more readily achieved. But in an entire world of different knife traditions defensive answers are not simple.
My choice is that only long training black belts work any knife defense studies and only instructors train in knife offensive studies. A small program cannot do everything, the instructor must pick and choose which are most appropriate studies for their students. If the times change the focus of the program must change, perhaps even to the extent that offensive knife studies are requird. Yet until that day occurs (hopefully never) the instructor training passes knowledge that may become useful.
Going back to that original video, the best form of knife self defense is running, IMO.
I often think most of the knife drills I’ve seen other schools do are more useful for building confidence, as long as the danger of the exercise is fully explained. But when I see kids flashing kama around I wonder if that is the case in to many places. Still my business it my program, not what others are doing.
Years ago there were several interesting books that addressed knife offense and defense training. While the books may be no longer available, the video record does make the same case.
First, the late Michael Echanis authored a series on martial weapons skills in 1978 under the series name of “ Special Forces/Ranger-UDT/Seal Hand-to Hand Combat/ Special Weapons / Special Tactical Series”. Both of them are interesting presentations of knife technique and defense that came from his study of the art of Hwa Rang Do. While these books are out of print I have found video’s that match much of their content. I turns out that he was just sharing basic Hwa Rang DO training, and what is shown is much of the content of those two books.
Knife – Hwa Rang Do
Knife Self Defense – Hwa Rang Do
Even more interesting is Daniel Inosanto – in his book “The Filipino Martial Arts” 1980 is an excellent presentation of the Filipino arts. That book covers an entire wealth of topics (all of which directly or indirectly apply to knife studies. I doubt the book is any longer available, but the following video’s show even more. And the videos of Dan Inosanto showing hot to use the knife are no longer there. But the following video shows some of it.
Inosanto 1983 - Stick and Knife
If you search YouTube there is much more material on Inosanto available. I was once able to attend a clinic with him teaching knife self defense and against him the blades went flying. The clinic however was two hours of technique of no technique, for about every 3 or 4 minutes he taught another technique, hard to retain anything from the training, but the basic principles were in the book, and on the above videos.
For a different way to use double daggers in one Chinese tradition you might consider
Hua Quan Double Daggers (Shuang Bi Shou)
Of course this only touches the surface of training with the knife.
If one is required to use one, in offense or defense, might our skill be that of the Cook Ding referenced in “The Book of Chuang Tzu”.
“ I proceed with caution and keep my guard up, considering when I should stop and when I should move slowly. I move the knife just a little bit and that part is quickly separated, like a clump of dirt shifting on the ground. Then I life up my knife and stand up straight, pausing to look at all my work until I’m satisfied with it. Then I properly clean my knife and stow it away.”
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