Modern Knife vs Historical Dagger Techniques...with Keith Jennings
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- A comparison between historical and modern knife techniques with Keith Jennings. Keith is a lifelong martial artist and is the head of Chicago Combatives - / chicagocombatives
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Music:
Drums of the Deep Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Hello You Tube Viewers commenting on this video. Nicole Smith here. I want to set a few things straight. Just because Keith moves quickly does not mean I was getting hurt. In fact Keith is an extremely experienced knife instructor and we wanted to show the speed at which a knife exchange can actually happen. I am absolutely fine. I am a teacher and martial artist myself. Keith and I worked together to determine the intensity and speed we were looking for to make this a great informative video. I was extremely pleased with how the filming went and I was equally pleased with the seminar that followed. I would highly recommend taking any knife classes Keith offers in the future. If you are in Chicago you are blessed to have him within reach.
Lol people were white knighting you over that??
I'm not going to lie some of that look like it hurt. I thought I could see a few welts on your arms and stuff but like you say your martial artist and so is he and if you can't take a couple of welts in learning this type of art then well... you don't belong there do you? Thanks for being a tough lady to give us this excellent did!
....The people who complained are babies, and have no business even pretending to use swords. What would happen if they got hurt in practice? They'd lose their little minds!
@@vanivanov9571 WHEN they get hurt in practice. I have never come home from a HEMA session without some sort of mark.
How do you think his techniques would hold up against an opponent in winter clothing?
the fact that keith was going so hard with her shows he has respect for her as a martial artist too many people see a woman and think "i better go easy so i dont hurt her" no one learns anything like that as for the techniques shown in the video most of these if not all can be seen in many katas and forms its great to see these and be able to connect some dots
I know right! I hate when people think the male martial artist should go easy on the woman, he knows what hes doing so is she.
On average women have 10% slower reactions, lower bone density, obviously much less overall strength, smaller hands, less robust skulls and 1/8th the testosterone-levels of an average man.
In short, women's bodies have evolved to house babies for 9-months at a time, not hard physical exertion and/or combat.
@@sirvivor7835 i never said women where as tough as men its a biological fact that there not what i said was they should be treated serously in training or there is no point in them doing it at all if a woman is attacked on the street shes not just going to roll over and let a guy rape/mug her the least we can do is give her a fighting chance
@@kevlarchicken Don't let women out on the street unaccompanied. They have no chance in these dark days.
@@sirvivor7835 just curious what country your from to say that? thing is not all women have someone that can or will do that for them even if they wanted it
Now I might be wrong, but what came to my mind after watching this is that the medieval and modern techniques have one key difference - their goal.
In the modern one, the goal seems to be to incapacitate the enemy ASAP by crippling muscle groups or knocking him unconscious.
In the medieval techniques, however, the goal seems to be to make an immediate lethal counterattack to kill the opponent.
This was the main thing I noticed as well, along with the idea that they used to wear a lot more clothes (armor) back in the day, as opposed to the t shirts and flimsy jeans of today.
Also there are a variety of moves she did NOT show. They are lethal attacks. Oh, and basic leather armor would make most of his moves worthless...
Also, that the modern approach accepts the likelihood of getting cut as they're unarmored. Limiting damage is something he brings up a few times.
@@agony-4-hope725 A knife can penetrate leather fairly easily, I'm sure he could make dents in it (and the person under it)
The medicine of the middle ages might not save a person who was incapacitated by this kind of attack, so an outright kill might have been a kind of mercy in some situations. Would you really want to languish for a month with a deep wound just to die of sepsis?
I love the contrast between them, Nicole has the calm even tone of a grade school teacher, (which makes it really surreal when she keeps making references to stabbing him in the throat, or the gut stab.) while Kieth has the slightly revved gym instructor thing going on (you can just hear him telling you you have one more set in you, or one more quad slash.) I'm honestly not sure which is more terrifying. Really cool to see two different takes on things.
One thing I noticed as a contrast in the techniques, the medieval style seemed very focused on finishing the opponent, while the modern style was more about disabling. It's funny, because the modern one was a lot more nasty, in so far as the kind of wounds it would inflict, but the medieval one pretty much always ended with you just killing the opponent as quickly as possible. Which stands in contrast to our "barbaric" past. My guess is this comes down to blade size, and the modern perspective on murder as a crime.
Medieval people were ready to deal with swords and sharp objects on a daily basis during war times by wearing thick leather armour. Most if not all of the quad cuts and tricep and bicep cuts that could disable an opponent through keiths techniques would just rip the top layer of the leather of the opponent in a medieval setting. Also kneeing someone in the face when said person is wearing a helmet is a good way to get a knee fracture...or even get your knee cut if the opponent is wearing a kettle bell helmet.
Thing is, the reason why medieval techniques emphasized on attacking critical points like the neck or the heart, etc is because with that huge medieval blade point you can pierce through the leather armour and do some damage to the opponent. Attacking the quads or the biceps would be ineffective and would just leave you open because the opponent won't even feel it.
@@charvikripalani2270 There's less evidence for leather armour, and far more for cloth, also leather isn't that thick, a sharp knife will go through most clothing grade leather pretty easy. That's not to say no one was wearing leather, or even leather armour, but that it was more rare. In addition, these techniques (like the knee to the nose you mention) probably wouldn't be used against armoured opponents. If a man wore a helmet that actually protected his nose, you wouldn't knee him there, though even if you did he'd probably still end up with a broken nose while you get a sore knee, sounds like a good trade to me.
