There is more to life than competition...

Corning Martial Arts Taikai

This September, the White Shadow Dojo was pleased to participate in an event sponsored by the Corning Sister Cities Kakegawa program. Corning city shares a cultural exchange relationship with Kakegawa, Japan and the focus of this event was to increase public awareness of Asian culture and to showcase the many martial arts schools in the Corning Southern Tier area.

The first “Martial Arts Taikai: An Inter-School Martial Arts Demonstration” was held at Corning East High School. There were ongoing demonstrations from 11am- 4pm with nine martial arts schools in attendance including; Three Treasures Martial Arts, Hidy Ochiai Karate, Elmira Tatsu Do, Sukunaihayashi-kai Shorin Ryu, Kwon’s Champion School, Hayabusa Martial Arts, Alfred Martial Arts Chidokwan Karate and Hakoryu Jujitsu, Taijiquan, and White Shadow Dojo Iaido. Drawing from Japanese, Chinese, and Korean styles, the event offered a broad view of the unique differences which exist within these various traditions. Some of the schools were large, commercial schools with thirty demonstrators, while others had only four or five members, again exhibiting the variety of choices available for those wishing to study martial arts in the Corning Southern Tier area. Perhaps the most satisfying part of participating in this event was the fact that this demonstration was a cooperative, community event. Instead of pitting the schools against one another, as tournaments do, this event brought martial arts practitioners together in a spirit of sharing and learning. It was unfortunate that public attendance was small, however this was the first event of its kind in the area and the Sister Cities Kakegawa Program hopes to make this an annual event in the future.

Four members from our school demonstrated Iaido, the art of drawing and cutting with the sword. We offer a basic Japanese swordsmanship class at our dojo which includes a thorough study of the sword and its parts, and the history, philosophy, and use of the sword. Our members demonstrated techniques from three schools of swordsmanship and explained briefly about the use, history, and development of the Japanese sword. Many of the martial arts schools who attended offer basic instruction in some style of swordsmanship for their black belt practitioners. However, in this situation the sword is typically taught along with a variety of other weapons, and the techniques lose their subtlety and refinement, and are often misunderstood. In many schools it seems as if the sword is viewed as the next step when the Karate student progresses to black belt. This is a fine notion if the student is willing to put in the serious time and effort to studying this weapon (or any other weapon for that matter). I think that our members offered an interesting demonstration and perspective on the study of swordsmanship and reminded those in attendance that the study of the sword is in itself a tradition and lifelong pursuit, just like studying Karate or any other open-hand art.

This event fostered mutual appreciation and respect among the attending martial arts schools, instructors, and students and offered a realistic perspective of the martial arts to the public. The instructors all agreed that this was a great way of reminding themselves and their students just how much there is to learn and how important it is to work together to promote the values and benefits of the martial arts. In a world where competition can be cut-throat and the martial arts have become big business, it was refreshing to see that some practitioners still remember and embrace the values which were passed down to them by their sensei and forbearers.

Gwynne Decker
White Shadow Dojo

Some Lessons in Blade Geometry: The Dynamics of Cutting

For over forty years I have been experimenting and training with many types of fighting knives. Just when you think you know everything there is to know about a subject something new comes up. That’s the way it is with blade geometry and the dynamics of cutting. My test-cutting medium is not very exotic. It consists of simple cardboard tubes from paper towel rolls or hollow tubes formed by rolling 3 sheets of newspaper and taping them.


One night at our dojo I took some time to work with a new knife from Laci Szabo called the Kamaitachi™. This knife is like a kerambit on steroids. Right from the beginning I dismissed it as a stabbing weapon and figured it was only suitable for tearing and ripping actions. When I queried Laci about how this knife was intended to be used he said that it was “the simplest of all of his knives to use.” That didn’t answer a lot of my questions. Despite its weird shape I decided to try some experimental thrusts with it. I was quite surprised and impressed with the stabbing qualities of the knife. The point is so offset from the centerline of the blade that I thought it would create a torquing effect upon impact but it didn’t seem to. When thrusting it works best if it is held in a modified reverse grip. In fact for any technique it seems more comfortable when held this way. So now I knew it was capable of thrusting but it is still a very short-range knife compared to something like a Hells Belle Bowie. Another surprise was that when I tried slashing with the Kamaitachi it did not do well at all. This was disappointing considering its talon-like curvature. The poor performance may be due to my unfamiliarity with it or my technique so I’ll give it more time before passing judgement. Laci’s philosophy is that a knife’s ergonomics ought to be tailored to the way a human being moves, not the other way around. That makes sense to me but I still feel like I have to figure out which way to move my body to keep the Kamaitachi happy.

