Throwing Knife.
Wednesday night is black belt night. Our first class of the New Year was BYOK. Several dojo members recently purchased throwing knives, stars and darts. Another person brought his personal collection which included a throwing axe. The recent interest in throwing knives was a direct result of trip to Tennessee by two instructors. They stopped at the Smoky Mountain Knife Works. The returned home to PA with a bag full of purchases. It did not take long before other black belt students purchased their own set of throwing knives.
The one wall of the dojo was transformed into our target board. Extra sheets of plywood were added to the wall. Two wooden targets were made as well as several cardboard barriers. For two hours, we took turns throwing. (black belt adults only).
Personal observations from a first time thrower:
It is not easy.
Most of my attempts went splat against the wall.
Knives can bounce back quickly.
The axe makes a cool sound when it flies through the air.
I can only imagine the hours and hours (and hours) of practice to become proficient at knife throwing.
You could hear the knife throwing (in my case knife splatting against the wall) activity from outside the dojo. I wonder what the neighbors thought?
At the end of the night, we packed up the cardboard and targets and removed the extra plywood from the wall. We cleaned up the floor and all the knives were taken home. It was an interesting evening and a different way to start training in 2011.
You can check out this video on Combat Knife Throwing featuring Ralph Thorn and his no spin style of knife throwing.
A quick disclaimer: This activity was supervised in a dojo and the participants were adult black belts. This is my personal weblog which documents my experiences and training.
4 comments:
That sounds like a very interesting night p.s. I'm sure you'll get better at it.
Sounds like fun. Watching the intro to the video you posted reminded me of some of the knife throwing, and knife avoiding training I did a long time ago.
We were armed with rubber knives and rubber throwing stars. We donned protective goggles and stood across the mats from our training partner, maybe 20 feet or so apart. One person would throw the knife or star at the other, who would then try to avoid being hit. What an interesting exercise for timing. As the one trying to avoid, you needed to wait until the throw was launched before you evaded. Move too soon and your partner could easily track you as they threw their weapon. Wait too long and you got hit. You should consider trying it.
Throwing knives is not easy. Many a summer afternoon was spent throwing knives at a sheet of plywood on a tree at a family cottage.
Always nice to try something new.
Knives are definitely challenging, and they do take a lot of practice.. just stay at it.. you will get it
Great post
Thank you for your comments!
Journeyman: Great idea for a drill. I can understand why protective goggles were a must! :) I am going to suggest it to the black belt class. Thanks!
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