Budo international Martial Arts Magazine Jul.-Aug. 2014 | Page 33

Self Defense · kusari-gama (sickle attached to a rope, cord or wire) · kyoketsu-shoge (hook-knife attached to a rope, cord or wire) · kusari (weight attached to a rope, cord or wire) · Karabit Knives for fun Knife fighting is so much more than just self-defense. It is especially fun to do. It gives your reflexes that you do not get with a re g u l a r w o r k o u t w i t h o u t k n i v e s . Hand eye coordination is developed s t ro n g l y, i t i s a l s o i m p o r t a n t t o increase coordination, speed and timing. Another very important point i s t h a t y o u g re a t l y i m p ro v e i n unarmed combat. Knife fighting makes your re f l e x e s and coordination better. In addition, the knife fight is very competitive and fun to master and build selfconfidence not over confidence. You learn how to disarm and how to do a beautiful drill. Just think of all the possibilities, unarmed knife, knife against knife, grappling, etc. a n d d o n o t f o rg e t a l l t h e o t h e r weapons so as karabit, machete and tomahawk, it is so much fun. Sudden death Sparring is also a fun part of the training. You protect yourself with a screen helmet and a safe training knife and obviously good rules are important to keep! Everything must be done within safe limits. So I recently introduced a new sparring form. It is a one minute fight and the rules are simple: (1) you can not Punch or kick, (2) we focus mainly on the knife fight. How do you wield your knife, both technically and tactically, and the most important rule (3) when a disarmament is performed or you loose the knife you have lost the fight and are eliminated. Students really like the variant, they think it is very nice and fun, everything is brought back to one minute. It brings both joy and disappointment. I have tested this variant in Holland, Belgium and Germany, and the form is very popular and very suitable for close combat competion.