[Samurai]

You absolutely will NOT teach yourself about proper knife fighting with paint and magic markers in the backyard. Part of knife fighting is getting cut. When you get cut, you begin to lose use of your muscles and nerves. There is no way to simulate proper nerve and vascular damage during a confrontation through horseplay in the backyard. However, professional techniques, developed by professional instructors, will teach you movements and body coordination to allow you to move quickly and efficiently with minimal use of unnecessary musculature. Paint and markers alone will teach you agility and acrobatics, but they will NOT teach you proper technique. Proper technique comes from proper training!

Now, that said, there are PLENTY of rough-ol'-boys at the bars and monster-truck shows out there who are EXCELLENT knife-fighters, and who have had no professional training whatsoever. Those guys got good by ACTUALLY knife-fighting! You can usually distinguish those guys in a crowd; they have scars all over their bodies, and they usually walk with a limp. But, you don't want to train that way... they also tend to not live very long...

You wouldn't learn to shoot a gun by grabbing a plastic water gun and going in the backyard with your friend, would you? Of course not! That would be stupid... So, why assume that you can learn to knife fight with toys in the backyard?

Seek professional help!