Knife Sparring

[HungryWolf21]

How do y'all do your knife sparring? What variations do you use? I recently started training a friend in my garage (mostly boxing) and we are starting to use knife sparring for improving his footwork and quickness. Right now we are only trying to "cut" each others knife hands. As soon as we get some face masks, we will include head slashes into our sparring.

[Chad W. Getz]

Right on Hungrywolf, best way is to just do it. What type of blade are using and are you using gear?

We started with padded knifes, but eventually becasue we had some guys doing some unrealistic stuff, we changed it to aluminum daggers from edges2, which are extremely nice. When the new guys start, they have been starting with the aluminum daggers and hockey glove/fencing mask, and suprisingly, they learn fast enough to be comfortable with using a baseball batting glove rather quickly (yes, aluminum daggers will hurt your hand, maybe more than the stick, because adrenaline is not as great....and we won't even talk about the stabs, yes they do hurt...of course I can't say that from personal experience ).

Anyway, it sounds like your on the right path, keep it up.

[HungryWolf21]

Right now we are using padded gloves on our hands and dull eating utensils! I hope to be getting a good facemask and some training knives in the future.

[Chad W. Getz]

I've also used macho headgear with the knife sparring, so it depends which way you wznt to train depending on the mask you buy. macho mask is a good bet if you are interested in doing more empty hand sparring, but fencing is good if you are doing stick.

[jester700]

Friends, PLEASE take care of your eyes.

We had a close encounter Monday night with rubber knives and a "no head shots" rule. Another 1/4 inch and we'd have had a problem. Stuff just happens when the blood gets pumping...

THEN, with padded sticks, I was using karate headgear with a lexan face shield (new AWMA thing). The shield had an oval cutout for vision. Usually, we use fencing masks, but we only have 2 and I didn't want to share the cold I'm getting over. I figured "ah, what are the chances?..."

Apparently, good enough. I took a backhanded stick tip right in my left eye. Luckily no apparent lasting damage, but scared the piss out of me, and dropped me right to fetal position for several seconds.

All well and good to train hard with the old "train hard, fight easy" maxim, but what good is being able to fight if no one ever accosts you, yet you end up a blind cripple at 60...

[Harley]

hey guys,
just an idea, use wooden dowels with no point and motorcycle helmets. the dowels hurt enough not to get too unrealisic and the helmets are cheap and easy to get in any pawn shop. just duct tape the visor closed. ( must be full faced helments.) hope it helps.
let me know when your ready to take it to another level.
harley

[jester700]

I like that. One connected problem that I'm wrestling with...

In addition to keeping the overall "level" where the student can best benefit, how do you keep an eye toward "relative level" of targets? Or don't you?

What I mean is, let's say we regularly spar with rattan and either cycle helmets or heavy fencing helmets. The natural reaction is often to start leading with the head, since the relative pain level is changed - NOW, I'd rather get hit in the head than on the arm! Of course, this is a bad habit.

The Dog Bros keep old, lightweight masks around to solve this, but anyone have other options?

That's one reason why we tried the karate headgear - less protection than the fencing helmet. We usually use padded sticks, so head coverage was the only body protection we used. Now, we're getting batting gloves, too, since one fighter opened his knuckles on the fencing helmet.

[thekuntawman]

i think a better way to prepare for the street when it comes to the blade is to have the guys fight for 60 seconds, one has the blade the other one, nothing. the guy with the blade should try to stab or slash the throat of the empty handed one, and the empty handed one will try to kick the blade weilders ass, but not get "killed".

the chances are you will end up this way, not really blade to blade, but empty hand to blade, or you have the blade against a group of men. the reason i dont like much of the "filipino blade techniques" out there is that it does not represent what we use for blade techniques, and you end up getting "blade skills" you will never use. if you are a blade carrier, you probably want to spend more time fighting with a group, and practicing pulling out your weapon, which is the most important part of knife fighitng. practice your distraction (like hold one hand out like you are saying please dont hurt me, i will give you my wallet), the pulling out (of your knife where he can't see it yet), the opening of your knife (forget the fancy ones, you want the fastest, most quiet opening), and finally the attack, which should be the one that ends his life if you dont follow up, especially if hes holding a gun to you. forget about the rule, cut the arm/wrist, trap, stab. that will get you killed.

finally, by fighting against a knife, you will be a little familiar with how to fight against one. no training will ever prepare you to fight against a knife (even if you have one), because any lucky cut he gets in can kill you. even if you kill him first, you might walk around the corner and die from the cut on your wrist. dont allow yourself to get his kind of false confidence.

[HungryWolf21]

Y'all check out my thread entitled "Knife Sparring Progression" and please tell me what y'all think. The post should be near the bottom of the JKD Forum page.

[Harley]

hello guys,
as for the head targets, it's very embarrassing to have the helmet slapped while your in it! it's loud and obvious so is avoided at all costs.
i agree with the kuntawman that you should have a time limit, but not that one should be empty handed. because with seconds the empty hand guy is dead. period. if not the guy with the knife sucks and should be doing drills and not sparring. then once he becomes proficent, put back into sparring. as i've stated here on other posts, yes you should practice drawing as well, but make sure you know what to do with it once drawn.
harley

[Chad W. Getz]

Harley, so how would someone train for empty hand vs knife? Something we do sometimes is knife vs empty hand, in that chance that it will come the unfortunate day that someone has to fight the knife as such.