Default.mp3
10-27-2013, 08:28 PM
I apologize ahead of time for any vagueness, omissions, or mistakes in the AAR, as my notes are a bit incomplete, as the structure of the class did not give much time for note taking at times.
Learn simple and effective skills in this two day class necessary to protect you and your family with any Edged Weapon should you find yourself in an unfriendly situation or location. Take advantage of this extremely rare opportunity to learn from the experience and knowledge of a protective services professional from deep within the US Defense Intelligence community. Former federal employee (CIA), Protective Programs defensive tactics subject matter expert and world-class educator Steve Tarani steps outside “the Agency” to provide you with this vetted, unarmed, easy-to-follow advanced Edged Weapons training curriculum allowing you the opportunity to develop and utilize your instinctive reflexes to solve difficult threat engagement problems.
NO PRIOR TRAINING OR PREREQUISITES ARE NECESSARY. This is NOT martial arts. This is NOT “knife fighting.” This IS a professional Protective Services approach to doing what it takes to get yourself and your loved ones immediately out of trouble and to safety. This IS an opportunity for you to take home field-tested “bread and butter” techniques and proven defensive tactics gleaned from decades of professional experience.
Course Content: Access (where and how to carry) and rapid deployment of a fixed, folding or improvised blade at Contact Range, Do’s and Dont’s of utilizing a blade in an actual threat engagement, Protecting your exposure of lethal target areas, Real-world Scenarios (single/ multiple threats 360 approach), Managing the fateful Injury/ Distance liability gap, Unarmed attack-line defense and disarming, Hostage Escape Scenarios, Ground Recovery Options (how to use a blade to get back up on your feet after being knocked down by multiple attackers), Unarmed Defense versus a Machete, Stalemate Response Series, Mastering Force Vectors, Protective blade handling skills (“indexing”, “programming,” etc.), Handling multiple assailants and a rare training block on curved blades and other exotic edged weapons.
This is my second combatives-oriented course. I had previously taken a ShivWorks ECQC, along with various beginner and intermediate pistol courses. I used an H&K P30 Ring's Bluegun with a Surefire X400 zeroed at 25 yards, and IWB carried it using an RCS Phantom about the 0130 position. I also had a ShivWorks Clinch Pick trainer (PRC made) carried at a downward cant at the 1130, and a wave'd ZT 0561 in the left pocket, tip up, spine of the blade toward my centerline, using a Wilderness Tactical Ti Instructor Belt. The rest of my clothing was standard streetwear, t-shirt with relatively form-fitting jeans, with a pair of sneakers.
Steve Tarani was the primary instructor, with Darryl Bolke as the primary AI. Class started the first day at 0900; the class was held indoors at a Crossfit gym, so weather did not play any role in the course. There were approximately 15 students in the class, with several active LEOs and one AD military, while the rest were civilians, including several retired military members. Steve had all the students state their preferred name, occupation, and expectations for the course. Interestingly, many students talked about hoping to learn how to transition viewing a blade from being a tool to being a weapon. About half of the students had their own inert training guns; Blueguns were provided for the rest of the students, as were training knives. Also, there were a great number of Striders in the class, both fixed and folding.
Steve then went over the background of the course. The course originally started in 1989, as something as part of the POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) program in CA. After the success of the program in CA, the IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) asked Steve to write policy for LEO blade use, which he obliged. Thus, the program has been thoroughly vetted on the LEO legal side of things, which Steve explained could be quite helpful from a liability POV. This program was later also modified to fit the needs of the intelligence community.
After we checked each other for live firearms (all operational firearms and loaded magazines were placed in a separate, locked room; live blades were allowed to be carried on person), we started out with stretches, getting ourselves limbered up, before going to working with the Blueguns on drawing. An interesting technique for drawing from concealment from the strong side that Steve showed us was the usage of both hands to clear a closed garment. Ideally, the strong hand would be right above the holstered gun. While slightly slower than a one handed clearance of a closed garment, the two handed method is far more reliable in clearing the garment in the first place. After establishing the master grip on the gun, the support hand should be in, so that it's not in front or dangling by the side; what that support hand is doing can vary, but it must be close in to prevent muzzling yourself or giving the opponent something to latch onto during the draw. The feet should be shoulders width apart, knees slightly bent, toes and knees forward, creating a stable platform. Also, Steve emphasized the importance of realizing that one is in a fight, and thinking in quarter second intervals, as a quarter second is generally the fastest a human being can react to any external stimuli.
