29/8/17: knife masterclass

Knife drills:

Defence from belly stab 1: Parry knife their hand, twisting your body as you do (this is most important part!), grab wrist with Parrying hand twisting their wrist up and pulling them slightly off balance as you do and use other hand to disarm (using webbed bit of hand between thumb and forts finger, push against flat of blade/top of handle making sure you are directing the strip where their grip is weakest.. you also have them in a wrist lock so if the strip don’t work it still hurts!)

Defence from belly stab 2: step back and drop left arm on knife wielders forearm/wrist, reach OVER your arm or grab their wrist with your other hand pull them to you, sliding your grip to their thumb/pad and using your other forearm to jam up their wrist. (keep edge on as you do this and move off line) while keeping hold of wrist against your body slide your forearm to cup the knife hand, twist your body and strip the knife.

Defence form angle 1 slash: step off line rear hand/forearm blade block knife arm while simultaneous strike with other hand. Use blocking arm to move/swing knife arm across your body (make sure you move back so you don’t get cut) and end up griping their wrist twisting it up and pulling them slightly off balance. Then strip knife. (Notes: when you are ”blocking” the knife slash it’s not a block as such it’s just getting something in the way to slow it down and you are redirecting the energy so it’s sort of one motion. Also when you have got hold of the wrist keep your elbow against your body so you have a stronger structure).

Defence against angle 2 slash: lean away from angle 1 slash (try not to step back as you will lose time), as angle 2 strike comes in, step off line (outside) rear hand blocks slash lead hand eye strike/hit. Blocking hand grabs wrist and then, pulling them back and off line, sliding your grip to their thumb/pad and using your other forearm to jam up their wrist. (keep edge on as you do this and move off line) while keeping hold of wrist against your body slide your forearm to cup the knife hand, twist your body and strip the knife.

We then played with these 4 defences feeding angle 1, angle 2 or stab and defending.

Ice pick grip (blade pointing down):

Angle 1 stab: step off line and block using blade of forearm and strike with lead hand. grab hold of their wrist/forearm and twist and push towards them (this will again be one motion following the energy of the stab/slash) this will off balance them. Your free hand then goes UNDER their fore arm in a salute motion. To strip, use your saluting arm to “cut” (imagine you’re holding a knife) towards their neck and pull away with your other hand which will then be able to strip their knife.

Stab straight down at your head (on the 12 O’clock): Dagger pass (brushing their forearm to slide up to control the wrist/thumb… again twist body to get it out the way), then pulling them off balance a little strip/disarm by using webbed bit of hand between thumb and forts finger, push against flat of blade/top of handle making sure you are directing the strip where their grip is weakest/back towards them... you also have them in a wrist lock so if the strip don’t work it still hurts! (not 100% we used that strip?)

We then played with all the variations of stabs/slashes and grips and used all the defences against them in any order!

As ever please amend or add as required!