Hi guys, thanks for reading.
On the weekend I attended the Amnon Darsa Knife Defense Seminar hosted by KM sydney.
It was a really well attended seminar, I would guess around 100 people turned up, maybe more.
It was really interesting to see the stark contrast between the theories of knife defense between the jujitsu and hapkido styles I have training in and Krav Maga.
Obviously Hapkido and Jujitsu being more locking/ throwing based systems usually like you to grab the opponents hand that is holding the knife and execute a technique while the Krav Maga approach is completely different. In most instances you slap the knife hand away from yourself, perform a groin kick ( or punch) and run.
The other main differences are that in Hapkido and jujitsu the opponent is usually actively attacking you with a stab or strike, while the Krav Maga system was based more on the situation where the knife is pulled on you and the attacker demands money etc and you react to that.
There were a few instances where as part of the exercise you trapped the opponents hand and it was easy and very effective to apply some basic Hapkido/jujitsu locks and either strip the weapon or break the elbow and it was great to get a flow between the styles.
I came away again realizing just how under utilized a groin kick is in most martial arts, its fast, easy and effective, yet how many styles of martial art have the groin kick as a core of their syllabus? Not many that I have trained in...
I will try and get some filming done in the next few weeks and highlight the differences in knife defense styles.
The leg Conditioning is going well and my hip is feeling good, looking forward to restarting some isometrics next week and working on my splits again. Will have to take some photos and effectively have a new starting point.
Excellent blog, I started focusing on doing the front and side splits myself in Jan 2010 and was getting a bit dis-heartened that I am still not there but it is great to see there is someone else out there like me! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Richard, glad you enjoy the blog. Have you made much progress in the 6 months?
ReplyDeleteHi, I have made huge progress on my front splits, but bugger all on my side ones! To be fair my main focus has been on the front hence the progress and I am 6 inches away from the floor but for the past month I have made no progress and just seem to be stuck and that height no matter what I do. Side splits I am at exactly the same level as you in your pics! I used Pavel and Kurtz as my reference guides, but is it just me or it is confusing to work out what type of stretching you should be doing? Anyway, is your hip getting better?
ReplyDeleteHey Richard, has your increase in flexibility lead to an increase in kicking ability?
ReplyDeleteYeah its kind of confusing to work out what type of stretching to do, that's why I'm trying to document which method works using this blog, hopefully it will help other people out in the future.