We thus executed our first drill, in which we would start from the hands up position, essentially meaning nothing more than the fact that the hands should be above the belt line in this case. We would clear the garment/defeat the retention/etc. and establish a master grip. This was first done on verbal command; after a few reps, we then moved onto a visual cue.
We then attempted the same drill, but this time to retention. Steve and Darryl both drew up to about the pectoral area, with the gun canted somewhat outward, so that the slide would clear the body and not be obstructed, with both hands on the gun.
At this point, Steve went ahead and explained the difference between an event indicator and a threat indicator. An event indicator is an act or event that signifies the strong possibility of another event; for example, observing someone taking their foot off the brakes in a car while at a stop strongly suggests that they are about to start driving again. A threat indicator is a subset type of event indicators, such as an aggressive person reaching behind their back, which strongly suggest that they are about to produce a weapon, thus indicating a threat. Steve also pointed out that what qualified as a threat indicator varies from situation to situation; for example, in the USA, encroachment of personal space may be a mild threat indicator, while in many locales overseas, would be completely normal.
Steve then covered one of the basic terms of the course in preparation of the next drill: operator and role player. The operator is the person practicing the skill being currently taught, while the role player is an actor that facilitates the operator's learning, not only acting as the aggressor usually, but also making sure that the role player is using the correct techniques and such.
The next drill was used to illustrate the difference between contact range and non-contact range, and how the scale of injuries applied to them; we simply used the lengths of our arms to find where the two ranges transitioned. At non-contact range, blades are essentially of little use, since they are almost always contact weapons. Throwing knives are exceedingly difficult to use and relatively easy to counter, as any changes in distance would throw off the number of rotations needed to impact tip first on the target. As Steve notes, once one is in contact range, the less distance one and the aggressor, the higher the scale of injuries one could suffer. The five points on the scale is: none (non-contact distance), minor (getting nicked on the hands or fingers), recoverable (slashes to the forearm), non-recoverable (deep wounds to the upper arm or chest), and fatal (cutting of the throat, slashing of the femoral, etc.).
Steve then stated that the optimal things to be able to control in order to stay at non-contact range was to be able to control one's range, mobility, and position. If one controlled all three things, then one controlled the fight. In an ideal situation, with a head-on attacker, one has three basic options. The first is to simply backpedal. This extends one's range, but does not really change one's position in relation to the aggressor, and has limited mobility. The second is to move laterally. Essentially the opposite of the backpedal, this changes one's position without changing one's range. The third option is a combination of the two: a 45° backpedal. Steve also went over the names of the positions in relation to the opponent that was used for the rest of the course: position 0 was right in front of the opponent; position 1 is a 45° offset; position 2 is a 90° offset; position 3 is directly behind the opponent (with the optimality of the positions going from low to high). These positions could be to the left or right of the opponent.
We then ran a drill to emphasize this, with the RP (role player) taking a frontal stab at the operator. It was noted that when retreating, one should generally commit to what course of action one was going to take next; for example, instead of being bladed to the opponent, one should be facing totally forward or totally backwards. While being bladed gives one the ability to both turn and run or fight on, it's not particularly suited to either one. Steve then went on to emphasize that such an act wouldn't necessarily be something he'd call "wrong", as he did not like the whole "right" and "wrong" terms, instead preferring to use the idea of the price tag for each act, urging us to look at each act and weigh the costs and benefits.
After that, Steve then went over the common grips. Hammer grip, which is simply wrapping your hand around the handle of the blade in a fist. Saber grip is like a hammer grip, but takes the thumb and places it on top of the blade/handle. The finger grip is where the index finger put on the flat side of the blade while gripping the handle. The hammer grip is the strongest, but has the least amount of dexterity, while the finger grip is the opposite; the saber grip is the compromise grip. One could then note that each grip could be oriented in three distinct ways: palm up, palm vertical, and palm down.
Now that the common grips had been explained, Steve then covered the standard positions of where one would hold the blade while attacking. Assuming the opponent is holding the knife in the right hand, having the knife above the right shoulder is the high open. The knife below the belt on the right side would be the low open. Having the knife above the left shoulder would be the high closed. Having the knife below the belt on the left side would be the low closed.