Next are two similar knives, whose prototypes were made by Mike Snody and then manufactured by two high-end cutlery firms. Through the wonders of Ebay I procured the first of these two knives, an older Spyderco Ronin™. Michael Janich originally designed the Ronin, Snody made the prototype, and Spyderco eventually picked up the design to produce the semi-custom Ronin. It is a neat little knife and doesn’t seem to have gained the popularity it should have. According to an article written by knife designer and self-defense expert Janich, during a thrust the unusual blade shape will cause the knife to ride the sloped back edge and thereby create an ever widening wound as it enters. (This is the same effect that James Williams of Ancient Edge/Bugei claims for his design the Hissatsu™.) Going against traditional logic, Janich also made the claim that the cutting edge of a curved blade will tend to push itself away from the target rather than cut into it. He said that this is especially true when trying to cut a rounded surface. That statement, although counter-intuitive, started me thinking. For example, you would assume that the gracefully curved Shobu tanto by Gary Bradburn would easily out-cut the brute shown above it with the straight edge. To my great surprise, they both cut equally well.

So far I have not worked with the Ronin as much as the other knives being discussed but without a doubt its needle-like tip will provide serious penetration, and the cutting edge, although short, should cut deeply. The Ronin’s excellent cutting ability is the result of some blade dynamics I will explain shortly. Maybe if the Ronin had been made available in something a bit bigger, something with more than a three-inch blade, it would have made more of a dent in the knife market. In winter, when an attacker is liable to be bundled up in a heavy sweater and coat, any knife with a blade this short is going to have a tough go of it if you decide to defend with a thrust.

Next, the JuJu™, a Snody/Benchmade knife, with a blade shape (a modified wharncliff design) somewhat similar to the Ronin. Penetration was excellent, as would be expected. Being a bit larger than the Ronin, and having more mass, the JuJu really does well in cutting tests. The cutting qualities of yet another straight edged blade were much better than I expected and that is what finally triggered my research into an area of blade geometry that I had not explored before. The JuJu has a chisel-ground blade, with only one bevel, which makes for a very acute edge angle. This in itself improves the cutting performance but that is not the whole story as we will see later. Having a short four and three quarter inch blade makes it difficult to accurately hit cutting-targets and I often found myself drawing my cut too short and missing the target altogether. But if my aim and distancing were good, and my angle was correct, pieces of the cardboard tube were sheared off clean as a razor stroke.

The last weapon I want to discuss is the popular Razel™ from the Graham brothers. Although the Graham brothers describe their invention as the most useful tool you’ll ever own, this razor-chisel utility tool has some very interesting possibilities as a weapon. It doesn’t take much imagination to recognize it as a “slasher”. After all, the blade is nothing more than a truncated straight razor. My Razel also has a slight belly, but is this the source of its phenomenal cutting? After forty years of playing with knives, knowing beyond a doubt that curved blades cut and straight blades puncture, I had to question whether I was right or wrong? I hate to admit it, but I was pretty much wrong. What was also surprising is the Razel’s impressive capacity to create large holes during a thrust but I’ll discuss that last.

