Closing Distance

We’ve been working a lot on knife defense during regular classes this week.  Since the theme is “moment to moment” I figured playing with blades is a good way to keep people engaged and present.

For today’s weapon class, however, we switched to sticks.  I was curious to see if the knife work would help us with club work.  I think it did.  To me, the strategy is the same regardless of the weapon in the attacker’s hand: move into a position such that the attacker loses the initiative and is forced to react to what you are doing rather than having freedom of movement.

Attack the attacker.  With a club this means closing the distance so that the advantage (distance) is nullified.