An Email Titled Bulging Eyes from a fighter named Oscar.

[This old gutter gnome felt a warm sense of regard for that old book The Logic of Steel when Good Oscar sent in this latest email. Oscar has a job in a rising sector of law enforcement. I quite enjoy training tails and will like posting these as quest articles as a help to the many readers who put up with me switching to history and novels from the immediately useful arts.]

Dear James,

First with the bad. I deeply regret to inform you that me attending the camp in Halifax is something I’m going to miss out on. [Redacted job description.] This new job has those things called “benefits.” And I told them of my plans to go to in May but they hit me with that 90 day bs.

I’ve had other jobs where I let them know when interviewing that I would need time off within 90 days. Many thanked me for notifying and said I could have em but they would be unpaid. Not these new guys, no siree.

[Redacted locations.] …the northeast/mid-atlantic is an area I’m very familiar with, what with me being from there… Before this job, obviously. One day dammit. One day I will see the graphomaniac in the flesh!

[I am hoping to meet the balance of such men as Oscar while still able to travel and train. It’s always an honor to be relevant in the area where I am no longer potent. What follows is a training session descriptions of the likes I have been involved in many times across the span of a mostly misspent life. Oscar’s account below brought back good memories.]

Now with the whimsical. So I mentioned before that one of the classes I take is aikido. Went back to them recently. This was after recovering from my [redacted] injury enough to get back to the sweet science and the other stuff. Not long after that i decided to go and visit my old aikido dojo. Studied there for a number of years but attendance is now sparing, since other arts/styles/systems take precedence. Not to say that I haven’t picked up a few things from aikido, but I’ve decided to keep my visits to once in a blue moon. Drop in fee is dirt cheap since the instructor drops mats in his church cafeteria. Overhead is nil.

While convalescing I read a good number of your books, including the Logic of Steel, which led me to the folsome prison book. When I decided to come back it was a night where the focus is on knife defense. You know, slo-mo, complaint, telegraph non-sense like the rest of aikido. On top of that, there’s a guy there, who’s basically second in the pecking order, that also does Russian systema and occasionally shows us what he’s learned for knife defense. Another art with its special delusions from what I’ve seen from him and videos online. Ok whatever. Did the training and kept my mouth shut.

After class, I was chomping at the bit to show them the Puerto Rican shield I’d seen in logic of steel. Everyone else had left and Systema guy and sensei were on the mat fine tuning some techniques. As they were winding down, I told my instructor and number two that i learned something interesting. Told systema man to take one of the wooden tantos and prepare to slash me

Got out the kindle app and did my best to try to wrap my jacket around my left and held the tanto in my right. Wrapped hand was forward. My instructor had an interested look on his face and no. 2 looked at me like I had just whistled and summoned a flying saucer. Eyes just popping out of his head like a looney tunes character. Dumbstruck. My aikido Instructor is a vet and a smart man. He has experience in his early years in TKD, vita sa’ana, formal fencing with the epee and estoc, some Muay Thai, and he finally settled on aikido in the 90s. So he may not have been full of awe as no. 2.

So he met me in the middle and I told him that such a wrapping could be used to parry slashes and thrusts. I told him we could spar lightly. So we went at it, him using what little aikido tanto jutsu he learned and all systema knife techniques he knew. Versus me with literally no knife knowledge apart from a few escrima seminars, and some knife combat videos from a few people who might ring a few bells.

Suffice to say for about three minutes it was mostly just him walking up to in order to do these overcommitted slashes and thrusts. My shielded hand had little problem parrying or just slapping away the knife while I counter slashed and thrusted. He got quick and crafty with feints at the end and got me a few times. The problem is that while his feints were kind of slow. Finally I did what Paul vunak likes to do and “defanged the snake.” No. 2 by the end of this little dance was out of breath, with the systema he studies having little to no physical training component.

My instructor then asked me where or who such a thing. So I said, “From a man in Baltimore who takes no shit!” No. 2 being a man who is allergic to even the mention of urban areas said, “Baltimore?!?! Aw man…” while shaking his head. No slights from me. Been to baltimore plenty of times. Had good meals there in multiple cuisine types. Of course I’ve never been to the no-go zones. Like the ones in the Wire. Anyhow I just stayed with them on the mat for about 20 more minutes talking about how the PR shield was probably not exclusive to PR. I understand it to be called Filete by the boricuas. I know that in other parts of the Spanish empire they too cover the hand with a cloth or cape. Knife dueling is very popular in Andalusia, and its fighting style is called The Steel of Seville. So much for barbers. I know that in Argentina, duelists use a poncho, and this attested to in a short story by Borges, and also by my Argentinian Judo teacher. Ditto Uruguay, and in Uruguay, they call their knife fighting style “Esgrima Criolla” (Creole Fencing). In the Filipino styles I’ve seen techniques using a sash. The common denominator here being the Spanish empire.

Anyhow, these two gentleman are appreciative with what can be done with clothing on hand, literally. A feat to rival Jason Bourne and MacGyver. I directed them to your fine book. Hopefully they buy it as well. It sure was a paradigm shift in their heads. My instructor very much likes to adapt martial arts to “the street” and welcomes improvisation. The point being, James, that you are dropping knowledge nukes on people. Hope you enjoyed this account. With me getting back into the swing of things there will doubtless be more.

Sincerely,

Oscar

Thank you, Oscar.