After covering the grips and blade positions, Steve then went over the six types of attacks, with drills being run with each one. The first was the basic slash, which could be described as simply being moving from one blade position to another, such as from high open to low closed. The second was the thrust (AKA, stab), in which one would drive the blade in a particular direction; the palm orientation was particularly important with this attack, and Steve had us practice all the different orientations to figure out which one each person preferred, and noted that this preference may change when going from the strong hand to the weak hand. After the thrust was the flick; the flick utilized the snapping of the wrist and the tip of the blade to gouge the target area, and is done using the finger grip. According to Steve, the general usage was to flick from low to high, so a flick toward the groin then the eyes was used. The next attack was the hack, which could be seen as a thrust, but with the added step of returning to the original position that the attack started in. The fourth attack was the fillet; in this, one would essentially embed the blade into a joint, then drag the blade away from one's self to the next joint, and then slash out. The standard fillet targets were from wrist to elbow, elbow to shoulder, buttocks to knee, and knee to ankle. Which target used is totally situationally dependent. The last attack was the coring: it is a thrust in which one's palm orientation changed, generally from palm up to palm down or vice versa.
I personally preferred palm down orientation for most stabs. I also found the flicks to be somewhat difficult to pull off, as I did not have the luxury of learning how to snap towels at other people in my teenage years.
The next topic were the seven lethal strike points. The first two were in the neck area, and was essentially the severing of the carotids. Starting with the skin on top of the fingers holding the blade in contact with the skin of the neck of the opponent, simply try to punch through to the other side of the neck. The next two (three and four) were the points under the clavical. There were several ways to attack three and four. The first, most obvious way is to simple come from above and stab behind the clavical; with the proper force and technique, one could also easily break the clavical, thus instantly incapacitating an arm. One could also "open the door", meaning, lifting the the arm and driving the blade through the armpit, or "close the door", which is pushing the arm forward and stabbing right under the armpit. Point five is between the belt buckle and the belly button; one would attempt to thrust hard enough to have the thumb touch the spine of the opponent, before shifting the weight down with the hips to draw the blade right through the crotch. Points six and seven are attacking the femorals: one cuts the quads from skin to skin, starting at the inside seam on the pants and then punching onto the outside. Drills illustrating each point was run with the training knives.
Steve then did a quick recap of everything covered before we broke for lunch at ~1230.
During lunch, Steve stated that he would soon have his website up and running, most likely within a month. He also stated that in terms of unarmed combat, he saw Western boxing as being the best standing discipline if one was to just pick a whole system, while BJJ was incomparable for the ground.
After lunch ended at 1330, we again started with stretches. We then started out with draws with the training guns again, drawing on Steve as he walked down the line in order to have a clear target. We started out drawing on command, then drawing to a threat indicator. This was then repeated with partners, with the RP at non-contact distance. After the simple drawing drill, we then incorporated moving back 45°; if one was carrying on the strong side, Steve suggested thinking of the hand being attached to the foot moving back, so that the hand moves back to the gun at the same time the foot is moving backwards. Steve noted at this time that the latest statistic he was aware of stated that there was 2.8 attackers for every defender in most violent crime attacks, and how the minimum safe distance from a contact weapon from the draw had been moved from 21 feet (as that supposed perfect conditions for the defender) to around 35 feet to allow for realworld imperfections. At this time, Steve also noted that some of the students were still in range of a slash from the training knives even after moving backwards at the 45°; much of this could be negated by drawing into retention, maybe even throwing up a "big nose" (essentially a vertical elbow shield; putting the hand on the side of the head with the elbow facing out, thus forming the rough shape of a nose) as many people were going back to full extension right after the draw.
