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Senshido – Defence Against Common Weapon Attacks
Introduction
This tape is one of the early offerings from Richard Dimitri and his Senshido team. It is the 4th Tape in his current repertoire, and forms part of his “Tactical Urban Combat Boxed Set – Volume 1”. It can, of course, be obtained separately. His stuff is now available on DVD also. Log into www.senshido.com for further information.
It outlines tactics to follow when dealing with some of the more common weapon attacks, including against knife, stick/baseball bat, gun and garrotte style attacks.
Production Issues
I’m sure Richard is sick of me saying this, especially since we have discussed it many times. But his production values are not up to par with some of the others out there in the RBSD field. Someone pointing a camcorder at an unscripted presentation may well be enough to pass the message but, rightly or wrongly, people like the packaging too. My advice to Richard would be to take a look at Kelly McCann’s “Combative” series and see how much his presentation enhances both his watchability and selling potential. I think he could still capture much of his spontaneous delivery with occasional use of an “edit” facility too. Mind you, this was made in the days when digital camcorders weren’t that common.
On a positive note, it does the job, as you can always see and hear what is
going on. It is longer than his usual 90 minutes, coming in at about 1 hour and 50 minutes in total.
Content
I can’t make this an instructional piece of writing, and couldn’t do his work justice through the written word anyway. But it is inevitable that some of the principles that he advocates will be outlined in the review.
This isn’t about fighting with these weapons, like duelling with knives etc. It is focussed on helping the unarmed guy survive and encounter with an armed assailant.
Rich starts by outlining some details of knives/blades – how they are the choice weapon of the street, and just how deadly they are. He shows where to most avoid getting cut (Yes, everywhere! But some places more than others) and, conversely, where to cut the bad guy is there is a need.
His stance is altered slightly when dealing with a knife attack to give more defence to these vulnerable areas, but it did leave me wondering why he doesn’t advocate always using the anti knife type stance, especially since we won’t always know for sure whether or not the aggressor has a blade.
Many of his principles hold true no matter what the weapon is you are facing so, as I outline some, don’t think they are just meant for knife work.
One of my favourite demos, and one that I have been able to easily reproduce on family, friends and training partners is the response to the static knife attack. Yes, you have already made bad mistakes if a guy holds a knife to your throat but, using Rich’s method, you have an excellent chance of being able to defend yourself before he can cut you. This stuff isn’t just physical. It isn’t just about what move to use. It is psychological. As Rich puts it, he is “fucking with his mind”.
Rich does recommend grabbing the knife hand in this scenario. I know that some people believe it best to just blast away at the attacker in the hope that you will take him out before he can stab you, but Rich doesn’t seem to be one of them.
He outlines four possible responses to your grabbing of his hand - trying to jerk the hand away, trying to stick you with the knife, throwing a strike with the other hand or, most dangerously, changing the knife into the other hand. He aims to use this awareness to choose the best option to counter those possibilities. He also outlines his three golden rules for scenarios such as this. If you want to know them, they’re on the tape! There are other scenarios of course. I’m just outlining the one to get some of his principles across.
Again, his theories relate to the way people behave. He chooses tactics based on what is going on in the aggressor’s mind, i.e. what he may want and what he fears. The possibilities are documented so that they can be exploited through the use of skilful dialogue, surprise and speed. He goes into some detail here. No, he is not claiming to read minds. He has merely researched previous attacks – what was the bad guy after? There really aren’t that many possibilities of course. But knowing the enemy helps you win.
As an aside, Rich has this impressive tool where he seems to “clap” the attacker’s knife away. It’s done pretty quickly, and I had to slow the video down to watch it more closely. I was surprised that he didn’t make more use of the move, or explain it in more detail. It’s a cracker.
Rich claims that, at close range, the gun is less dangerous than the knife in some ways. I’m sure that may stimulate some debate, and was a surprising point of view to me. Though the principles of defending against a static gun threat are the same as a static knife, there are some differences that need to be taken into account.
For example, with the knife all you have to do is move the blade away from you as you begin to fight. With the gun you have to try and keep it pointed away from you and other bystanders. But there are advantages too, as it would be more difficult for an aggressor to change hands with a gun when you have grabbed it and the hand it is in.
I’ve never seen defences to garrotte type attacks before. Of course, if you sense someone behind you, turn around. But this package outlines things to do when you’ve been caught out. The defensive concept is a high energy twisting and turning affair, but does seem to give you a chance of escape. It is not something that I have tested myself, and would like to try it (on both sides of the garrotte – trusted training partners only need apply). Again the move is trained from a potentially real situation. In a car maybe, or in a chair etc. Not in a dojo.
Working against a stick or bat is all about getting inside its axis of power – moving inside the attack instead of outside. Rich does some slower speed drills, and it is stressed that each training partner has to be careful to move at the same speed. Personally I only like slow work in order to give an appreciation of a tool that is new. I never really grasped the concept of how you were supposed to know that you were moving at the “same” speed rather than one person subconsciously adjusting the speed in order to “win”.
Conclusion
This does not claim to be the definitive work on defence against weapons. It is merely using some of the more common weapon attacks to display some of his tools and tactics. There are things here that the beginner will be able to make work right from the start.
It logically follows the first of the three videos in the Tactical Urban Combat series. For a few ideas and tricks for defence against weapons buy the tape. For a more thorough introduction and grounding in the Senshido way of doing things, as well as maximising your learning from this tape – buy the Tactical Urban Combat Boxed Set - Volume 1. It contains much of the foundation of everything they do in my opinion.