All that aside, the Rondel dagger techniques are commonly anti armour, but they'd probably be used against mail or plate. In a civilian context, they're not likely to come up against any armour, and the real trade off will be that cuts and slashes from such a small blade don't do well vs decent era appropriate cloth, which tends to be thicker than today's. So only his thrusts would do a lot of good, though the way he delivers some of them, and the areas he delivers them would have similar levels of covering, or less, to today (I mean many people were wearing hose, those leg strikes would be very effective, and the only armour you'd have where he strikes are high boots, mail if you're wearing a full suit, or plate, in which case the knife wielder is already in big trouble, there's be almost no protection of the wrists in civilian dress) And if its a gut stab, both techniques are nearly the same, though one is disabling, the other is lethal. Both also imply unarmoured fighting, as gut stab through armour seems like a bad idea.
I think basically the techniques are fundamentally the same (and this is far from exhaustive) but the underlying philosophy is different, one is based on having around a foot of steel, the other about 3-6 inches. One is about debilitation without killing, the other is about ending the fight very quickly, and lethality is fine. You also don't see that many cuts from her because the blade is triangular, as many (most?) rondel daggers are, so the style doesn't favour cuts. This is largely because as you said, it's for opposing armour, but that armour was usually thick cloth, mail, or gaps in plate as it was war weapon, often used by "Knights". Fortunately all those techniques work against unarmoured people (as a foot of steel entering the body is even more effective when unopposed). But there are plenty of edged weapons that existed along side the Rondel dagger, and many of the things he was doing would work just fine with them (though they'd probably be followed up with a lethal thrust).
@@Lurklen the other issue is a short blade almost is never going to get deep enough for a sure kill.
You need >2.25 inches according to the FBI for deformity to kill through body armor, which means trying to bury a 3 inch blade in someone that's fighting back isnt even going to come close.
It's also a lot harder to hit a artery or vein with a stab than a cut, so depth of stab is important as one will to go through neck, windpipe, and bone, or out the other side of the neck, while the other one side of the neck and MAYBE windpipe.
Missing that kind of stab for the major vessels with a 3in blade just results in the guy getting pissed and swallowing some blood. Missing that stab for the major vessels with a foot long blade, the guy is still drowning in blood from puncturing no less than 6 epithelial layers and probably can no longer hold his head up.
As a result, the general rule should be: slash with small blades, stab with long ones.
@@formdoggie5 Good points all.
Thrusts have always been more deadly (with the caveat of a long enough blade) simply because they get to all the important bits. Slashes and cuts are considered more debilitating, in that they inflict more trauma right away, and cause those injured to bleed more (or at least you get a lot of blood quickly leaving the body). Thrusts are funny because they tend to be far more deadly, for all the reasons stated, but a person can fight a surprisingly long time while their organs fail and they bleed internally, so if you're trying to debilitate, cuts (especially to the important parts of the limbs) can be more effective. (A notable example of your point, was when during a--believe it or not--video game related dispute a young man sustained over a hundred stab wounds. He was relatively fine, and none of them were life threatening. He was an overweight gentleman and the knife was only 3 inches or so, and wielded by someone who didn't know what they were doing. Thankfully he didn't go for slashes or cuts.)
As an aside, the other thing to weigh in making these choices (which in the moment are probably less choices and more the result of training and practice) is what you can actually achieve. It's all well and good to know that with this long blade you're carrying you should be going for the thrust, but if doing so is going to get you killed, then going for cuts you can actually land without dying is the ticket. Often I think we armchair tacticians get caught up in "optimal" path thinking, which is very RPG like, but the reality is in these situations the goal is to stay alive.
The realities of modern self defense are that carrying a large knife is more of a hindrance than a help. So as most carriers will be using a small knife, slashing will take the day tactics wise.
Do your homework or ill gut you like i did timmy last week
A lot of assumptions on Keith's Character on here, which is ridiculous. Both of these weapons were intended for self defense, and we *asked* Keith to go at a realistic intensity to properly represent what he does. Otherwise we're misrepresenting the whole thing. Nicole was fine with the intensity, and everyone loved his seminar and we would highly recommend learning from Keith if you're interested in learning real-world applicable self defense.
As for being too fast, this isn't a "how to" video, this is comparing two different systems in how they'd approach a situation and then seeing what similarities there are conceptually. If we spent the time to explain every technique the video would be way too long. (This one is already much longer than what we usually aim for).
Thanks for the clarification, glad to know that everything was fine. Nicole did seem to be in a bit of distress, but I'd assume that it was more of a natural reaction to the "violence" than actually being unconfortable with what was happening.
I get the distinct impression he is the guy in his area who trains the "Low Impulse Control Knuckle Draggers" all the other instructors outright turn away or throw out immediately when they make themselves evident. Perhaps I'm wrong, I concede that's possible but I have known a lot of Martial Arts instructors and this guy's manner reminds me of some of the worst I have seen. Getting injured by the people that instructor type trains or having my reputation attached to them in some way does not fly for me. I doubt it will come as a shock to him that that seems to be the flag he is flying.
@@AKlover he is an extremely highly regarded knife instructor who's a student of Michael Janich, one of the best modern knife combat trainers of this era.
Going fast has never bothered me. If any thing it is better to see the actual application of his tactics and techniques. You should check out PTK-SMF for another good modern style.
@@HEMASimian i thought he was probably trained by Michael fron Martial Blade Concepts.
the dramatic way he lifts his shirt to pull the knives XD
I think its part of the training. You dont want to entangle yourself in a critical situation, so you exaggerate the movement to be shure..
Dramatic moves lead to muscle memory.
Arthur Herbst exactly. Its more agressive looking then needed because when he will draw the knife it WILL be needed!
That’s just how your supposed to clear a garment when drawing a concealed weapon. If your not “dramatic” you risk messing up and the garment snagging on your force multiplier, a deadly mistake in a real defensive encounter
Whats with all the hate for Keith? I mean, yeah, he's aggressive and fast, but I didn't have any problem following what he was demonstrating. Also being rough in training seems to prepare you better for such stressful situations as knife-fighting.
