Modern Knives Video-Zine....?

[Cruentus]

http://www.modernknives.com/

Check this out. This is a project headed by the 2 famous instructors MAA James Keating and Pete Kautz of Alliance MA. It is a knife magazine done via video, with instructional material and so forth. I personally think this is a great idea to get information out there on the martial arts, as hard copy mags don't do it justice.

Anyone have a chance to check this out? Any reviews?

Paul

 

[KenpoTex]

Looks like good stuff...yet another thing on the shopping list

 

[Cruentus]

It just seems like a really great way to do a distanced type learning program. No mail in certificates or B.S....just straight up good instruction on a monthly basis.

I think it would be especially effective for those who train in other martial arts who are interested in knife work, but who do not have access to a good knife instructor. They could supplement their training well with this, I would think.

One of my Gild members did some work for this project with Mike Sastre or River City Sheaths (I believe that was what he was saying, but I haven't talked with him on this for about a week or 2). I really would like to get a review up here soon, so perhaps I'll see if he has anything for me...

Paul

 

[Dwight McLemore]

Since this is my first post on this forum, I will humbly make a few comments on James Keating's and my good friend and associate Pete Kautz's MODERN KNIVES video magazine. This first addition theme is Spanish Steel. Jim Keating starts off with the classic blade trapping basics for his Crossada. This section provides really clear views of how the trapping guards and Spanish Notch can be employed along with some excellent exercises to gain proficiency. James Loriega follows with an introduction to the basic of the Spanish Navaja. This is a really good introduction to the weapon that is about as clear as you can get. Pete closes the magazine out with his FMA double knife work that is classic for FMA students. Instructions for all three videos are clear and easy to follow ,the only comment I would make is that I would have liked to have seem some more close ups of the techniques but otherwise the overall quality of the video is good. Nothing 'Gee-Whiz' about this material, just good ole solid fundamentals that are always of value to everyone. I recommend this highly and I am sure as the magazine matures, you will really see some valuable distance learning material coming our way. Back in 1999, Pete, Gege Mele, and myself began swapping videos of what we were teaching at our respective school. Today these turn out to be real treasures not only for the training material but for the historical record too. When I administered Pete's Congress Expert Knife Test, I was able to capture it on film and got some of the best combat folder instruction I've ever seen. If your not involved with Alliance Martial Arts and this program, you should do so. Pete is one of the leading visionaries in the Western Martial Arts Field. I can't recommend this enough.

My Best
Dwight

 

[Cruentus]

Mr. McLemore,

I am a fan of your work sir. Thank you for posting here on martial talk! :ultracool

I have had a chance to review your tomahawk book and I must say that it was very well done. I would recommend it to anyone interested. I especially liked the drawings! (I heard you did those yourself...? )

A Friend of mine had attended your recent event on the beach. I was going to go with him and check it out, but I had too many scheduling conflicts to be able to make the trip. Anyways, I heard that it was a good time, and I am sorry I missed out. Next time, eh?

Anyways, welcome to Martialtalk. I moderate the armoury, and I can say that we try to run this forum professionally to maintain a comfortable atmosphere for our members; so that people of various levels of expertise (from beginner to expert) can feel good about posting here and discussing what they do best.

Anyways, keep us posted on any good information or discussions. And, if there is anything I can help you with, please Private message me here, e-mail me from the address on my website, or call me from the nmber on my site.

I hope we keep in touch.


Thanks again!

Paul Janulis
MartialTalk Staff,
Head Instructor of
Tulisan Tactical Training

 

[Dwight McLemore]

Paul:

Thank you for the kind remarks. Now that I am offically retired. I've got more time to devote to 'books' and my personal training. I am almost finished with the 2d (an hopefully final) Bowie book. Wish you could have made it to Bowies on The Beach. The plan is to have it next January 06 on 28 & 29. Hope you can make this one, we really had a great time and met some wonderful professional people who are now great friends. Gary Mah and myself will be hosting a Scientific Fighting Congress Expert knife test 15-16 October 05 at the Ramada Inn at Virginia Beach. Anyone that wants to attend for training or test is more than welcome. Please contract Gary at [email protected] and he will get a flyer off to you. I'm still hosting no fee training seminars once a month here at the home training hall so anyone that is in the Tidewater area of Virginia or just passing through, send me a private email and I'll send a list of the dates. [email protected] Will be shortly going back to our regular Tuesday night training weekly.

