Weapon Cross-Training Begins! (diary entry)

03.05.15 Today my client began a new bespoke course on the use of weapons in martial arts cross training. This course is distinct from all other courses he has attended and might be considered to be close to the Vagabond Warriors non-specialized cross-training. Unlike the courses on Western Boxing, Muay Thai, General Wrestling, Submission Fighting and Mixed Martial Arts it doesn’t follow a procedure of eight basic sport-specific lessons with two final lessons on adapting combat sports for self-defence. Instead our largely improvised and tailored plan will be to begin with the hard skills of edged and blunt weapon self-defence, moving onto various armed and unarmed fighting concepts.

My client attended last Sunday’s seminar on Edged Weapon Awareness and Self-Defence, so he is acquainted with soft skills material that took up the majority of the five hour session. For notes on this event see my last diary entry. We then revised the protocol for dealing with an offender armed with an edged weapon. This began with weapon recognition. Upon spotting an approaching suspected knifeman my client sounded the alarm and preserved distance whilst locating an exit point. The next stage added onto this response by having the client access the exit point. Just running away is better than nothing in such incidents, but far from ideal. Escape is an art unto itself. Students who undertake self-defence training should be provided with activities that prompt them to move explosively and negotiate obstacles/hazards whilst retaining an overall awareness.

At the next stage we dealt with the exit being immediately blocked. This situation or a situation where an individual might choose to intervene against an offender armed with an edged weapon is best dealt with when using an incidental weapon. Incidental weapon training is a combination of creative yet sensible observation skills combined with robust generic physical application skills. So, although just about any object could be used as a weapon, a degree of critical thinking needs to apply as to whether it would really give an individual an advantage over an offender armed with an edged weapon. Typically a good incidental weapon in this instance will grant the defender a superior reach over the offender or provide a suitable barrier. Ideally it should be hard and light. Unless an object can be immediately fashioned into an intended weapon, a defender should think twice about selecting an object that requires any form of adapting. A sense of urgency should prevail in self-defence training and this is particularly highlighted when a weapon is included, which raises the risk and can reduce reaction time. We used the common first two angles of attack taught in most Filipino martial arts. These are downward diagonal striking movements, which when performed in conjunction draw a crisscross across a target. The combined movement provides both a wide breadth of potential targets and also a wide breath deflection if we are attacking the attack. My emphasis throughout self-protection is to be proactive. Everything should be geared towards getting on the front foot and not ever getting into receive mode. This underlying strategy is motivated by the objective to facilitate escape as soon as possible, which requires immediately gaining and maintaining control over a situation. Once we trained these movements and applied them in a pressure test, we moved onto unarmed responses. These were all done at very close range, focusing on controlling the weapon hand. Once again, the objective is to be as proactive as possible, so the defender attacks the attack rather than waits to receive a strike. It is a pre-emptive strike, something I often see ignored by many who extoll its virtues, but seem to forget about it when weapon defence training comes into play. This isn’t to say we didn’t do any evasion work at the unarmed response in-fight stage. On the contrary, I used natural evasion response exercises to warm my client up and help promote better movement. Controlling the weapon hand at its most basic is simply using a neutral wrist-grip and reinforced with a locked arm. It’s a straightforward and efficient response, which should be executed as soon as the defender as reason to believe their aggressor is holding a weapon. So long as the arm is kept locked and the blade away from the defender’s body, there several practical options for the defender to take so long as he keeps on the offensive. A simple shoulder barge, a web-hand to the throat or defaulting back to the standard hand strikes to the head area are all examples of tactics that can be applied in conjunction with the wrist-grip. Wrist-grips, of course, are trained to a very high standard in combat grappling sports and valid attribute training if you consider the importance of this particular tactic. However, accessing the weapon hand isn’t always easy. This is why I teach palm striking the shoulder as a movement ahead of the wrist grab. The reason why I teach and draw attention to the wrist grab first is because I don’t want someone to risk getting caught by the edged weapon they only apply the palm strike. Ideally the pre-emptive stage of fighting should be addressed the same way as if one were dealing with an unarmed attacker i.e. striking off the fence as soon as a personal space line is breached. However, the risk is too for the conventional pre-emptive strike to fail. From the initial wrist and shoulder control, we covered the two-on-one wrestling hold. This can be adapted to various different braced/locked arm restraints, which can end in stripping the edged weapon from the hand. As a contingency to an offender swapping hands in the melee we drilled constantly swapping from one side to the next. Of course, such a response cannot be constantly repeated. Emphasis on striking and other attacking tactics must be used at the same time. This is where experience in Muay Thai and MMA is helpful, provided a lot of experience in combining striking with clinching. Next we moved onto two other holds, the single underhook and back position. These were also useful contingencies that ensured the defender kept hold of the weapon hand. Top photo by Charlotte Von Bulow-Quirk featuring Tony Hughes and David Williams from book, "Mordred's Victory and Other Martial Mutterings" and my upcoming book on martial arts scepticism. Other photos by Sonia Audhali featuing Steve Male and me.