Blades Training Page

Blades Training Page

The Blades portion of the KBS System curriculum includes training in espada y daga, the long blade and the knife. Some basic training in espada y taming (shield) is offered to show the differences in body positioning and footwork this involves.

The knife training is aimed at the real world, unlike the sword and espada y daga training. We begin with offensive knife techniques, teaching students how to attack with the blade before we teach them how to defend. We do this to teach the reality of the blade, which is that if your opponent has a blade and he knows what he is doing, you have little to no chance. By teaching the offensive techniques and principles first, we remove any romance or glory from the defensive training, and the students take things much more seriously.

While we include a small amount of blade-to-blade practice, this is for the physical benefits of hand-eye coordination and body mechanics. It is not emphasized because it is not something that occurs normally in the street. (* See the article "Don't Call Yourself a Knifefighter"). Most knife encounters involve just trying to survive the encounter, not pulling your own blade and dueling a la Errol Flynn!

Espada y Daga:

- starting position:

- abecedario:

- counterstrikes:

- footwork, wrist and shoulder exercises:

- movement:

- strike combinations:

- daga use vs. counters:

Solo Long Blade:

Level 1: "De-fanging the snake"/Evasion

Abecedario

Counter-for-counter

Level 2: Parries and closing the distance

Abecedario

Counter-for-counter

Flow Drill

Knife:

- offensive

- theories and practice methods

- angles and targets

- grips (saksak, tusok)

- in-and-out footwork, switching leads, knife hand fwd vs. live hand fwd

- dotting, slashing and stabbing

- "C" motions (stab into slash, slash into stab)

- live hand help (stripping, hiding, grabbing, etc.)

-defensive

- defensive theories

- defensive blocking and avoidance strategies

- disarms

- L hand removal

- R hand removal

- locks and lock counters

- continuation flow drill

- L hand removal on initial release

- R hand removal on initial release

- winding-tripping-breaking-driving-snatching subsystem

- configuration drills, other locks

- sparring

- controlled

- free-style

- dueling (blade-to-blade)

- crossada drills

- application drills

Espada y Taming:

Ready Position:

Basic Drills:

Advanced Drills:

Controlled sparring: