Knives and women

[shesulsa]

C'mon, ladies. Weigh in on knives. I have found that as soon as we start training with knives in our art, many women leave because a weapon is more personal or just connotates a different intent than hands and feet do.

Thoughts, all?

 

[Carol]

I'd love to train with knives at some point. I've never had the opportunity to do so, but that is definitely something of interest to me.

Legalities aside, I wouldn't want to carry one without a decent amount of training.

 

[Jade Tigress]

We train knife defense techniques...to me it's just another weapon, which we train staff and escrima sticks too, so not that big a deal. I find it very reassuriing to know some knife defense strategies.

 

[Lisa]

I would love the opportunity to train self defence against a knife but like lady_kaur I don't have the time or the opportunity at this moment.

Not sure if I would ever feel comfortable enough to actually carry one for a self defence purpose (legalities aside).

 

[KenpoTess]

I recommend Pekiti-Tirsia Kali for anyone. My instructor for this art unfortunately moved away.
The Pekiti-Tirsia System is based on the principle of offensive defense against Edged or Impact Weapon Attacks.

More info here.

http://www.pekiti-tirsia.net/aboutPT.php?lang=en&soundsParam=on&file=aboutPT

 

[Lisa]

Thanks for the link, Tess. Looks interesting. How long did you train in this art?

 

[KenpoTess]

You're most welcome Lisa I trained for 4 yrs.

 

[MA-Caver]

You're most welcome Lisa I trained for 4 yrs.

I presume that is long enough to teach the art? It looks interesting... love to see if there's a demo vid or something to watch it in action.

 

[KenpoTess]

No.. no way long enough to teach.. just can teach what I have learned .. and there's waay more.. but my instructor left the area.. sooo.. concentrating on Kenpo..

Here's a few vids I found.. just some basic stuff.. Not sure who the participants are.. but gives you an idea.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Pekiti+

 

[Wes Tasker]

You can also go to www.pekiti.com for some good information on Pekiti Tirsia, as well as some video clips. If you train in EPAK, Mr. Zach Whitson (we share the same Pekiti Tirsia instructor) has a kenpo counterpoint video dealing with the knife defenses from EPAK, but looked at through a Pekiti Tirsia lens. He's an amazing instructor and practitioner. FWIW

-wes tasker

 

[MA-Caver]

Nice. Thank you both.

 

[Rich Parsons]

C'mon, ladies. Weigh in on knives. I have found that as soon as we start training with knives in our art, many women leave because a weapon is more personal or just connotates a different intent than hands and feet do.

Thoughts, all?

Not a lady, nor even a woman.

A knife is an up close and deadly weapon. It changes the game immediatly, while punching and kicking may cause damage or even possible death, blades do so and are messy.

I have seen some guys who get squimish and do not wish to train with knives as well.

Now back to the ladies Discussion.

 

[KenpoTess]

a wee bit of levity

'The Ex' This is a real kitchen knife set..

 

[R. Derderian]

Good topic. I think all women should include knife training in their repetoir. It can be the equalizer in a what might be otherwise a one sided confrontation. Although I don't know how many woman would/do carry a knife. (that might be a good thread, eh?)
One of our curriculums is Filipino and my wife loves it. She can't get to that particular class as often as she likes, but she enjoys the blade portion tremendously.
My exposure to Pikiti is limited, but it is an excellent system for sure.
Raf

 

[Wes Tasker]

Tess,

Not that the knife set isn't scary enough - but how did you find that???

-wes tasker

 

[KenpoTess]

Wes, *innocent looks* I have my 'ways'

actually was perusing kitchen equipment on overstock~!!!
Go figure

 

[Cruentus]

C'mon, ladies. Weigh in on knives. I have found that as soon as we start training with knives in our art, many women leave because a weapon is more personal or just connotates a different intent than hands and feet do.

Thoughts, all?

Hmmm.... Maybe if there was more of a specialized introduction for the noobies, then maybe they wouldn't leave. They (women at your school and in general) need to realize that knives are an important part of the entire self-defense picture. If they make you squemish, all the more reason to train with them. How squemish are you going to be if some guy pulls one on you and threatens the lives of you and your kids?

Even if one doesn't plan to carry a knife, one needs to understand the knife, as well as other weapons that could likely be introduced in an assault. And people, men or women, need to take responsability for their own defense and that of their family, and not expect that if something happends that someone else will come to the rescue and do it for them.

Perhaps if it is explained in that context, they wouldn't leave? I don't know, but I am of the opinion that if they fully understand the above realities, yet still leave because the knife makes them squemish, then they don't belong there anyways. But that is just my probably flawed opinion on the matter...

Paul

 

[shesulsa]

Paul, Rich et al;

Do you think, maybe, that the way this kind of instruction is presented to those who are squeamish (gender irrelavent) might be the key here?

See, I've been teaching a lot of self-defense lately and one of the things we go over is the use of everyday items as weapons. Well ... a knife IS an everyday item. We use it to slice cheese, spread butter ... a scissors is really two knives scraping together for ease of use and relatively safe, clean cutting. All of us use knives in various fashions just about every day.

I wonder if this perspective might be useful when introducing edged weapons to the reluctant?

 

[Cruentus]

I wonder if this perspective might be useful when introducing edged weapons to the reluctant?

I think it is useful. It helps serve a 2 fold purpose; one is that it illustrates that knives are really everyday tools that can be used as weapons, unlike guns and other things which are specifically designed to be a weapon. This might help to emilinate irrational fears of objects, and to help them realize objects are usually not inherently dangarous, that it is the person wielding the object that can be dangerous. The other thing is that it illustrates the availability of sharp things, illustrating that criminals will ALWAYS have sharp things available too them with very few exceptions, regardless of what the legal restrictions are.

When I present these subjects, I tend to stay very clinical and logical about the subject. We are dealing with a society that in general fears objects irrationally (like sharp things and things that go boom). But when you approach the subject rationally, it tends to disipate a lot of these fears. There are very few times that I try to appeal to emotion with these subjects, and when I do it is specifically designed to shape behavior to get a desired effect from the client in terms of performance or overall attitude. Other then that, I try to approach the subject in a clinical manner so that they understand the subject of blades logically, before introducing the physical aspects; this is because it is during the physical aspects that the negative emotions are likely to come out.


All in all, I think that you are absolutely correct in saying that it IS THE WAY THE SUBJECT IS PRESENTED that can make all the difference.

Paul

 

[Pete Kautz]

Wow! It is great to see so many ladies getting into knife training!

At the Drawpoint Defensive Knife Craft seminar we did down in Ohio last weekend it was nice to have several women there to train, all who had skills walking in. They in turn were happy to see another woman helping to teach the class as Lily Gold from Alliance hung tough for two days as my training partner for the high-speed trapping and blade manipulations that characterize Drawpoint.

It is a different world than when many of us started the martial arts and you were lucky to see 1 woman in 100 at a seminar! Much better, much cooler - I like it.

Best of all,

Pete Kautz
http://alliancemartialarts.com
http://modernknives.com