From: eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com To: eskrima-digest@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Subject: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V8 #128 Reply-To: eskrima@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Errors-To: eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Precedence: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest Sun, 11 March 2001 Vol 08 : Num 128 In this issue: eskrima: Pen Mightier Than Sword eskrima: Haca & reverse grip eskrima: Pekiti-Tirsia Ice pick grip knife seminar eskrima: . ========================================================================== Eskrima-Digest, serving the Internet since June 1994. 1300 members strong! Copyright 1994-2001: Ray Terry and Martial Arts Resource The premier internet discussion forum devoted to Filipino Martial Arts. Provided in memory of Mangisursuro Mike Inay (1944-2000), Founder of the Inayan System of Eskrima. Replying to this message will NOT unsubscribe you. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe eskrima-digest" (no quotes) in the body (top line, left justified) of a "plain text" e-mail addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. To send e-mail to this list use eskrima@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com See the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) FAQ and the online search engine for back issues of the Eskrima-Digest at http://www.MartialArtsResource.com Mabuhay ang eskrima! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Brian T. Henderson" Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 16:56:56 -0800 Subject: eskrima: Pen Mightier Than Sword Jeremy Bays Writes: What Law Enforcement officer in the world would look twice at a person with a pencil? Yet, you can use this pencil to stab into hundreds of vulnerable areas of the body and cause anything from mild pain to death. Remember: The PEN is mightier then the SWORD. Me: That is precisely why we take those nasty little devils away from anyone we detain or arrest. But your point is well taken and I can attest to this from personal experience! May God richly bless you all! Brian T. Henderson Sifu/Chaplain and Border Patrol Agent mailto:chapbrian@home.com http://www.cmaministry.com/ http://www.cmaminsitry.com/chaplain ------------------------------ From: "BILL MCGRATH" Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 23:10:35 -0500 Subject: eskrima: Haca & reverse grip HACA: John Clements, the head of the Historical Armed Combat Association, and some students gave a demo/lecture at the Ashokan, N.Y. bladesmithing seminar, which I attended last year. I was impressed by what I saw. The man has done his research, both through reading of original texts and through sparring in historically accurate armour and swords and through cutting tests. He has a lot of interesting accounts of actual duels from the old days and will give you a lot of insight on what western martial arts in the pre-firearms days really looked like. I have done some SCA sparring and I think the HACA is much more realistic. Having said that, one should remember that different weapons work differently. A 36" rapier, a 32" stick or a 4" knife won't handle the same way, so most of the techniques used for sharp 36" rapier will not transfer well over to weapons like a stick or pocket knife. I do feel the FMAs are better with sticks, short swords and knives. But if you're as much of a fan of the old swashbuckler movies from the 30's and 40's as I am, you'll find the HACA material hard to beat for the "gee-wiz" factor. And if I was looking for a career in the movies, I would definitely give HACA a look to help broaden my technical abilities beyond Asian martial arts. John Clements is still a young man and still has a young man's "my art is the best in the world" bravado about him, but so did most of us at his age so don't hold it against him. I would definitely catch his demo if you get the chance and if you want to do an authentic ancient western weapon art purely for the fun of it the HACA is hard to beat. Reverse/ice pick grip knife: Mike Koblic wrote, "I seem to remember that Tuhon McGrath had some pertinent points regarding the use of short blades. I believe he thought that reverse grip was more appropriate and stabbing favored over slashing. Presumably fighting with a short blade will approximate empty hand fighting in its form with preferred targets being on the surface, ie. eyes, throat, groin etc., rather than "deep" targets such as heart and aorta. I am not sure about defanging the snake with a 3 inch blade - would one use it more as a hook in reverse grip to pass the attack? I have never really understood fighting in the reverse grip. Would its efficiency increase if one fought with a short blade in each hand?" Mike has pretty much given the explanation to his question within his own post, but I'll expand on it a bit. I am often asked if Pekiti-Tirsia has a preferred grip, to which I reply 'no, but your knife does." By that I mean that each knife has a grip that is best for that type of knife. I kind of consider blades of 4" and less the .22 caliber pistols of the blade world. Yes, a lot of people have died from wounds inflicted by .22s, but this cartridge doesn't rate very high as a "stopper" if you need to end a fight before your opponent can fire his own weapon. Unfortunately if you are stuck with carrying a .22 then you have to use it based on its limitations. This is the same with a small pocketknife. Slashes with a 4" blade in foreword grip are easier to score with but are not reliable "stoppers" of an individual attack, meaning that they have a small margin of error and often take time to take effect. It's not that I prefer the reverse grip, its just that it gives the most "bang for your buck" with a small knife. I would prefer a large knife held in a forward grip (actually if I had to use an edged weapon I would really prefer a sword or better yet a spear ... size-or in this case length- really does matter!). A slash with a 4" blade is only so deep, but a well delivered thrust with a 4" blade is at least 4" deep and in ice pick grip has the weight of a hammerfist behind it. The reverse grip helps lock a small handled knife in your hand better and is less likely to be dislodged. It ties in well with emptyhand and closed pocket knife/palmstick techniques. Try this experiment. Take a boxer with an equal amount of time in boxing as you have in FMA. Get in boxing headgear and use a felt marker for a knife. Have the boxer in boxing gloves and a fencing mask. Fight for 3 to 5 second rounds. After each round analyze what happened. Did you "cut" him before he hit you. If you did, would it have stopped the punch before it connected? After you get a feel for this, try it with both of you in fencing masks and and light gloves and using wood dowels with 4" exposed as the "blade". Tell him to try and "knock you out" with the knife. What I think you will find is that while you can score a point on an opponent with a 4" blade in foreword grip, you are going to have a hard time redirecting his attack if he is determined to hit you. With the blade in reverse grip (at least the way I teach it) you are going to have heavier arm to arm contact and have a better chance of redirecting his attacking arm before it can hit you. I try to brake my beginners early on of the tendency to play "tag" when knife sparring because with a small knife the question is not who gets hit first, but who gets hit HARD first. When my advanced guys knife spar it looks like 75% boxing and 25% knife work and is very heavy handed. They are in reverse grip, not because they want to, but because they are using a 4" blade. Give them a 9" bowie and they will happily use a foreward grip. Regards, Tuhon Bill McGrath Visit the PTI web site at: http://www.pekiti-tirsia.com/index.html ------------------------------ From: "BILL MCGRATH" Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 11:20:42 -0500 Subject: eskrima: Pekiti-Tirsia Ice pick grip knife seminar I have a seminar coming up in June on ice pick grip knife work. Here are the details: June 23rd & 24th Knoxville, TN. Bring head gear, cup, light sparing gloves and goggles that will fit inside the headgear. Contact Guro Zach Whitson for more info at: zdubya@chartertn.net or (865) 675-5151 Regards, Tuhon Bill McGrath Visit the PTI web site at: http://www.pekiti-tirsia.com/index.html ------------------------------ From: Ray Terry Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 8:54:48 PST Subject: eskrima: . ------------------------------ End of Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V8 #128 **************************************** To unsubscribe from the eskrima-digest send the command: unsubscribe eskrima-digest -or- unsubscribe eskrima-digest your.old@address in the BODY (top line, left justified) of a "plain text" e-mail addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. Old digest issues are available via ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com. Copyright 1994-2001: Ray Terry and the Martial Arts Resource Standard disclaimers apply.