After practicing the drawing to retention while moving backwards, Steve then had us run a drill in which the RP would start closer and closer to the operator when attempting to get a good thrust into point five, to illustrate that once the distance between the two closes enough, no matter how fast the draw, the RP would be able to get into contact range and inflict damage with the blade. As Steve put it, this was the distance at which the gun could no longer solve the problem. At this point, simply retreating, drawing, or combining the two were not viable options. Steve stated that the ideas at this point would all stem from a saying his TMA masters were fond of: "make safe the weapon, make safe the body". The basic defense would be to shove the arm that was thrusting with the blade away from your centerline, while also thrusting back with the hips in the direction opposite to the side the opponent's arm to make more space between you and the opponent. One's hands should return as fast as possible after shoving the opponent's arm; Steve called it the "hot skillet", comparing it to how one would try to shove away a heated pan. After doing so, one could then retreat at the 45° while drawing and firing. Ideally, one should think of the "hot skillet" and establishing the master grip for the draw as being on the same speed as a double-tap cadence: as fast as possible, and one always follows the other. Whether one goes to the left or the right is dependent on environmental factors.
I had an issue where I over-exaggerated the thumb pectoral index for retention, ending up with the pinky above the nipple, and thus risking muzzling my own head while firing.
While the "hot skillet" maneuver worked well for low-line attacks, it was clearly not the best option for a high line attack. For a high line attack, there were three theoretically valid responses: evasion (simply attempting to dodge the attack), parrying (using the attacker's own momentum to help reposition the attack to miss), and blocking (utilizing the "big nose" vertical elbow shield). Of the three, blocking was considered by far the most reliable method, as evasion was extremely difficult, while parrying relied on a great deal of skill and timing. Of course, one could not simply block, as this is a purely defensive maneuver that would leave the opponent free to press on the attack. Thus, after blocking, or perhaps even during the block, one should mount a distraction. Steve shared the two he preferred. The first was driving the thumb on that side that wasn't blocking into the eye of the opponent, all the way in until the base of the thumb was in the eye socket and the rest of the fingers were gripped around the opponent's ear. The thumb could then break the orbitals while dragging the head forward. The other method was to use the four fingers of the hand on the side that wasn't blocking and try to drive some of them into the opponent's eyes, and then hooking downwards to pull the face down. However, any distraction could do, such as a punch to the face, a hammer fist, groin attack, etc., as long as the block was held up. We then practiced this, incorporating the backwards motion at 45° while drawing after the distraction was done.
We then recapped what had been shown in the afternoon, and then ended the training day at about 1630.
After the class officially ended, Darryl then went over the history and design of the knives he had input in, primarily going over the Strider DB, the Kiku Matsuda DB, and the new, unreleased Joe Watson HiTS knife.
Learn simple and effective skills in this two day class necessary to protect you and your family with any Edged Weapon should you find yourself in an unfriendly situation or location. Take advantage of this extremely rare opportunity to learn from the experience and knowledge of a protective services professional from deep within the US Defense Intelligence community. Former federal employee (CIA), Protective Programs defensive tactics subject matter expert and world-class educator Steve Tarani steps outside “the Agency” to provide you with this vetted, unarmed, easy-to-follow advanced Edged Weapons training curriculum allowing you the opportunity to develop and utilize your instinctive reflexes to solve difficult threat engagement problems.
NO PRIOR TRAINING OR PREREQUISITES ARE NECESSARY. This is NOT martial arts. This is NOT “knife fighting.” This IS a professional Protective Services approach to doing what it takes to get yourself and your loved ones immediately out of trouble and to safety. This IS an opportunity for you to take home field-tested “bread and butter” techniques and proven defensive tactics gleaned from decades of professional experience.
Course Content: Access (where and how to carry) and rapid deployment of a fixed, folding or improvised blade at Contact Range, Do’s and Dont’s of utilizing a blade in an actual threat engagement, Protecting your exposure of lethal target areas, Real-world Scenarios (single/ multiple threats 360 approach), Managing the fateful Injury/ Distance liability gap, Unarmed attack-line defense and disarming, Hostage Escape Scenarios, Ground Recovery Options (how to use a blade to get back up on your feet after being knocked down by multiple attackers), Unarmed Defense versus a Machete, Stalemate Response Series, Mastering Force Vectors, Protective blade handling skills (“indexing”, “programming,” etc.), Handling multiple assailants and a rare training block on curved blades and other exotic edged weapons.
This is my second combatives-oriented course. I had previously taken a ShivWorks ECQC, along with various beginner and intermediate pistol courses. I used an H&K P30 Ring's Bluegun with a Surefire X400 zeroed at 25 yards, and IWB carried it using an RCS Phantom about the 0130 position. I also had a ShivWorks Clinch Pick trainer (PRC made) carried at a downward cant at the 1130, and a wave'd ZT 0561 in the left pocket, tip up, spine of the blade toward my centerline, using a Wilderness Tactical Ti Instructor Belt. The rest of my clothing was standard streetwear, t-shirt with relatively form-fitting jeans, with a pair of sneakers.