I have really been impressed with the professionalism and diversity of opinion that I've seen on this forum. You've really done a great job moderating what can be a very testy business. Well, all for now good luck to everyone in thier training and be sure to check out Modern Knives.

Best
Dwight

 

[Josh]

hey man. Do they have any video clips of the work??


This looks really cool.

 

[argyll]

Got this from Pete today:

Though we originally never planned on putting Modern Knives VIDEO Magazine onto DVD, we have received so many requests asking for DVD that we have decided to make them available as well.

I just saw the first test DVD yesterday, and they do look nice. We still have a few “tweaks” to make, but by the time Issue #2 comes out at the end of June we will have everything on DVD as well as VHS.

(Issue #2 will be on the Filipino Martial Arts, and feature Special Guest Kelly Worden, Jim Keating on Kerambit, Pete Kautz on Sinawalli stick and empty hand concepts, music by national recording artist “Others”, and more)

Now, the DVDs cost us a little more to produce so the DVD subscriptions will normally be 224.95 + s / h for the 4 yearly issues, the 5th bonus issue, other gifts, entry into the subscriber cutlery drawings, and so on.

BUT, I am leaving for a seminar in Munich today, so until I get back from Germany and have some time to update the Modern Knives web site you can save big on a DVD subscription and get it for the regular VHS subscription price of $199.95 + s / h.

How do you get this deal?

It’s EASY to do!

For the next 7 days ONLY:

Visit http://modernknives.com/subscribe.htm and sign up for a 1- year
subscription, and in the Box for Comments write “DVD SUBSCRIPTION PLEASE"

BUT, you’ve got to be quick on this one because when I get back and have time to update the page the sale will be over.

Best regards,

Argyll

 

[Keith Jennings]

I just saw this thread, so I figured it would be a nice opportunity to chime in. While I have unfortunately never had the opportunity to train with James Keating, I have been lucky enough to be able to train with Pete Kautz a couple times a year for the past six years or so. Knowing how good of an instructor Pete is, I had very high expectations for the Modern Knives Video Magazine, and yet amazingly I was still shocked at how good it was. There really are month of training found in just the first issue.



For anyone who is interested in knife-work, you will not be disappointed.



And Paul, I agree with Dwight. You are running a fine and informative forum here!

 

[Cruentus]

I just saw this thread, so I figured it would be a nice opportunity to chime in. While I have unfortunately never had the opportunity to train with James Keating, I have been lucky enough to be able to train with Pete Kautz a couple times a year for the past six years or so. Knowing how good of an instructor Pete is, I had very high expectations for the Modern Knives Video Magazine, and yet amazingly I was still shocked at how good it was. There really are month of training found in just the first issue.



For anyone who is interested in knife-work, you will not be disappointed.



And Paul, I agree with Dwight. You are running a fine and informative forum here!

Thank you sir! (although we can also thank Bob Hubbard and the other MT staff members for making a fine forum for us to play in. )

:ultracool

 

[Phil Elmore]

I've seen the Spanish Knives issue of this and I have to say it was pretty good. I'm going to put together a review when I get the chance. Pete's good people.

 

[Keith Jennings]

I've seen the Spanish Knives issue of this and I have to say it was pretty good. I'm going to put together a review when I get the chance. Pete's good people.

Cool. I'm looking forward to reading your review.

So, for those of you who have never seen the Spanish navaja material, what did you think of it? I have had the chance to study with James Loriega a couple times now, I have to say I like it. In some ways it is quite similar to other Western knife arts, but it has some unique features as well.

Having an authentic instructor of Spanish knife arts is a pretty rare thing, and IMO having resources like Modern Knives of Loriega's books is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Western knife fighting.

 

[Cruentus]

Cool. I'm looking forward to reading your review.

So, for those of you who have never seen the Spanish navaja material, what did you think of it? I have had the chance to study with James Loriega a couple times now, I have to say I like it. In some ways it is quite similar to other Western knife arts, but it has some unique features as well.

Having an authentic instructor of Spanish knife arts is a pretty rare thing, and IMO having resources like Modern Knives of Loriega's books is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Western knife fighting.

A friend of mine and Guild journeyman Chris Fisk travels quite a bit more then I have been able too, and he just saw Mr. Loriega in Chicago. I have yet to see what he brought back from the event, but when I get the chance I'll post my thoughts.

Phil does really well written reviews, so I am sure that his review will be a good one!

