Knife Throwing Research – Sarai’s Fortune

With each book I’ve written – particularly for the Shadowcat Nation series – I’ve given a character a skill set in some kind of fighting skill. Which means researching said fighting skill. With Andromeda’s Fall it was general hand to hand combat – particularly Krav Maga. For Sarai’s Fortune one of my characters (no I won’t say who) is an expert knife thrower.  I found research on this topic to be super interesting and thought I’d share a bit about what I learned.

Why Knife Throwing?

In the Shadowcat Nation, my characters are in constant danger. I only makes sense that they would be trained in combat of some form. In addition, cougars are natural loners who don’t trust anyone. They’re also stealthy and excellent fighters. This adds to the idea that shifters of that species would be good fighters as humans as well. The stealth aspect and secrecy of knife throwing fit not only my shifter, but my character’s needs as well.

Styles

There are different styles of knife throwing. My basic searches turned up Russian, Western, Eastern, etc. The techniques and weapon are subtly varied. Spin? No spin? Smaller knives? Larger knifes? Martial arts styles vs. entertainment styles. I kept my knife throwing in the book pretty basic in terms of description. Have the feet lined up and use the non-throwing arm as a guide.

Here’s a video I found interesting:

Equipment

Similarly, the equipment is quite varied. For the purposes of the book, I needed to go with smaller weapons that could be hidden on my characters body. I also wanted my character to wear a knife vest and a leg strap. Researching those was also interesting.

I found this vest – which is more similar to a gun holster and allows for larger knives.

I found this leg strap for smaller weapons.

 

I did have fun researching this topic. And the scenes involving knife throwing were some of my favorites to write. I do feel the need to make a disclaimer statement – to big brother, I am searching and pinning this information for research for a book of fiction only.

See how I incorporated this – read Sarai’s Fortune now!

At the rate I’m going I’ll be a virtual bad ass (on paper only) by the end of this series!