# Knife Disarms



## MJS (Dec 16, 2005)

What are everyones thoughts on the knife disarms? Overall, I feel that there are some good ones, although there are some that I still find challenging. (All the more reason to keep training hard!:ultracool )

While I understand that we all may have different variations, I'm looking at how everyone feels about them. Are they fine the way that they are or does anyone make their own personal changes to better suit the disarm for you?

Mike


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## Andrew Green (Dec 16, 2005)

I find most are near impossible to do in sparring, most reliable* way to get it, 2 on 1, take down, isolate the arm and strip it.  trying to disarm standing usually get you cut up.

*By reliable I don't mean 90%, not even close.  Getting a knife away from someone without getting cut is very tricky.


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## shesulsa (Dec 16, 2005)

Honestly, knife fighting happens fast.  Your reflexes have to be fast and smooth. If you don't / can't control that weapon hand, then you're up a creek.


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## modarnis (Dec 16, 2005)

MJS said:
			
		

> What are everyones thoughts on the knife disarms? Overall, I feel that there are some good ones, although there are some that I still find challenging. (All the more reason to keep training hard!:ultracool )
> 
> While I understand that we all may have different variations, I'm looking at how everyone feels about them. Are they fine the way that they are or does anyone make their own personal changes to better suit the disarm for you?
> 
> Mike




I think the basic disarms as taught provide a reference point for sudents and instructors to train.  They illustrate the mechanics of disarming from a variety of  captures or angles.  Just knowing these basic disarms will not translate into an ability to disarm in real situations.  They do provide a variety of ways to explore gunting, pressure point striking, passing and flow

Practice certainly improves any skill.  Good practice of the basic disarms  at gradually increasing speed helps to develop defensive skills in bladed weapon attacks.  These skills include focus on the attacking weapon (which differs from empty hand sparring or fighting focus).  Eye hand coordination improvement. Developing  footwork and body shifting skills.  Striking techniques and locking techniques to distract or create opportunity.

Professor used to show a #5 #6 #7 drill, that when played at a higher level allows a training flow for disarming, trapping and developing appropriate pressure with your arm blade to ward off potential dump out slashes.  Drills develop skills.  The disarms are just additional letters in your martial alphabet.  Practice allows you to make words, phrases, sentences or paragraphs from that alphabet

All that being said, even with regular high level practice (which includes heavy contact and resisting opponents) will not guarantee that you won't get cut.  It will help to minimize fatal or debilitating wounds and allow potential for openings to neutralize the opponent.

A few suggestions for this type of practice:

1.  Eye protection
2.  A blunt plastic trainer like Sharkee ( I like mine, but I don't receive a comission for endorsing it)
3.  A training partner who can take a few lumps and consents to the lumps
4.  A training partner who will use enough common sense to avoid causing you serious injury

***Remember even a dull trainer made of metal, wood, or some of the realistic plastic with a point could penetrate you or your training partner with the adrenaline gas pedal depressed****


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## Dan Anderson (Dec 16, 2005)

Very risky.

Yours,
Dan


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## Flatlander (Dec 16, 2005)

I'm sure that I am at best, familiar with disarms; proficient would be a mischaracterization.  Having said that, I feel more comfortable with the ones that come out of wrist locks.  Either way, a disarm will likely never be the "thing I'm trying to do", if that makes sense.  I'll be more concerned about distancing and evasiveness.  I think that knife disarms are that one thing that you can just never train enough of to feel confident in their reliability.


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## Guro Harold (Dec 16, 2005)

modarnis said:
			
		

> I think the basic disarms as taught provide a reference point for sudents and instructors to train. They illustrate the mechanics of disarming from a variety of captures or angles. Just knowing these basic disarms will not translate into an ability to disarm in real situations. They do provide a variety of ways to explore gunting, pressure point striking, passing and flow


Agreed. The knife was not a focus of the Professor's public teaching. The information and drills were more for dexerity. Interesting enough, it was the other skills can can be effective. There was a Police officer who's a student at David Ng's school in Raleigh, NC that disarmed a perpetrator with the downstroke of single sinawali.



			
				modarnis said:
			
		

> Practice certainly improves any skill. Good practice of the basic disarms at gradually increasing speed helps to develop defensive skills in bladed weapon attacks. These skills include focus on the attacking weapon (which differs from empty hand sparring or fighting focus). Eye hand coordination improvement. Developing footwork and body shifting skills. Striking techniques and locking techniques to distract or create opportunity.


Great examination! Other skills that can be practiced include is speed, timing, targeting, feinting, and range awareness.

Examining pictures of successful defenders will paint the picture that the blade is no joke!


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## chris arena (Dec 16, 2005)

Somewhere, a while back, I heard the statement "Fight the man, not the knife". This is something I wholeheartedly agree with. I do spend some times playing with disarms and I really enjoy them in practice, but a real world situation would scare the ?(*^%$ out of me!

I think that when we are dealing with the blade we tend to think about disarming the blade too much, we immediatly try to grab or parry the blade and generally end up in a wrestling grip match for the blade. We are then mismatched, even with an opponent of equal or lesser strength. He has the Blade, it is a fulcrum in his hand that we don't have and he has the psyc edge to boot. We are sweaty and slippery as well. 

Lately, I deal with the blade with the typical brush grab scenerio and go for a striketo the eyes, nose etc first. The typical Visidario rapid-fire strike to the face creates the jolt. then it is up to us to decide to split or continue the disarm. Again, fight the man first. Rock his socks with a strike and use that split second for the disarm second.

Although we generaly tend to do knife disarms with a submissive partner and I feel that this is NOT the way to train once you have a few disarm skills. You have to have a serious attack by a partner who is not willing to give you the blade.

C Arena
Enthusiastic intermediatte


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## ryangruhn (Dec 24, 2005)

Personally,
            I think people think of disarms in a fashion that keeps the disarmer safe from getting cut.  I on the other hand would expect getting cut while in the process of disarming.  You simply have to weigh the pros and cons of the situation.  Get cut on the arms and surviving or allowing the attacker to keep the knife and continue to go for vital points.  There are some pretty gruesome pictures on the net that show people who did in fact survive a knife attack, some of which did disarm the attacker.  They were extremely cut up, but they lived.


Gruhn


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