Hey All-

So a few days ago I had some guy walk into the gym and after about 20 minutes of chit chat I got the impression that he wanted to teach martial arts.

He claims to be a knife fighting specialist who trained in MCCurry's Combat Blade System (MCBS)- even had a hat that had the logo.

So, I was bored yesterday and decided to look up Mr. McCurry and his system. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble finding any first hand information on him or his system online. I have found:

http://www.patsalantri.com/academy.htm

John "Blademaster" McCurry - MartialTalk.Com (http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52190)


Not on McCurry, but on MCBS:

YouTube - MCBS-Balika Jujitsu - 1º Portugal Seminar - Knife vs empty hand - countering grabs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B4X1uiPdIQ&NR=1)

And various other sites which state this instructor or that instructor is currently training with him, but so far I have found nothing of a homepage or informational page on him, or a way that I might be able verify credentials of someone claiming to be his student.

Anybody here of any experience with John McCurry or his MCBS or Balika Jujitsu system?

Thanks!

Josh

Hey Josh,
A while ago I ended up ordering every back issue of JAMA, and I recall there was an article in one of the older ones by McCurry. His background as it was presented then was having "inherited" his system from the McCurry family, and then augmented with some modern FMA. I'll try and find the issue, but he does espouse the idea that in order to fully understand how to defend againist a knife, you have to understand its offensive capabilites (learn to attack). His stuff wasn't so revolutionary compared to what FMA has gone through in the past few years i think, but it was an unusual step forward back then. But yeah; I'd be wary of the old "inherited through generations" line.
I'll try and get back to you with the article; it did have some basic technique breakdowns that could mostly be inferred from the video link, but still worthwhile if you're interested in him.

Has anyone else even heard of this guy?