Porres.com – Eric's Humble Place in Cyberspace

Close quarter combat with and without knives

Knife fights are solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. Distance between you and your opponent (read: footwork!) is critical, that is, knowing where your oppoenent’s footwork will be when he/she lunges with a knife. There is a dynamic connection between a knife-fighter’s footwork and the knife itself; if you can recognize the interaction between the two, the tension that one creates in the other during a strike, that ‘space’ is your opportunity to counter.

As a knife fighter, think of the knife as a fencer might; your vulnerable parts (head, legs, etc.) should not extend past the furthest point of the knife. When retreating from a knife attack or series of knife attacks, your body should be upright, that is to say that whever possible, your feet shouldn’t be behind your body and/or your upper body shouldn’t be behind your feet (i.e. on your heels in retreat). Short movements and footwork are important.
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For tonight’s class, we explored various techniques from a grab or a punch and what to do from either scenario. Much of the “set-up” from the beginning of any encounter is to understand the footwork from the get-go. If you are at the right distance, no matter how fast your opponent punches (or kicks), you will not be harmed, and it will be that point of commitment and over-exertion on the part your opponent that enables his defeat.
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Basics
- Jumongi – Crossing the line – the first set of strikes enables you to cross over the center line of your opponent in preparation for his next strike (if he comes after the first strike). Don’t (necessarily) enter a confrontation in a jumongi stance; rather, allow your posture to form as your opponent brings his hand into a fist to strike you (provided that you have that much time in a confrontation to see that take shape). Realize that the purpose of jumongi, like many of the other forms, is to merely get the primary target (i.e. your face) out of the way in such a way that your weapons (hands, feet, etc.) are positioned to strike weak points in your opponent.

- Omote gyaku as a dance…’quick, quick, slow’ … the idea of using two short steps to break the balance of your opponent and then a long step to break the balance entirely. The short steps (or a cross-step) also hinder the ability of your opponent to throw a kick towards the groin as you take the first step.

Swords
More work as per Monday’s class, using multiple attackers as an example (baiting one to deal with him/her and then putting that opponent in the way of the other oncoming opponent and yourself).
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Tonight we mainly worked on long-sword techniques.

1) One-on-one with a sword – Similar to last week, using the notion of cutting into the space and not your opponent to defeat him/her. Let the speed of your opponent cut himself.

2) One-on-one without your own sword – Understand where your footwork is in relation to your opponent. Recognize that different steps are ‘tells’ as to where and how the sword will cut. Know that once a cut is made, your distance must be such that you are just out of range of the cut and then move in (like a cat)…you must be moving before he transitions from one cut to the next. Or, step into the cut! If you step to the side as the cut comes down, strike into the shoulder and drive it towards your opponent’s jaw or striker below the shoulder and send a shock through the center of your opponent’s body.
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Small class this evening…worked on the sanshin no kata, rolling (with objects, w/out, over and under objects, towards them, picking objects up while rolling) and the kihon happo. For the upper belts, continued to work on the idea of transitioning from technique to technique within the kihon happo while controlling one’s opponent and also looking for openings when they present themselves; for the lower belts, worked on the idea of not overextending strikes beyond balance and footwork, footwork, footwork.

If you think you are using too much power to ‘power through’ a technique, chances are…you are!

Natural movement is one key to any encounter. Drunks frequently walk away from accidents because they are relaxed at the moment of impact. While I’m not suggesting that we walk through life drunk waiting for the chance physical encounter to come upon us, I am saying that rigid movement when applying (or receiving) physical technique can only get you into trouble.

Soke frequently talks about ‘being nothing,’ having ‘no thought, no technique’ and lately I am able to see this more and more manifest itself in my training.
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In this evening’s class, we worked on the notion of bringing the sword into the empty space in front of your opponent. That is, the purpose of the cut (think of the wakizashi as a ‘planed’ object that takes flight upon movement) is to cut into the empty space, not the opponent. Don’t think about cutting your opponent; use “no mind” to cut the space; your opponent will do the work for you and cut himself. That is, by overextending your opponent as he cuts down (or over, or across, etc.), he cannot react in time to your empty cut and the position you have created for yourself, and is defeated. The more you try, the harder it is…the less you try, and use taijutsu to move the sword into the space, the easier it is.

For those who may know a little bit about me, I’ve been training in a martial art called Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu for the past 6+ years (at the time of this post). The art is over 1000 years old, and suffice to say now ineluctably intertwined with my life. I always learn and sometimes teach during the week at the Bujinkan Bruin Dojo, and am currently a 5th dan (“Go-dan”).

In the coming days and weeks, I hope to keep a training-log of sorts of the concepts we explored during class.