Hello,
Here are some notes from Vlad's recent knife seminars at Fighthouse
on June 3-4. As always, a big thank-you to Vlad for coming all the
way from Canada to teach us, and of course to Peggy and Edgar for
hosting another fine seminar. I don't know if you realize how lucky
we are in the metro NY area. In just over two and a half years, I've
attended 12 two-day seminars at Fighthouse, with such illustrious
teachers as Scott Connor, Jim King, Emmanuel Manolakakis, Mikhail
Rybako, Vladimir Vasiliev, and Martin Wheeler, many of them more than
once. So I just wanted to add a public thank-you to Peggy and Edgar
for all the training opportunities they provide for students, I am
convinced we are among the most fortunate of all students in North
America, thanks to their hard work and dedication.
*Vsego nailuchshego* (best wishes),
Rachel


Saturday

It was great to see Vlad again. Feeling shy, I didn't want to
interrupt his conversation with the other students, so I wasn't going
to greet him before the seminar. Then I saw that he was looking right
at me with a big friendly smile, as if he couldn't be more glad to
see me. He's such a warm, kind person, it's hard not to feel
comfortable around him. My mom and I went over to say Hello, and she
told him that working with knives was her favorite Systema topic, and
I admitted it wasn't mine but I hoped the seminars would change that.
I enjoy Systema training no matter what the topic; working with
knives is just not one of my favorites. I'm not entirely sure why,
maybe it has something to do with the way the knife draws the
consciousness. Some people focus so entirely on the knife when
disarming me, wrenching the knife out of my hand, which seems rather
reckless, and ignoring the rest of the body. On the other hand, the
person wielding the knife is usually more aware of the blade than of
the rest of his body, which can be helpful for self-defense. Even so,
I can't help agreeing with Martin Wheeler, who once told us he'd run
away from a schoolgirl with a rusty pen-knife. But I can't count on
awareness, avoidance, and discretion as my only means of self-
defense; some things are beyond our control. Knife attacks are some
of the most psychologically challenging self-defense situations and
I'm very glad to have learned a bit about it from an expert who is
also an exceptional teacher.

We started out with the breathing and tensing exercises, which are
described in the back of Let Every Breath. These are familiar to most
Systema students. We lay on the floor and Vlad led us through inhales
and exhales while tensing or relaxing different parts of the body,
starting with the whole body, then just the legs, arms, and chest,
sometimes fast, or slow, and rotating different parts. For example,
we'd inhale and tense the arms and legs, exhale and relax the arms
and legs and tense the torso. It's hard to isolate the parts, to
tense the arms without the shoulders, or the legs without the butt.
Incidentally, I saw a survival documentary (The Science's Channel's
Survivorman) where this tensing and relaxing was described as a
defense against hypothermia. If your spine feels cold, your body
temperature might be dangerously low and tensing and releasing the
muscles could save your life.

Vlad then asked us to feel our pulse in the temples, then the throat,
and then the heartbeat itself. I couldn't feel my heartbeat, although
I could feel it in my throat and temples. He then asked us to connect
the pulses, but I was still distracted by not feeling my pulse below
the neck. Actually I've never had much success with this particular
exercise, maybe because of muscular restriction (`trigger points')
which can limit sensitivty to biorthymns.

After the breathing, we did a few pushups, for which Vlad asked us to
move our arms around into different positions, straight in front, out
to the side, slide the legs back, and then 5 without breath, also a
few sit-ups. The no-breath is easier when you have no warning; Vlad
would tell us to inhale or exhale and then ask us to do them. We also
did 10 pushups on our partner's prone bodies, back and front, which
is a nice massage in some places, in others, quite uncomfortable.
Then some pushups using knives in one or both hands, balancing the
hilt or the point on the floor and leaning into it to go up and down,
or with both hands around the knife, alternating the hand that's on
top. I found the latter to be the easiest. We did a few squats and
some very difficult partnered one-legged squats where you hold each
other's opposite leg straight and go down to the floor, sit down, and
rise again without letting go of each other's legs. This was a tough
one, I looked around and saw that very few people could do it. Also
solo one-legged squats where your partner holds your hand as you go
up and down. Vlad explained if they're having trouble balancing, you
can help steady them, but if it's too easy for them, to move the hand
around and throw them off balance.

Then he showed how wiggle underneath someone on the laying on their
back on the floor by poking them with the tip of the knife to make
them rise up again. He asked us to do this, on our stomachs, and on
our backs, and he showed how if the person sank down again while you
were still crawling under, continue to poke them to make space for
yourself. It's a lot easier than doing it without the knife as we did
at the Delaware seminar!

We also did a group drill with five or six people, tossing the knives
around. At first we started with just one knife, throwing it randomly
at another person, then two, then three, until there were as many
knives as people. Vlad had asked us to catch the knives only by the
handles, making this more difficult than doing the same drill with
short sticks, as we did at Scott C.'s stick seminars. Pretty soon,
all you could hear was the sound of clattering knives hitting the
floor. Most people can catch knives throw at them from the front,
it's the ones from the side that are tricky. Since we've been
practicing some of these exercises in Edgar's subsequent classes,
I've gotten a little better at catching them (alas, not so much at
throwing them). One thing that helps is to stand back a bit so you
can use your peripheral vision to see in all directions. If you were
to draw a circle connecting the people throwing the knives, it should
be rounded, if you're standing too far in from the others, breaking
the curve, it's difficult to see the knives. Another thing that helps
is to just let the knife come to you. Of course, you have to move to
catch it. But if you focus on catching it like an outfielder catching
a fly ball, you'll miss all the other ones flying in your direction.
And finally, there's a paradoxical piece of advice that Edgar once
gave me, long ago, when he was throwing a tennis ball at me from
behind, dropping it over my head or pitching it from underneath, and
I kept missing. He told me to just relax and not think about catching
the ball. I couldn't believe how well this worked. As soon as I
stopped focusing so intently on catching it, it became a lot easier.
Catching the knives is no different, it's strange how the more you
want to catch them, the harder it is, whereas if you just let
yourself catch them without thinking, it's a lot easier. However, I
only got the hang of these things in Edgar's subsequent classes; I
recall that during Vlad's seminar, I was dropping the knives all over
the place.

We spent a lot of time on Saturday learning how to use the knife and
especially the tip of it to control our partners. Vlad told us that
to use the knife effectively, the wrists have to be strong, but
relaxed. A little bit later, he asked people to put their knives in a
pile in front of him on the floor and had us all come in closer.
There were maybe a dozen different knives, mostly practice ones.
Someone was called up to translate, which I think allowed Vlad to be
more precise in his explanations (many thanks to the bearded fellow
who translated for us.) "The knife determines how you will fight, not
the other way around," he said, picking up a short curved
blade. "This couldn't be used for stabbing, it's for slashing," and
said the same for a small blade. The most durable knives, he said,
are the ones made entirely of one piece of metal. He picked up one
with a hilt and said the pommel is useful so you don't cut yourself,
but if the metal of the blade didn't extend all the way to the end of
the handle, it would not be as strong. He talked about "mercy blades"
used in ancient warfare, long stilettos used to put gravely wounded
knights out of misery, and highly damaging four-sided bayonet blades
used for stabbing. He described a large military blade as functional
with a measuring ruler and serrated edge for sawing. He also talked a
bit about withdrawing the blade and how difficult it can be, for that
reason, it's not necessary to thrust so deeply to wound the attacker.
For non-lethal defense with a knife, he suggesting opening a small
cut on the face, rather than slashing the throat. This will cause a
lot of blood flow and probably adverse psychological effect on the
attacker. Vlad also explained how if you were cut, it was important
to hold the wound so as not to bleed further. Aside from not bleeding
out, it will also help control your own fear as well as preventing
the attacker from seeing you bleed. He said you if you were cut on
your hand, you could hold the knife handle against the cut in such a
way as to minimize bleeding, and also prevent the knife from
slipping.

While Vlad was telling us about the various knives on the floor, he
slipped in an interesting anecdote about soldiers who were grievously
wounded. He said that some of them had crawled for miles to get to
safety, sometimes holding in their own entrails. But when they
arrived and were under medical care, thinking they were safe, they
gave up the psychological struggle and died. There was a kind of
black humour in this story, but I found it rather sad. I think it
illustrates an important point about the struggle for survival,
particular as it was right after Vlad told us about how to mimimize
bleeding from knife wounds. As Paul Genge wrote on the MartialTalk
forum, a knife-wielding attacker can still kill you with his last
breath, and the challenge of survival might be far more than
incapacitating the attacker, just as the wounded soldiers' struggle
was beyond crawling to safety.

