Enhance Your Empty Hand Speed

Simple Knife Defense's post, Enhance Your Self Defense with Knife Training brings up a very valid point about weapon training - it can increase your speed. Watch.

I think I've always had a hand speed advantage because of my Arnis training, and it's been a maxim in the Filipino martial arts (FMA) that the stick will speed up the hand. That's for a number of reasons:

1. FMA have a flow, meaning one technique flows into another much more smoothly than some other styles of martial arts. That means that your reaction to real-world stimuli will seem quicker. That's because the weapon techniques (stick and knife) translate very well into empty-hand.
2. Your perception speed changes due to the speed of the stick. The angles at which a stick can come at you, and the speed of the business end actually increase your ability to see things happening. It can take place in two ways, one is reaction time without conscious perception, the other is that you seem to see things in slow motion. Anyone who has driven very fast for several hours at a time, then come off the highway may understand what I mean. You see things differently.
3. FMA use, in many styles, a whipping-type motion that forces relaxation of the limbs and body until just before the moment of impact, which is exactly what you need for a quick empty-hand strike. You are training your body to reflexively strike quickly.

The excellent Dan Inosanto:

Take a look at the Vunak video that's used as an example of the benefits of knife training at Simple Knife Defense as well.