So where does cutting power really originate from? If, as Mr. Janich said, a curved blade is not the most effective shape, why isn’t it? It’s a matter of PSI, pounds per square inch. That sounds boring already doesn’t it? Consider for a moment the lowly single-edged razor blade, the same one used in utility knives and scrapers everywhere. If you take a test medium and place a razor blade with the full edge in contact and push down with all your weight, how deeply will that blade cut? Not very deep I would guess. Ok, now perform the same test and slide the blade along the surface[1]. You should see a difference, because now you have pressure and movement. Finally, apply the same pressure, cock the blade up forty-five degrees so that only the corner or tip is contacting the surface, and slide it along. If the tip doesn’t break off you will see a huge increase in the depth of the cut. Why would the tip break off? Because the PSI are very high when you apply the same force on a very small area, in this case just the tip of the razor blade. It doesn’t matter how long or short the razor blade is since you are only cutting with the tip. There is no curve to the tip of the razor blade either, it is just like the point of the Ronin, the JuJu, and the Razel. Therefore, I am not so sure that it is the curvature, or lack thereof, that makes the difference in the blade’s cutting performance. It is more the fact that the curved blade does not allow the fullest application of PSI that can be developed with the tip of the wharncliff style blade. With a curved blade the tip may never come into contact with the cutting medium at all. In essence the best cutting is not actually done with the edge, straight or curved, and therefore the blade length and shape have little influence on cutting performance.

I said I would address the thrusting capabilities of the Razel later, so here goes. Many people have looked at the blade of the Razel and arbitrarily decided that it cannot be used to puncture or thrust. These people must not have experimented at all with the knife or they would know how stupid that statement is! When the Razel is held naturally, in the right hand with the wrist held straight, the knife is angled about forty-five degrees to the left. This means that during a thrust the sharpened flat end of the blade is not striking the target squarely. In fact what you have is a very wide tipped blade something like a Roman pugio (dagger) or a hunting broad-arrow. Since both edges are razor sharp this knife will definitely penetrate, and in the process leave a very wide wound channel. So much for arbitrary determinations and that is what this whole article is about.

These discoveries make me wonder about the effectiveness of all those traditional drop-point deep-bellied skinning knives that have been marketed over the last 50 years. Perhaps if nothing else their blade shape was most effective at preventing them from cutting too deeply (for the reasons stated above) and penetrating internal organs. Their actual cutting performance may not have been what it could have, had they used a wharncliff style blade. Similarly, I am questioning the performance of re-curved blades, which have always been a favorite of mine. My particular affinity for knives with this shape may be due to the sensuality of the curve more than to its actual performance. Again, I was basing my preference on perception and other’s opinions, not on actual testing.

If high PSI focused on a small area is the secret to cutting then why did the Kamaitachi do so poorly? A sickle shaped blade is designed to gather in and cut and the pressure on the target is applied over a broad area, growing until it reaches the tip. I suspect that at this point the target can be torn or ripped but not smoothly cut. Remember that the cutting action of a sickle blade is applied against very tiny stalks of grass or grain. The talons of a bird of prey are not intended to cut; or else their game would slide through their grasp and escape. The talons are designed to gather in and clutch. That is exactly what the Kamaitachi does! It can be used to trap and tear, or collect-up, pass, and stab.

While we all have preconceptions of what a hunting knife or a fighting knife is supposed to look like, as the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “Form follows Function.” Once in a while we have to address our preconceptions, consider the options, step outside of the box, and question the function. Considering the cost of the knives involved, this has been an expensive experiment but I think that I have learned a lot about how a knife really works and just how wrong perceptions can be.

David Decker
White Shadow Dojo

[1] You will probably find that in order to slide the blade you must shift it, slightly lifting one corner so it doesn’t dig in and prevent sliding. This means that you have shifted the pressure to a smaller area, increasing the PSI which, in addition to the movement, also affects the cutting.

Edged weapons training

White Shadow Dojo
Class Make-up & Philosophy:

Our personal philosophy is that we train, if other people come they are welcome to train with us. If they do not come we still have to train. It is really that simple. Many years ago I stopped charging students for lessons. This is my way of repaying a moral debt to my instructors, many who taught me freely. In the White Shadow dojo we use the same method of ranking as a koryu, recognizing only student and mentor grades. Our students train in seitei[1] sword forms and in knife defense with no expectation of receiving rank. They train purely for the sake of self-improvement. The relationship between mentor and student in our school is different than that found in most schools because of our approach. Sometimes new students who do not understand our philosophy feel they have no obligation to come to class regularly because they have nothing invested and they do not see any tangible reward. To be honest, I do not want a student who comes to class on the basis of rank, promotion, or monetary profit or loss. The students who have stuck with us are excellent technicians, but they have acquired more than technical skills, they have developed a sense of self-worth that a colored belt or a certificate could not have given them.

