Bob
commented on
Cuck Buck
Oct-16-2018
4:02 AM UTC
Here's a good machete duel that illustrates force and intent are what really count. Interesting that the blow to the head is less debilitating here than one to the arm.
Countering the Monkey King Grenadier Slash
First, wild cards like these two are more dangerous than a guy who knows what he is doing. You probably can't feint guys this stupid.
Both of them spread their legs to far forward on the lineal plane, leaving themselves open to stop-cuts on the horizontal plane.
Keep your legs closer and coiled and never permit a static stretch lunge like we see here.
The man in yellow faces a more deadly persistent man with deeper penetration so we will consider him as our avatar.
He has enough sense to have a parrying tool in his left hand a tool which will not last.
The safest play is to shuffle left, which you would not do as easily against a diagonal forehand, while beating the blade to the right with the beating tool and slashing the inside of the wrist with a low commitment pass stroke.
The best counter is as follows, a lunging entry on the high line, beating the blade to the left as you lunge diagonally right and at the same time chopping inward left on the wrist, the stick meeting his inside blade flat and your blade chopping off his hand, then continuing forward with a decapitating backhand.
The lineal option is to skip back behind a blade to blade beat, using the plastic strip or stick to guard your high line with a hanging block and then redondoing down on his hand.
The head is designed to deflect downward vertical strokes. The short diagonal chop or slash is far more effective.
Thought Crimes: Against the Goddess
Combat
Survival
“Remember – in a knife fight your knife hand and arm become as important as any vital organ in your body. The loss of either could result in your death. Using moves that needlessly place them in jeopardy is suicidal.”
-Bloody Iron by Harold J. Jenks and Michael H. Brown, p, 28.
Fascinating. This video demonstrates the validity of the Jenks and Brown maxim that it is crucial to protect your knife hand and arm. If you get your knife hand disabled you have lost the fight and very possibly your life, because you are at the mercy of your opponent. As we saw in the video here. Authors Jenks and Brown thought this was such an important point to emphasize that they placed it by itself on an entire page.
Machetes, like these curved African pangas (Swahili for ‘big, chopping knife’ something similar), typically lack any sort of bell or basket guard to protect the sword hand and arm. Thus it’s easy to get cut on the hand/arm holding the machete, especially if your opponent is aiming for it. I saw a guy in Panama who lost a couple of fingers in a machete fight. You can often ward off a machete armed opponent then, particularly an untrained one, by cutting at his hand or even hitting it with the flat of your blade every time he swings at you. Doing sort of a half-ass “de-fang the snake” Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) style. As you all saw a chop to the crown of the head didn’t even faze the one opponent, while a cut to the weapon arm of the other antagonist ended the fight. He could no longer keep a grip on his machete and was at the mercy of his enemy.
Personally I believe that if you are going to make a habit of getting into cutting affrays with knives and machetes and such, it behooves you to wear some sort of armor. Especially protecting the arms. At the very least it could spare you considerable pain and expense in having your wounds sewn up (unless you are an ‘oppressed’ ward of the state of course). Keep in mind that it is as easy to get cut by accident in such dust ups with sharp, pointy implements as it is to get cut on purpose.
I have made a bracer by using the tongues from two pair of old shoes/boots and lacing them together as a two-panel, 2-ply wrist guard with the wide part on the back of the hand.
Here's something a little more refined from Haiti:
youtube.com/watch?v=7p_NUEn7F_g