Andrea Contents
The psychology of the training knife.
Why do you hold the training knife in your hand pointed at or close to your face while I explain or while you are on guard?
I often see during knife training people holding the training knife close to their face or in dangerous positions with the tip pointing towards themselves or their training partners during technical explanations.
- If it were a well-pointed or sharp knife would you keep it like a bic pen in your mouth?.
- Would you keep him pointing a real knife at someone unnecessarily?
NEVER DO IT, this in addition to being a bad habit, also means that you do not consider your training knife a real weapon and this is not good because psychologically you must always consider it very dangerous.
Training knife psychology is a habit/attitude to develop a precise sense of the position of your blade and that of your training partners.
If you train thinking “but yes so much is a fake weapon” you do not build the right attitude towards one of the most dangerous and insidious weapons of man that exist, a weapon that has crossed the history of humanity and continues to be the most used weapon today.
During training on short knife fencing or defending with and knife you never have to be touched by knife for any reason this is what you need to have in your head.
That training knife is actually very dangerous.
The psychology of the training knife is what is a real weapon!
When you’re standing in the gym:
- do not keep it towards your training partners,
- don’t leave it unattended,
- don’t play with it like a drummer,
- don’t scratch your head,
- do not hold it in your mouth like a pirate,
- et cetera.
If there is someone close to you with the knife always be careful, do not stay with anyone behind, keep a proper distance, stay alert, accustomed to this attitude even while you are training.
If there is someone near you you must always see if he has weapons in his hand, if he has them on, or hidden can be seen.
As a habit even if you are in the gym with friends, but it is a mental matter you must not let someone be near you with the knife in hand, or behind you or near to hit you easily, etc.
It is a mental matter, it is part of the training, you have to create the habit of behavior, it must not lead to paranoia but awareness.
You do exercises in some self-defense systems where you walk in the gym or take a walk maybe in 10 people and only 2 are armed with the knife and when you hear a whistle or a sound, those who are armed must attack.
Clearly you do not know who has the weapon and who has the weapon must keep it well hidden.
When I see working on this exercise already with the blades in hand I do not find it correct both for those who have to defend themselves, and for those who are the aggressor, because I do not think you would be close to a stranger with a strange face and a knife in his hand maybe walking near it so it’s okay to get used to a sudden attack but it is out of context.
Better if you want to work on the quick response do the exercise with that purpose, like duel to those who start first, and applies both to the one armed with a knife and to those who are unarmed!
The training is always double, both of those who attack and those who “suffer” the aggression, because the personal defense becomes at least in two.
The psychology of the training knife
Even if at that time you are not “using” the knife what you are doing is still a training to build a habit of handling a weapon and controlling what happens around you where there are other people at that time armed with a knife.
No matter that it is training and that it is not true, in your head you have to think and know that it always is this must be your psychology of the training knife.
An all-Italian story
These days I happened to read an article made in an Italian navy training center where they train the raiders that concerns precisely the mental preparation and psychology of the training knife until you get to the real knife.
In this article they explained the stages of knife training by dividing it into three basic steps:
1 Step – Start with a blue aluminum knife.
It is slightly lighter than the real one, without wire, the edges beveled and with the tip slightly rounded.
This is to avoid accidents to the person during the first phase of acquisition to master the tool.
2 Step – You switch to a steel training knife that reproduces exactly its weight, with the sharp tip but not sharp.
The shine is deliberate because it mentally affects the student and brings him closer to reality.
3 Phase – They use the actual knife [lethal, therefore. nda].
With this there is the total rupture of the conditioning to have the real knife in his hand.
The shine of a blade has both a cognitive and emotional inhibitory effect that pushes behavior towards uncontrolled reactions.
Therefore, if you get used to working only with simulacra it is like always shooting blanks.
This triggers processes that adapt attention to that context.
If I am in the context of reality, then I no longer find myself.
That’s why the last stage is crucial because you have to learn to fight with real knives.
This stage is clearly you can only do it among experienced people and it takes a lot of intelligence control and confidence is no longer something you can see as a game in the gym.
You are taking your training to a higher conditioning phase that is not only more physical but also mental/psychological where you get your body to move properly even under a very high level of stress.
Conclusions
Reading this article I was very pleased because it is something similar to the method I use with small variants related to the fact that the use in the formation of the real blade that is something necessary in special elite bodies in the civil field becomes a personal training.
So as a result the use of the real blade in training becomes the personal choice to take your training to the next level,something for a few or that you have to mature with time.
But listen to my initial advice on this post!
Just see knives near your face, keep the knife away from you!
The psychology of the training knife must be oriented to a single thought, that the knife is always true.
Stay Tuned!
Street Fight Mentality
Andrea
