Knives in Turku
Spent the weekend in Turku attending a knife fighting workshop, this time the subject was push daggers and (slow, careful) sparring with sharp knives. Was a fun weekend but not much of a rest and relaxation one, I’m now looking forward to Tuesday night when I can just relax at home – except that I can’t, have to change the car to winter tires. No rest for the wicked. Ho hum.
Anyways, the knife workshop was interesting as always; lots of people with various martial arts backgrounds, and lots of nice and sharp slicy pointy things. Push daggers were fun and there were a couple of fun techniques that were unique to them, and the sparring was almost suprisingly fun. It was also surprisingly non-scary, but that’s mainly because it wasn’t quite freeform and it was done at very slow speed and with a controlled “one attack, then the other guy/girl attacks” system. As with any even slightly freeform “fight” simulation, it was also pretty exhausting mentally – you need total concentration on what you’re doing, for obvious reasons. It wears you out fast.
The most important thing I’ve learned during these workshops: I never, ever want to get into a real knife fight, especially against someone who knows what they are doing. It’s nasty, brutal and (probably) very short.
One girl managed to nick her arm a bit with her own knife during sparring, but otherwise we were spared bloodshed.