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You rang?
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pravnik nailed it, when faced with a knife, run. If giving them your wallet would help, do that, then run.
I’ve studied Kali under a junior instructor at the Minnesota Kali Group . Great stuff, highly recommended.
As for the OP, Kali is a system of fighting based on ‘flow’, or flowing from one move to the next. You don’t trade tit-for-tat, you generally just go from one thing to another, be it defensive or offensive in nature. So, basically, if you are attacked, your defense becomes an offense or is both at the same time.
Kali is for both free-hand and with weapons. It is often taught with other forms (Panantukan, Thai boxing, grappling, etc.) so truthfully I wouldn’t be able to tell you where it starts or ends. But mainly when I think of Kali, I think of stick and knife training.
To start, I was taught with a rattan stick, and this is also interesting to point out that in Kali, the moves for most any weapon are the same, i.e. I use a stick the same way I would use a knife. The stick is a good way to start though because the moves are larger, and you can practice with sticks wherever you go (ever pick up a stick in the street and swing it?). Now, that doesn’t mean that every move is useful across all weapons, but you can inter-relate them.
Kali starts out with ‘lines’ of attack that form the basics of all moves. There are 12 basic ‘lines’ and if you picture a clock, they would go like this:
Line 1: From 1 to 7
Line 2: From 11 to 5
Line 3: From 3 to 9
Line 4: From 9 to 3
Line 5: Thrust straight forward to the middle
Line 6: Thrust straight forward to 1
Line 7: From Line 6, slice down in a ‘U’ and hit 11
Line 8: From 10 to 2
Line 9: From 5 to 11
Line 10: From 7 to 1
Line 11: From 12 to 6
Line 12: From 6 to 12
Now, these lines can be low, middle or high and can be applied to the attacks of both you and your opponent. So a left jab can be likened to a Line 7, a right hook is a Line 3, an uppercut is a Line 12, a front kick is a line 5, etc. So you train to attack and defend along these ‘lines of attack’, m’kay? So when I learn a block for Line 11, it is the same block I use whether it is a karate chop, a knife or a baseball bat. My attacks are the same, I attack a Line 1 with an elbow to the collar bone or knife slash accross the chest or Thai kick to the knee.
Back to sticks and knives. So once these lines are learned, you can flow from one line to the next fairly easily. So take a pencil everyone and follow me: Line 3, Line 4, Line 9 and Line 10 back into Line 3, Line 4, Line 9, Line 10, repeat. You now know one of the most basic combinations for stick and knife fighting in Kali, and it looks pretty too. It flows from one to the next to the next. Now, how you target these moves depends on what you want to do and what you have. If you have a knife and I have a stick, I am going to focus my lines on your hand to knock it away, then finish with a Line 11 on top of your head. If I had a knife, I would also go for your weapon hand (sliced knuckles hurt) and then maybe do a Line 5 to your upper arm, or a Line 6 to your neck.
And folks, what I just described is the first day of class. Some people study this for decades…you get into double stick, double knife, one stick and one knife, blocks, disarms, throws, parry’s, etc. etc. etc.
This is where a very stylish way of knife-fighting can be both effective and pretty. It is very much martial, but it can also be art.
As for other comments made above:
drhess, sticks are used cuz they are cheap and effective. A peasant can cut a rattan stick behind his hut and protect himself. In SE Asia there are a few woods that are SOLID. Iron wood is just that, strong as iron. It doesn’t even float, it sinks like a stone. But it is as tough as other fibrous woods, and legend has it that peasants would fight the Spanish and break their swords with these sticks by hitting them sideways! I’ve held an iron wood stick and can believe it.
Reverse grip: it’s just another grip, you train it too. You can do the Lines above with some minor adjustments. It is effective if you think how fast you can stab with a reverse grip, so a Line 3 can become a Line 7 almost instantly. I prefer forward grip because it gives you an extra few inches, and I mostly go for the hands, so those inches count. I can be completely out of your striking range and hit your hand or forearm very quickly. But if my knife got kicked out of my hand or I fumbled it and I managed to get it again, and I grabbed it reverse grip, I’m not going to waste time turning it around. So, good knife fighters train both ways (as well as both hands).
IMHO, people underestimate the damage a knife can do. I was once (foolishly) practicing with an open blade (some call it ‘live blade’) when I accidently cut myself. I cut the very tip of my left pinkie, straight in about a quarter of an inch. That little, itty-bitty, [sub]tiny[/sub] cut sent me to the school’s medical ward where they tried to get it to stop bleeding with some butterfly stiches. It didn’t stop. I was told that if it didn’t stop in 15 minutes I was going to have to go to the emergency room to get real stiches. Luckily it stopped bleeding, but still. A quarter inch deep, quarter inch long cut almost sent me to the hospital, and I still have a scar.
Now think about what a slice across the back of your hand would do? Look at your hand- see those tendons move when you wiggle your fingers? See the veins? What do you think a slice from a sharp knife will do there? What about your forearm? How would you like an 6 inch long, 1 inch deep cut there? And that is just 2 quick slashes on your leading arm, we haven’t even begun to talk about the rest of your body! Knife fighting is serious shit, avoid it at all possible costs.
-Tcat