Paul

 

[Keith Jennings]

A friend of mine and Guild journeyman Chris Fisk travels quite a bit more then I have been able too, and he just saw Mr. Loriega in Chicago. I have yet to see what he brought back from the event, but when I get the chance I'll post my thoughts.

Heh, small world! I too was at the Navaja seminar in Chicago. I was also at Bowies on the Beach with Chris, and he will be attending the Alliance bowie seminar I'm hosting in Denver. Cool.

The Chicago Navaja seminar was indeed good. For a review with some nice pictures of some of the "Gauntlet" sparring, go here:
http://www.chicagoswordplayguild.com/2005_navaja.html

 

[Cruentus]

Heh, small world! I too was at the Navaja seminar in Chicago. I was also at Bowies on the Beach with Chris, and he will be attending the Alliance bowie seminar I'm hosting in Denver. Cool.

The Chicago Navaja seminar was indeed good. For a review with some nice pictures of some of the "Gauntlet" sparring, go here:
http://www.chicagoswordplayguild.com/2005_navaja.html

Yea...we've just missed each other then. I would have loved to have gone to either event, and I was very close to going to the bowies on the beach event. If it wasn't for work constrains....Perhaps we will meet in passing.

I didn't know Chris was going to Denver! I am jealous of his travels! :ultracool

 

[Keith Jennings]

Yea...we've just missed each other then. I would have loved to have gone to either event, and I was very close to going to the bowies on the beach event. If it wasn't for work constrains....Perhaps we will meet in passing.

I didn't know Chris was going to Denver! I am jealous of his travels! :ultracool

You should really try to make it to the next Bowies on the Beach. The training was first class, and the beach front rooms were spectacular and cheap. The ocean is a bit cold in January, though that didn’t stop a couple of us from doing some cold water dousing…


It was also nice that the majority of the seminar participants were staying in the same hotel the entire time. Saturday evening we all got together to swap knife technique and drills until midnight. Good times.
For anyone interested, there is a review of the seminar here:

http://www.chicagoswordplayguild.com/2005_bowies_on_the_beach.html

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

This Modern Knives Video-zine is a great idea and with Jim Keating heading it
up I can only imagine that it will be first class! So much information, so little
time! I need to get the credit card out again and do some more research!

Brian R. VanCise

 

[Keith Jennings]

I was talking to Pete Kautz, and from the sound of it, issue two will be just as good as issue one. Whereas issue one was for fans on the Western blade arts, issue two will devoted to the Filipino arts and will guess star Kelly Worden. Worden, Kautz, and Keating….not a bad combo if you ask me!

I believe that issue two will be mailed around the first week of July, so its just around the corner.

 

[Cruentus]

I was talking to Pete Kautz, and from the sound of it, issue two will be just as good as issue one. Whereas issue one was for fans on the Western blade arts, issue two will devoted to the Filipino arts and will guess star Kelly Worden. Worden, Kautz, and Keating….not a bad combo if you ask me!

I believe that issue two will be mailed around the first week of July, so its just around the corner.

Sounds like a good issue!

Paul

 

[Keith Jennings]

Just got this in. Issue two looks sweet. I'll post a review when I receive my copy:

James Keating leads off the issue with a look at the Kerambit (hook knife), leading us through a flowing series of 5 elbow-shields and counters with the kerambit as well as introducing some ideas in how to use the knife as a very serious control tool. You will find a lot of neat stuff "hidden" in the elbow-shields when you start training them and making the connections. This flow set acts as a "quick start" to Silat and Kerambit.

Kelly Worden is our Special Guest in this issue, and his segment on the Impact Kerambit (a.k.a. Travel Wrench) and Filipino knife concepts will certainly prove that Modern Knives is an UNCENSORED publication. Any of you who have trained with Kelly know that he has a wacky sense of humor and occasionally says things that are "a little too hot for TV" when teaching seminars. Kelly presents a lot of great material here in an easy to follow way. He has the FLOW and also the STRUCTURE to pass his knowledge on to others. There is much to be learned here on foot trapping, entries, passing, zoning, footwork and so on in addition to the obvious aspects of the weapons themselves.

My segment is focused on basic Filipino knifecraft, and covers four essential drills using the thrusting triangle from both forward and reverse grips. You will learn the hand parry, the knife parry, the chain (de cadena), the flow, and how to combine them all in spontaneous motion. Like the Espada y Daga last time, these drills alone offer months of work.