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Testimonials about Virtual Blade
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"To know the dangers and benefits of the knife, one must put in the time and sweat to become an educated knife practitioner. Denying oneself this opportunity could potentially prove as lethal as the knife assault itself. That is why when I or my students really want to know the extent of our attacks or precision of our defense techniques we always use the VirtualBlade. There is never any guesswork after a clash...just look down at your arm and body to see where or if you are marked. It's simple, direct and instantly effective..."
Felix Valencia Undefeated Full-Contact Stick Fighting Champion, Filipino Martial Arts Hall of Fame 2000, International Bladed Weapons Instructor
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Effective, simple, reliable and inexpensive. If you have been in the Martial Arts as long as I have these are the four adjectives that you use to determine whether to buy a piece of training equipment. This is the principal that I used to develop the Sharkee training knives and obviously the same one used by VirtualBlade to produce their edged weapon marking system. I not only endorse their product but am actively selling and promoting it. The VirtualBlade package is the perfect companion to the trainers I produce. The proof was demonstrated recently at the Martial Arts Magazine Exposition in Atlantic City where VirtualBlade sold out during the two day event and was highly praised by some of the biggest names in the Martial Arts world. Don't think your techniques are effective know it by using the VirtualBlade edged weapon marking system.
Morgan Thomas President Sharkee Martial Arts Training Weapons
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"Safety must be as much a consideration as combat efficiency when training with blades. Such considerations, combined with the pressing necessity to develop reality-based skills demand the use of training and tools that will both keep you safe in training and alive on the street. VirtualBlade allows you to do just that. The combined elements of safety and extreme reality, makes VirtualBlade products absolutely essential for a complete education with the blade.
Gabe Suarez Suarez International, Inc. http://www.suarezinternational.com
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Hi, my name is Luigi, I have been training in the martial-arts for 31 years. I teach cops how to survive on the streets. Knives are a huge threat not only to cops, but for everyday people. The VirtualBlade knives give me a REALISTIC approach to self-defense in a safe environment. I can`t imagine REAL COMBAT without VirtualBlade. Take it to the next level.
Thank You Virtualblade,
Master Luigi Bedinotti
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Articles
VIRTUALBLADE AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO REALITY- BASED SUBJECT CONTROL & DEFENSIVE TACTICS. By Antonio Zarzoza
Article taken from: http://www.sdstactical.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page12.html
It seemed to be another regular day of training with the Special Emergencies Response Team of a County Jail in South Texas, but little did the officers know about the surprise I was packing inside my training duffel bag. I started the class with a review of the Power Points of the basic and alternative formations for Cell Extraction, I covered Tactical Application Principles, areas of responsibility, verbal commands, team work and threat assessment.
I informed all officers that this time our practical application or drills will be a little more demanding due to the fact that this course was going to count towards their intermediate SERT school. I also advised them to be on the look out for the possibility of weapons and the potential of its use by the "bad guy". We all headed towards an eight-man cell where a group of officers playing the role of inmates where waiting to start a conflict. Once suited up the team was deployed, everything ran "text-book sharp". They all went in, did their job, and "Mission accomplished". A relatively simple cell extraction had just been performed "without injuries".
Prior to conducting debriefing, I asked them not to remove their helmets nor face shields, and once in full during the debriefing I requested feedback and comments, all of the officers seemed very pleased with their performance even though 3 of the 8 "combative inmates" were armed with "shanks". When I asked them if they had been cut, slashed or even slightly reached by those weapons, all of my officers replied with a proud "NO, I don't think so". Then and only then I asked them to remove their helmets and take a look at themselves...
The findings, multiple green lines all over the armor, arms, legs and neck of several officers. When they asked me what that was about, I just informed them that those "mean green" marks were slashes from the inmates, some of them in the armor area, but most of them in life threatening spots of their bodies. They still did not know what I was talking about, until I showed to them our new little training toy... "THE SHANK FROM VIRTUALBLADE" a hard plastic training knife similar to a shank, similar in size and concealable capabilities, this training shank contains a marking system that leaves a non-toxic green mark wherever the hit is delivered.
