As you know the art we source most of our Knife training from is KALI - this contains the most realistic methods from all the available systems we have, or of all the systems out there
There are three parts to KNIFE:
Knife fighting
Knife drilling
Unarmed Knife defence
In Japan, where we source our Karate, Jujutsu, Ninpo and Kobudo from, Knife is called Tanto - it is the shortest of the blades in the Sword systems. The Katana is the primary weapon, then the Wakizashi which are used double or single. Because of the training in Wakizashi Shoto, most schools have few or no direct Tanto techniques. Although the Tanto is part of their cutlery, nobody deliberately fights with just a Tanto in Japan. Most techniques are truncated from Shoto.
With Ninpo, the knife is both thrown and used at close range. Like Hanbo, it is more part of Taijutsu than Kobudo, if you are at Koppo with one or two knives in your hand, or if you go to Grappling, with the view to using the blade to cut a lethal artery eg Uko carotid or Yako femeral.
So it is with most other systems in a lot of Nations, Knife is an appendage to Unarmed Combat, nobody's first choice.
So when we come to Kali we have a fully developed Knife system, due to the Filipino Masters who had proper close range knife fights - as in any Combat, only the one who came back alive would be able to pass on the successfull techniques as a system. As someone in a knife fight will inevitably get cut to some extent, even the winner, the revision would be HOW he got cut, and how to avoid being cut, or cut so much, or so badly, next time, as well as a quicker way to win the fight by dispatching the enemy.
We focus on the major important drills in KALI:
Largo
Sombrada 5 and 3 count - which relate to the stick versions
Hubud
Palisut
Tendesia and tap drill
this is how we develop the skill of using the knife, and it is developed over a long period of repeating the drills with different partners
The Knife drills themselves have another purpose - they improve sensitivity. Unarmed NRG drills, Chi Sao, Mantis, Hubud, have a natural ceiling because they are hand to hand - you get touched, trapped, hit. With the knife drill, you get cut and stabbed, so your sensitivity becomes much greater, because it has to. This pairs with stick drills where the stick moves much faster than the empty hand.
With Kali we cover stick and knife before we cover Unarmed Combat - the attributes of speed, reflexes, line familiarisation, sensitivity are much sharper - the Unarmed drills become more effective, have better form, the empty hand appears to move in slow motion, and is less dangerous. Even bare knuckle boxing is tame compared to Knife Fighting and full contact Stick Fighting
So we are learning a Knife Fighting system itself, and we are learning the drills from that system to develop the attributes for the rest of our training.
The question, posed almost as a Riddle:
Two men in a knife fight - at the end, which one goes to the Hospital?
The winner - the loser goes to the Morgue
So we then come to the difficult problem of Knife Defence, where the most ridiculous and ineffective Martial Arts techniques are found
KALI trains you to be an expert Knife fighter, you understand the Knife because you are trained in it and apply the drills regularly - when attacked Unarmed against someone with a Knife, this puts you ahead of anyone from any other system
KEMPO, in it's modern form, has probably the best Knife Defence, for a system that primarily focuses on Unarmed self defence. Unlike Traditional Karate, Kempo starts as a Unarmed system - it does not come from Kobudo. Weapon training comes later in Kempo - Form Six is the Knife, and also Gun, defence system; Form 7 is the use of the Double Sticks; Form 8, the last form, is the use of Double Knife.
Like any system, Kempo is built backwards, because you learn the basic and simple methods first, with the complex advanced stuff later.
Because Kempo Masters all know Form 8 and it's application, when they are teaching you what works against a knife in the lower levels, it's because they understand the weapon
When you do it the way we do, learn Kempo along with Kali, you get the best of both training methods - and they meet up later in the Dan Grades.
Kempo in America was developed at the end of the 20th Century by men who had all been in the Military, some in Special Forces, a lot of whom came home to become Police Officers - the Kempo and Kali we have comes largely from the West Coast, and it comes from Master Instructors who have been there and done it.
