ESP Training Knife Short — Orange Rubber Training Knife

The ESP Training Knife Short is a rubber training knife with an overall length of 290 mm, designed for safe partner drills covering personal defence, disarming and knife grappling. The orange colour immediately distinguishes it from a live blade — a basic requirement in any structured training environment.

The soft rubber absorbs impact during contact drills, allowing thrusts, blocks and disarming techniques to be practised at full speed without the risk of cuts. Compared to a wooden or aluminium trainer, it gives more on contact, which lets you increase repetition intensity and work with a partner without additional protective gear. The trade-off is that the softness of the material reduces the tactical feedback of the blade relative to rigid trainers: anyone looking to simulate the exact weight and stiffness of a metal knife will find this tool better suited to technical skill development than to conditioning work.

The dagger profile follows the geometry of standard combat knives, making learned sequences transferable to real blades of similar shape. The orange colour — conventionally associated with inert training tools in professional contexts — enables instant identification as a trainer, both in the gym and in scenario-based exercises.

Key points

• Overall length of 290 mm replicates the proportions of a standard combat knife, making techniques directly transferable.
• Soft rubber allows full-contact partner drills without additional protective gear, increasing the volume of safe repetitions per session.
• Orange colouring is conventionally recognised as a marker for inert training tools, reducing the risk of confusion in multi-operator training environments.
• One-piece construction with no moving or sharp parts: requires no maintenance and does not damage a partner's gear during grappling.
• Suitable for personal defence courses, systems such as Krav Maga, Filipino Martial Arts and any curriculum that includes knife work.