Exactly! You're training for a knife fight, not a tickling competition :v
People that have a different idea of what is "effective" but get to emotional so that they can't explain. I'm not a fan of a lot of youtube self defense channels but i will at least try to explain.
don't get the hate either. this teaching style is common in self-defence videos and classes - and as the instructors commented, obviously they planned this beforehand and were fine with it so wtf people :D
As long as it was consensual, I don't care. But as a teaching style, I would not be a very happy student. That kind of speed and intensity should be saved for sparring, imo. To me it screams of trying to look cool, rather than breaking down technique and teaching it. But, I don't know the guy, maybe he's just always intense? Haha.
Train soft and your attack/defence will be soft. People think you can just do it in a real senario without experiencing solid impact, fatigue 20 seconds into a fight, doubt as you figure out your opponent is turning your blows aside with ease.
Seeing the comments first I was expecting the worst.
No, this guy is completely controlled and using the few things that actually work, the same things taught in the Philippines. He even used their terminology. Good techniques.
Um, I have trained FMA for 15 years and also done Sayoc (a type of FMA taught to US special forces) as well as Silat and what he showed was not FMA? In fact many of the techniques he showed here are considered suicidal in FMA. Leaving huge rails open to his neck etc. he is clearly a Januk guy and I think their techniques are not too good. They will work against someone who doesn't know what they are doing.
@@theatlantean39 zero evidence to support your statement on your channel.
As a Filipino and a practitioner of arnis and kali since elementary here in my country , i love foreigners arguing with the terminology of FMA.
6:46 When he says "It's probably a little more sharp" and she looks at the camera like "Sure it is..." xD
Simply, one the top HEMA channels on TH-cam, impreses me every time.
You guys also forgot to mention the first tip when it comes to self defence against a knife attack. Running. Very quickly.
No need to mention, it's obvious. When we talk about fighting, we already assume its a situation where you have to stand your ground.
Yeah, while this may be somewhat self evident, I think it should be mentioned that a knife in the modern context is essentially a terrible choice for self defense. I'd rather run 99.9 % of the time than have to engage in some form of knife combat. It's just all bad. If your opponent is unarmed you're going to have a hard time justifying using it. If they have a knife all these knife on knife techniques are great in theory, but chances are you're both getting stabbed/cut. It's nice to say you're gonna be fine as long as your tendons are intact, but the fact is you're gonna be seriously injured and even if you are delivering precision cuts it could take minutes for them to incapacitate or kill your opponent. If they have a gun you might stand a chance of taking them out of the fight before they shoot you, but you better be damn quick and very lucky. Knife attacks are deadly, but very rarely do they kill instantly. The person could still be in the fight after multiple stabs or cuts. I would much rather run than fight, and if I had to fight I'd rather have either a gun, or something like a collapsable baton with some reach for responding to anything but a gun. The final thing is, like I said before, this probably heads into some really terrible waters to navigate legally when talking about using a knife like this. Best case scenario, for your survival, you're fucking Doug Marcaida and you carve this guy up like a tuna. Then you have to have your attorney how it's reasonable that in self defense you slashed three major arteries and stabbed the guy in the throat. It's not gonna be hard for a prosecutor to paint you as some fucking psycho.
Nick
Some of us simply don't run or can't. Running is not in my nature and I have carried a knife all my life. I currently carry a Cold Steel Kobun, twice a day, to and from work. If you can foresee a situation developing, you will avoid it, but when people get raped, robbed or murdered, it was a situation they never saw coming.
I carry inverted on my waistline, 1 or 8 O'clock, as I am left handed. You will never see me draw it out. It will be after you are cut and bleeding heavily before you realize that I have a knife.
Knives kill you a lot faster than most bullets. It really depend on where you hit.
I'm not afraid of a baton. It won't kill me easily, but I can kill you in seconds or take my time and carve you up little by little, til you can no longer hold up your baton. You can't wield a baton without working tendons.
When it comes to guns, you can't outrun bullets, but if you are close enough to control the muzzle of a gun, you have the deadliest edge.
The guy in the video sucks. His draw locations take far too long to deploy and put into effect. I can draw and strike in one motion. By the time he drew, he would be bleeding from the throat.
If you are going to carry something to protect yourself, know how to draw it and use it as quickly and easily as possible.
Some of us are just not wired to run away. Once we are in a situation, we don't look back.
I wouldn't go by ignorant statistics.
A one inch stab wound, travelling into the body, five inches deep, does a lot more damage than a 9mm doing the same. The knife cuts its way into, while the bullet slips past arteries and organs. Hollow points are much better, but the most common bullet type on the street is ball ammo. Always has been, always will be. Most people don't consider anything more than a standard bullet, plus ball is way cheaper.
Again, it is more about placement. If someone cut you with a 3 inch blade, through clothing, it wont do much damage and not likely life threatening.
For one, carry a dedicated blade for self defense, not some utility knife that will almost always be duller than what you need in a fight.
Knives do kill faster. Have no doubt about that, but again, it is more about placement.
Now if I cut you with five, one inch gashes on your chest, you are not going to die, but a single straight stab, just under your collar bone, will have you lying on the ground in seconds, gasping for air. Puncture the air way and they can't breath. How long can you last in a fight, if you can't breath and are choking on your own blood?
Two best tricks to beating a gun, is controlling the muzzle and holding the slide(or rotating chamber for a revolver.)
The reason knife vs gun results are so skewed, is that very few people actually know how to use a knife to kill somebody. I have seen cases where it took hours to kill somebody, because they didn't know how to kill their victim, when all it takes is one stab or cut in the right place and is far more effective than a bullet.
