CCMA Edged Weapon Workshop in Birmingham (diary entry)

I was hosted by Leigh Simms and his regular study group of martial artists. There was a range of different martial arts backgrounds and experiences in the room tonight, but all united with an open mind and a thirst for information. I have trained in numerous different edged weapon and knife-fighting programmes, and I am particularly grateful for Mo Teague, Karl Tanswell, W. Hock Hocheim and Steve Timperley’s work on this subject.

For the sake of good time management, this two hour workshop was based on the assumption that all attendees had at least a basic knowledge of good self-protection training. They understand the importance of progressive stages of awareness, having a strong mental outlook or attitude, the importance and legalities of pre-emption

The workshop began with a power point presentation, covering various specific aspects of soft skills relating to violence with edged weapons.

Key areas are recognizing the likelihood of being attacked by an edged weapon, the different categories of edged weapons, the nature of injuries and typical offender profiles based on statistical informaiton. We also covered the legal side of this including the law regarding self-defence and the law in relation to edged weapons.

We then began the hard skills section, starting from early sighting of a person carrying an edged weapon and evasion tactics. You fight how you train so all early responses to seeing a suspected armed person with intent to use their edged weapon should be met with looking for the nearest exit and raising the alarm. We then moved onto close-quart evasive movements. This is a drill used to promote better positionng for later training. This was followed by addressing a scenario where the exit is blocked and students are encouraged to use incidental and improvised weapons to get past their armed assailent. We used the positioning training and simple amgling methods to encourage better use of the defensive weapons.

Only when these options were properly covered did we begin to look at unarmed engagement with the attacker. In this instance the attacker is around an arm’s length from their target. The response taught in this instance came off the fence and using the pre-emptive principle. Tactics have to be adjusted when dealing with a lethal weapon. It’s a fair point that a human hand used correctly is a lethal weapon – my great-great grandfather died as a result of being hit and then hitting his head on stone ground – but a bladed weapon has far higher risk value. A child can use one and kill a trained adult if they have enough intent. Therefore our pre-emption is directed towards the armed hand and all students are trained to respond the second they see the movement the suspect makes for a draw. We control the lower arm (writer or forearm) with our own arm loacked and jam the shoulder to minimize their movement. This alone is a strong controlling hold and the defender can use various strikes to back up his attack as he attempts to disarm the assailant.

The next stage is the two-on-one wrist grip, pulling down and pinning the arm. This can then be transitioned to several variants on the two-on-one arm hold found in Greco-Roman wrestling. Like the initial pre-emptive attack other attacks can be used to reinforce the hold, including biting the armed hand. We also looked at the problem with the attacker switching hands and also striking. All these holds do not need to follow in sequence and can be acquired during the in-fight stages of a conflict.

In order to train edged weapon defence it is important to note some important information taken from case studies. Firstly, you fight how you train. This adage has been repeated ad nauseum and yet its simplicity seldom sinks in. Across the world weapon defence classes will usually involve the person doing the disarming handed the weapon back to the person attacking. The purpose of repetition is to inbed certain behaviours, to strengthen neurological pathways and make the responses instinctive. Unfortunately we tend to pick up exactly what we do most often, so if handing back the weapon is done as regularly as the disarming then in a critical moment, when your body is being pumped through of natural chemicals activated by the most ancient part of our brain, you might just hand that weapon back after a successful disarm. We know of several incidents where this has actually happened. Secondly, the lack of reality issue has to be addressed. Students either don’t respect the weapon enough because they know they are drilling everything with a practice tool or they respect it too much, giving in once the practice knife makes contact. The danger of the weapon cannot be ignored and hence the reason why our priority is evasion, avoidance, distancing and, if all that fails, controlling the armed hand. Howevr, we must have a “never give in” attitude and this must come out in training.