In other posts I have reflected on my concern regarding Aikido’s use of the knife.
My concern is that while Aikido has beautiful flow and sensitivity drills, when it comes to tanto-dori, their use is under-developed. Moreover, because a knife is a commonplace weapon, in horrible circumstances it could be one a practitioner would need to defend against. Therefore, I urge utmost caution and seriousness when training with knives and especially defending against them.
I will of course cover the standard curriculum – teach to the test – but over the next several Saturdays, I will cover material taught to me by Master at Arms James Albert Keating – MAAJAK, aka, The Knife Coach – Uncle Jim.
Ambitiously, this session I introduced a “passing” drill – Palisut (to ‘scoop’). Using the FMA nomenclature, the initial attacker is the “feeder” and the secondary actor is the “receiver.” Interestingly, these role descriptions are a better philosophical embodiment of Aikido’s principles than our ‘native’ terms uke and nage – where nage is the person effecting the final motion, thereby winning. In the FMA tradition, both players have equal agency and are both simultaneously attacking and defending. In FMA drills there are no winners – each player learns the ‘antidote’ to the other’s ‘poison’ in real-time and with numerous repetitions.
In the Palisut drill both players are armed with a knife – the feeder with a standard (saber) grip and the receiver in ice-pick (point down). Both players are right-handed.
Feeder initiates the action with an angle 1 attack (yokomen)
Receiver zones inside to meet the attack using the knife wielding hand, and with the blade, scoops the Feeder’s attacking line (while hollowing out to avoid a gut-rake) to the bottom. Training tip – don’t pass the Feeder’s blade past 6-o’clock lest you give it energy back to the high-line. The empty “live” hand then (palm up!) lifts the Feeder’s upper arm as a control and delivers a point-thrust to the Feeder’s kidney. Note Receiver’s footwork is tight and primarily comprised of swiveling on the balls of the feet to make the bodily angle changes.
Feeder, sensing the threat, uses their live hand to jam (palm up!) the oncoming thrust. Feeder has to pull his knife hand back (think coiled snake) and swivel to face the Receiver with the intention of delivering a straight thrust.
Delivering the thrust (angle 7), Receiver zones outside and meets the attack with the live hand palm up and high on the forearm, the knife hand rises from the low line to slash Feeder’s wrist as the live hand presses down (to add force to the rising cut and – ultimately – press-trap). Receiver then attacks angle 6 to the Feeder’s chest.
Feeder zones outside, picks up Receiver’s thrust with an outside parry (palm down) – to press-feed Receiver’s knife hand to Feeder’s waiting knife (at the waist), and Feeder cuts the fingers while raising to deliver an angle 1 – re-setting the drill to its starting point.
There are numerous versions of Palisut drills to be found. Unfortunately Master Keating did not post his online (buy his videos, or better still train with him!), but this version is a good proxy:
Protective Arts 