Vlad also recounted a story about a man who was stabbed in the back
of the shoulder with a knife, but kept on fighting, then later, when
he was told he had a knife sticking out of his back, he passed out.
Thinking about how he told us that it's not necessary to thrust so
deeply, I can't help wondering about whoever stuck that knife in the
guy's shoulder. Not only did he lose his knife, but the guy kept
fighting. It's hard to thrust deeply without also exposing yourself
to danger from hyperextending your arm or getting very close to the
opponent's blade. If you miss the vital target and thrust too deeply
into cartilage or bone, it could cause you to lose the knife, or
tarry too long trying to get it out again, giving the attacker a
chance to retaliate. There was a recent rash of subway stabbings here
in NYC, 4 victims in 24 hours. One of them said that he didn't notice
he had been stabbed until he looked down and saw blood. There are
also anecdotes about people who have been stabbed continuing to
fight, like Jim Bowie's legendary "Sandbar Fight", which is probably
somewhat exaggerated by popular imagination. But it is documented
that Bowie was shot through one lung and stabbed repeatedly with
sword-canes, yet still managed to kill his assailant from a prone
position with his famous knife. Vlad demonstrated that cuts and
slashes can damage an attacker as well as a thrust. Loss of blood,
even from a minor wound such as a cut on the face, can cause
psychological distress which will weaken the resolve of some
opponents.

Even though the above discussion was a bit later in the seminar, I
think it makes sense at the beginning of these notes. But returning
to the proper chronology, Vlad demonstrating putting someone down by
poking them with the knife tip, then making him stand up again also
using the point of the knife, and asked us to practice the same. For
this, the person being poked was stationary. Vlad walked around the
room offering pointers. He was very engaged with the students and I
think he spent time teaching everyone individually. He poked me down
to the floor and then up again with the point of the knife and I
moved quickly to avoid the pokes. He said, good! But I wasn't sure
what he was complimenting me about, as I thought that the exercise
was mainly for my partner, but when we did it again in Edgar's class
afterward, he explained it's also sensitivity work for the partner
being poked up and down. At the seminar, I didn't quite understand
this, nor did my partner, and we were waiting for pressure from the
practice blade to force us to fall rather than yielding to light
contact which would be more appropriate for a knife. Of course a real
blade would make anyone look alive if poked! We also did the same
thing but with the one person moving away and trying to escape the
knife, and the other following and using either the point to poke,
the handle to apply pressure to the areas exposed, or using the knife
as a lever to lock the neck or the arm, to collapse them. The knife
handle works very well against the fingernails and collarbone.

Next we did an exercise where your partner grabs your knife hand with
one or both hands and you rotate your wrist to use the handle to
apply pressure to the undersid of their wrist to break the hold. For
this, Vlad told us the wrist has to be relaxed, it cannot be done if
the wrist is tense. We spent a brief time on grab and escape drills,
first, empty-handed, then using the knife to counter the grabs. We
also practiced a dexterity exercise. One person makes triangular
opening with both hands by placing the thumb and forefingers
together, hands flat and palms facing outward. The other person has
to thrust the knife through it, moving away, and back again, from
different directions. Then the other person moves the opening around
at different levels and side-to-side, then finally, walks around and
moves the opening, at which point it does become tricky to thrust the
knife into the opening, timing is critical.

We did a group drill where one person used the knife to defend
against two. Vlad demonstrated this slowly: the two were only to
approach the one with hands outstretched at head level, as if to
grab. They were not to rush in and tackle the one in the center; we
all had to respect the knife even though most of us were working with
dull practice blades (Earlier, Vlad told us that live blades are
rarely used in martial arts training for legal and moral reasons, all
it takes is one idiot to inflict serious and possibly lethal injury
to a student). The person in the center had to use the knife to
defend against their approach, using the tip to cut, the edge to
slash, putting them into each other, etc. I corralled a Systema
teacher for this one, as I felt it would be good to get some extra
advise, so we had a group of four. But I don't think one extra person
makes much of a difference. The teacher in our group went first to
give us some ideas. I went next, I wasn't sure exactly how to
proceed, but the teacher said I was doing well. Suddenly Vlad was at
my side saying, good! I got nervous at his sudden, unexpected
presence and froze up. Vlad gave us a brief demonstration. I saw that
he was much more proactive with the knife, where I had been sort of
waving aside the attacking people; he was using it decisively, making
small cuts and slashes, in a more offensive way. After that, I forgot
my nervousness at being observed. it was easier to continue. Vlad's
demonstrations are more helpful than any words, just watching him
makes the principles so much more clear.

