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TUSHKAHOMA
Author: Dr. Robert G. Rose
Some years ago, Adrian Chief Roman, already well-known within kenpo karate circles, began working on a fighting system to honor his native Choctaw people and, indeed, all American Indians. He faced more than a few challenges.
He knew that the Indians were great fighters in terms of archery, lance throwing and so on. He did not, however, know much of their hand-to-hand techniques. Since every culture possesses empty-hand fighting methods, it would make little sense to suppose that America’s many Indian tribes did not. Unfortunately, the details of much of their culture, including hand-to-hand fighting, were lost when waves of settlers from Europe migrated west.
Chief wasn’t discouraged. He drew on two sources to develop the system that would eventually be called tushkahoma, which is Choctaw for red warrior. First, he learned grappling and striking techniques passed down to him by his father and uncles. For the most part, however, he knew he would have to recreate the lost fighting systems based on the Indian way of life.
It All Starts With the Knife
Indians carried knives as customarily as modern Americans carry a driver’s license. It was an all-purpose tool as well as a weapon. If a close-quarters altercation began, it’s reasonable to assume the combatants did not put down their weapons.
Once you imagine a fight with knives, a system begins to emerge. A system is not a hodgepodge of techniques but a set of moves unified by reasonable assumptions and a short but essential list of underlying principles.
Assumption No. 1: Knife fighting exists in reality. All Chief’s training is reality-focused, and that’s especially true for the red warrior system. Many martial arts neglect hand-to-knife combat based on the very reasonable assumption that it’s virtually impossible to even the odds in a fight against an armed assailant. Since most arts are sport-based, you wouldn’t pit an unarmed person against a person with a knife any more than you would put a lightweight in the ring with a heavyweight.
In the reality of the American Indian, however, there were no doubt occasions when one person lost his knife during an altercation. Did the unarmed person at that point simply bare his throat and wait for the end? Certainly not. In a world where everyone was packing a blade, might martial arts teachers have thought about the eventuality of losing one’s weapon? Certainly.
Reality involves virtually no margin for error. In sport, you can take a strong but wild swing; it’s a calculated risk based on your vulnerability to being counterattacked. You may get hit by that counter, and the worst case will be that the ref wakes you up to fight another day. In life-or-death situations, however, extreme caution is called for. If you get shanked, you probably won’t get up.
In reality, there’s no rest break and no bell at the end of three minutes. Your fight may last 10 seconds or 10 minutes. Every second counts against you. Exhaustion has the same skill-numbing effect as alcohol or drugs. Try staying away from someone swinging a knife at you in a closed room. He’ll expend virtually no energy, and you’ll be hopping all over the place. Your physical strength and conditioning may be greater than his; but sooner than you imagine, you’ll be cornered with no energy left to defend yourself.
Assumption No. 2: A warrior escapes from the encounter when possible. One of the hallmarks of reality-based self-defense is retreat. In a street fight, a weak ego with false pride may consider it necessary to hold one’s ground. In life-and-death warfare, there’s a logical dictate to avoid defeat and secure victory. Frequently that goal calls for retreat, even by the bravest and best. SEALs and Green Berets don’t fight against the odds if there’s no need to do so. They’re not out to prove anything.
In the same way, only the most foolhardy of Indian braves would have fought unarmed against a knife if there was any possibility of escape. Note that escape isn’t always synonymous with running away for example, fleeing isn’t an option if it involves leaving a loved one behind or if you’re slower than your attacker.
Underlying Principles
The practitioner of the red warrior system understands that knife fighting is life or death, and when faced with an unavoidable duel with a blade-wielding assailant, he follows five basic principles.
Principle No. 1: Establish your base. All training emphasizes a strong base whether you’re on your feet or on the ground. (Chief prefers standing because rolling around on the ground when a knife is present can be deadly.) Establishing that base means getting out of the way of the weapon in a manner that gives your body firm support.
Opponents of knife defense point out, somewhat smugly, that you’ll get cut if you fight back. That’s like telling a boxer he’ll get hit if he enters the ring: It’s true, it’s obvious and so what? The boxer still needs to defend himself to the best of his ability. Of course, there’s a high likelihood of getting cut or stabbed in a knife fight, but quickly creating a strong base out of the path of the weapon can diminish that danger.
Principle No. 2: Intercept the weapon. This edict makes many students shake their heads. Establishing a safe base sounds like backing away, but that’s not the case. You must get close to the attacker, track the weapon and parry the hand that holds it. By intercepting the weapon, you build in a margin for error. Even if your technique fails and every technique does fail sometimes you will have moved the knife to where you want it to be.