Our class sizes have always been small, partly because we live in a small town setting, partly because of our philosophy, and partly by choice. Knife defense or knife fighting is not something that I believe should be taught to large faceless classes. This is not like teaching a class on empty-hand fighting, macramé or watercolor painting. I choose to be discriminating about whom I teach and what I teach them. If you choose otherwise you may someday meet one of your own students under adverse conditions and the questions will arise; do you remember him and did you teach him everything you know? Our teaching methods do not use role-playing or acting out scenarios. We feel that training for something that you know is just pretext is a waste of time. There are too many possible scenarios and no real sense of life threatening danger to make them useful.

We focus on hyoshi and gamae, honing the student’s sense of timing and positioning. Obviously, the primary component of any good defense is awareness, being in what is often referred to as condition yellow. Secondary to awareness is your response time, the efficiency of your movements, and an instantaneous and effective counter-attack. So the first, and most important, physical movement is to use the correct angling to shift off-center of the attack. In that same space of time, you should be striking or cutting your opponent, at the same time, not afterwards. This is a core component of our teaching; this is hittatsu no hyoshi, or the rhythm of one.

In fact, our first book The Rhythm of One is about combining defense and offense into one seamless movement. Our methodology is typically more responsive than offensive. Many people talk about reaction times always being slower than actions. That depends totally on the two people. If you don’t believe me, watch how differently people react when a stoplight turns green. Unless a person is deranged and attacks in a blind rage they will have a target in mind. It might be your chest, neck, arm, whatever, but they consciously make a determination of what and where to attack. Quite often they telegraph this information a fraction of a second before they attack. As the defender your agenda is completely different and you can respond by counter-attacking any part of your opponent that moves or is within reach, without any precognition or forethought. As soon as your attacker locks onto a target you are free to interdict and preempt his attack. Your counter-attack should be aimed at taking control of the center - that imaginary line that runs between two opponents - and taking-out the weapon control system. If your focus is totally on controlling the weapon – in this case the knife - you ignore your attacker’s other weapons. Chushin is the Japanese concept that applies to taking control of the center of an engagement and by doing so denying your opponent his base, disrupting his physical and mental balance.

Our second book will go into greater detail on timing, but I would consider an attacker’s first move to be when he begins to draw his knife, which should be your cue to strike, not when his knife is actually coming toward you. If his knife is already out, then his first move is cocking his weapon arm, and that is when you should attack. So although responsive in nature, I am not advocating that you let your opponent strike or cut you first. (No wonder so many teachers say that you should expect to get cut!) Yes you might get cut but don’t make that a precondition of your training or your response. As Yagyu Munenori said, combat is not about winning, it is about not losing. My strategy is about not getting cut and one of my high priorities is not sacrificing my empty arm by sticking it in the line of attack. This has a lot to do with making a wise choice of stances.


Methodology:

Our teaching methods are unabashedly old style and traditional. They rely on performing many repetitions of a technique to build muscle memory until the student is comfortable enough to allow variations in the attacker’s angle and speed. (If you really believe those instructors who say that you can learn a knife art, or any art, during a weekend intensive, then I wish you well.) Once a student has acquired a set of basics to work with, free style sparring - or randori - is allowed at reduced speed and power. When the student has proven their ability to control their techniques they are permitted to work at full speed and power, using either training gear and light contact, or working unencumbered and pulling their techniques. No attacks to the head or throat are permitted for obvious safety reasons. This is a time-tested method. It has been used for hundreds of years in Japan to train some of the world’s most indomitable warriors. Today many students are unwilling to put in the time to perfect even the most basic techniques. They want to learn an entire system in a one-day seminar and unfortunately there are teachers who are willing to meet, teach, and certify them all in one day.

Perhaps the most important difference in our school is what we don’t teach. We don’t teach knife disarms, traditional stances, hollowing out, or grabbing techniques. In contrast to most schools, we teach unassuming stances that do not offer any hint of how, or even if, you intend to defend yourself. Our stances are intended to conceal your skill level or martial arts training. They are completely relaxed, natural and non-confrontational. Being relaxed is very important. If you are not relaxed, then your movements will be tight and slow, and you probably will get cut. Taking a formal stance sends too many signals to your opponent and gives him too much information. Taking a fighting stance may actually trigger an attack, whereas being less confrontational might help diffuse the situation.

