Another session of Knife Defence this Wednesday night after a hard evenings practice of Katas and other related syllabus work in the private lesson format.   Knife Defence is one of those things that we keep coming back to and with good reason as there has been an increase in knife carrying, and its a weapon that is related to a large proportion of street crime.

So Wednesday nights focus this week was aimed at the straight lunging attack, a difficult technique to counter. All knife defence hinges on a few key principles, namely to evade the attack, control the knife postion and then stike the opponent convincingly. This was the thrust of the session which employed a high degree of hand-eye coordination and an extremely good judgement of speed, time and distance – the cornerstones of combat.

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Speed, time and distance are the elements of coordination that we just can’t practice enough. Unfortunately these skills are not really improved with Syllabus and ~Kata (pattern) work. So the best way to hone these skills is with partner training, which now forms a big part of Monday night, a must for all those of you wishing to improve this skill.  In fact almost any partner based training drill will help to improve this skill, and Knife Defence training is no exception.

So the class got to grips with the mechanics of evading, advancing, controlling and striking. More practice next time for all the other various attacking forms possible with a knife, and the strategies required for this complex and emotional issue.

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November the 6th is going to be here sooner than we all think which means…. Grading & Performance Night!! This was such a huge success and confidence boost last time and we have high expectations for this one too. Those of you who hope to take a dojo or BAMA grade in December (particularly you high grades!) are kinda stitched up here! Don’t forget that any opportunity to perform is a great learning curve so we look forward to seeing you with your party piece on the night. Golden Rule of Grading & Performance Night – if you’re in the room then you’re on the Mat!!!

See you in the dojo!