Butcher's Grip- the cornerstone knife fighting grip
Knife combat....this is some scary shit! So properly gripping the knife is part of a secure foundation.
There are many concepts on how to grip and use your knife in a knife fight that you will learn as you train. One grip we talk about at TIGER SWORD SCHOOL is the Butcher’s Knife Grip. This is by no means a single source of instruction, direction, or advice in tactical knife combat or defensive knife use but an informational article that should help you in your studies.
Gripping the knife in this fashion allows for slashing and stabbing; it allows you to have a firm grip where it is less-likely to be knockout out of your hand or dropped. The grip on the knife should be natural. Wrap fingers around the handle of the knife. Grasp the knife’s grip with the fingers wrapped around the handle naturally as it is pulled out of its sheath. The blade end of the knife is always facing the opponent. The grip is considered forward when the blade opposes the little finger. The fingers are wrapped around and under the belly of the handle, and the thumb is wrapped around the handle and in contact with the forefinger. The knife assumes a blade point angled up position when the wrist is locked and square.
With the handle grip, your hand is completely behind the bolster on the handle itself. It's comfortable, but offers only limited control when doing precision knife work. It is a good foundation to start with for basics. The knife blade is held away from the body, and with an extended arm can deliver slashing cuts at the greatest distance. Because it is traditional, it feels the most comfortable to most people. The disadvantages of this grip are that the knife is far away from your body; therefore the hand is vulnerable and easily trapped or injured by an opponent or enemy. Also, less force can be applied the farther the hand is from the body and the more the arm is extended. Similar to the position of the wrist with Seiken (Proper Fist or True Fist), it is important to keep your wrist straight- this will enable you to transmit the maximum amount of force on impact as you slice or your stab.
DO NOT TWIST THE WRIST: Twisting the wrist (Forearm pronation) causes the forearm bones to come out of alignment, and your grip will not be properly supported by the elbow nor make contact properly. AIM WITH THE blade: Keep triangulation. Imagine a straight line running from the crook of your elbow, through the Radius bone and past your wrist. You should align your grip, and in-turn the knife, so that the Index finger's knuckle and Metacarpal bone lie on that line, by, as previously mentioned, bringing the forearm to a neutral position and abducting the wrist slightly. That way, the elbow pushes "into" the grip as the arm extends. This will only change when we start to deal with variant grips, where the alignment must change to follow the trajectory of the strike.
The wrist must usually be canted (tilted) forward for the blade to remain straight or horizontal and aimed at the enemy. This can be unnatural and hard on the joints at the wrist, preventing the knife user from locking his wrists such as in a square-fisted punch. Enemies behind and beside may be hard to reach with the blade. Locking the wrist square in a punching position directs the knife point straight up or toward the user, not the opponent, particularly since the elbow folds inward, and can bringing the knife point directly into the knife user's head and chest area.
~~In class your instructor will work with you on perfection this grip and its associations with gripping and slashing.
http://dovertaichinh.jimdo.com/big-knife/
