Hi John,
My first tip would be to watch the "Fundamentals of Knife Disarming"
DVD which contains some great drills, or start saving your money to
buy this DVD if you don't already have it. I wish I had more money
for Systema DVDs but I watch the few I own over and over again and
there's always something new to be found. The DVDs are a good
investment. If you have enough space in your home, you can watch the
DVDs and try the drills with a friend. Or if you're lucky enough to
own a laptop, you can watch and practice in the park.
My other tips are from Systema class. I think it's best to start with
defense against basic slashes and thrusts in slow motion. So whoever
is wielding the knife must be committed to maintaining the same
speed. It's tempting, when attacking with the knife, to start slow
and then move in fast for the slash or thrust that is supposed to
draw blood (or at least, mimic the attempt to draw blood). After all,
the knife moves quickly through air, but not as quickly through
flesh. But to maintain reality in a practice environment, the speed
of the attack should be consistent. Once you start working at faster
speeds, "speeding up" won't be an option because, as Arthur Sennott
describes in his essay on Slow Sparring, "you cannot go faster than
you can already go." Of course, the advanced practitioner will
respond to a speeded-up attack by speeding up as well. But to learn
Systema fundamentals, I think it's best to maintain consistent speed,
whether its fast or slow, it should remain the same throughout the
attack and not change abruptly at a certain point.
Another tip I have about learning defense from knife attacks is to
start with basic slashes and thrusts before moving into complicated
knife moves such as characterized by the FMAs. This tip is similar to
the one above. If your partner starts to slash at you slowly with the
knife, you should practice a defense against the slash at the same
speed. But if the speed changes at the last minute, I know, as a
novice myself, that is is difficult to make that last-minute
adjustment. It's the same with the kind of knife attack. If your
partner slashes slowly at you, but when you start to slowly defend
against the slash, they suddenly change to a thrust or stab, it can
be really tricky to adapt your own movements as suddenly as theirs.
Again this advice is for novices, not advanced practitioners. My
advice is to work on one kind of knife attack for each drill and
then, as you get comfortable, you can ask your training partner to
make the knife movements more complicated, change direction, change
speed, move the knife from one hand to the other, stab with one hand
and punch with the other, etc. We do all these variations on knife
attacks in class and it can be frustrating. I think one of the most
vexing was when my teacher stabbed me with the practice knife with
one hand, and as I moved in to disarm, he quickly withdrew the knife
and starting attacking me with the other hand. I saw the extent to
which I was focussed on one hand or the other, rather than the entire
body!
That leads very well to my last tip, which is to start off learning
defense against the knife with committed attacks. In the drill above,
my teacher was not as committed as I expected him to be. I thought
he'd continue to attack me with the knife and continue to move
towards me. When he drew away, I became confused, then he started
attacking me with the other arm, and finally after getting a bit
dinged up, I learned not to focus on both arms, to just move in and
prevent him from withdrawing, and to take him down before he had a
chance to 're-set' and attack again. But it certainly wasn't easy, I
think I did it correctly only that one time and incorrectly, oh,
maybe a hundred times! Such is Systema class!
Anyway...about committing to the attack. Your practice partner has to
play the role of someone who wants to do you harm and typically, this
desire will be almost as strong as the desire for self-preservation.
Of course, this is not always the case. There are some
very "professional" criminals who know how to protect themselves as
well as they know how to hurt others. But violent attackers aren't
always as concerned about their own safety as ordinary people are.
And so your partner must committ to the knife attack and he must
accept that such an attack has repercussions. Fear of committing to
the attack is widespread in all martial arts. After all, when I'm
attacking my partner, I know he's going to do something to me and
that something might be painful. It's easy to fall into the pattern
of attacking tentatively, then drawing away immediately to avoid any
discomfort. But it's not fair to your partner. As Martin Wheeler told
our class, an attacker is trying to get closer to you, not get
farther away. I have encountered more than a few classmates who draw
away rather than completing the attack, and I always feel foolish
chasing them around. After all, if someone is drawing away from me,
they are temporarily, at least, not as much of a threat. If an
attacker changes his mind and wants to run away from me, why should I
stop him? Instead of chasing such classmates, I've learned to lock
them up so they can't draw away, mainly by "entering in" or using a
snake-like movement of my arm to sort of twist them closer to me. But
it's still a challenge to work with non-committed attacks. So I would
suggest you encourage your partner to truly committ, even if you must
start off by having him hyper-extend the knife arm to make sure that
he is entering your personal space as a real attacker would be
inclined to do. If your partner is having trouble committing, make
sure to be gentle with him and help him to overcome his fear of you.
Well, that's a rather long post. Just to summarize, to begin learning
Systema knife defense, work at slow, consistent speeds against
committed attacks which are simple slashes or thrusts. As you gain
skill, you can start working against variations in speed, complicated
knife movements, and attackers who "draw away" (though they should
still continue the attack, as my teacher did in the above example, by
drawing the knife hand away and attacking with the other hand.)
Well, I hope that helps. As I always mention, I'm just a novice
myself. I started Systema training just a year-and-a-half ago. I
sincerely hope that I can help others just venturing down the Systema
path, in the same way that the old-timers helped me when I was a rank
beginner. Maybe other more experienced group members will have some
advice for you. Meanwhile, good luck and *Vsego nailuchshego* (best
wishes),
Rachel