The is a big difference in modern knives and knives designed to kill you. Example are Cold Steel knives. Those are modern fighting knives. CS knives will kill you very quickly, because that is what they are designed for.
Don't think about defending yourself with a 3 inch folder. Get a knife specifically designed for killing someone and that is going to be a fixed blade of 4 or more inches. My CS Kobun is 5.5 inches. I also have a Recon Tanto 7" if I am paranoid that day.
I can draw and cut your neck in one second, if within striking range, so all I have to worry about, is the direction of your muzzle, til you pass out. My follow up is just pulling my arm back, which stabs you in the back or side of the neck and pulls you down to the ground, which keeps you from fighting back. You simply can't fight back with a knife deep in your neck.
The third fastest way to kill someone with a knife, is to puncture their lungs or throat. Know how to do that and you can win a life or death fight in seconds. The fourth fastest way is through main arteries and such, where most people will pass out in under two minutes and dead in 8.
If your knife fight lasts more than 30 seconds and you are not in full control at that point, you're doing it wrong.
Want to know how to beat a knife attacker? Throw rocks and things til he gives up or gets knocked out. lol!
No matter what you are carrying, use it and carry it in the most efficient and effective manner for self defense, at all times and don't use it for anything else. Practice using it. Test your methods and K.I.S.S!
Nope? No what? Nothing that I have said, is incorrect.
Medieval Dagger: In n' out, 2-second takedown.
Modern Knife: *"Have you ever felt regret before?"*
Do you like mince meat?
It turned out great! Nicely done to the Blood and Iron team. Thanks again for having me out for a seminar!
Thank you sir for taking the time to do this comparison. Very interesting and I enjoyed it very much. If I ever get to that part of the country I will definitely look up your school.
Nice video. I've noticed three major differences between the two. The first two of them are related to the blade: the dagger is used to stab and has a longer blade which is employed for hooking, controlling etc. While the short knife shown here may not be long enough for a deep stab or for hooking, but is very sharp so suitable for cutting superficial targets like tendons and muscles.
The third difference: I would say that HEMA tries to dispose of the opponent as fast as possible through stabbing/throwing, while Keith in some way wants to debilitate or beat the attacker senseless. Debilitating by cutting seems to me a good idea; beating the attacker, on the other hand, requires a good control of the knife hand and may be a dangerous choice if, in the heat of the fight, the attacker slips through the lock and frees his weapon.
love how the dude trying to sell his designed knife but this is a great video and surprises me how people think he hurting her when it common practice in sparring for fast fake hits. High-level martial artists do it all the time-- moves with the full force but stop on the surface. What is fascinating is how way more brutal the modern stuff is from the knowledge that more precise when it comes to anatomy.
Modern is brutal. Old school is lethal.
Big difference is that the modern styles are designed to be used with and against shorter blades, and the older styles put a bit more emphasis on generating power because mediaeval clothing tended to be more protective.
@@laurenceperkins7468 Every time I go to London I wear a stab vest. I wish our police were all armed.
@@joebloggs5318 Armed police don't really help much. They can't be everywhere. The criminals just avoid their patrols. Plus it's much easier to bump up your arrest stats by going after honest citizens since they actually have something to lose by going to jail, whereas the really violent people are actually dangerous and the police tend to avoid confrontations with them whenever possible.
Don't expect anything to change unless you can get the self defence laws fixed such that fighting back in any meaningful way won't get a person run up an assault charges.
Here's a fun little ditty from the other side of the Atlantic to cheer you up though: th-cam.com/video/S1TTLtxzNTU/w-d-xo.html
As far as promoting his knife, it is: 1) Very specific to the knife laws of Chicago, and his approach; 2) Made of unobtanium, as you have to join a list to maybe get one.
I think the comments about Keith's "aggressiveness" are partially caused by the sharp contrast between his and Nicole's demonstrations. His style isn't uncommon in self-defence training, but the two styles clash a bit in the video.
Could the tendency in the historical technique to throw instead of strike come from an assumption of heavier clothing/armour?
Maybe. Other reasons would probably be that in the medieval world you're much more likely to be carrying a dagger (or some other weapon) yourself and throwing the attacker on the ground gives you an opening to access it, as well as, when striking with your hands, especially striking when striking the head, it's very easy to injure your hand - much harder to deal with without modern medicine.
Good point.
Another reason may have been tied to practice of ransoming off the knights who were more armored than others
I think there’s probably a lot of stuff at work. One is indeed the potential heavy clothing and armour making strikes less effective.
One might be an issue of training. Medieval people could presumably train wrestling reasonably safely with nothing more than some soft ground. Taking that approach to striking is likely to end in mashed up hands and black eyes etc... there’s not much in the way of boxing gloves and gum shields back in those days.
Another thing might be a question of maintaining distance. This is really important if your opponent has a weapon of a similar length, but a medieval person might be expecting to go dagger to sword or halberd or what have you. That’s a scenario when closing to grappling distance is about the only option that gives you a chance.
And then who knows? Fashion? A certain mindset? Staying close so people will hit their friend if they try to throw things at you?
Could be that, or it could be that modern self defence styles are sometimes at odds with any sort of grappling techniques/mindsets (I think mainly because of BJJ/MMA gyms being one of their main competitors these days.) I don't know much about the guy, but it's a common theme with these modern self defence stylists. Not all though, of course.
Note to self: Don’t threaten anyone in Chicago. I’d like to keep my eyes.
This was a fascinating video. I particularly liked the difference in cross blocks and the detail they explained on blade length and hand placement. I also liked that Niccole had different answers for an early or late swing. It's interesting that while both systems use arm locks, medieval dagger includes a leg sweep to throw the opponent to the ground. I love grappling, so it's great to see it pop up here.
I enjoy the occasional guest features in this series. Also liked Keith's casual intensity, and his demonstrations and explanations were very informative.