Principle No. 3: Control the weapon. Now the logic of the first two principles becomes even more apparent. Controlling the weapon is the third, sequentially, but the primary one when it comes to importance. With a firm base and an interception, you’re in position to control. Once the weapon is controlled, you have at least a temporary respite and a chance to exercise your options. As long as you control it which, in the case of the knife, means seizing the hand that holds it you’re safe.
Principle No. 4: Take away the weapon. Acting on the assumption that your opponent knows what he’s doing, your control will not last long. You must disarm him, and that’s easier said than done. Since your opponent is no amateur, he knows he has to hold the knife tightly. A great deal of practice and finesse is required for the disarm, as well as an anticipation of cause and effect. He won’t be passive while you disarm him. For this reason, the number of techniques in the red warrior system is limited, but they’re modularized so they can be assembled in hundreds of combinations.
Principle No. 5: Neutralize your opponent. That usually involves doing physical damage to him. While it might sound vengeful, it’s not. It’s common sense. He has tried to kill you once; if he gains access to another weapon, isn’t he likely to try to harm you again?
The Dance of War
The aforementioned principles are also steps that must be followed, and they must be done in a flowing fashion, one moving seamlessly into the other. As the opponent thrusts his knife with his right hand, you zone to your left into a strong stance a solid base parallel to and outside of his line of thrust. Simultaneously, you use your left hand to contact and then grab, or intercept, the knife hand at the wrist/hand juncture, with your left elbow anchored at your side.
The need for a strong base becomes apparent because without it, you cannot turn the contact into a firm grasp of the wrist. A one-handed wrist grab isn’t a strong hold until you rotate your opponent’s wrist counterclockwise to destroy his grip strength. Once that rotation is done, you’re temporarily in control of the knife hand. His grip is now weak enough for you to strip away the knife, but cause and effect says he’ll try his only avenue of escape swinging the knife across his body and breaking your grip on the weak (thumb) side.
Thus, you step forward with his motion and strip the knife with your right hand. But you haven’t finished until you circle under his arm to effect a lock and drop to your left knee, pulling him down. Then you take steps to neutralize him.
Transcending the Knife
The red-warrior system has many counter-knife techniques, but it also has club-to-club methods, unarmed defenses against the club, and a range of defensive moves including bare hand vs. bare hand. All of them follow the logic of the knife.
As you read the principles above, one thing becomes clear: They apply to all effective techniques of self-defense. It’s only when you’re faced with a lethal edged weapon that you realize the need to show the proper balance of caution and aggressiveness that you should show in all fights. It bears reiterating:
First, always assume your fight is taking place in the real world. In competition, a touch to the stomach may score a point and a touch to the head may bag two points. That’s fine for tournaments, but on the street, if a small person hits a larger and stronger attacker in the stomach, it will likely have no effect. If that same small person slams a knuckle fist into the thug’s temple, it may be all the points needed.
In the real world, you should avoid conflict even if it means enduring insults. If you wind up fighting, you may have to deal with legal hassles afterward as you argue that you attempted to avoid combat.
In the case of a knife fight, you know your opponent is superior and potentially lethal. Assume that in every fight. Your opponent may be as skilled in a martial art as you are, and his kick may be able to cripple you as surely as a bullet. Forget the invincible warrior hype teachers may have given you. If Ken Shamrock, Royce Gracie, Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis can suffer defeats, how can you imagine that you’re invincible?
If you must fight, establish a firm base. Try standing on one foot and boxing silly, isn’t it? Yet some martial artists pay so little attention to stance they might as well be standing on one foot. A firm base doesn’t mean staying still; instead, it means striving to keep your balance even while moving.
Intercept the weapon. A parry is often better than a hard block. You can redirect even a powerful strike with a well-timed parry. On the other hand, a block effected against a powerful blow may not be effective and might even break a bone in your arm.
Control the weapon. In the red warrior system, you usually take your opponent to the ground by locking an arm or leg in such a way that he cannot strike.
Disarm the opponent. He’ll likely strike again once you release your lock, so you must to take away his weapon immediately. This disarming action may involve hyperextending his arm to traumatize the joint, striking him or causing excruciating pain. You must do whatever is necessary to render him harmless.
Neutralize the opponent. In sport, a submission ends the fight. In reality, he may submit and then begin fighting again. There’s a fine line between defense and counter-aggression. If the fight is halted, your assailant is neutralized even if you haven’t paid him back. But equally important, remember that you cannot take a chance on letting him resume his violent acts before you’re able to escape. ...
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