Steve Tarani was the primary instructor, with Darryl Bolke as the primary AI. Class started the first day at 0900; the class was held indoors at a Crossfit gym, so weather did not play any role in the course. There were approximately 15 students in the class, with several active LEOs and one AD military, while the rest were civilians, including several retired military members. Steve had all the students state their preferred name, occupation, and expectations for the course. Interestingly, many students talked about hoping to learn how to transition viewing a blade from being a tool to being a weapon. About half of the students had their own inert training guns; Blueguns were provided for the rest of the students, as were training knives. Also, there were a great number of Striders in the class, both fixed and folding.
Steve then went over the background of the course. The course originally started in 1989, as something as part of the POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) program in CA. After the success of the program in CA, the IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) asked Steve to write policy for LEO blade use, which he obliged. Thus, the program has been thoroughly vetted on the LEO legal side of things, which Steve explained could be quite helpful from a liability POV. This program was later also modified to fit the needs of the intelligence community.
After we checked each other for live firearms (all operational firearms and loaded magazines were placed in a separate, locked room; live blades were allowed to be carried on person), we started out with stretches, getting ourselves limbered up, before going to working with the Blueguns on drawing. An interesting technique for drawing from concealment from the strong side that Steve showed us was the usage of both hands to clear a closed garment. Ideally, the strong hand would be right above the holstered gun. While slightly slower than a one handed clearance of a closed garment, the two handed method is far more reliable in clearing the garment in the first place. After establishing the master grip on the gun, the support hand should be in, so that it's not in front or dangling by the side; what that support hand is doing can vary, but it must be close in to prevent muzzling yourself or giving the opponent something to latch onto during the draw. The feet should be shoulders width apart, knees slightly bent, toes and knees forward, creating a stable platform. Also, Steve emphasized the importance of realizing that one is in a fight, and thinking in quarter second intervals, as a quarter second is generally the fastest a human being can react to any external stimuli.
We thus executed our first drill, in which we would start from the hands up position, essentially meaning nothing more than the fact that the hands should be above the belt line in this case. We would clear the garment/defeat the retention/etc. and establish a master grip. This was first done on verbal command; after a few reps, we then moved onto a visual cue.
We then attempted the same drill, but this time to retention. Steve and Darryl both drew up to about the pectoral area, with the gun canted somewhat outward, so that the slide would clear the body and not be obstructed, with both hands on the gun.
At this point, Steve went ahead and explained the difference between an event indicator and a threat indicator. An event indicator is an act or event that signifies the strong possibility of another event; for example, observing someone taking their foot off the brakes in a car while at a stop strongly suggests that they are about to start driving again. A threat indicator is a subset type of event indicators, such as an aggressive person reaching behind their back, which strongly suggest that they are about to produce a weapon, thus indicating a threat. Steve also pointed out that what qualified as a threat indicator varies from situation to situation; for example, in the USA, encroachment of personal space may be a mild threat indicator, while in many locales overseas, would be completely normal.
Steve then covered one of the basic terms of the course in preparation of the next drill: operator and role player. The operator is the person practicing the skill being currently taught, while the role player is an actor that facilitates the operator's learning, not only acting as the aggressor usually, but also making sure that the role player is using the correct techniques and such.
The next drill was used to illustrate the difference between contact range and non-contact range, and how the scale of injuries applied to them; we simply used the lengths of our arms to find where the two ranges transitioned. At non-contact range, blades are essentially of little use, since they are almost always contact weapons. Throwing knives are exceedingly difficult to use and relatively easy to counter, as any changes in distance would throw off the number of rotations needed to impact tip first on the target. As Steve notes, once one is in contact range, the less distance one and the aggressor, the higher the scale of injuries one could suffer. The five points on the scale is: none (non-contact distance), minor (getting nicked on the hands or fingers), recoverable (slashes to the forearm), non-recoverable (deep wounds to the upper arm or chest), and fatal (cutting of the throat, slashing of the femoral, etc.).