I have reviewed the other tapes in the set (as well as other Senshido products). Anyone wanting to see those reviews can search on the site, or email me at bujutsuboy@aol.com
Introduction
This tape is one of the early offerings from Richard Dimitri and his Senshido team. It is the 4th Tape in his current repertoire, and forms part of his “Tactical Urban Combat Boxed Set – Volume 1”. It can, of course, be obtained separately. His stuff is now available on DVD also. Log into www.senshido.com for further information.
It outlines tactics to follow when dealing with some of the more common weapon attacks, including against knife, stick/baseball bat, gun and garrotte style attacks.
Production Issues
I’m sure Richard is sick of me saying this, especially since we have discussed it many times. But his production values are not up to par with some of the others out there in the RBSD field. Someone pointing a camcorder at an unscripted presentation may well be enough to pass the message but, rightly or wrongly, people like the packaging too. My advice to Richard would be to take a look at Kelly McCann’s “Combative” series and see how much his presentation enhances both his watchability and selling potential. I think he could still capture much of his spontaneous delivery with occasional use of an “edit” facility too. Mind you, this was made in the days when digital camcorders weren’t that common.
On a positive note, it does the job, as you can always see and hear what is
going on. It is longer than his usual 90 minutes, coming in at about 1 hour and 50 minutes in total.
Content
I can’t make this an instructional piece of writing, and couldn’t do his work justice through the written word anyway. But it is inevitable that some of the principles that he advocates will be outlined in the review.
This isn’t about fighting with these weapons, like duelling with knives etc. It is focussed on helping the unarmed guy survive and encounter with an armed assailant.
Rich starts by outlining some details of knives/blades – how they are the choice weapon of the street, and just how deadly they are. He shows where to most avoid getting cut (Yes, everywhere! But some places more than others) and, conversely, where to cut the bad guy is there is a need.
His stance is altered slightly when dealing with a knife attack to give more defence to these vulnerable areas, but it did leave me wondering why he doesn’t advocate always using the anti knife type stance, especially since we won’t always know for sure whether or not the aggressor has a blade.
Many of his principles hold true no matter what the weapon is you are facing so, as I outline some, don’t think they are just meant for knife work.
One of my favourite demos, and one that I have been able to easily reproduce on family, friends and training partners is the response to the static knife attack. Yes, you have already made bad mistakes if a guy holds a knife to your throat but, using Rich’s method, you have an excellent chance of being able to defend yourself before he can cut you. This stuff isn’t just physical. It isn’t just about what move to use. It is psychological. As Rich puts it, he is “fucking with his mind”.
Rich does recommend grabbing the knife hand in this scenario. I know that some people believe it best to just blast away at the attacker in the hope that you will take him out before he can stab you, but Rich doesn’t seem to be one of them.
He outlines four possible responses to your grabbing of his hand - trying to jerk the hand away, trying to stick you with the knife, throwing a strike with the other hand or, most dangerously, changing the knife into the other hand. He aims to use this awareness to choose the best option to counter those possibilities. He also outlines his three golden rules for scenarios such as this. If you want to know them, they’re on the tape! There are other scenarios of course. I’m just outlining the one to get some of his principles across.
Again, his theories relate to the way people behave. He chooses tactics based on what is going on in the aggressor’s mind, i.e. what he may want and what he fears. The possibilities are documented so that they can be exploited through the use of skilful dialogue, surprise and speed. He goes into some detail here. No, he is not claiming to read minds. He has merely researched previous attacks – what was the bad guy after? There really aren’t that many possibilities of course. But knowing the enemy helps you win.
As an aside, Rich has this impressive tool where he seems to “clap” the attacker’s knife away. It’s done pretty quickly, and I had to slow the video down to watch it more closely. I was surprised that he didn’t make more use of the move, or explain it in more detail. It’s a cracker.
Rich claims that, at close range, the gun is less dangerous than the knife in some ways. I’m sure that may stimulate some debate, and was a surprising point of view to me. Though the principles of defending against a static gun threat are the same as a static knife, there are some differences that need to be taken into account.
For example, with the knife all you have to do is move the blade away from you as you begin to fight. With the gun you have to try and keep it pointed away from you and other bystanders. But there are advantages too, as it would be more difficult for an aggressor to change hands with a gun when you have grabbed it and the hand it is in.
I’ve never seen defences to garrotte type attacks before. Of course, if you sense someone behind you, turn around. But this package outlines things to do when you’ve been caught out. The defensive concept is a high energy twisting and turning affair, but does seem to give you a chance of escape. It is not something that I have tested myself, and would like to try it (on both sides of the garrotte – trusted training partners only need apply). Again the move is trained from a potentially real situation. In a car maybe, or in a chair etc. Not in a dojo.
Working against a stick or bat is all about getting inside its axis of power – moving inside the attack instead of outside. Rich does some slower speed drills, and it is stressed that each training partner has to be careful to move at the same speed. Personally I only like slow work in order to give an appreciation of a tool that is new. I never really grasped the concept of how you were supposed to know that you were moving at the “same” speed rather than one person subconsciously adjusting the speed in order to “win”.
Conclusion
This does not claim to be the definitive work on defence against weapons. It is merely using some of the more common weapon attacks to display some of his tools and tactics. There are things here that the beginner will be able to make work right from the start.
It logically follows the first of the three videos in the Tactical Urban Combat series. For a few ideas and tricks for defence against weapons buy the tape. For a more thorough introduction and grounding in the Senshido way of doing things, as well as maximising your learning from this tape – buy the Tactical Urban Combat Boxed Set - Volume 1. It contains much of the foundation of everything they do in my opinion.
I have reviewed the other tapes in the set (as well as other Senshido products). Anyone wanting to see those reviews can search on the site, or email me at bujutsuboy@aol.com
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