From:      eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com
To:        eskrima-digest@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com
Subject:   Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V8 #123
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Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest         Thur, 8 March 2001         Vol 08 : Num 123

In this issue:

     eskrima: Re: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V8 #122
     eskrima: Short Blades
     eskrima: .
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From: Badger <baj7d@unix.mail.virginia.edu>
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 21:57:15 -0500 (EST)
Subject: eskrima: Re: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V8 #122

Cool dialogue on the protective gear, clothing, gloves and such.

I was joking a bit on the gloves, but there's a whole 'science'
surrounding somewhat 'stealthy' armor, garb, shielding, and wear customs,
as, apparently everyone is aware on this list.

I particularly liked the comments about the one-sleeved wear strategy
among certain fellows, (thanks Yiannis!) heh, in Greece. Best comment this
year wrt, that kind of cultural info!! I sense that 99% of the members
when that note came up, sat forward, grinning, and stuff. ;)

The thing about garb, is, it has to:

be with you at all times;
be inobtrusive;
be comfortable, mostly;
be 'just enough' to fit a modest 'edge' obtaining plan;
not be thought of as making you invincible;
be 'secret' (can't understate that part);
...and soforth.
and not be illegal (?)

I'm aware that a glove or coat or wrist band or shin guard or neck guard
will give you slight protection, a 'gap' of .5 seconds, a difference
between an immediately fatal wound and being able to sidestep a half inch.

Paranthetically, another function of 'garb' is that it hides your
silhouette. (i.e. baggy shirt, might miss where perp thinks your vital
point is; they have to 'teach' "center of mass" focus to ppl).

Thus testing a glove, or anything is pretty much fun, but pointless, in a
sense.

If you're taking a shower or in bed, you're helpless. If you forget to
wear your [insert item here], it's no good, period.

But we all know that. In the 'real days', (think Roman Legion), <g>, you
wore your bronze gauntlets in the shower <grin), or kept your helmet on
while sleeping and stuff, and today that's not practical. So mostly this
stuff is of historical or entertainment value. Still fun to speculate, no?

Still neat to have input about 'best glove' or 'testing' knife type,
against leather, denim, etc. ;)

The best advice is if you are gonna use a 'garb' strategy, is to do what
Chad suggests; incorporate into your training, have reasonably realistic
training scenarios, that's a given, reiterated many times on this list.

However, maybe don't throw out the 'baby with the bathwater'. Of course if
your skill-level sparring buddy is gonna jump out and take you down every
time, like Inspector Closeau's Kato, nothing is gonna work! But if you
have 1/2 speed attack and something works fairly consistently, that can be
informative.

That way you can certainly throw out the 'totally TV-stupid' ideas, and
bear in mind what one person can employ, 'make work', might be
un-realistic to others. Maybe have a 'range' of testing. Totally bad dude
attack, to modest threat, in real-life testing. Allow for your own
improvement.

Having said that, we all know the great equalizer. "Reflex gap".

We've all been in scenarios where being all mellowed out it's like, the
_next day_ when you realize someone wants to hurt you. Man. Been there
done that. The difference between a 'planned' attack where you're on
'alert' and plain ordinary 'daydreaming' mode is maybe 10 seconds, or more
it seems. I think 'vets' may have a handle on that; how to adapt - but
gettin 'nailed' flatfooted. Man that's the rub.

Now, also having said that, we've all surprised ourselves with that 'quick
appropriate reaction' outta nowhere, too. It's just a reliability factor
I'm hinting at. Actually in my old age, my reflexes are about twice as
fast as when I was younger...really...I'm forever reaching out and
grabbing dropped things in mid-air now-adays. As a kid I'd walk into a
store and destroy the whole lampshade display in .3 seconds; heh.

As Dan says it's a learned 'aura' thingie, and peripherality, and economy
of motion. So it's both better and worse than one might normally think.
The trick is knowing your own limitations, and skills and reliability
factors.  Again, as Chad says, train as you'd live/fight. Make it
ordinary.

All other things being equal, take care of the big stuff, learn how
not to 'freeze', and have good conditioning, and the little things can
add up, though. Synergy; give ya an edge, perhaps...

OK, I'll quit preachin' to the choir... enjoyed the list's comments! ;)

- -B
___
baj7d<at>virginia[dot]edu
Arnis Lastra/Arnis Lanada

------------------------------

From: Scott Wiggins <Scott@home-cov.demon.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 18:36:02 +0000
Subject: eskrima: Short Blades

Guys,

The views on 2 and 3 inch blades having too much respect paid to them.

Personally any blade needs some respect.  Make no mistake it may not be
long enough to stab you to death, but then it may be.  You may not die
of blunt force trauma but the blood loss will get you if you don't get
the bleeding stopped fast enough.  Not to mention the cut tendons and
arteries that can give you either a permanent reminder or an eleven
second countdown to a permanent sleep.  My cousin found out the hard way
one night in Milton Keynes, a 3 inch pen knife put him in intensive care
for nearly a week.

In the UK a short knife is what we are more likely to face.  Being
smaller it is likely to move faster and be a lot harder to stop.

I tried a bit of tapi and some disarms with a alu mock up of a 3"
Delica.  You can do the disarms etc. but you need to work at them -
there's less leverage so you need to attack the thumb more.

Anyway, nuff said.

Train hard.  As my instructor once said the art is our armour.

Scott


Scott Wiggins
Scott@home-cov.demon.co.uk
http://www.home-cov.demon.co.uk/index.htm

------------------------------

From: Ray Terry <raymail@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com>
Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 12:23:03 PST
Subject: eskrima: .


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