Amok! is a martial art mainly focused on the use of knives or bladed weapons. Amok! also encompasses stick fighting and empty hands techniques, and is based on the Malay/Filipino martial arts.
The Amok! system was developed by Tom Sotis through his many years of training in the martial arts. The focus of Amok is its effectiveness in combat, rather than its aesthetic value as an art form. This aspect is what makes Amok! a combative rather than a martial art.
In line with combatives in general, Amok! strives to turn out more effective fighters in the shortest possible time. For this reason, most flow patterns and preconceived drills are discarded in favor of the teaching of principles of combat (and the instilling of these in the mind of the Amok! practitioner) , the teaching of tactics, reality based scenario training (with increasing degrees of non cooperation) and hard sparring.
Amok focuses on cutting down the number of techniques, and increasing the effectiveness of the techniques that are taught. for this reason, Amok practitioners are constantly involved in a process of combative engineering, testing the techniques in as real situations as can be achieved by those practitioners.
An interesting development in Amok! is the inclusion of firearm techniques. Many of the Amok practitioners are military personnel, police, executive protection specialists or involved in general law enforcement. The need to combine firearms and knives is obvious to those practitioners, and the Amok! brotherhood has readily taken up the challenge by providing battle field proven tactics to those who need it.
Amok! tends to be an
eclectic martial art, adopting its tactics and techniques to the situation as needed, and taking from other arts the time proven techniques as and when it is necessary. Amok! is recommended to those who have achieved a high level in a martial art already as a way of cutting back the unnecessary and developing those skills, which are worthwhile for real combat. In this way Amok! is similar to
jeet kune do and other such ''all styles / no styles'' martial arts.
1. www.knifefighting.com