I believe that one of the worst things a teacher can do is place too much emphasis on fighting from a particular stance. It worries the beginning student and becomes a serious distraction. The more unnatural the stance is the worse time the student will have remembering it. All of his other techniques will suffer because of this distraction. I know that it has been said that a proper stance is the foundation on which everything else is built. Attack a well-built house with a bulldozer and see what gives. Now try the bulldozer against a mound of sand or a body of water and see what happens. Students who finally learn the teacher’s signature stance often become rooted in it and end up an easy target for their attacker. Many people have wisely said that the best defense is to not be where the attack takes place. That could mean being in a different part of town or just inches off to the side of a thrust. Either way it requires being mobile not rooted.

Hollowing-out, as a technique, provides your attacker with a wonderful opportunity to make a second attempt to stab or cut you. Hollowing-out will gain you just enough time to think about how much it’s going to hurt when you do get stabbed. When you hollow-out you negate any chance you had of taking the initiative and you have given your attacker the next move. This commonly taught technique is the inevitable result of being too rooted in a stance and being totally unprepared for an attack. A far better option is to simply move off-center, right or left, and strike, cut, or throw your attacker.

We also do not teach grabbing techniques because they do not work! Unless you are very quick, have an iron-man grip, are bigger or stronger than your opponent, and are also incredibly lucky, you are destined to end up with lacerated hands and arms. If you are lacking in any of these elements you will be picking your finger up off the floor. I have had a 250 pound man lock onto my knife hand with both of his hands and I could still cut him. I have seen blood drawn when a man trying to grab a wooden training knife got stabbed in the hand. While you are grabbing the knife hand your attacker still has two legs and one hand free to kick or punch you. Wrestling with an attacker’s knife hand is a last ditch practice that should be avoided at all costs. Remember, to control the knife you should take-out the weapon-bearing arm/hand, the legs that provide mobility, or the control center that directs them, the brain.

Gwynne and I have trained and taught in both karate Gi and street clothes, with and without shoes. The type of clothing worn for training is not that critical if you are teaching sensible techniques. If your techniques include a devastating spinning back-kick then the ladies who go to work in pencil skirts and stiletto heels are in deep trouble. I guess if you want to find out if those advanced techniques will really work, then everyone should wear pencil skirts to the next class. Our classes typically combine a mix of young teens and adults, male and female. Working with a student a foot shorter than me made me appreciate how useless some techniques were, for the shorter person! Training with a slight-built female student weighing 80 pounds less than me made me realize how badly she was going to get pummeled if I didn’t find a better technique for her to use. If that technique was better for her wouldn’t it also be better for a man? Sometimes we get locked into fuzzy logic about this sort of thing and overlook the obvious. Realistically you should not teach some techniques that are specifically for women and others for men. What about teaching big and tall men’s techniques, and small men’s techniques, are they for another day or another seminar?

For the most part, a six-foot, two hundred-pound man does not need much technical skill to assault a one hundred-pound woman, whether he is armed with a knife or not. So the techniques we teach are biased toward the weaker person, the one who is most likely to be the victim anyway, not toward the person more likely to be the aggressor. Body mass or brute strength must not be a part of the technique or the winner and loser are clearly defined before the confrontation even begins. Our techniques rely on avoiding impact or hard-on-hard blocks by choosing the path of least resistance, parrying, deflecting, and transitioning off-line. The techniques must work without the compliance of the “attacker” or they are worse than useless, they are deceptive. There is a very fine line between building a student’s self-confidence and giving them a false sense of security. One time a man asked me to create a simple course for the aged and infirm that they could use to defend themselves. While this is a noble concept I could not in all honesty find any executable techniques that people in this category could expect to use successfully. How do you teach a crippled gazelle to defend itself against a pack of jackals? Unfortunately the laws of natural selection are usually in the predator’s favor. One of the predator’s keenest senses is his ability to find and target the weak and defenseless. For this reason the awareness in your defense must be coupled with an air of confidence and assuredness and not emanating the scent of a victim.

