Internal arts and self defense against blade weapons.
Greetings,
The Filippine MAs are well-known to be
effective against armed opponents,
especially those with bladed weapons
such as knives.
Now, it's also well-known that Chinese
internal arts are effective in self-defense
and unarmed combat. But what about knives
and fighting against armed opponents?
My question is, how do you people,
practising an internal art, train to defend
yourselves against a blade? Are you using
methods from Filippine or MAs from other
countries/cultures? Or do you think that
the methods/techniques within your own
system are good enough? If so, what style
do you practise and what methods do you
use?
Regards,
Mark (yes, Wai is my Chinese name)
Internal styles and knife defense.
Do you mean unarmed defense or do I get a choice of weapons to defend with? There are many different "in-close" methods from the chinese internal styles. In bagua we have deerhorn knives, judges pens, and daggers among others. All of the techniques are brutal to the bone. Fortunatly, I have never had to use them in real life situations to stab, slice, shave or cut an enemy. I know the techniques of the Filippines are effective as they have been necessary and effective for street survival. They work. But in response to your question, there are an equal number of knife techniqes in Chinese martial arts. There is really no reason to borrow from other styles for this particular situation. Anyway, a weapon is only an extension of the arm and if I were using one it would come from the styles I have learned.