Deploying and retaining a weapon

[tallgeese]

Most knife systems will have some sort of built in retention work. My experience is with Ryu-Kyu based Okinawan work, and it's done with cut work and joint position.

My limited exposure to Philippine knife work leads me to believe that it's accounted for via cut and distancing as well as your own limb movement. Most systems that deal quite a bit with knives will have it built in to a certain degree.

In all the knife systems I've seen, there's also an emphasis on not forgetting your other weapons. So, if a knife wielding limb gets tied up, you'll start striking with your free hand as well to aid in freeing your primary weapon.

There are also some good sd focused programs that include knife use that deal with it. Most of these revolve around military or LE use. However, retention still seems to come in secondary. I think a big part of this comes back to the "I'll cut them" mentality, that is a direct descendant of the "I'll just shoot them" mentality. This line of thinking just assumes that your primary weapon will always do the job in any situation. It's a flawed assumption, but one that cops, at least, make all the time. There are plenty of ma-ist out there that make it as well.

It's good the concept is being discussed here.

[sensei8]

Teaching proper weapons retention should go hand-in-hand with learning the deployment of any said weapon. While the tactics/techniques of the martial arts in the teaching these areas are effective, I venture to even say that they're seriously limited.

No organization, other than the military, teaches weapons deployment and retention better than law enforcement...NOBODY! Not even the martial arts!

[bushido_man96]

Same thing with weapon training. We always train as if we're the victim. We never train as if we're the one who has the weapon first. Once you think of things as if you're "the one doing the choking" it opens up a whole different world of martial arts applications.

I think this is a really good observation.

I actually attended a weapons retention class about a year ago that our state LETC DT guy put on. It involved not only people grabbing the gun in-hand, but those trying to grab the gun from the holster itself. We did stand-up and ground scenarios. Really eye-opening. It may be something that might be of interest to those who even conceal and carry now, too.