Steve then stated that the optimal things to be able to control in order to stay at non-contact range was to be able to control one's range, mobility, and position. If one controlled all three things, then one controlled the fight. In an ideal situation, with a head-on attacker, one has three basic options. The first is to simply backpedal. This extends one's range, but does not really change one's position in relation to the aggressor, and has limited mobility. The second is to move laterally. Essentially the opposite of the backpedal, this changes one's position without changing one's range. The third option is a combination of the two: a 45° backpedal. Steve also went over the names of the positions in relation to the opponent that was used for the rest of the course: position 0 was right in front of the opponent; position 1 is a 45° offset; position 2 is a 90° offset; position 3 is directly behind the opponent (with the optimality of the positions going from low to high). These positions could be to the left or right of the opponent.
We then ran a drill to emphasize this, with the RP (role player) taking a frontal stab at the operator. It was noted that when retreating, one should generally commit to what course of action one was going to take next; for example, instead of being bladed to the opponent, one should be facing totally forward or totally backwards. While being bladed gives one the ability to both turn and run or fight on, it's not particularly suited to either one. Steve then went on to emphasize that such an act wouldn't necessarily be something he'd call "wrong", as he did not like the whole "right" and "wrong" terms, instead preferring to use the idea of the price tag for each act, urging us to look at each act and weigh the costs and benefits.
After that, Steve then went over the common grips. Hammer grip, which is simply wrapping your hand around the handle of the blade in a fist. Saber grip is like a hammer grip, but takes the thumb and places it on top of the blade/handle. The finger grip is where the index finger put on the flat side of the blade while gripping the handle. The hammer grip is the strongest, but has the least amount of dexterity, while the finger grip is the opposite; the saber grip is the compromise grip. One could then note that each grip could be oriented in three distinct ways: palm up, palm vertical, and palm down.
Now that the common grips had been explained, Steve then covered the standard positions of where one would hold the blade while attacking. Assuming the opponent is holding the knife in the right hand, having the knife above the right shoulder is the high open. The knife below the belt on the right side would be the low open. Having the knife above the left shoulder would be the high closed. Having the knife below the belt on the left side would be the low closed.
After covering the grips and blade positions, Steve then went over the six types of attacks, with drills being run with each one. The first was the basic slash, which could be described as simply being moving from one blade position to another, such as from high open to low closed. The second was the thrust (AKA, stab), in which one would drive the blade in a particular direction; the palm orientation was particularly important with this attack, and Steve had us practice all the different orientations to figure out which one each person preferred, and noted that this preference may change when going from the strong hand to the weak hand. After the thrust was the flick; the flick utilized the snapping of the wrist and the tip of the blade to gouge the target area, and is done using the finger grip. According to Steve, the general usage was to flick from low to high, so a flick toward the groin then the eyes was used. The next attack was the hack, which could be seen as a thrust, but with the added step of returning to the original position that the attack started in. The fourth attack was the fillet; in this, one would essentially embed the blade into a joint, then drag the blade away from one's self to the next joint, and then slash out. The standard fillet targets were from wrist to elbow, elbow to shoulder, buttocks to knee, and knee to ankle. Which target used is totally situationally dependent. The last attack was the coring: it is a thrust in which one's palm orientation changed, generally from palm up to palm down or vice versa.
I personally preferred palm down orientation for most stabs. I also found the flicks to be somewhat difficult to pull off, as I did not have the luxury of learning how to snap towels at other people in my teenage years.
The next topic were the seven lethal strike points. The first two were in the neck area, and was essentially the severing of the carotids. Starting with the skin on top of the fingers holding the blade in contact with the skin of the neck of the opponent, simply try to punch through to the other side of the neck. The next two (three and four) were the points under the clavical. There were several ways to attack three and four. The first, most obvious way is to simple come from above and stab behind the clavical; with the proper force and technique, one could also easily break the clavical, thus instantly incapacitating an arm. One could also "open the door", meaning, lifting the the arm and driving the blade through the armpit, or "close the door", which is pushing the arm forward and stabbing right under the armpit. Point five is between the belt buckle and the belly button; one would attempt to thrust hard enough to have the thumb touch the spine of the opponent, before shifting the weight down with the hips to draw the blade right through the crotch. Points six and seven are attacking the femorals: one cuts the quads from skin to skin, starting at the inside seam on the pants and then punching onto the outside. Drills illustrating each point was run with the training knives.