We are not talking about civilians who read a Sykes Fairbain book from WW2, which was specifically written for the young recruits going to face the Nazis in Europe as a crash course in "yellow belt" methods, or the fantasists following "Krav Maga" who believe they are being trained in a special deadly system from the Middle East Special Forces, which we all know it is not
The Filipino Masters who lived mainly in the Stockton area of California are the ones who shared their Art with the American community
Angel Cabales who had stick and knife fights while living abroad in his early years
Leo Giron, who was a point man in WW2, jungle warfare survivor
Villabrille, and his direct students, Kali fighters who passed on their methods
John Lacoste - master of many systems, which he had applied in real life
There is a lot of crossover in the development of Kempo, as it came from the established Karate systems available, as well as it's roots in Kung Fu, with the influence of Wing Chun, Jun Fan, and later JKD, as well as the involvement of Kali and Escrima - it is no coincidence that JKD men of that era were Kenpo Black Belts, just as the later ones became Jujutsu Black Belts under Gracie and Machado
From the Japanese systems, in particular NINPO< we have MUTODORI, the Unarmed Defence against the Sword - most of these are Katana Daito, with a few being Wakizashi Shoto - and Hanbo Shodan level contains Shoto attacks, with the Kihon being applied either as Empty Hand fist, or a hand holding a short blade eg Tanto
So that brings us to Shiro Tora - the Streets of Britain in the 21st Century
There is the repeated analogy about British Policemen and their stab proof vests - one time policemen didn't wear them, they walked around in the old uniforms with the "tit on their head" helmet. Policemen got stabbed. The Police, Home Office, looked at all kinds of solutions, Martial Arts systems, Unarmed Combat, what the Military were doing. They looked at different kinds of stick weapons, adapating the old truncheon, trying the side handle TONFA version used in the US, settling on the ASP, which is Tokusho Keibo used in Tokyo. The only real solution was to issue all Officers with the STAB PROOF VEST - because there was no system or weapon that would be 100% effective against knife stabbing attacks in the UK where Police do not have sidearm guns.
This takes us to Policemen getting stabbed, and people getting stabbed in general - the news is full of reports in recent years of someone being stabbed. Not slashed - not Angle 1 or 2, not Angle 3 or 4 - but a STAB which is ANGLE 5 - a stab to the body
This tells us that this is the most likely knife attack, the one that keeps happening, and the one that the victims are not able to defend against - the ANGLE FIVE STAB TO THE BODY
Again, the Police are wearing stab proof vests - they are not wearing neck protection from Angle 1 and Angle 2 slashes - they are wearing a vest to specifically protect them from the Angle 5 stab to the body
It was brought up in Class that there was a time where "thugs" were carrying and using Stanley Knives to attack with, which is used to inflict cuts and slashes on the first 4 angles - to targets such as the arms, torso, face, head and neck - a lot of people might remember stories from the 90s
In terms of improvised weapons, a blade like a Stanley is a slashing, cutting weapons, while a screwdriver is a stabbing, thrusting weapon
For STMA Street Fighting, my background was an a Bouncer, primarily in South London - bouncers get attacked with blades, bouncers get stabbed. As a bouncer in South London I was making sure I wasn't going to get stabbed, and that meant training in the most realistic methods and using the most effective drills
So we train our KALI methods for the SAS reason
Sport/Sparring - ART - Street/Self Defence
Though the is no Sport version of knife fighting and it is hard to spar it realistically, we are interested in two areas:
STREET FIGHTING - which may then involve you using your own knife in a fight with an opponent
SELF DEFENCE - when you are attacked by an opponent with a Knife, possibly Unarmed
That is the Application of the ART - which is the Art of KALI, of which Knife is one part
So our training focusses on the Knife Drills to build the reflexes and attributes, the Knife Fighting, and the Muto Knife Defence