My officers learned their lesson with this eye opener drill, we all corrected the mistakes that led towards these fatal mistakes and the following drills and conflict scenarios ran smooth without compromising officers safety. YES, they still presented a few green marks, but all of them within the protection of their body armor. After all, our training does not aim to perfection but to MAXIMIZING the officer's capabilities for survival and self-preservation while MINIMIZING exposure to life threatening injuries with the objective to NULLIFY the attacker's attempt to be successful.
"VIRTUALBLADE IS BY FAR A GREAT CONTRIBUTOR TO REALITY-BASED TACTICAL TRAINING FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT, I CONTINUE UTILIZING THIS MARKING BLADES DURING ALL OF MY TRAINING COURSES, WHETHER FOR POLICE OF CORRECTIONS OFFICERS. AND THE BENEFITS ARE IMMEDIATE, NO MORE GUESSING ON WHETHER THE OFFICER WAS HIT OR NOT, IF YOU PRESENT A GREEN MARK, IT MEANS YOU HAVE NOT YET GOT THE CORRECT TECHNIQUE... THE QUALITY AND REALISM OF OUR TRAINING HAS BEEN THE BEST SINCE I STARTED USING THESE TRAINING BLADES FROM VIRTUALBLADE" Antonio Zarzoza, Chief Instructor, SDS Tactical Solutions Corp.
VirtualBlade offers the ability to turn any training knife into a feedback tool. Most people train themselves to ignore feedback and only respond to known training movements. Blades bumping into one's own parts is very bad but since "its ONLY a training blade...who cares" or .."Oh..I'll correct it later"..attitude that prevails dangerous input becomes part of training rather than eliminated. With Virtual blade there's feed back that it's NOT OK.. or gives proof that the motion was not only OK but safe to be used under duress. VirtualBlade allows me to make two color decisions on each blade. Each person has contrasting colors of two shades. For example, I use light blue on the false edge and dark blue on the primary edge so I can tell which edge actually did the cutting. Not only that I can use it on my own design of training blades regardless of the material used to make the trainer drone. VirtualBlade adds understanding to training and the same safety considerations as in firearms training. Bram Frank, Director-Founder CSSDSC www.CSSDSC.com www.S2Institute.com
Realistic Edged Weapon Defense Training by Ed Nowicki
As a law enforcement officer, you have a higher rate of receiving an injury from an edged weapon assault than you do from a firearms assault, according to FBI statistics. This is surprising since there is about a three to two ratio of firearms assaults over edged weapon assaults. Handguns are still much more likely to kill a law enforcement officer at about a 50 to one ratio over edged weapons.
There is no such thing in law enforcement as the saying "he only has a knife" to describe an assailant. What about the sudden assault, when there is no time to draw the firearm and accurately fire at a knife wielding assailant. A sudden edged weapon assault can even happen when an officer has drawn the handgun, and is not in a position to fire.
Realistic edged-weapon defense training can now be more realistically performed with the use of a product called the VirtualBlade. The edged weapon equivalent of Simunition, the VirtualBlade is a 7-inch long piece of peel and stick material that fits across the edge of any training knife. A specially developed high visibility green chalk is applied to the material and the VirtualBlade is ready to be used.
David Shulman and James Gummer, who have extensive backgrounds in various martial arts, developed the VirtualBlade. Shulman and Gummer stated that they wanted to instantly know if a cut was accurate while participating in edged-weapon defense training. "We tried magic markers, lipstick, grease paint, water colors and sidewalk chalk and none of these worked. We said that there needs to be some thing that is user friendly that is non-toxic, non-staining, fits on any training knife, yet is highly visible," Shulman, also a physical therapist, added.
Shulman and Gummer discovered "the right product" product, which was developed over an ongoing three-year period of time, in the VirtualBlade. One of the unique features of the VirtualBlade is that the high-visibility chalk is just that. A training "cut" leaves a green mark, i.e., bright green blood of the alien creature in the movies. This bright green color easily catches the eye and vividly shows up on clothing or skin.
