Fuglee
02-16-2007, 11:20 AM
The Soviet and Indo-Malay Knife Fighting Seminar was quite fun and very informative. Unfortunately, it was only 2 hours long. On the surface, knifing is easy; you stick the pointy end in the other fella. When you start looking into it though, you find that it's quite complicated and intricate. 2 hours was simply not long enough to cover even the basic basics. That being said, Coach Sonnon and Mushtaq did a wonderful job. This short and sweet seminar was well worth the time and I sincerely hope it is the start of a wonderful series of pointy and edged get togethers.
I've been doing a bit of Silat and Kali for the past couple years with Bobbe, enough to get some of the basics down. One of the things that is always stressed is movement. When something sharp comes into play, you'd better start moving if you don't want to get cut.
When I think of good movement for dealing with knives, I think of a few things. You have to be fast, you have to have good footwork, and you have to have good body mechanics. You don’t have to be strong with a knife; the knife does all the hard work for you. You don’t have to put your whole body into a strike, dismemberment is not the goal. Anybody who has a knife in their hands is dangerous, however it’s the fast, subtle, and tricky ones that are terrifying.
When it comes to good movement, Coach Sonnon, his group, and his products are one of the best places to turn. Residual tension and poor range of motion are a couple of things which will negatively affect the important aspects of good movement. Any daily practices which address tension and range of motion (such as some of Coach Sonnon's products) are integral if you want to flow well with a knife.
On to the actual seminar: (I'm writing this all from memory about a week after the event so I apologize for the parts that I'm going to screw up)
Mushtaq started the evening by going over all the different ways to move a knife efficiently, which also turned out to be good mobility drills. Basically they consisted of all the figure 8's that you can make with a knife. He also went over some good, basic footwork. There were no fancy grip changes, no 'dead' partner drills, no flashy techniques, just good movement.
He explained a very important aspect of moving a knife, one he described as moving between the joints instead of just at the joints. I probably slaughtered what you said, sorry Mushtaq! It's something that I've been doing all along in Silat, just didn't have the words for it. That description of it probably won't make a whole lot of sense, it's something that you need to see to understand.
Scott introduced us to Soviet knife fighting. He told us about how the Russians would try to keep things simple. Instead of devising a whole different method for knife fighting, they would use the principals of their boxing, just with a knife. He taught how to use joint recruitment in our knife attacks, just like we would use with our punching. This had the effect of speeding up our thrusts and helping to relax after the strike which would aid in getting our bodies out of the line of fire. He then went into enveloping incoming strikes and then controlling the attacker's movement by controlling their shoulder. Briefly touched on some things from IOUF, how to take them down without much effort by using their own movement against them. We also did some fencing type drills which worked on distance and timing.
We worked on the marionette drill (I think that's what it was called) with knives. This is the drill that is shown in Softwork and Hardwork I believe. Your partner would start with the knife against your body and you would have to collapse away from the point as it moved, minimizing the damage that a real knife would cause. To be honest, I always thought this drill was stupid when I saw it on the dvd's. Sorry! It just looked silly. But after actually participating in it, I can now see the value. It's an area of training that most weapon systems don't seem to spend much time on. You are taught to prevent the weapon from reaching your body but not so much what to do once that weapon penetrates your defense. After the seminar Mushtaq commented that Scott is one of the slipperiest sons of b****** he's ever met; he was actively trying to stab Scott and only got in a couple of good shots. Any man who can avoid being stabbed by a determined Mushtaq is worth listening to, I don't care how silly some of his drills look.
We touched on multiple ranges: long (largo to some), short (corto to some), and grappling. Many weapon arts concentrate too much on only one of these aspects. Being amazing at corto range with knife, stick, or other weapon is great. Now, can you close to that range without getting eviscerated? Being amazing at largo range is also great, but if they get past you and close, can you handle that? Do you know how to react if they try to wrap up your body either standing or on the ground? It only takes a moments hesitation in either of these situations for your day to turn real ugly.
Mushtaq and Coach Sonnon didn't sit us down and explain this to us really, but it was obvious that their teaching reflected it. It was clear to me that training with either of these men would produce an extremely well rounded fighter. Their teaching meshed very well, especially considering that this was the first time around for the knife seminar. Two men with extremely different backgrounds and styles were able to teach together in a way that never conflicted and only strengthened what the other was teaching. That reinforced once again that good movement is good movement no matter where it comes from.
You need to be able to adapt to anything thrown at you, especially in a fight. You don't want your last thoughts to be, "Wait you're not allowed to do that!" That's what I like about RMAX, it seems to foster adaptation. This is apparent when they put on seminars using teachers with different methods and views.
