scott adair wrote:I had to opportunity to do some unarmed against dagger work today with an old friend and a number of things came up in the process.
First there is a tremendous size difference. I am 5'7" and weigh 126#'s. My friend is 6'2" and weighs 210#'s.
I had been working on dagger techniques from Jay's book with Martin, my now relocated ARMA training partner, and we had been progressing fairly well and were able to make the techniques work at a about 75% speed. Martin is about my size.
Against the standard reverse grip stab the left hand interception and 'twist of the wrist disarm' illustrated on pages 62 and 63 of Jay's book worked every time at full speed.
'Single hand cover and stab' from page 78 and 'Armpit trap and disarm' (pg 79) worked fairly well at full speed.
We threw in a few left and right slashes to the face and against these I tried Fiore's Crown position. This is where things got really interesting. When my attacker threw what I consider to be a powerful slash (remember I'm small) I could usually stop it and counter with a hammer fist to the head. When he really put all of his weight and mass behind the blow his momentum would knock me off balance. I found that I was having to do a lot of passing and zoning to keep from getting clobbered. Especially when it was'nt just a single attack but he followed it with a charge to really press me and use his weight. Against the thrust from below we found the same thing. A simple step and thrust are one thing; a committed charge is a horse of a different color. Are we training reallisticly? Are we missing something? I want answers.
I don't want my knife training to be half @$$!
Scott Adair
Sounds to me like you're doing okay. Start slow to get a feel for the technique and speed it up as you become more comfortable with it until your partner can execute realistic attacks in true time at full speed and you can defend at full speed. Once you feel comfortable when the attack and response are prescribed, have your partner attack you hard in any way he chooses and you defend in what works best for you. Be mindful, however, that if done hard many of the defenses can result in serious injury. So be careful.
In my experience, no one feels great with all the techniques in the box. Those techniques are a tool box. Learn them all. Find out which ones work best for you and master those. It is better to master a few that can be adapted to different situations than to learn all of them imperfectly.
Size makes a big difference, no matter what some people say. A small person can defeat a larger person, but the smaller person must be quicker and a better wrestler. Also, it is not wise to oppose the larger person by trying to manipulate the upper body -- unless you can apply both your arms to one of his (ie, the armpit lock works pretty well on a larger person,). Master Ott cautioned that if your opponent is stronger, you should fight in the after and attend to the knees, by which I take to mean that you evade his attack and counter, and focus on unbalancing him through the knees. But when facing a knife attack, you must first control the weapon arm. I tend to use the dagger taking methods when the guy is bigger than I am because they require virtually no strength.
As to sparring, you must be careful how you go about this. The techniques are intended to deal with the committed attack, and in most free play, the attacker does not make committed attacks. If you free play, the attacker must be very disciplined: he must make strong unexpected attacks, but they must be committed. Most training partners are unable to limit themselves in this way, and the play often degenerates into a form of touch fighting, with the attacker feinting, slashing, snap cutting and stabbing in jab-like motions. If he does this, you as the defender will be really hard pressed to defend yourself because unless the attack is committed, it is very hard to get hold of his arm. This was what Mike Cartier was alluding to. He has a lot of experience at this sort of thing.
As to defending against a slash, there is nothing in any of the manuals that I am aware of to date that describe how to do this. Evidently the Medieval dagger was used exclusively for stabbing. However, the old techniques can be adapted to address the slash. I tend to "parry strongly" (a term used by Meyer) in that situation. I take "parrying strongly" to mean a shuto-uke, or knifehand style block, and that strikes hard on the enemy's arm with the edge of the hand and then secures a grip. Once you have the grip, you can make any follow up that you think will work. (When I am on the inside, I usually follow with the back heel, or the backward-over-the-leg throw facing away. If I am on the outside, I usually use pressing arm.) The key to all the techniques is effective application of the cover.
