Knife Defence Course
On Sunday the 5th July we had a knife defence course which was taken by Sensei Rob Curtis 5th Dan chief instructor of the Ryoshin Karate Association of which we belong to. Rob is also a 2nd Dan in Judo and showed some interesting throwing and joint locking techniques, in attendance was Sensei's John Gilligan Trevor Boyd Stan Klepta and Te-Ashi-Do chief instructor Sensei Andy Major 5th Dan who was hosting the event.
There were15 students in attendance ranging in grade from orange belt to dan grade who were all very keen to learn what they could and Rob started off with working the various angles that a knife could be used against you explaining the different ways of avoiding or paring blocking striking the offending arm or hand holding the weapon.
The idea behind the course was to give the students a realistic view of what could happen if someone really was intent on stabbing you the reality being you would get cut but where was important as certain body parts might bleed but you would survive to hopefully dispose of your foe. With that in mind we practiced evasive movements and striking as quickly as possible and as most of us do that in our karate training this was not to hard but then we moved onto trying to grab and immobilise the attacker using arm locks and throws which did take a bit more time to get half right Rob explained that like all things practice is the name of the game and sure enough we did manage to get the techniques correct.
The two hours we had flew by as always seems to happen when your enjoying yourselves and we came away with a little more knowledge than we started with so that can't be a bad thing and when we speeded up the attacks at the end of the lesson reality did kick in with one or two people as they found it very hard to actually try to grab and lock and throw someone with a bit of intent the message being run if you can but if you can't you had better train hard so that you fight hard.
I would personally like to thank all of those students who attended the course and Sensei Rob Curtis for taking the course we all enjoyed it.