06/07/2020
Classic book of the week: PUT ‘EM DOWN, TAKE EM OUT! Knife Fighting Techniques from Folsom Prison.
Don Pentecost’s controversial 1988 booklet scathingly rejected martial arts systems of the day, and his criticism still echoes three decades on. Any experienced felon, he wrote, would never square up before launching a knife assault, would never lead with the knife, and would certainly never leave his arm extended for any longer than the moment needed to do the deed.
Many martial artists have developed more ‘street real’ training since the criticisms of this and other real life memoirs came out toward the end of the last century. This book still prompts many people to analyse the style of attacks most often drilled in their dojo. Take a look at the stance in the photo: the knife hand is kept well out of reach until he’s ready to go for it. It’s not like in the movies, and maybe not as familiar as it should be from training either.
The book’s controversy as a ‘how to’ manual of brutal murder is unavoidable. At 56 pages, many of them pictures, it’s not a long read. When you finish the last chapter, you can’t avoid the chilling intuition that other readers before you have put the book down, pocketed a blade and brought someone’s life to a violent end. Even so, knowledge works both ways. The author shares his tips for surviving an assault, and there are prison officers and others who testify that the book has helped save them from serious harm.
For those of us who don’t share Don Pentecost’s world view on martial arts as ‘irrelevant’ to real knife attacks, his exposition points the way to drills which apply the right range of defences to the right stages of an attack. The humble pushes and collar grabs you’ve been dealing with since you started jiu jitsu take on a new life-or-death imperative: simple movements that have to be second nature. Being really, really good at those on the left side is (annoying enough!) completely essential. As for the wrist locks that are the meat of drink of the jiujitsuka’s response to sharps: they can have their moment, especially if you can create it. A flick through this book will make you keenly appreciate how much difficult work will go into surviving long enough to try! It’s a recommended read.
