A sharp knife is a beautiful thing. When used correctly it can slice a ripe tomato, kill a wild pig, or stop the bad guy in a horror movie from coming back to get you in the sequel. I look at this unique slice of San Francisco to learn more about the care, use and deadly application of knives.
Anybody who has ever harbored any delusions of becoming a master knife fighter has likely gotten the idea from movies. Or the internet. Or some drunk guy at a bar claiming to be a Navy SEAL. The reality is that the best defense against a knife attack is always the "Nike" defense - i.e. run away whenever possible. If you try to stand and fight somebody with a sharp knife, 99% of the time you will end up with a bloody pile of your own guts in your hands.
The other thing to consider is that the person trying to stab you won't need any special skill to do it. The prison yard shank is just as effective as a poke from a butterfly knife flipped open in a wild ballet of sharp metal - which means the idea of learning the art of knife fighting is a bit of a fallacy. Sharp knives are dangerous no matter what, so you can't really practice knife fighting without getting seriously hurt.
What you can do is try to learn the art of Filipino sword fighting, known variously as eskrima, kali and arnis. Eskrima practitioners engage in an elaborate dance, sliding and dipping in a series of random parabolas while trying to slice each other to shreds with swords and long knives. The idea is to incorporate a set of proven techniques into a seemingly random series of movements that an opponent would be unable to anticipate. The end result looks like a break dancing battle crossed with a samurai duel.
If you want to learn eskrima in SF, the best person to talk to is Maija Soderholm. She studied Visiyan Eskrima under the legendary Sonny Umpad and YouTube is plastered with videos of her masterful flow, or improvised dueling matches. Hoping to understand the eskrima approach to knife wielding, I took a private lesson with Maija in her East Oakland backyard. With wild chickens running around us and trains blowing by every few minutes, Maija taught me the basics of eskrima offense and defense.
Dividing the upper body into four quadrants, Maija showed me a basic strike and defense for each quadrant. We used real blades (with dulled edges) and took turns slicing at, and then defending, the respective quadrants. Next, Maija demonstrated the eskrima footwork through a drill that involved mirroring the opponent's footwork. "With the blade...if you mirror the opponent's angle, you are guarding what they are pointing at so they have to change angle to find an opening," she says, "which you can then see and change also." The idea is to develop to the point that the opponent's movement is just background noise - which allows you to stop thinking about it and concentrate on your own attack.
Before I knew it, Maija and I were actually dueling. We danced around her courtyard, slashing at each other's vital parts. Using my small arsenal of strikes and movements, I attacked and defended against Maija with about a 60% success rate. To be fair, she took it really easy on me and limited herself to the few things she had just taught me.
It's important to note that a 60% success rate in real live knife fighting still probably means death. A sharp blade swung with force at your torso is going to hurt you very badly, even if you block it four times before hand. Which is why Maija stresses the practical aspects of eskrima over any magical ability to win a back alley knife fight. "Apart from great exercise, mind/body connection, getting light on your feet, and hand eye coordination, eskrima is a game of strategy. In the same way that Myamoto Musashi's book about sword fighting is also read by business men around the world, Filipino style dueling teaches you about how people tick. It'll up your game within martial arts and without."
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