Training Gear:

We use a wide variety of training knives in many materials; i.e. wood, rubber, aluminum, steel, and in various sizes and shapes. Hard rubber knives are best for beginners but at a more advanced stage the student is expected to use either an aluminum or steel blunted blade to increase their awareness of being hit. Students who become too comfortable with soft blades can become ambivalent about grazing cuts or light chops. Getting hit with a metal blade helps to restore that crucial sense of realism and blade awareness. For those student’s who attempt a disarm the feel of a metal blade in their hands is more convincing than one made of rubber. It is for these reasons that we do not use foam padded weapons in our training. Live blades - sharp weapons - are used for test cutting and solo drills, and only by the more advanced students. It is not recommended that inexperienced people work with live blades because it is too easy for them to cut themselves while performing even simple flow drills.


Summary:

Concerning the question of whether training in a dojo setting is realistic or not, would it make it better if we called it a reality-based-confrontation-center or some other equally silly thing? Dojo is just a word, in our early days we trained barefoot; on asphalt parking lots, the terrazzo floors of our community center and high school hallways, and in grassy back yards. Each of these could have been considered our dojo.
How long does it take to become proficient in unarmed defense against a knife? More importantly, I would ask, how do you know when you are proficient? Certainly performing a knife-disarm in class in not proof positive of your proficiency. The only real proof will be that which no one should hope to gain, surviving an actual knife attack. Let me rephrase the question. How long does it take to become proficient in unarmed defense against a training knife in a class room environment? That depends upon many things including the student’s aptitude and desire. One of the most respected authorities on the subject, William E. Fairbairn, said there is no sure defense against a knife attack. That is a pretty sobering assessment. One important thing I have learned in the past fifty plus years of life is that some systems are better than others, but the instructor’s attitude and his philosophy will have a greater impact on a student’s learning than all of the fancy techniques or systems out there. It bugs me when instructors, who were educated in a traditional style, give recognition to their teachers only for the advertising value and then go on to explain why their new system is better than anything their teacher ever taught. After thousands of years of conflict, a punch is still a punch and a kick is still a kick. Personally I refuse to train under any man or woman who show disrespect to their teacher or his style. Prospective students of the martial arts need to be cognizant of the difference between good qualified instruction and good marketing schemes and I think that this book will help the readers make those educated choices. Thank you for the opportunity to share our philosophy.


Dave Decker II
Instructor
White Shadow Dojo

Tactical Principals of Hittatsu no Hyoshi:

1) Assume that anyone approaching you is armed, especially if one or both hands are not clearly visible. Anticipate nothing, expect anything.

2) Never stand facing a possible opponent squarely nor with your weight evenly distributed. You must make sure that you can move in any direction instantly without having to shift your weight.

3) Avoid using hard karate style stances that root you to one spot or give your opponent any indication of your skill level or intentions.

4) Never accept the full energy of your attacker if you can deflect or parry it.
If you must block then use hard on soft and soft against hard.

5) When responding to an attack, taking the outside line is generally safer and improves your chances of escaping, but it is harder to reach, due to having to cross the line of attack. The inside line is tactically better if you have the ability to do serious damage to, and incapacitate your attacker.

6) Your defense and offense must blend into one seamless movement. Once he has initiated a conflict you must not allow your attacker any second opportunity to have another turn.

7) Against a circular attack (hook punch, Roundhouse punch, kick, or stab) enter straight in, and against a straight-line attack use a circular defense.

8) You must take control of the rhythm of the fight very early on if you hope to survive.

9) Always attack the nearest target using the shortest route and then get your weapon hand the heck back out of range. Snap-cuts are the quickest moves and least likely to suffer collateral damage by being intercepted by your opponent’s counter-cuts.

10) NEVER grab for your attacker’s knife or knife hand. The odds of you successfully grabbing and controlling it are miniscule compared to the chances that you will have your hand seriously lacerated and rendered useless. If you want to control the weapon arm do it after you have taken out his weapons control system, the brain.

11) Understand the strategy of purposely leaving a gap in your defense, but be prepared if your attacker doesn’t take the bait.


[1] The Seitei forms are generic sword kata often used for tournaments and suitable for teaching the basics of swordsmanship.