Bowie Seminar at Tactical Edge HQ

Almost a year since the last bowie seminar and so much has happened with Tactical Edge in that time. There have been seminars galore on the most cutting edged combatives and an active instructors programme has begun. It was good to see a lot of the usual suspects along with a host of new people. Mark started the day going over the 7 count defensive flow and explained how it was a logic chain. We isolated some of the motions from it and starting working through some attacks covering the Inquartata the and the Passata soto. We then jumped to the offensive flow and then finally the back cut flow. The whole 21 movements are designed to let you go away and train solo. It’s a fantastic set and one I find myself using a lot when we cover using common objects for defence. It works great with a rolled up newspaper of magazine and you can shut people down very quickly. Again Mark stressed that we were using the thrust as our primary form of attack and the cut secondary which is the opposite to the SE Asian blade systems. The reason being we are using bits of steel that is about 13 inches in length so we are playing at long range. Its great having the back up of the SE Asian systems for when you end up in close however, if you are doing things correctly then you can snipe at long range and finish it quickly. Again the thrust works better against adversaries who may be wearing some form of protective clothing. After all the system is coming from an era when men fought and died by the blade so expect some form of armour to penetrate.. Mark had us sparring with the foam Bowie's which brings home how quickly and with ease you can finish the game. He then went on to cover the use of the folding knife in a razor grip which allows us to back cut without the having to worry about the lock failing on us and removing our fingers!!! He then introduced the folder and shield which could be anything from a rucksack, briefcase to your kids packed lunch box. So one out the pair would have the bowie and shield and the other just had the bowie. You quickly see why most armies carried shields!!!! Mark is planning to hold a intermediate level bowie course for those who have attended the introductory course. I can’t wait to see what else is in store.