Now, after I have been in possession Rey Galang's book "Masters of the Blade" and working some things in it,
I'd like to share a kind of a training regiment that I've devised from the material presented therein. Of course,
the main good thing about the book is that it offers something useful for everyone, no matter what their current
level of skill, but I'd like to present a progression aimed at those who would like to get involved with learning
knife fighting from teh sqare one, using this book as a source of information. Here we go...
1. Start with the chapter provided Roger Agbulos. It is dedicated to what I feel is the groundwork for any fighting endeavour, i.e. footwork and non-telegraphic movement. After you've done that on your own for a few days...
2. Find yourself a partner and get into drills nicely featured in Steve Grody;s chapter. It will teach you how to stay in a long range, where your skils are most likely to give you the advantage over an untrained opponent (as they say - "proximity negates skill"), and you'll be pushed to use your footwork from the step 1 in a situational environment of sorts.
3. If you've been doing the above two steps for a few weeks, and started developing some timing and feel for keeping your distance, maybe entering and disengaging comfortably to some degree, you might be ready for basic medio and corto drills, so turn to Hospecio Balani's portion of the book. There you will also get a feel for working with a reverse grip. I'd like to add that you should not stop working on previous material, because we all need constant improvement and brushing up in those areas. The same principle applies in further steps too.
4. OK, once you have your live hand in sync with your weapon hand, you should move to more demanding tasks, such as those shown in the chapter by Dave Gould. This is where all your previous skills will be put to test, along with your mental perseverance, ability to cope with stress and failure in training and struggle with your ego.
5. At this point, which in my estimation is after few months of regular training, you should have your solid foudation in place, so you can start adding other material from the book, in accordancw with your needs and
interests - empty handed against blade concepts or stalemate solutions from Steve Tarani; solo trainig forms, techniques and drills and their applications from Rey Galang or Michael Janich; empty handed scenarios from W. Hock Hochheim and John Jacobo; multiple adveraries or VIP protection scenarios from Atienzas or Bakbakan; drills for overcoming knife defense attempts from San Miguel Eskrima and Krishna Godania; insightful and tought prvoking writing from AMOK!, Ron Balicki or Jim Keating...and so on.
In essence, after you have your essential skills included in your functioning arsenal, you can go out and do research on your own, as the above is just a basic outline/framework, based only on a single book, although a great one.
Finally, The factthat I haven't mentioned some people who contributed to the book (Ray Dionaldo, Bram Frank, Felix Valencia...) is not to say that they have nothing valuable to offer. It is just that I tried to make this as simple and functional as possible. Afer all, refer to the section on "doing your own research"...That's why they call it a homework - you do it on your own!
I'd like to share a kind of a training regiment that I've devised from the material presented therein. Of course,
the main good thing about the book is that it offers something useful for everyone, no matter what their current
level of skill, but I'd like to present a progression aimed at those who would like to get involved with learning
knife fighting from teh sqare one, using this book as a source of information. Here we go...
1. Start with the chapter provided Roger Agbulos. It is dedicated to what I feel is the groundwork for any fighting endeavour, i.e. footwork and non-telegraphic movement. After you've done that on your own for a few days...
2. Find yourself a partner and get into drills nicely featured in Steve Grody;s chapter. It will teach you how to stay in a long range, where your skils are most likely to give you the advantage over an untrained opponent (as they say - "proximity negates skill"), and you'll be pushed to use your footwork from the step 1 in a situational environment of sorts.
3. If you've been doing the above two steps for a few weeks, and started developing some timing and feel for keeping your distance, maybe entering and disengaging comfortably to some degree, you might be ready for basic medio and corto drills, so turn to Hospecio Balani's portion of the book. There you will also get a feel for working with a reverse grip. I'd like to add that you should not stop working on previous material, because we all need constant improvement and brushing up in those areas. The same principle applies in further steps too.
4. OK, once you have your live hand in sync with your weapon hand, you should move to more demanding tasks, such as those shown in the chapter by Dave Gould. This is where all your previous skills will be put to test, along with your mental perseverance, ability to cope with stress and failure in training and struggle with your ego.
5. At this point, which in my estimation is after few months of regular training, you should have your solid foudation in place, so you can start adding other material from the book, in accordancw with your needs and
interests - empty handed against blade concepts or stalemate solutions from Steve Tarani; solo trainig forms, techniques and drills and their applications from Rey Galang or Michael Janich; empty handed scenarios from W. Hock Hochheim and John Jacobo; multiple adveraries or VIP protection scenarios from Atienzas or Bakbakan; drills for overcoming knife defense attempts from San Miguel Eskrima and Krishna Godania; insightful and tought prvoking writing from AMOK!, Ron Balicki or Jim Keating...and so on.
In essence, after you have your essential skills included in your functioning arsenal, you can go out and do research on your own, as the above is just a basic outline/framework, based only on a single book, although a great one.
Finally, The factthat I haven't mentioned some people who contributed to the book (Ray Dionaldo, Bram Frank, Felix Valencia...) is not to say that they have nothing valuable to offer. It is just that I tried to make this as simple and functional as possible. Afer all, refer to the section on "doing your own research"...That's why they call it a homework - you do it on your own!