Each application of the special chalk, which is not your kids' schoolyard chalk, allows for at least 10 VirtualBlade "cuts" before the chalk needs to be reapplied. Shulman said cleanup is a simple blur of a clean hand or a baby wipe. Another big plus for law enforcement, the VirtualBlade retails for only $16, which includes the 7-inch material strip, one cleaning pad, product and safety instructions and the green coloring chalk. You're on your own with the training knife, which, according to Shulman, works on any training knife.
Showing contact with the VirtualBlade is an important aspect of training. Officers need to remember that the threat from an edged weapon doesn't need to be from a Ginsu master with sophisticated butterfly knife moves or some nut wielding a Rambo knife. A wound to the neck of as little as one-quarter inch in depth can be fatal due to all the vital structures in the neck.
"Penetrating injuries to the neck have the potential to involve many vital structures from several different organ systems. These include musculoskeletal, neurological, vascular, visceral and glandular structures. Because many of these vital structures lie superficially under the skin, what appears to be a deceptively minor neck wound can actually be life threatening," Dr. Joseph Sciammerella at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Center, stated.
Baltimore City Officer Robert Ross, an expert in edged weapon defense training, knows how important it is to visibly see where a cut may occur when doing training. "When VirtualBlade was introduced into my training sessions, I was amazed at how fast it changed the attitudes of my students. They could safely and clearly see the dangers of edged weapons and how fast a situation could change before their eyes. And for the first time, they could see where they were cut and in a dramatic way, see how bad," Officer Ross stated.
Officers must also remember that, current controversy aside into the real level of ballistic threat protection, soft body armor is not built to withstand edged weapon attacks. There is a good possibility that a slash may be stopped when making contact with most soft body armor units, but you can't bet your life on it. A direct stab with a very pointed knife or an ice pick will probably not be stopped by soft body armor. Even so, there is no soft body armor worn by patrol officers that protects the neck and areas below the belt line, which can all result in lethal edged weapon wounds.
Dr. Fabrice Czarnecki at Franklin Square Hospital Center in Baltimore, MD, added that the lethality of edged weapon wounds should never be underestimated. "In addition to the carotid artery, other dangerous targets are femoral arteries, brachial arteries (upper arms), and subclavian arteries in the chest. Chest and abdomen stab wounds can be deadly, but require deeper penetration compared to the limbs. A stab wound to the chest can injure the heart, aortic artery and several other large blood vessels (all deadly injuries)," Dr. Czamecki stated.
"A stab wound to the abdomen can kill by injuring a major artery or an organ (like the spleen) that will bleed. Multiple stabs to the abdomen is a technique favored by some gangs, and it carries a high mortality risk. Besides blood loss, knife wounds can cause multiple kinds of other injuries. A neck injury could damage the airway, and kill by asphyxiation. A chest wound or wound to the rib cage could collapse a lung, which would set about a cascading effect leading to death," Dr. Czamecki said.
Officers must be properly trained of the dangers and the realities of edged weapon attacks in a realistic manner, while training them to win the encounter. "For traffic stops and other open or direct line situations we use the direct line attacks at 5 feet, 10 feet and 21 feet. With the VirtualBlade this allows us to show the deputies that even for a reactionary gap of 21 feet the deputy has a hard time drawing his weapon in time to defeat the attacker," Corporal Scott Kendrick, academy and tactical unit instructor with the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office, stated.
"When the deputy thinks he defeated the attacker, we show him the green mark across his chest or leg. In these scenarios we teach the officer to step off line and/or find an obstacle to put between himself and his attacker while drawing his sidearm. Using the VirtualBlade in training helped us identify sound tactics that are better for increasing the officer's chances for survival," Kendrick said.
Ed Nowicki, a nationally recognized use of force expert, is the executive director of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA). Ed can be reached at ed@ileeta.org.
VirtualBlade is a registered trademark of VirtualBlade, Inc.
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