Firearms aside, what is your personal approach to practical blunt and edged weapons training?

Looking forward to reading about your training methods and experiences. Thanks in advance.

Bruce

i like it?
i wanna take some Kali some time in my life

learning the Bart Jham Do form would be cool as well

--
Hard work, Patience, Dedication.
The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed later.

My school organizes its self-defense training in the following manner:

A new student first learns defenses for common but fairly harmless attacks that don’t require an immediate reaction or a response, i.e. a grab or a push of some sort. The next level is devoted to attacks that are a little more timing critical but still relatively basic, basic punches, kicks, simple chokes and locks. Next are defenses against skilled attacks that if not done correctly or immediately you can be in serious trouble, refined strikes and grappling. The next to last level is learning empty handed defenses for attacks by the three most commonly encountered weapons, the club, the knife, and the gun. The final level deals with the subject of this post, weapon versus weapon combat. This level is last because for several reasons. Not only is complicated, but it requires the student to make a significant financial commitment and purchase his or her weapons and safety gear, and it simply isn’t very likely to be practical in this day and age.

My school trains with for different weapons the stick, knife, staff, and chucks. The idea behind it is that if you understand these four, you can probably pick up almost anything else and not kill yourself with it. We usually concentrate on one weapon for a given length of time and take a multifaceted approach, we doing handling drills, weapons kata, bag work, self-defense drills, and sparring. The handling drills and kata are basically there to get yourself used to holding the weapon and moving your body with it. The bag work teaches you how to properly strike with the weapon and what to expect when you actually make contact versus when you miss. The self-defense drills start off with simple methods of clearing, countering, disarming your opponent and proper ways to responsd if he is making a certain movement, i.e. sliding down your weapon or pressing against your weapon from the side. The self-defense techniques then get more complicated, flashy, and fun from there, but my instructor always points out that all the later ones can easily be countered by the first 4 or 5 simple ones. These drills are done with the same weapons and also with the other three, with sticks, knives, and chucks worked both single and double. We put all our training to the test by sparring. We use Action-flex brand practice weapons and wear a helmet with a face shield and gloves. Sometimes people pick whatever weapon they feel most comfortable with, and sometimes there is a set combination, say stick vs. knife, for the evening.

Punisher, sounds good. Thanks. :)

There are a lot of misconceptions regarding the scope of weapons defense and retention training. A lot of folks tend to think "disarm techinques" when they think of weapons training. IMO, weapons training isn't about disarms...disarms happen when proper tactical responses are put into effect.

Here's some stuff i've posted elsewhere in describing the way I've applied my Tai Chi Chuan in regard to practical weapons training:

I break it down into 2 main scenarios;  
 
The first type of scenario is compliance-based involving mugging, abduction, sexual assault, etc. This has the perp brandishing the weapon so their victim will do as they're told.
 
The second is non-compliance where you're not likely to see the blade until it's too late. In this case, the perp doesn't care about anything other than sticking their victim. ..never trust a man who only swings one arm when he walks...
 
Each scenario can be broken down further based on the emotional component of various situations. eg. rage and fear will have the perp often using an ice-pick grip. This is a further indicator of one's level of proficiency with the weapon, willingness to use it, etc.
 
From those launching points, the solutions contained in Tai Chi Chuan's principles and methods are how I explore the ideas on a number of tactical and emotional levels.

Attacking the hands is one of the first things I show with staff and short stick 'sparring'. Even if you miss and the opponent realizes their fingers were compromised, you steal their rhythm long enough to follow up with other attacks. Open hand, it teaches proper distancing, angle, and timing to get to the hand (finding the center) instead of trying to evade or control the weapon. Conversely, and more imprtantly (in my own approach anyway), it teaches a lot about the weapon's limitations and the importance of good retention skills which are needed against a trained or agressive unarmed attacker...the same can be said for any weapon...weapons retention and unarmed defense, each feeds the other.
 
Covering tactics with the knife blends well with the circle-walking/weapon-back guard-stance I use in the training against aggressive, straight-line attacks. The carry over to open hand is there depending on the grip the attacker is using and the amount of inside angle they let you get on them.

There are 3 main points involved when an assailant brandishes a blade as a threat, or prior to their actual attack: Emotional context, Grip, Attrition.

Then there are the situtational contexts which heavily influence what types of tactical responses the training should address during those types of encounters. ie. mugging, abduction, rape, random violent attack, etc.

Emotional context is a navigational point of reference. Grip is a tactical point of reference. Attrition lends a strategic basis to the tactical options one has at their disposal.

It's important to also consider the relational aspects of the encounter. Is the attacker known to the victim (family member, boy/girlfriend, neighbor, etc), or not?

Properly structured scenarios are the basis to properly training the tactical aspects.

From a purely tactical/technical approach (the hard-work), retention is the launch point for understanding the limitations and dangers involved in edged weapons assaults. (lots of people who die while commiting armed assaults are killed by their own weapon...that goes for the defender as well) Are you armed and defending against a commited, violent attacker? Is the attacker armed and you're not (vice versa)? Are you able to obtain some sort of shielding device (shoe, bag, jacket, towel, etc) or counter-weapon?

These are things I address in developing a well structured unarmed defense and weapons retention training set.

Two words:
Sayoc Kali.

~
my name is daniel jo

That's some badass ****, man. So badass, in fact, that the army made Tommy Lee Jones an instructor in it even though he had NO EXPERIENCE USING IT.

They don't call it the Nazi PARTY for nothing!

I find it illogical and somtimes even amuisng that system claim to teach self defence and they never or at best only sometimes teach the use of weapons, as they're really what self defence is really about.

"It's important to also consider the relational aspects of the encounter. Is the attacker known to the victim (family member, boy/girlfriend, neighbor, etc), or not?" And isn't it true that a majority of muders are committed by people who know one another?

Could you explain the " 'Sparing' " in a littl emore detail?



Movie Quote: http://funwavs.com/wavfile.php?quote=603&view=1 - Full Metal Jacket (http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/video_detail/fmj/index.html)