I still remember knife sparing with Nicole when Blood & Iron was still new. She is a scary woman for such a sweetheart.
The Spanish derived terms which Keith used such as Puño and Cruzada shows me his techniques and tactics are (heavily) based on Filipino martial arts (FMA), Kali/Eskrima/Arnis. Also because the techniques themselves are recognizable as FMA techniques. Nice comparison
FMA bears a lot of influence from spanish martial arts such as vulgar destreza and military sabre.
Those complaining about the speed of the demonstration should learn to use TH-cam's speed control.
After watching this video, TH-cam is suggesting me a documentary about criminal psychopaths…
All I'm getting is more martial arts suggestions. I think this is saying more about your watch history than TH-cam's algorithms... But hey, I'm not judging. People love that shit, learning about crazy people. Helps you stay away from them!
@@chaos_omega That's probably because knowledge really is one of the most powerful weapons of all. ;)
Loved this video. Useful, informative, and Keith reminded me of Adrian Pimento from Brooklyn 99 in the best possible way.
Thanks for making that a fair comparison, made with an open mind.
I'm into hema too, but I really don't like when people disdain or diminish any outsider practice just because it's outside of their way.
HEMA is still superior because they are founded on the idea to kill your opponent. Not to be nice, not to look good, but to kill. The people who founded it based it on a pragmatism that few self proclaimed "martial arts experts" have in this century. If a technique didn't work, you died. I do agree the snobbishness is annoying but I more than understand where HEMA snobs are coming from.
Same applies to Krav Maga, Kali, Muay Boran, many Silat styles, many Jiu-Jitsu Schools, etc - though I must admit, what most of them have in common with HEMA is that they are from older times, when killing was more important than the looks.
This was a great demonstration of the continuity of concepts in slightly different contexts. Would be great for a continuing series-HEMA vs. modern self-defense.
Take it from someone who's been slashed in the forearm with a machete, definitely keep the back of your arm facing the attacker. Couldn't open my hand but it was stuck forming a fist, you can still keep a grip. Hardly any blood too because no veins were cut.
I appreciate this contrast of eras. Awesome that you were both open to comparing styles and very cool to see the similarities in concepts that exist.
It's fascinating seeing the differences here. Not just in technique and weapons, but in teaching style. Nicole is so chilled, Keith is so much more riled up. It's not a dig at anyone, just cool to see two instructors and how they differ.
And it was a really fun video, I like seeing how styles change over hundreds of years
*Suspicious Eyes* The masked assistant looks kind of odd. Did he loose some weight or something? Maybe gain an unreasoning hatred for axes?
6:45
Keith: "with a modern blade it's probably a little more sharp"
Nicole:
Tought I was the only one who noticed
Well maybe in context to a rondel that makes sense
Except they were specifically not using rondel daggers here.
@Emanuele Rusconi Except they were actually using rondel daggers and were using techniques that are shown with rondel daggers in the manuals...
I'm going to be that guy and say that, with the better steels available, a modern knife probably can indeed be quite a bit more sharp than a medieval blade. One of the freakiest examples I have is a few cheap Mora knives. I didn't like the quality of the grind, so I polished it out on some stones. If you touch the edge and apply any pressure, you're cut. And they hold that edge - I dressed, skinned and quartered an axis doe and an elk one after the other and by the end of the elk the blade finally was showing signs it was time to touch it up.
My Gerber Mk I dagger is just shy of razor sharp - it'll remove hair, but not as well as an actual razor blade. My first hunting knife when I was a kid (1990) came from the factory that sharp.
The kind of blades bought by guys like this are made from some kind of tool steel. The closest modern blade steel to what you'd find in medieval stuff is either going to be Cold Steel's 1020 (not to knock their knives, but for the price and application, most of them should have much better steel) or whatever bayonets have been made from for the last century or so. Anybody that's owned a few bayonets can tell you that you can get 'em sharp, just not super sharp, and they don't hold an edge really well. They are GREAT for sticking onto the end of a rifle and stabbing stuff with and a couple (like the last USMC issued bayonet) even make decent field knives.
I was taught to always focus on the knife and the knife hand. But that was unarmed vs. knife. This was cool and interesting.
This is one of my favorite Blood and Iron videos.
Excellent.... One of the best videos on the topic
Another important thing to note when comparing these two examples is blade length. When that modern knife the dude is using penetrates it’s going maybe 3 inches deep. That dagger the lady is using could go 6 times deeper. While several strikes might be necessary with that small modern knife, I have a hard time believing more than 1 or 2 solid penetrative strikes could be weathered by a normal (not drugged/armored) human.
what i can notice of difference between the two styles is that the medieval combat was more focused in "kill" as soon possible, since all time she went straight to vital zones, such neck.
While the modern techinique that he showed seems to be more focused in kikicly disable the oppoenent. while in HEMA she went to "fatal blow" right after get over the first enemy attack, he, using the modern combat technique, went to tendons and muscles first.
I think both techniques works.
I like how you can see so many parallels, after all the main threats are very similar so it makes sense.
But we can see how historical context shapes the finer details, like how for the medieval techniques you are not only looking to kill but also likely dealing with an armored opponent. Aiming for muscle groups or limbs with a knife is mostly considered wasted energy.
Whereas in modern times you have less armor and your most likely not looking to kill. Not to mention shorter blades. So we see the focus on speed and disabling the opponent.
Always good to know a bit of both. Who knows one day you could be more armored with a bigger knife than you're used to. Better to know it and not need it than need it and not know it
This is great! Saw a Clinch Pick in the image and HAD to watch. Great info, thanks for sharing!
Clinch pick has a similar back-blade design as Keith's. Irregardless it's a better design for self defense.
