WELCOME!!!

This blog is for my family and for my martial arts friends. This is also for families who loves bonding and having a good time with their children while doing something fun and sometimes crazy stuffs.

WARNING about our videos (located on your right): We train in the traditional way and our practice vids may be a bit hard or rough to many. If you are following the "modern way or art", we are just following our tradition and have no quarrel with yours... Many thanks and ENJOY!!!


FMA Close Quarters Knife Combat Training

I strongly believe that in order to be prepared (at least...) in actual close quarters knife fights (which I had some  experience...) is to actually learn how to do knife fighting in close quarters. Other martial arts have their own version (which I believe are also effective) on how to disarm an assailant holding a knife but some lacks the techniques on how to use his knife or the knife that his opponent dropped.





The technique that I am using here in this video is FMA freestyle knife fighting taught to me by a dodgy traditional FMA practitioner that he learned in jail and did my own modification so that I can easily teach it to my son.

First let me talk a bit about him... He was introduced to me by my dad when I was in my early teens. First I thought that he was a military guy but only found out that he was a fugitive years after when I heard a rumor about him and have never seen him since then. He is a very jolly fellow and I never suspected him to be a fugitive but he said that he served time during his younger years. Looking at his neck, he has nine scars from knife stabs. He said that he was hold at gun point by several attackers and stabbed then thrown to rot but was able to act dead and crawled his way out and survived. Some believe that he has some kind of "anting-anting" (magic amulet for protection). In the Philippines many people still believe in anting-anting and hanging around with him and his dodgy mates got me thinking... I will not say if I believe or not but I can only say that it will be cool if I had one too :)

These are some of the guys who taught me another version of "FMA jailbird style". Based on their stories, fights in jail or whatever... often happens in tight places like corridors, small rooms, toilets, cells, etc. and most of the times using "sucker techniques" . Usually the weapons used are very crude like combs, sharpened toothbrush, sharpened small metals dowels, strings, sharpened plates, anything... Usually the attack comes from behind or after being held by other guys. All happen swift and silent and the attacker tries to leave with no evidence. They said that some really organized group are composed of target spotters, watchers, grabbers, and cleaners. The attacker sometimes attacks naked so that he can easily wash/clean himself with the wet rag that the cleaners hands to him and then get dressed and move on. This is a difficult scenario to escape but there are times that attacks are not that organized and learning some FMA skills have saved many of them.

Here in this vid, we are not using choreographed FMA techniques and just let things flow. Movements are small (for tight areas), free flowing and no fancy knife flipping skills in order to utilize the idea of using crude tools like a sharpened toothbrush or a small nail where flipping skills are least useful. The main objective is to deflect the opponent's weapon and to hit back and do damage to your opponent. Grabbing is normally used but to keep the flow moving we use "tapik" (slap or parry) in our training. "Tapik" is also a good technique for multiple opponents so that you can move on to another target with ease unless you want to grab one opponent and use him as a shield. Another thing is we try to minimize moving our leg movement because we might be on a stair or well polished floor and these areas are notorious for being very slippery especially when all is covered with red. We also don't shout and stay silent unlike many martial arts because we don't want to alert the opponent's buddies or we are in big trouble. Keeping the mouth closed is a must because "red" will be flying everywhere and you don't want "medically untested red" in your mouth for hygienic reasons. We also try to keep our eyelids smaller to be protected from red and dust. In this situation, expect that you will also be slashed or stabbed (this happen in most real knife fights and those who say that getting hit is impossible because of their martial art skills have only been in "pussy fights" and are "fakes"!) but the main aim here is to deflect the weapon and to do as much damage to one or several attackers in close quarters combat and to continue to live.

This technique is very much applicable in "real world combat" and since that "we are the good guys", you can probably learn my techniques to defend yourself and your loved ones in brutal close quarters combat but after that be sure to report/surrender yourself to the authorities. Contact me if you want to learn too :)
---------------------------------------

The knives that we are using are normal kitchen knives that I dulled the blade using a grinder. For beginners, I strongly suggest that you use soft, non pointed stuffs for practicing and also wear goggles and body protector if available. The reason why we use dulled knives is that the eyes often freaks out when seeing real shiny metal. My son too encountered this problem when he was only a beginner.

For me as a dad I find it hard to point my blade at my son and though our practice blades are dull, I often tend to use the back of the blade and do sissy strikes. I am sure that many dads who are martial artists too have the same problem as mine. Training our own kids often times can be very challenging :)

PS: Remember that I am no "master knife fighter" or "hocus-pocus warrior of death, lol"... I am just a fat dad who loves spending time with my son :)