Two very well-known American knife-combatives instructors, James Keating and Pete Kautz, recently launched an offering for blade aficionados called Modern Knives Video Magazine. It's a subscription-only thing that comes out quarterly, and issues 1 & 2 are already out. Various aspects of knife combatives are presented, by instructors in many different disciplines (including Renaissance Spanish rapier -- a really LONG "knife"! -- in issue #1), in 15-minute "lessons". Pete Kautz, who's a friend of mine, asked me to be one of the instructors for issue #3. We first met at the Schola St. George Swordsmanship Symposium 3 years ago, where I was teaching a block on fighting with the Scottish dirk; since then he's seen a lot of my stuff on video and commented, "This is very high-level (excrement)!" He told me that what he wanted was something that would show the Bujinkan as the martially effective art he knows it to be. He left the specific subject matter up to me. Well, knife-on-knife "dueling" is not really something found in modern Western culture. . .blade-vs.-blade certainly is a feature of our traditional arts, but not commonly seen with the tanto. So what I decided to deal with is "surprise attacks" by knife-wielders, since that is how things typically go down today. We taped the lesson on Saturday, and it should be out in issue #3 in a couple or three weeks. I deal with two of the most common sorts of attacks: One where someone tries to just walk up to or past you and take you out (had one like that happen near here in Berkeley just a couple or three months ago -- the attacker was a 16-year old girl who was a complete stranger to the victim); and one where the attacker "explodes" into action with a strike or claw to the face, unbalancing you and slamming you back while rapidly pumping his previously hidden knife into your guts. I take the viewer up to this gradually, beginning with the Bujinkan's different "perspective" on things, focusing on space rather than on the opponent. I address this from the standpoint of miliitary tactics ("key terrain", etc.); Zen gardens; Fu-sui (what the Japanese call Feng Shui), with inclusion of a Fu-sui chart from Gyokko ryu; and modern art. Then I illustrate the concept, using comparatively long distance and weapons to make it easier to see: Specifically, I'm doing Kiriage from the swordsmanship of Kukishinden ryu. From there I illustrate it a bit closer up with taijutsu, unarmed versus a formal, dojo-style punch. None of this is particularly fast, I want people to see andunderstand what's going on. Then we move to the hidden knife/surprise attack stuff. I illustrate things at moderate speed so people can get the idea. But the last several minutes is. . .Well, let's just say it's not at all like the 30-second video clip of me playing with Juan. And in a lot of cases people are going to need the slow-play or frame-by-frame features on their players. And, since people will figure that of course I can do this stuff, since after all I'm the instructor, there's also footage of two of my students taking turns thrashing on each other. One thing to notice if you see it is that, since we're "going for the space" instead of "going for a technique", none of us ever do quite the same thing twice. . .and yet it's "all the same".
hey dale that sounds like good viewing material, if you can post up details of when that gets published and how to get a hold of this material on this thread that would be appreciated,thanx. this is why im really looking forward to the up and coming gyokko ryu seminar with shihan brin morgan which will contain a lot of unarmed defense against knife attack, as this is the most common of assaults in manchester after plain old five on one cowardly attacks!!since they brought in plastic glasses to stop those attacks in bars this seem all the more the norm!!!!!!!!!
Click on the 3rd embedded link in my post above. Yeah, strangely enough Brin is one of those bizarre folks who wants those he teaches to be able to actually use our art for life protection. His wife is weird that way too. I've known him a long time, and I know you'll find the seminar more than worthwhile. Please convey my compliments to him if you get the chance -- and to Natascha as well if she's there.
Well, we made a last-minute decision to change the presentation just a wee bit. With a couple of the techniques, both mine and my black belts', immediately after showing it in real-time my videographer re-ran the same one in slow motion. . .with the audio track still on, which also made for a cute effect. Pete Kautz has it now and says he likes it; we also ran it at the East Coast Buyu Camp for everyone, and they all thought it presents a good image of the Bujinkan, which is what I'd hoped for. I'm especially happy with the way it turned out in that the whole thing was "off the cuff", with no notes, cue cards, or even an outline prepared. Something else I found interesting were the things I didn't do on camera, which I only noticed when I saw the slow-mo sequences. . .I could see myself several times beginning to move into something really vicious, then dropping it and moving on to something which instead would emphasize the body movement and "control by shaping the space", which is what I wanted the lesson to actually be about. My students, without any verbal communication about it, picked up on this and did the same in their own demonstrations. (Also fits the admonition I've often heard from Soke and various shihan that you should never allow people to get a complete sense of what you're capable of doing. . .)
yep sounds great, a bit pricey for the lot but its good you can get a single issue. i'll wait a few weeks and buy issue 3. do you mind me asking what grade the two students are?, just out of interest.
I agree with you on the annual subscription rate. On the other hand, Kautz & Keating are both fairly famous, so I s'pose they can get away with it. The "single trial issue" thing is something I haven't seen before, and seems to be a new option. Good move on their part, I think. They're both sandan. One of them, though, hasn't really been around very regularly in the last year and a half or so due to work and continuing education commitments, and I think you'll be able to tell which one that is (though he's still not bad) when you compare them with each other. The other has only trained half as long as the first, but has "stayed current" with what's going on. . .and it shows. I have a couple of judan-level students I could have put in there (there's one more, but he's moved to Brazil) to demonstrate with each other, but I felt that it would be cheating.
Finally. . . Just got an email from Pete this morning, and he says the VHS tape version of issue #3 will be mailed out this coming week and the DVD version a bit after. At any rate, he's confident enough to list it on his website now. For complete information on who's presenting what in this issue, see http://modernknives.com/issue3.htm And yes, fortunately, there is an option to purchase a single issue only rather than getting an annual subscription; I'm glad they thought of that.