Very nice. Thanks for giving a visual comparisons with discussion and demonstrations. The flow of the motions are quite practical and even vicious at times. The differences reveals the thinking and traditions the styles had
Fantastic demonstration! It was nice to see old and new concepts and how blade design as well as social customs influence each of the approaches.
Interesting to see a little bit of the evolution. Thanks for the quick video!
Hey cool, we have the same two handed block (modern) in Tai Chi. We call it "Boy reads the book." :) And yeah, same rationale; we only expose the outside of our arms towards the opponent to avoid getting our flexor tendons cut (as well as arteries). Tai Chi also exclusively uses split open blocks, we don't ever use cross blocks. As the modern knife fighter pointed out, it just leaves you too vulnerable to getting cut when the knife is quickly drawn back.
Nice seeing medieval vs modern FMA based combatives.
Very interesting. Lots of very similar techniques founded on the same principles, yet adapted to meet their own particular circumstances. I saw a lot of similarities between Keith's techniques and some Silat I recently learned, but adapted to a very different knife. I'll also have to give some thought to some of Keith's carry positions. I've found it hard to carry a fixed blade that fully satisfied me.
I think Keith might have some Philippine Martial Arts (Eskrima/Arnis/What have you) from the terms he used, such as Crosada.
I am probably not only one who would like to see sparring with this guy.
Interesting question I wondered: when talking about a “modern” fighting technique that utilizes the slashing of an opponent, doesn’t that(didn’t that?), apply historically as well with double edged daggers as those were weapons used? Or am I missing something obvious?(likely the case)🤔🤷🏼♂️
Yes, people had many dagger types and they were (atleast in civillian use) usually single or double edged. The difference is that back then people tended to wear very thick clothing, which meant cuts with a shorter blade weren’t as useful. Also many of these dagger techniques were utilised wearing full plate armour, so obviously in that case cutting would bot work. Hope you found this useful!
Brutal. Very important knowledge. Great video.
Great video, loved it, I was actually looking for a comparison between modern knife and dagger techniques a couple of months ago, this came really handy, thank you!
*Any true martial artist will respect both of these experts in combat!* ⚔️
This is super interesting. Great demonstrations. Thank you to all involved!!
Wow! I’m researching for a scene in a book! You guys are amazing! And so fast! Props! 🙌🏼
Am I the only one who sees the influence of HEMA in Kali? Lol the methodology was only different in philosophy. Her attacks were made to kill. His attacks were made to incapacitate. But if you look at them both, they could do what the other just did if they just switched targets.
But yeah, Kali/Arnis/Eskrima was heavily influenced by the Spanish martial arts (which I guess is included in HEMA), and our ancestors had formulated our martial art to be combative. Great video! It's great that the HEMA is alive, kicking, and roaring. Godspeed!
Interesting to see the differences and similarities. A few things I noted with my very limited experience:
- Historical techniques kill more than subdue, while the modern techniques seem brutal, there's a better chance of surviving them than a stab to the throat or in the top of the chest cavity. (This is good in a more lawful society like we live in now.)
- Historical is more stabby, which works with things like rondels which are armour piercing but not that sharp on the edge. (Not every knife of course was, and some of the historical techniques shown would work poorly with those blades.) Historical dagger would need to think about defeating armour more.
- Both techniques work best when combating the blades they can expect to encounter. Which is blindingly obvious of course
- Even though Keith was clearly slowing down to make it visible, knife fighting is blisteringly fast.
- Recreating a historical method is very different from self defense training. Some techniques apply, but don't equate the two.
- I have not done enough historical dagger.
Thanks for the video!
This is fascinating. I believe it speaks to the realism of the two systems being demonstrated that they both have similar answers to similar situations.
This was extremely informative like no joke
In a modern setting, how often are you and the attacker both going to have a knife? Most footage of knife attacks I've seen, the attacker just "sucker punches" the victim and starts violently stabbing. The poor victim has 3 or 4 holes in him before he even knows what's up. Victims that get away relatively unscathed do so by getting control of the knife hand. In a historical context, rondel vs. rondel makes more sense, but in a modern context a lot of these techniques seem unlikely to arise.
Not an expert, but I imagine some of the techniques can be also done unarmed, but with some minor modifications. For example, at 4:20, if you were unarmed you could just push your attacker off balance after clearing their weapon and then get away with a good head start. The techniques shown do focus on getting control of the knife hand, allowing you to attack back with your own knife, but if you don't have a weapon you could create distance and get away, or grapple with and disarm/incapacitate your assailant.
Quite frequently here in London where I live actually, pretty much an everyday thing.
You should move.
Tyler Pulkkinen cos in the modern world due to our stupid laws only the bad guys carry knifes and guns, when back in the day you could carry a sword or dagger to defend yourself against the same kinda scum
Well prepare yourself so you aren't one of those unfortunates. I mean what kind of question is that? Apparently your motto in life is "screw forethought".
Yay great ! That's a question I had like so many people, and this was a great answer.
Very informative video, greatly apprechiated. interesting to see similar, yet different concepts and applications at play here
Excellent comparison. 👍
The biggest difference I notice between historical and modern techniques is that the historical techniques often aim for the head, neck, and abdomen, trying to kill the assailant, while the modern techniques aim for the arms and legs, trying to disable the opponent without killing them. Even the unarmed blows to the head from the modern techniques seem more intended to stun and stagger rather than to just bludgeon your opponent to death.
Lots of the historic dagger fighting was meant for armored combat, hence powerful blows with an ice-pick grip, which requires getting quite close. Modern knife fighting is about dealing with guys in T-shirts and hoodies, so it's all about maintaining distance and hitting the closest targets. Bolognese fencing with the sidesword that was used in the civilian context a lot teaches to target the hands A LOT. Same reason.
less consequences for murder back then
Austin Bedwell I think it’s more accurate to say that killing your assailant in self-defense back then wasn’t considered murder. These days, it is. Also, the sentence for murder back then was death. Now, depending on circumstances, you can get as few as 20 years in prison, a generous sentence by comparison.
