Nanalo74 said:
1.Going empty hand vs. a knife should be the absolute LAST resort, meaning your life depends on it. If you can escape, then escape. But if you have to defend yourself then you should have the proper training under your belt.
2.What frustrates me about the way knife defenses are taught in some systems is that the student is never taught how to use a knife. If you don't know what a knife can do and every angle that it can come at you, you can't be expected to effectively defend against it.
3.The classic overhead stab or reverse-punch-style thrust is not realistic because the chances of someone coming at you like that is slim at best. The knife, like the fighter, is an alive thing. Unless you train with an alive mindset, you will be stuck in your fixed patterns, unfit for real world combat.
4.Naturally, the chances of you facing off against a fighter trained in FMA or some other knife fighting system are also slim.
5.But if someone plans to stab you, they're not going to make it easy for you to defend. And they're certainly not going to telegraph their movements by first getting into a karate stance before they thrust at your gut.
Vic
www.combatartsusa.com
1. i completely agree with this
2. the trouble with the training aspect though is this: most teachers outside of FMA probably dont touch a knife unless they are spreading something on bread or cutting a piece of meat. Im not saying this is the case all of the time......but it's rare to find a teacher with good knife skills.
3. i disagree with this statement. My brother-in-law was attacked by a knife weilding drug addict. a case of mistaken identity and a few lines of cocaine made this guy crazy.........the guy tried to stab down into his chest repeatedly with a carving knife, my bro in law's first instinct was to grab the weapon and stop it......he got cut, but not badly. he ended up beating the crap out of this guy and was sued for assault, my brother in law beat it though (whats up with people?). during my time as a bouncer, i had 2 situations that involved a sharp object, one was a screwdriver and the other was a broken bottle. the screwdriver was an attempted thrust and the bottle was an overhand. neither was successful, and were typical attempts by someone that is untrained with a weapon.
the reason that thrusts and overhead attacks are trained for is simply because joe bloe is going to get you that way.
4. if you face off against a trained knife fighter........all i can say is good luck, you probably wont even know they have a knife until it is ripping through your flesh.
5. i agree with this if it is someone that is familiar with handling a blade. if the person isnt familiar, they definitely telegraph their movements and go into the classic "get ready, i am going to stab you now" stance.
this has been both my personal experiences, those which i have observed, and those whose stories have been retold to me.
knife fighting or defense is just one of those things. loads of people train for empty hand without any problem......throw a knife in and all of the sudden its impossible to defend against.......not so.
i think half of the battle for knife defense is the psychological battle......which is the case for any battle, really. you need to get over the fear of being mortally wounded in order to do your thing.
you need to train with edged weapons that present a danger, so that bad habits arent developed or they can be turned around if started.
sound crazy?
yes it does......but you cant practice defense against something unless you practice defending against it.
ive seen plenty of people showboat defense against a wooden tanto.......but if you even step it up to a butterknife, the whole attitude changes, because the probability of injury has increased. so you need to work with the butterknife until you're comfortable, and then step it up again, and so on.
