Edge of the Line (diary entry)

10.06.15 Tonight was the second in my client’s series of basic weapon cross-training concepts. Unlike previous courses undertaken by my client, these lessons are less structured and we move on and off the self-defence line more frequently. Today we revised defensive movement against an edged weapon and then looked at how it related to stick and empty hand training, both in sport and self-defence. We warmed up with some simple evasion exercises. Going at half speed and a fluid motion my client moved away from slashing and stabbing movements, learning to move into more advantageous positons. We progressed by making the movements tighter. Next we added in parrying tactics, which developed into trapping. From here we moved onto physical coordination and dexterity exercises using basic trapping and countering. We worked from the inside and outside of the attack zone. It is highly unlikely that an individual will be involved in a knife fight unless they are resident in a country who has a strong knife culture – such as the Philippines – or if they live in a gang-type environment. Nevertheless, knife-on-knife training can provide useful attributes. We transferred it to empty hand versus knife and also stick versus knife. We moved onto impact weapons. This included stick-on-stick and empty hand against stick. This then brought us back to the original front line tactics taught in my recent edged weapon awareness and self-defence seminar. My client certainly found the attribute training to be helpful. His movement was better when controlling the weapon hand as was his dexterity. This was further reinforced when we covered aspects of Kickboxing the Wrestling.