I recently had an opportunity to train in Martial Blade Craft, MBC for short. MBC is the brainchild of Michael Janich and is endorsed by Spyderco Knives and Sal Glesser.

    MBC’s stated purpose is to help individuals develop martial skill with a knife in an ethical and responsible manner so that they can have the ability to protect themselves and other innocent parties. The concept behind the program is self defense with a knife, not knife fighting. 

     The program I attended was Levels One and Two, the basics. MBC is designed to follow a linear progression. A person with no knowledge of how to use a knife combatively can, with the right attitude and a little work, expect to have a useable, working level of skill in as little as twelve to sixteen hours. Once we got the administrative things out of the way we were given a Spyderco trainer and a neoprene armguard, then we got to work.

    We began with opening the folder, standard openings using the hole or stud to inertial openings to openings to a reverse grip. We then moved to grip, stance and footwork. Janich teaches what he calls a Filipino Grip. It is a forward grip with the last three fingers forming a cone of flesh around the handle of the knife and the thumb on the back of the blade. Janich is quick to point out that if you prefer a different gripping method it’s ok with him as long as you can 1) retain the blade, 2) effectively use the blade and 3) manage impact shock. Meet those criteria and your grip is good to go. Stance is basically a boxing stance with a strong side lead. Janich did say, if attacked you probably won’t have the luxury of getting into a stance. Balance and mobility are going to be more useful than a stance. The footwork is simple, direct and immediately useable. Step forward, step back, circle when you can and don’t cross your feet. Nothing fancy here, no ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ stuff. 

    Once we understood the openings, grip, stance and footwork we moved to the Five Angles that make up the core of MBC’s basic cutting and thrusting. If you’ve studied any of the Filipino arts you will be pleasantly surprised at this. If you haven’t, most Filipino arts utilize some type of numbering system for their strikes. You will hear practitioners say “feed me a one” for example. I have seen the numbers on these go as high as seventeen and, honestly, a lot of it is overly complicated. Janich has stripped it down to the first four cuts and a straight thrust. In most systems, angles one through five. Along with the cuts we went over how to chamber for each and how to connect one cut to another in a smooth flow. We also began looking at the Zone Concept of defense and Defensive Responses.

    The Zone Concept divides the body into quadrants, the vertical plane going down the middle, the horizontal plane cutting across at the level of the elbows. Something coming into your left side above the elbows is a Zone One attack and is usually met with an Angle One cut. High right attacks are Zone Two and are countered with an Angle Two cut and so on. Remember, this is a concept, nobody says that you can’t counter a Zone One attack with an Angle Two cut, you can if conditions are right. Next we went over the three Defensive Responses. The Pass, Meet and Follow.

    The Pass is used at long range and simply is a counter cut to the offending limb. Your opponent attempts to cut you with an angle one. You counter cut with your own angle one and let the offending limb go by you after the cut is made.

    The Meet is used at closer range. Here you counter cut and immediately use the live (empty) hand to check the offending limb so it does not go any further. This saves you from being cut in case you miss, the attacker is wearing some type of arm guard or just has a lot of momentum on his side.

    The Follow is done when you are out of position to intercept the incoming attack and must chase it instead. For example, you attempt an angle one cut and miss, your blade is now loaded for an angle two. Your opponent fires an angle one at you and you counter cut the back of the attacker’s hand with an angle two.

    We then spent some time learning to combine angles, what Janich calls ‘connecting the dots’ and moving in and out of the ranges needed to use the Pass, Meet and Follow.  

    Over lunch Janich talked about what makes a good tactical or fighting folder. The things to look for and avoid when choosing a defensive blade, the pros and cons of various locking mechanisms and examples of these. He also discussed testing the lock occasionally to see if it was still working the way it was supposed to. Inertial openings are hard on knives. Some manufacturers consider it abusive and will void a warranty on a knife if you break it using inertial openings. However, in a defensive situation, when the adrenaline is flowing, flipping your folder open with that nice blade hole or thumb stud may be more difficult than you think. Inertial openings are hard on knives, but they are solid gross motor movements that hold up under stress. Along with these topics we also went over some other carry options along with their pros and cons.

    After lunch we went into some basic defensive applications and were introduced to what Janich calls a Crossada movement. This involves a crossing of the arms, either to open or close them. The object is to guide your opponent’s limb into your blade for a better, deeper cut. If you are fed an angle one you could slap the back of your opponent’s hand while counter cutting with your own angle one. We then went over some of the drills we’d practiced to this point incorporating the Crossada movement.

    Day two began with a review of what we’d already done, angles of attack, zones of defense, defensive responses, the largo mano drill and the six count drill. From there we moved on to a four count flow drill using the crossada movement and the sumbrada drill.

    Once everyone had a grasp of these Janich re-introduced the concept of connecting the dots, this time with the various drills. Changing from one drill to another without it interrupting the overall flow of you and your partner’s movements. This is done by varying the range or changing the drill at certain common points that different drills have. From there we worked the defensive responses into the drills.

    Other topics covered in day two were Speed Strips, quick disarms that could be done in the flow of movement. We also went over combative applications of the defensive responses. The emphasis was always on destroying the opponent’s ability to fight, not the opponent himself. Lethal force is always an option, however, the law will recognize restraint. If you can show that you had no choice but to cut your opponent to save your own life or the life of another and then chose not to take the life of your attacker you will have fewer questions to answer and fewer legal problems than if you’d followed up with a cut to the throat.

    I would be remiss if I did not thank Dave Holloway of Grove City Karate, the host for this MBC program. Normally, you have to travel to Colorado for a Martial Blade Craft program. Dave went above and beyond in setting this seminar up.  The hospitality was outstanding, the food was great and the training was, of course, excellent.

    If you have an opportunity to train with Michael Janich, take it. You will develop solid, useable skills with a blade that are, at the same time, defensible in our current legal environment. Beyond that, you’ll have a good time doing it.

Martial Blade Craft

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