In closing, the seminar was great. Mushtaq is one very cool old dude and Coach Sonnon is as approachable and down to earth as anyone could ask for. I’ve only been to a couple RMAX seminars but I’ve been impressed both times by the quality of instruction and the quality of people, both teachers and attendees. Out of the 60 or so people I’ve met at RMAX events, every single one of them has been kind, sincere, and helpful. They look out for each other which is very refreshing. There is something to be said for a man and company that can attract and help produce such quality individuals.
I've been doing a bit of Silat and Kali for the past couple years with Bobbe, enough to get some of the basics down. One of the things that is always stressed is movement. When something sharp comes into play, you'd better start moving if you don't want to get cut.
When I think of good movement for dealing with knives, I think of a few things. You have to be fast, you have to have good footwork, and you have to have good body mechanics. You don’t have to be strong with a knife; the knife does all the hard work for you. You don’t have to put your whole body into a strike, dismemberment is not the goal. Anybody who has a knife in their hands is dangerous, however it’s the fast, subtle, and tricky ones that are terrifying.
When it comes to good movement, Coach Sonnon, his group, and his products are one of the best places to turn. Residual tension and poor range of motion are a couple of things which will negatively affect the important aspects of good movement. Any daily practices which address tension and range of motion (such as some of Coach Sonnon's products) are integral if you want to flow well with a knife.
On to the actual seminar: (I'm writing this all from memory about a week after the event so I apologize for the parts that I'm going to screw up)
Mushtaq started the evening by going over all the different ways to move a knife efficiently, which also turned out to be good mobility drills. Basically they consisted of all the figure 8's that you can make with a knife. He also went over some good, basic footwork. There were no fancy grip changes, no 'dead' partner drills, no flashy techniques, just good movement.
He explained a very important aspect of moving a knife, one he described as moving between the joints instead of just at the joints. I probably slaughtered what you said, sorry Mushtaq! It's something that I've been doing all along in Silat, just didn't have the words for it. That description of it probably won't make a whole lot of sense, it's something that you need to see to understand.
Scott introduced us to Soviet knife fighting. He told us about how the Russians would try to keep things simple. Instead of devising a whole different method for knife fighting, they would use the principals of their boxing, just with a knife. He taught how to use joint recruitment in our knife attacks, just like we would use with our punching. This had the effect of speeding up our thrusts and helping to relax after the strike which would aid in getting our bodies out of the line of fire. He then went into enveloping incoming strikes and then controlling the attacker's movement by controlling their shoulder. Briefly touched on some things from IOUF, how to take them down without much effort by using their own movement against them. We also did some fencing type drills which worked on distance and timing.
We worked on the marionette drill (I think that's what it was called) with knives. This is the drill that is shown in Softwork and Hardwork I believe. Your partner would start with the knife against your body and you would have to collapse away from the point as it moved, minimizing the damage that a real knife would cause. To be honest, I always thought this drill was stupid when I saw it on the dvd's. Sorry! It just looked silly. But after actually participating in it, I can now see the value. It's an area of training that most weapon systems don't seem to spend much time on. You are taught to prevent the weapon from reaching your body but not so much what to do once that weapon penetrates your defense. After the seminar Mushtaq commented that Scott is one of the slipperiest sons of b****** he's ever met; he was actively trying to stab Scott and only got in a couple of good shots. Any man who can avoid being stabbed by a determined Mushtaq is worth listening to, I don't care how silly some of his drills look.
We touched on multiple ranges: long (largo to some), short (corto to some), and grappling. Many weapon arts concentrate too much on only one of these aspects. Being amazing at corto range with knife, stick, or other weapon is great. Now, can you close to that range without getting eviscerated? Being amazing at largo range is also great, but if they get past you and close, can you handle that? Do you know how to react if they try to wrap up your body either standing or on the ground? It only takes a moments hesitation in either of these situations for your day to turn real ugly.
Mushtaq and Coach Sonnon didn't sit us down and explain this to us really, but it was obvious that their teaching reflected it. It was clear to me that training with either of these men would produce an extremely well rounded fighter. Their teaching meshed very well, especially considering that this was the first time around for the knife seminar. Two men with extremely different backgrounds and styles were able to teach together in a way that never conflicted and only strengthened what the other was teaching. That reinforced once again that good movement is good movement no matter where it comes from.
You need to be able to adapt to anything thrown at you, especially in a fight. You don't want your last thoughts to be, "Wait you're not allowed to do that!" That's what I like about RMAX, it seems to foster adaptation. This is apparent when they put on seminars using teachers with different methods and views.
In closing, the seminar was great. Mushtaq is one very cool old dude and Coach Sonnon is as approachable and down to earth as anyone could ask for. I’ve only been to a couple RMAX seminars but I’ve been impressed both times by the quality of instruction and the quality of people, both teachers and attendees. Out of the 60 or so people I’ve met at RMAX events, every single one of them has been kind, sincere, and helpful. They look out for each other which is very refreshing. There is something to be said for a man and company that can attract and help produce such quality individuals.