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"Seni Pisau" literally means "Art of the Blade" in Bahasa Melayu.
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When confronted with an individual who is trained to defend against and with a blade, (most often certain practitioners from south-east asian martial arts) the tactics and strategies when facing off with them will be more than just typical basic blocks and counters.
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That is why what we do may tend to differ from certain south east asian martial arts particularly from other silat styles (though some may say we visually look similar). Not bad mouthing any other art, we do not concentrate too much with solo forms or workout. We only work in solo to develope self awareness and weapon clearance. To instill the understanding of proper body mechanics, intentions and mentality we tend to work in pairs. Only through a live and responding partner can we really learn the correct response on how a person would respond to our counters and thier counters to our counters.
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Avoid Competative Sparring Mentality
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We are not interested in sparring, although there are merits in this training method we do not emphasis on it in the early stages of training. Sparring only shows that who is strongger and faster will always win the fight. This is not the mentality that we teach SSBD practitioners. Our aim is to develope the correct conditioned response in our part, to learn how to create openings, baiting, leverage, angling footwork, etc and teaching our training partner to learn how to feed the attacks with proper mentality and intent, you cant defend from someone who is not really commited in attacking you.
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Principles of Learning Knife Defence and Knife Fighting
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To learn how to defend from a knife, it is good to first understand the mechanics and mentality of incoming attacks (NOT how to attack), then understanding how to respond to it and to condition that response under different sitations into muscle memory. Then, if you want to learn how to knife fight, learn to counter that conditioned response, so that you know how a trained person could counter your attacks and counter them back. This training method will not make you invincible against knife attacks but it raises your chances towards your favour when confronted in such situations.
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There is a saying propogated by empty hands oriented martial artists "dont bring a knife to a fight or dont use a knife in self defence, the attacker might get the knife and use it against you". If you are not trained with and against the blade, this is your fear. But If you are thoroughly trained under correct instructions, once you hold a knife in self defence, it wil stay in your hands and you will use it efficiently and effectively regardless of how strong or big your assailant is.
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The Knife as an Equalizer
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I am not encouraging anyone to use a blade in a fight or in any self defence situations. But to see the blade in a different light, if somehow you are in an alley or an unfamiliar place where you are just passing through and caught between a group of strange people "eyeing" you, having a "folder" in hand might turn things into your favour. Thugs and muggers are looking for easy unawaring prey, having trained with a "definite equalizer" will give you confidence and might just divert thier intentions else where. They might not know that yr trained, but I doubt they would want to find out.
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The Video
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The video shows basic principles in countering a person who is trained to respond to knife attacks, and countering to every counter, knowing when and how to create and opening for locks and blade assisted trappings.
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Friends from Czech Republic
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My thanks to Antonin Nowak, Martin Hradecký, Mário Tachecí and Michal Vlček. Watch pictures of our training HERE.
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