Against the Grain

The oldest and deadliest invention ever created was the edged weapon. Whether it is a knife, shank, spike or puncture tool. Originally edged weapons were created for the use of hunting and defense from ferocious beasts. Not much has changed if you substitute hunting for woodcraft and ferocious beasts for multiple attacker street fights. What worked thousands of years ago still work today.

Let’s talk about the street fight when edged weapons are involved. First things first, let’s get rid of the entire BS that’s being taught in magazines and books. The probability that you are going to get cut in a knife fight is very high. The move that I recommend the most to my students pertaining to a knife situation is to run. While would anyone purposely want to fight an attacker with an edged weapon, where’s the logic? If you can run or seek cover in a safe zone be the wise man/woman and move there. Only in the movies do knife techniques work effortlessly.

Now let’s look at the other end of the spectrum. You are cornered and have no where to run, so you must defend yourself. Here is where common sense and hopefully some good training kick in. Let’s remember what I said earlier, “The probability that you are going to get cut in a knife fight is very high”. So if you’re cornered more than likely you are going to get some steel across your skin. So let’s work on minimizing the damage and reacting in a smart defensive manner. We need to learn that breathing is a very powerful tool in any type of combat. If you can control your breathing and not let the adrenaline take over you, you are in a much more focused zone of combat. Animals smell fear, so do attackers, heavy breathing and excessive sweat are signs of fear.

So now you’re in the middle of this knife scenario, let’s make this happen in a safe way. The golden rule of all combat is do not be in the way of an attack. There’s a reason why nobody tries out for the Olympic Javelin catching team, because it makes no sense to stand in front of something being thrown or coming at you! Body movement (Taijutsu) plays a very important rule in minimizing knife damage to you. We always try to smack weapons away and rely on our hand speed, that’s great but in a real world with real people there’s always someone faster. Our hands and forearms are going to play a big role in our escape but we are going to do this in a SMART manner.

Ok, Knives are sharp, hands are soft, sharp cuts soft, hands bleed, knife remains intact, hands cannot stop a knife blade., get the picture? So, let’s avoid trying to grab a knife blade for future use of our fingers sake. Knife thrusts are the most common form of attack followed by slashes. Don’t try to block the hand that holds the knife or the weapon itself. If you are going to attempt a block or detour of the weapon advance be sure to aim high on the forearm or even the elbow area. The forearm of any attacker is the safest point to place your hand to defend yourself from this style of confrontation. With your hand placed there you can feel any advance made by the weapon hand. From there we are able to close the gap and bring the attackers arm closer to our body for control/restraint purposes. Now, remember what I said earlier, “The probability that you are going to get cut in a knife fight is very high”, at this point you might have been nicked in the arm or even cut, but you haven’t been taken out all together. Sometimes it’s not a wise choice to stand and fight when you can create daylight to escape. If you are able to get your hand or arm on the opponents forearm, strike into the throat or face and push the attacker to escape. Reality is we are probably going to want to hit this person with a barrage of attacks to teach them a lesson, by doing this we are increasing the chances of being cut again because we chose to stay instead of running for a safe zone, this is where if we are breathing correctly we are thinking straight at the same time.

If you want to learn totally cool looking knife disarms and really pretty techniques there are thousands of seminars held each year that teach those type of moves. Look for the instructors that don’t teach techniques but are showing concepts and reality. Ask them what their backgrounds are? What qualifies them to teach this style of fighting? 20 years of teaching a style doesn’t qualify an instructor, it just means it’s been taught wrong for 20 years.