Steve then did a quick recap of everything covered before we broke for lunch at ~1230.
During lunch, Steve stated that he would soon have his website up and running, most likely within a month. He also stated that in terms of unarmed combat, he saw Western boxing as being the best standing discipline if one was to just pick a whole system, while BJJ was incomparable for the ground.
After lunch ended at 1330, we again started with stretches. We then started out with draws with the training guns again, drawing on Steve as he walked down the line in order to have a clear target. We started out drawing on command, then drawing to a threat indicator. This was then repeated with partners, with the RP at non-contact distance. After the simple drawing drill, we then incorporated moving back 45°; if one was carrying on the strong side, Steve suggested thinking of the hand being attached to the foot moving back, so that the hand moves back to the gun at the same time the foot is moving backwards. Steve noted at this time that the latest statistic he was aware of stated that there was 2.8 attackers for every defender in most violent crime attacks, and how the minimum safe distance from a contact weapon from the draw had been moved from 21 feet (as that supposed perfect conditions for the defender) to around 35 feet to allow for realworld imperfections. At this time, Steve also noted that some of the students were still in range of a slash from the training knives even after moving backwards at the 45°; much of this could be negated by drawing into retention, maybe even throwing up a "big nose" (essentially a vertical elbow shield; putting the hand on the side of the head with the elbow facing out, thus forming the rough shape of a nose) as many people were going back to full extension right after the draw.
After practicing the drawing to retention while moving backwards, Steve then had us run a drill in which the RP would start closer and closer to the operator when attempting to get a good thrust into point five, to illustrate that once the distance between the two closes enough, no matter how fast the draw, the RP would be able to get into contact range and inflict damage with the blade. As Steve put it, this was the distance at which the gun could no longer solve the problem. At this point, simply retreating, drawing, or combining the two were not viable options. Steve stated that the ideas at this point would all stem from a saying his TMA masters were fond of: "make safe the weapon, make safe the body". The basic defense would be to shove the arm that was thrusting with the blade away from your centerline, while also thrusting back with the hips in the direction opposite to the side the opponent's arm to make more space between you and the opponent. One's hands should return as fast as possible after shoving the opponent's arm; Steve called it the "hot skillet", comparing it to how one would try to shove away a heated pan. After doing so, one could then retreat at the 45° while drawing and firing. Ideally, one should think of the "hot skillet" and establishing the master grip for the draw as being on the same speed as a double-tap cadence: as fast as possible, and one always follows the other. Whether one goes to the left or the right is dependent on environmental factors.
I had an issue where I over-exaggerated the thumb pectoral index for retention, ending up with the pinky above the nipple, and thus risking muzzling my own head while firing.
While the "hot skillet" maneuver worked well for low-line attacks, it was clearly not the best option for a high line attack. For a high line attack, there were three theoretically valid responses: evasion (simply attempting to dodge the attack), parrying (using the attacker's own momentum to help reposition the attack to miss), and blocking (utilizing the "big nose" vertical elbow shield). Of the three, blocking was considered by far the most reliable method, as evasion was extremely difficult, while parrying relied on a great deal of skill and timing. Of course, one could not simply block, as this is a purely defensive maneuver that would leave the opponent free to press on the attack. Thus, after blocking, or perhaps even during the block, one should mount a distraction. Steve shared the two he preferred. The first was driving the thumb on that side that wasn't blocking into the eye of the opponent, all the way in until the base of the thumb was in the eye socket and the rest of the fingers were gripped around the opponent's ear. The thumb could then break the orbitals while dragging the head forward. The other method was to use the four fingers of the hand on the side that wasn't blocking and try to drive some of them into the opponent's eyes, and then hooking downwards to pull the face down. However, any distraction could do, such as a punch to the face, a hammer fist, groin attack, etc., as long as the block was held up. We then practiced this, incorporating the backwards motion at 45° while drawing after the distraction was done.
We then recapped what had been shown in the afternoon, and then ended the training day at about 1630.
After the class officially ended, Darryl then went over the history and design of the knives he had input in, primarily going over the Strider DB, the Kiku Matsuda DB, and the new, unreleased Joe Watson HiTS knife.