Lähitaistelu (Close Combat) Part 11 - Puukko (Knife)

Lähitaistelu (Close Combat) Part 11 - Puukko (Knife) - With & Against a Knife

There is a lot of talk about Fairbairn's 'gutter-fighting' knife system, but you must keep in mind a lot of that was about having an appropriate knife and stabbing the other person somewhere deadly. In the scheme of things, these systems are not really for fighting unarmed, hence these portions are typically questionable. There is a reliance on mindset and action. There has always been a lot of mystique surrounding military knife systems however when you think about it they are rightly inappropriate solutions in other situations and are probably most useful in considering the actions of an attacker in a civilian or policing context.

Puukko (Knife)

As always the stance is the same, like the pistol the knife is brought back to the hip:

The blade is shown as being held in an inverted position, with a sabre type thumb configuration:

No other offensive advice is given, from here it is from the point of being unarmed against the knife:

Possibly one of the worst demonstrations I've seen of this particular set up, one gets the feeling the demonstrator has had minimal training himself:

Unusually here the classic commando inside armlock goes to a bent arm variation:

Spear (Yari) in Owari Kan Ryu 尾張貫流 (Kudayari & others)

Owari Kan ryū is known for its use of the kuda-yari (tube spear). The e (shaft) is run through a kuda (metal pipe) that’s in the front hand of the practitioner. Interestingly the school’s students start training by doing shiai (competition) and only after considerable training they learn the school's kata (forms). Most classical schools that practice shiai do so after learning kata. Thrusting using the kuda. Cross-stepping. Thrusting attack with kuda. Wide stance. Shiai. Shiai using a spear with a cross piece. The original demonstration from which these stills were taken is here:

The Structure of the Tenshinshoden Katori Shinto Ryu Syllabus

It should be noted that the current head, Otake Risuke, has commented that not all of the parts of Tenshinsho-den Katori Shinto Ryu survive. I recall his comments in various documentaries that Archery was once a component, and only some of the spear survives. Through various sources, mostly Otake's book, I have put together this brief outline of their syllabus, however I have little idea of the exact stage each is taught except that I believe the students start with Omote no Tachi. I will use this as the basis for further posts and may add to it over time. I believe their are important implications when Otake says that one of the main reasons for training all the weapons is to train the swordsman against them. Note in this section in brackets are my own comments and should therefore not be relied upon, those from the written work of Otake are clearly marked. Tenshinsho-den Katori Shinto Ryu -Kenjutsu (Otake lists Tachi, Ryuto and Kodachi under Kenjustsu) --Tachi (Use of the singl

Australia’s Turning Point – Signals Intelligence leading to the Battle of the Coral Sea

Australian/American Signals cooperation was not only important in stopping the Japanese advance to Australian shores but marked the beginning of Australia embedding its forces with the United States rather than simply furnishing troops for the British. Whilst the British, in my opinion , had a long history of using Commonwealth troops to either protect their colonial interests or to take on deployments with high expected rates of attrition, when Australia faced the real possibility of invasion with the vast majority of its troops and equipment deployed overseas, it was the Americans, whose interests in the Pacific aligned with our own, that were on hand to push the Japanese back from our shores. The Battle of the Coral Sea saw the beginnings of the deployment of Australian sea power under direct American command, a joint approach that would continue to the present time – it was, however, Signals Intelligence that led the way to the embedding of US/Australian forces and played a major

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