Returning to pairs, we did a fairly straightforward drill where your
partner comes at you with the knife, you take him down and make sure
to control the knife or disarm, but using one arm only. This sounds
harder than it is. Actually, I find that using one arm doesn't make
much difference. Sometimes it can even be easier, because when using
one arm, there are less choices, less to think about, you just have
work with what you have. For some reason, I find that the
restrictions free my mind, maybe because I have a kind of reserved,
restrained personality, and if there are too many choices, I find
myself unable to move decisively. I think that's why working in
confined spaces, especially against the wall or in a chair, is some
of my favorite Systema practice.

We also did the same drill but both partners had knives. One person
attacks the other, who has to use the knife to defend, by using the
knife to rotate or lock the attacking arm, or just taking them down,
but making sure to control or disarm their knives and positioning
your own knife at a vulnerable point. Our focus on Saturday was very
much on using the knives, and especially being aware of both the
attacker's blade as well as our own. The knife leaves no room for
sloppiness. Vlad said it's important to know where the knife is, not
where your hand is. He demonstrated aiming his hand at someone's neck
while the point of the knife missed entirely, or slashing in a wide
arc and cutting himself accidentally, as examples of how this lack of
awareness can be costly.

Vlad also showed us a bit about withdrawing and drawing the knife.
For withdrawing, he had someone hold the knife between their palms,
hands pressed firmly together, with the handle facing outward. Vlad
showed us how pulling the knife straight out was very difficult, as
mentioned earlier when he explained that it can be difficult to
withdraw the knife from a body. He demonstrated twisting the knife,
then withdrawing, and also rocking the knife either upwards or
downwards, then withdrawing with a rapid whiplike motion. I found
that with the rocking the knife up or down, you have to withdraw it
quickly, dropping your body weight as you pull it. Simply tugging
won't do the trick, you first have to twist or rock it up or down,
and then withdraw it as if cracking a whip. Even though it's only
between one person's two palms, it's actually a lot harder to
withdraw it that one might have guessed. Vlad also had us leading the
person holding the knife between the palms, walking around holding
the handle of the knife, leading them up and down, etc., and they had
to follow and stay close. He also showed up how you can draw the
knife from the waist or pocket by extending the leg back, moving leg
first, to make it come out more easily. He had us practice this and
when he came to me, he said I should make sure to move the leg first
before drawing the knife. Not only does it allow the knife to be
drawn more quickly and easily, it's also a distraction, because the
movement of the leg camoflauges the knife itself. To practice the
draws, our partners approached us and we had to draw the knife as
Vlad had shown us and touch them with it, front or back. Sounds
simple, but timing is everything, and sometimes, my partner had
already walked too far past me by the time I drew my knife.

For our final exercise, Vlad asked us all to walk around, and each
time he clapped, we were to draw our knives. At first we didn't quite
understand, everyone just drew their knives and sort of wondered what
to do. Then he told us that when he clapped, we were to either fall
or roll, draw the knife, and be in a position of readiness with it.
I've always enjoyed these "clapping" drills where you have to fall or
roll or lay flat each time the instructor claps. It's very much like
a game, but at the same time, it's completely practical, you don't
have a chance to plan what you are going to do, so it's great for
practicing spontaneous movements.

Vlad asked us if we had any questions, but I don't think anyone did
on Saturday evening. He explained everything quite well, sometimes
through a translator, and he also went around the room instructing us
individually. A great experience for all of us, I am sure. A few
hours later, Edgar and Peggy set up a marvelous Russian banquet and
we all enjoyed many delicious authentic foods, wine, and beer, and
good conversation with friends. Although I will post again about
Sunday, I just want to include a quick thank-you to Edgar and Peggy
for being such terrific hosts, and for arranging another fine seminar
at Fighthouse, and of course, many thanks to Vlad for coming all the
way from Canada to teach us, and to everyone who came to participate.