Hi thrust it's not meant to be debilitating but will make you jump if you are not expecting it. Here's something I wrote for the AMOK! Forum
One thing I would like people to keep in mind is that the buzzard is designed to be just one tool in your tool box. It is a scalpel not a SAK. If you are looking for a trainer that you can throw on the floor and step on fight hard with and abuse well the eagle is what this is designed for. If I could have only one training knife the eagle does it all.
The Buzzard fits a small niche in your training one of the reasons Nok tried to come up with an affordable electric blade was that it only fits a small niche in your training and we couldn't justify having a student have to pay a fortune to train such a small (though important) area of their training.
One of the hardest opportunities to train safely and realistically in knife work is the follow. In a blade exchange the follow usually occurs when you have injured your attacker you have created a spontaneous knee jerk defensive reaction in him that allows you to follow this reaction into his core.
In training unless you are really hurting your partner you seldom see this follow response and it is very hard to mimic or "act out "in training as a true response unless you are really hurting your partner.
In the old days when we were all using aluminum "war clubs" to train with now and then you would smash your partners knuckle, elbow, your slam him in the face and you would see this reaction and be be able to take advantage of the opportunity to train your follow to his body of course you didn;t see your training partner for a few weeks until his wounds healed.
This is where the electric knife shines in training, is safely creating this knee jerk spontaneous defensive withdrawal of the arm.
Here is a few drills Nok and I have been working the buzzard with.
If your partner knows he is going to be shocked every time he can grit his teeth and force him self to take the shot, so the trick is to use it randomly so he doesn't know when the shock will come. Nok and I will work our random flow both of us inserting tactics when we like only every now and then we will activate the knife and deliver a jolt and as the receiver jumps off the jolt the other attempts the post the blade arm and enter with a stab to the body.
Another drill we have been doing is having your partner get into their fighting stance close their eyes and deliver random strikes to the air the other partner picks one of those strikes to arm cut again when your partner doesn't know it's coming 9 times out of 10 they will retract their arm at the jolt and give you the opportunity to post their blade arm and enter with your kill shot to the body..
As with any tool knowing what job that tool is best suited for is half the battle, and using the proper tool for the job makes everything easier. The task is to come up with drills that this tool will be best applied to as again it is not a general purpose tool and has it's limitations .
