From the Left

Well no one emailed me with an answer to my question about how you can gain the same advantage by fighting left handed, with your knife still in your right hand. Maybe the question was too difficult, too simple, or no one cared enough to email. I wonder which? (Right after I posted this I found that a reader had posted a good question, thanks) The photo is self-explanatory. (Holy Crap I look like Fidel Castro in this photo. Gwynnes photo is much nicer but same idea. The photos are from our book The Rhythm of One) Some people will say “Oh that is simple, I figured that out.” Some will say, “If you hold your knife that way your arm can be trapped against your body.” This is true if you insist on moving your knife around your body. Try moving your body around the knife for once. Anyway, what brave soul would like to prove that by trapping me? For those of you who are used to training/defending in the dojo without moving your body, this may be a problem.

The advantage I want you to see is that by placing your knife in this posture you move it closer to your opponent’s weapon hand/side. This alters the time-space continuum of the conflict. It also requires that when he cuts or thrusts that you move, you move your entire body not just your arm. Experiment and see where your body ends up as you expand outward from this posture. By the way Gwynne is standing in a mugamae posture (posture of no posture) here and while it looks lke a poor defense you could be very surprised. Remember knife fighting is not static! Too many schools of knife defense operate on the premise that if you have a knife in your hand you do not need to employ all of the other fancy stuff you learned as an empty-hand stylist: things like mobility, fluidity, circular movement, chords, etc, etc. The other salient point to this posture is your right shoulder. Yeh, it’s a big wide-open target isn’t it. Think about that......Well anyway that’s my answer and its up to you to see how it works, or not. I am working on another technique that I may name the Quasimodo. Got the picture?