Let's try re-phrasing it a little bit...
Any place where there are big blood vessels, vital internal organs, eyes or most tendons is a very bad place to get cut.
It is a real pain to try and get through life without your weak hand. But it's possible. So if something is going to get mangled it's better that it be your off hand than almost anything else.
When my wife and I did more FMA - mostly Inay, Inosanto and Presas - the off hand got used a lot. But it was pretty static. It generally stayed near the chest while the blade was low, in front of the knife (cf. most old military manuals dealing with knives) or the ways Kirk describes. Good positions but pretty rigid in application.
Recently my Silat teacher has started doing a lot more knife. In days past he'd teach empty hand defense against knife from time to time. The main lesson learned was that you want to avoid going empty hand against a knife is something you want to avoid if there's any conceivable alternative. Like Richard Pryor said "Mother****er will cut that **** all up. If a guy comes at you with a knife you run. If you can. If you can't run FLY!"
Well, he started teaching us how to use knives lately. Baby steps only at first as Steve Perry says. It became apparent that the answers we'd been given were partial at best. What's important is sticking your knife into the other guy without him doing it to you. To do that the knife has to have or be able to acquire a clear path to the soft squishy parts. At the same time you have to make sure that you can deal with whatever is coming in high and low, near and far left and right. The less movement you can get away with the better, but static positions aren't reality. And you can't grab a hand that's flicking around or doing fast stabs and cuts out of the air.
It's all basic Silat that everyone has heard a thousand times before. Nothing changes.
What it means is that both hands are moving. You always have something high and something low, something near and something far. If you're covering your lines, then something will be there to answer whatever he is sending your way. The knife low and left hand back by the chest and all the rest are not how you fight. They are snapshots where you might be for a moment. Reference points at the extremes of your movement. Those espada y daga sequences with sword-knife-sword and knife-sword-knife are indications of how your weapons can move either completing their arcs or stopping and reversing while still taking care of high and low et cetera.
During that time you might well get cut. But if you are doing things right it won't be as often, and it will more likely be somewhere that you can survive.
Oh yeah, Bowie knives. The big ones Kirk is talking about are entering short sword territory. The extra range makes them more like a golok or bolo. that is a very different fight, especially if you have the great misfortune not to have a weapon of your own. As the old Pat and Mike story ends:
" Patrick, didn't you have anything in your hand?"
"Nowt but Mrs. Murphy's ****. A thing of beauty in itself but not worth a damn in a fight."
- There are no good places to get cut.
- There are some places that you can survive.
- There are others which suck beyond comprehension.
- Getting your weak hand and forearm cut sucks a little less than most of the alternatives.
Any place where there are big blood vessels, vital internal organs, eyes or most tendons is a very bad place to get cut.
It is a real pain to try and get through life without your weak hand. But it's possible. So if something is going to get mangled it's better that it be your off hand than almost anything else.
When my wife and I did more FMA - mostly Inay, Inosanto and Presas - the off hand got used a lot. But it was pretty static. It generally stayed near the chest while the blade was low, in front of the knife (cf. most old military manuals dealing with knives) or the ways Kirk describes. Good positions but pretty rigid in application.
Recently my Silat teacher has started doing a lot more knife. In days past he'd teach empty hand defense against knife from time to time. The main lesson learned was that you want to avoid going empty hand against a knife is something you want to avoid if there's any conceivable alternative. Like Richard Pryor said "Mother****er will cut that **** all up. If a guy comes at you with a knife you run. If you can. If you can't run FLY!"
Well, he started teaching us how to use knives lately. Baby steps only at first as Steve Perry says. It became apparent that the answers we'd been given were partial at best. What's important is sticking your knife into the other guy without him doing it to you. To do that the knife has to have or be able to acquire a clear path to the soft squishy parts. At the same time you have to make sure that you can deal with whatever is coming in high and low, near and far left and right. The less movement you can get away with the better, but static positions aren't reality. And you can't grab a hand that's flicking around or doing fast stabs and cuts out of the air.
It's all basic Silat that everyone has heard a thousand times before. Nothing changes.
What it means is that both hands are moving. You always have something high and something low, something near and something far. If you're covering your lines, then something will be there to answer whatever he is sending your way. The knife low and left hand back by the chest and all the rest are not how you fight. They are snapshots where you might be for a moment. Reference points at the extremes of your movement. Those espada y daga sequences with sword-knife-sword and knife-sword-knife are indications of how your weapons can move either completing their arcs or stopping and reversing while still taking care of high and low et cetera.
During that time you might well get cut. But if you are doing things right it won't be as often, and it will more likely be somewhere that you can survive.
Oh yeah, Bowie knives. The big ones Kirk is talking about are entering short sword territory. The extra range makes them more like a golok or bolo. that is a very different fight, especially if you have the great misfortune not to have a weapon of your own. As the old Pat and Mike story ends:
" Patrick, didn't you have anything in your hand?"
"Nowt but Mrs. Murphy's ****. A thing of beauty in itself but not worth a damn in a fight."
