Knife Techniques

Typically, Shaolin Kempo schools teach a few categories of knife techniques. The standard organization tends to group them into three categories, with only a few exceptions. The three categories are the stab / thrust, the slash, and the broad ‘placement knife’ in which the knife is placed on the defenders body (the classic knife to the neck / belly / back). The techniques are usually trained in a ‘traditional’ manner with the attacker ‘half mooning’ in and attacking once. Many schools have adopted a more ‘lively’ training method, often cross-training in a Filipino martial art to address what many feel are the shortcomings of the ‘traditional’ approach, but I felt that it was best in the interest of full disclosure to present what are considered the standard Shaolin Kempo knife techniques. The attraction of the FMA, besides its utility, is that the movement patterns of most FMA styles mesh smoothly with that of Kempo, largely due to the fact that many of the early Kempo / Kajukenbo / Karazenpo proponents also were of Filipino heritage and / or had exposure to FMA training.