Modern techniques are intended to stop the assailant's ability to deliver damage, regardless of lethality. Someone who's suffered a fatal heart/lung wound may still be able to deliver lethal damage for minutes as they pass.
@@thebigspook
I digress, the consequences were quite severe IF you are caught. Medieval people had a whole host of creative ways for execution some slower and more excruciating then others.
That was really interesting thanks
Very convincing. I learned one or two new things here myself. Thanks a lot.
This is great content, thanks to both instructors!
Right tool for the right job, I say. I like how he shows an understanding for why HEMA is the way it is based off situation, vise versa. He can recognizes how his own technique could possibly fall a little short with the Split X block if attacked with such a longer weapon and can see why HEMA uses the Cross X Block. Even if his reasoning to the question was a bit led.
6:48 this face
Since the dagger is a lot longer the goal is to really get one good stab in while fma has more movements and an objective is to “defang the snake” or immobilize the opponent
Nice comparison, love the cross over episode.
I found this video very informative quality content you’ve earned a subscriber 👍🏽
Yo this was hella useful. Me and my brother have knife fights with little nerf knives
That was fun to watch, thank you.
i would like to see a foot work expert cross over. get Dominic cruze to do his matrix footwork with sword.
I frequently dreamed of having a high level MMA fighter come train Hema for a while now.
The biggest issue I think it's the ability of the leg strike. Being able to cut off that lead leg in one strike changes things pretty dramatically. We've had a lot of boxers come in and they all had issues with it
@@HEMASimian yeah I played with a muay thai fighter try once. He kept trying to check leg shots. That was a weird thing to see.
4:33 oh my jesus. I doubted that would work at first, but I didn't realize the move was being performed by the flash
Wow, the style of weapon can completely change the dynamic. It’s interesting particularly because modern weather seem intentionally designed for close, brutal disablement of unprotected foes, while older or longer weapons seem to target weak spots and joints in armor.
Longer blades are more well suited to throws and pointed penetration, while short blades favor slicing. It’s very interesting to see how the small, reverse bladed dagger would be at a disadvantage vs an armored opponent. A throw would also be more useful vs armor than trying to punch through steel plate.
And that’s the nature of warfare, it’s completely determined by the weapons, defenses, and strategies of the day.
And the only question that needs to be answered is what is the operational experience of both of them?
FMA??? I'm curious since i heard and saw a lot of FMA related techniques and jargons
Martial blade concepts has alot of roots in fma. Look up michael janich
I’m glade this popped up. It showed everything is basically the same. If you get a little deeper Keith has a philippine martial arts background. The thing is the Spanish had a strong influence on Philippine martial arts even terms are the same. Then the fact that they were attacked by everyone taught them how to defend against edged weapons all the way up to ww2 when a Filipino with a blade was the last thing a lot of Japanese wannabe Samurai ever saw. Anyway I really enjoyed it, I’m not a fan of the blade he used. I prefer my edge were it is on every knife.
Very interesting how the length of the blade impacts some subtle differences in technique.
Great technique! My only complaint is that he’s doing mostly Filipino based techniques, he even says punyo. The comparison of modern vs hema is a little off: more like Kali vs hema
"oh you call it a cross? Modern martial arts call it a crusado."
Modern western knifework is filpino derived for the most part, largely because of the way that Dan Inosanto and Leo Gaje heavily networked with law enforcement here and the Phillippines - the video that gets shown in basically every police academy, Surviving Edged Weapons, has Gaje and Insoanto as the demonstrators. That could change, but at the moment the PT stuff is hegemonic in combatives instruction
I agree- I trained under Dan Inosanto’s student, Cass Magda. I never trained with Guru Dan but I got to meet him at a party once which was pretty cool. We trained in several different martial arts (JKD, Silat, Kali, Muay Thai) but we always tried to pay respect to each specific martial art. Just trying to make sure we give credit where it’s due, especially in today’s climate, with regards to appropriation 👍
I perfer the medieval piercing techniques mixed with the modern blocking because everyone where I live wears thick jackets and cutting them is 'pointless'.
Anatomy class and a sharp blade with a decent point know where to cut and peirce if you cut the weapon arms tendons they stop being a threat
Some places require concealed carry, NYC requires a blade be under 4 inches and concealed.
That pakal style blade is like as the karambit
The major difference between these teachers is she is practicing tempo.... This is the best way to learn a new technique you feel each movement and learn the progression.... He is demonstrating these movements at speed to really be able to refine the open movements into one complete tight movement..... There is no problem with either technique.....
Keith unsheathing intensity is interesting, no disrespect. Btw in the technique, i wish the HEMA practicioner move more quickly. Although, are there any counter for the basic yet effective "hug and stab"?
It seems the comparsion are very similar (altest with the weapons they show) except the historcal dagger appear to be more of a clean stright kill as for the modern is more of a blood bath kill. Very interesting perspective.
Not a Martialartist but, most of the differences seem to be a result of the shorter modern knives and the modern knives just having a single blade. Very informative!
Great video!
The thing I question about a lot of these techniques is that you seem to be going two hands against your attacker's one hand when defending a lot. What prevents them from just punching, or even worse, grappling you?
I would like to see them spar with full speed and trying those techniques
So, awhile back Metatron recommended wearing chainmail as a measure of protection against knife attacks for modern civilians. (Worn under your clothing of course.). He recommended riveted or welded, but didn't recommend a material.
What are you guys thoughts on that? Do you have a recommendation?
I'd stick with Metatron's opinion. You want riveted or welded.
