~When I was a teenager in high school my older (honestly frightening) cousin spent most of his life in Louisiana prisons before coming to live with us in Texas for a year. He got a job working nights at a small biker bar across the border in Louisiana as a bouncer. The favorite past time there for the 1%ers (criminal biker gangsters) was knife duels, playing til someone draws blood, using hunting knives and combat knives. My cousin was undefeated in that game. He once came home with another man's long pony tail sewn to the back of his military patrol cap and said that he'd won it in a knife fight/duel.
~Once he returned home with the first digit on his index finger cut to the bone, where a 1%biker's buddies held him down and attempted to cut off his first joint on his trigger finger after he went too far in a knife fight. He had to learn to shoot a rifle with his middle finger after that since it no longer bent after it healed.
~He and I sparred all the time with metal butter knives while he taught me his craft. As a devout practitioner of boxing from a young age I was faster than he until he insisted that we use thin, plastic handle, paring knives. That's when I learned the reality of getting cut and that the fear of getting stabbed or cut changes EVERYTHING in how I moved, attacked, counter-attacked and what I was no longer willing to leave hanging out there. After the initial cut or jab into the hand my body instinctively began to be much more cautious and the idea of trying to disarm his weapon hand or even to grab it (him being much stronger than I at the time) seemed like a good way to injure my hand or fingers.
~FMA guys should train this way, with live blades sometimes. 1% biker gangsters compete with hunting knives and sometimes suffer severe injuries. Arguably we can all question the prudence of this but then how else can one earn the experience necessary to be considered a 'knife-fighting' expert/master/guro/instructor?
~Such men as 1% gangster bikers engaging in underground knife duels and some prison convicts have more real-experience than these lucrative FMA Guros practicing ego-masturbation. Yet the uninitiated and naïve pay exorbitant amounts of money to train under the inexperienced 'artists' whom fly the false flag of 'Expert'. I say this as one whom is trained and still practice FMA Escrima (among other methods), so I'm not prejudice against all Filipino Martial Arts. I'm merely addressing the dishonesty of the pseudo-'experts' whom teach imprudent, suicidal, methods while flying the false flag of 'knife-fighting-expert'.
~Imagine if medical students studied surgery under a medical professor whom never performed a single successful surgery in his or her life? Would it be accurate to call such a professor a 'master' or 'expert' of surgery?
~There seems to be too much LARPING in the martial arts community concerning knife vs. knife tactics and unarmed defenses vs. knife and it's being lucratively peddled to the naïve as viable self-defense or life insurance. If LARPING in the martial arts is what people enjoy about training than there's no harm in that but not when one espouses to be a self-defense expert and promotes suicidal tactics to the naïve, trusting and paying 'customer' (I'll refrain from calling them a student of such individuals) whom believes to be investing in what amounts to life-insurance should they ever suffer the misfortune of facing a bladed predatory criminal in a life or death attack.
~If you can't pull off the techniques you're peddling as self-defense or close-combat defense while competitively sparring with shock knives or even training knives with lip stick on them than you're not keeping your instruction honest. And there are no acceptable exchanges in a fight with a knife.
~The only instructor I've seen teaching honest knife vs. knife methods to the public is a man named Robert Redfeather. I'm not referring to instructors whom teach the bolo or machete, which is of a different nature, that the FMA instructors excel at in their respective arts. And the only instructor that I've seen teaching honest empty hand defenses against a knife to the public is a man named Itay Gil of Protect Krav-Maga / Protect Israeli Security Solutions.
~To be quite frank, prospective students will learn more about knife combat reading and practicing from the pages of the book, Put Em Down Take Em Out: Knife Fighting Techniques from Folsom Prison by Dan Pentecost than one would paying their hard earned salary to most of the self-proclaimed 'knife-fighting experts' and attending expensive seminars on tactical knife fighting/knife defenses.
~And before we close I'd like to comment how many of these pseudo knife-fighting experts, whom have never been in a knife fight nor survived a knife assault using their art, would have you convinced that you need to purchase their ridiculously expensive 'tactical' folder or neck-knife to be properly prepared to defend your life from the next raging rapist, kidnapper or knife wielding Jihadi. Yet I'd wager that more men are removed from circulation with cheap blades, home made shivs, kitchen knives, ice picks, screw drivers and farming blades than with expensive or custom made tactical fighting knives. So if your purpose is for self-defense, as opposed to owning a beautiful, custom, knife for personal reasons, than a cheap fruit knife will gut, maim, cripple or bleed a man out just as well as a custom tactical folder. And you wont mind using it as a throw away after whereas you'd be hard pressed to toss a $100.00 USD tactical folder that you sacrificed for several months to purchase or were given as a gift for your birthday by your love one. Professional criminals keep it simple and so should you if your intent is upon being armed for the purpose of self-defense and survival as opposed to feeding the ego and fantasy.
~The mind is the greatest weapon and the undying will often supersedes the skill...That being said, acquire realistic skill as opposed to LARPING and ego masturbation. Don't measure an instructor's worth by how good of a business man he is or how renowned he's become by force of charisma and how many YouTube videos they or their circle have published to grow the fame of their business. A clever marketer, charismatic personality or large fan base doesn't mean that they know about the business of criminal violence, surviving violence and have personal experience with using the skills that they're selling to the public in life or death situations.
~Realize also that Infantry or Special Operations veterans and war veterans engage in battle with firearms and other projectile weapons or demolitions. It's extremely rare to engage the enemy with tactical knives or combat knives, so just because an instructor has an impressive military background doesn't mean they're any more of a 'knife-expert' than any other 31 flavors guro or combatives instructor on the market. It's a business for many and a very lucrative business for some, selling machismo to naïve men and women, so stating the reality of the situation is neither popular nor received well by those in the aforementioned business. But it needs to be said because the truth will set many free and hopefully save some naïve soul's life. If you're looking for security don't invest precious years, sweat and a king's ransom in emulating a paper tiger and think that it's enough to deter the criminal sadists or suicidal/homicidal Jihadi whom may or may not ever target you and your family. You don't always get what you pay for so paying more doesn't always guarantee quality. Nor do teachers with grandiose titles and cult followings.
Remain Hoo-ah,
AnDrew
9May2017