I would use galvanised or mild-steel, but Titanium might be a viable alternative.
Alright. Any other specs I should have in mind? (Cause obviously this would have to be a custom commission.)
Thickness? Gauge (whatever the hell that even means anyway.)? Flat or rounded rings? Pattern for rings? Anything?
Well, I wouldn't worry too much about the thickness, or about flat or rounded rings, as they won't play a vital role in providing protection. Pattern also isn't really that important, suffice that 1 - 4 pattern should be sufficient for the task of defense against a knife, anything more is not necessary.
Material thickness and flat or round rings shouldn't be too much of a concern. What you should be concerned with is the dimensions of the rings that make up your armour. The lower your Inner diameter of the rings, the tighter your weave will be, which means that when a knife is going to hit the armour, it will have to contend with more rings in order to penetrate (And as such, rings with a smaller Inner Diameter can be made from thinner wire. Rings made from a larger Inner diameter will create a suit with a less-dense weave, which means that a knife will have to go through less rings. (As such, rings with a larger inner diameter will require a thicker wire).
Mail made from rings with a smaller ID, will require more rings to create a suit than would rings made from a larger ID.
I would think that going for rings with an ID of around 6mm to 8mm should be sufficient for defense against knives. Additionally, I would recommend going for alternating solid + riveted suits where available, as they tend to be both cheaper, and are likely offer more protection (Instead of all the rings being riveted, there is one washer-like ring for every four riveted rings).
Question: Does this include factoring in the possibility of needing to fend off stabbing attacks? Possibly from knives that are decently to well constructed for stabbing? Which, sadly, is becoming more common and prevalent were I live than it use to be?
Follow up question: Does this also account for somewhat larger blades? Machete's and hatchets and things like that? Again, once unheard of, but now becoming more common all the time.
Note: I would obviously need to wear something under the chainmail to simulate the effect of a gambison for protection purposes. Do you believe a standard Kevlar vest would be sufficient for this purpose?
I'm sorry if I'm plaguing you with a lot of questions, but your the first person I've had in like a year of trying who will actually take the time to answer them. I've asked Metatron stuff like this on his video's but no one ever says a word back.
Well, mail should provide you decent protection against dagger thrusts, but I am not sure about machetes and hatchets. For knives and daggers specifically built for stabbing, with an ice-pick or estoc like profile, mail won't offer you all that much protection at all, because they will tend to slide through a singular ring (They don't have to cut or deform multiple rings in order to penetrate).
I suggest to looking through some of Thegnthrands videos in order to get a better grasp on what mail might provide you protection from, and what it won't protect against. (Make sure you don't confuse butted with riveted, as they are very different)
Kevlar should provide you with protection, but you might want to look for cut-resistant kevlar-fibres.
Changing the weapons (edge) for different approaches?
I like the mediaeval techniques
6:49 can already see a video about dispelling the myth of weapons being sharper in the modern day brewing within Nicole's eyes XD
Were there historically short blades that were shown in treaties?
I have a terminology question that might sound stupid, but which one is the long edge and wich one is the short edge when you are holding your blade downwards like that?
small knives don't cut deep enough with the draw or even the stab. If I were dispatching* I'd take a long-knife...though I would have small knives as back-ups for several reasons that are more practical for an everyday perspective as well as....well....legal.
Eh, the places he was striking to stand a good chance of being lethal without medical intervention within minutes. Inside of the the thigh is the femoral artery, inside of the bicep is brachial artery, either of which could spill all the blood you can stand to lose in minutes. The problem with these modern knife techniques, in terms of using them in self defense, isn't that they are less lethal. In fact, the opposite is true. It still is better to be judged by 12 than carried by six, as the saying goes, but doing that to someone with a knife for real is probably not gonna be good for you legally speaking. It is gonna be a lot easier for a prosecutor to paint you as some sort of psychopath. Imagine having to have an attorney defend you in court after you sliced three major arteries and stabbed someones eye out. Even if they threatened your life first you still look like a lunatic.
In theory you're right, though I still think that a proper knife is not only less messy & humane [lol], it is still better to overwhelm the enemy with a single penetrating strike rather than multiple strikes that people can literally just fall away from. Honestly the implementation of these techniques don't look practical for the human mind to ritualize & implement in an inconsistent situation.
If you're being attacked by someone with a knife.....I'd bet my dimensional capacity for responsibility, that they're not alone....& that failing to have a long-knife to intimidate, reach, parry, & dispatch with....against the first....yeah...they're just gonna move it & 10 you down, where one is the feign & the other is the striker.
This is why I prefer the long-knife. You can literally do EVERYTHING the small knife can do & more.
Great video, awesome instructor. I would like to see how he would react to the famous multiple stab the people in the street tend to do
So nothing against Keith ( he knows his stuff) but I think it would be good to let everybody know that most everything he is showing is Kali/Escrima. Except for the reverse edge facing karambit in
pikal grip which is definitely a modern (american I believe) innovation.
And? Kali just gives names to the techniques he's using. Would you want him to invest a completely new fighting style that doesn't use the obvious advantages of a knife or what? He's using kali techniques because they *work*. Jeet kune do, I believe is what Bruce Lee called this. Taking what works, leaving the rest
Could you do a show on Anglo Saxon martial arts?
Need to face the attack not the person. (Depending) It changes the angle of your body. So like the "sewing machine" stabbing. If u turn your feet 45 degree and your body same direction it changes your body angle taking your body out of way of knife but still able to counter the way you did. There many ways. These are pretty decent. Take out the person you take out the knife in whatever tactic you use. Most likely it won't be knife on knife. Because in reality you prob won't see it coming but if you have the time to pull out a knife you prob got the time to run. Only fight if you have to fight, or you are trying to protect someone. Besides that always mind your surroundings. Not everyone out there respects life.