Knife Defence Video

Hi guys

I know the knife defence subject has been done to death on this forum but my friend filmed us doing some knife defence training yesterday and I just thought I’d throw the video your way to see what ya’ll think (That’s funny, I’ve just suddenly had the image of throwing a lump of meat to wild dogs pop into my mind)

Let me explain the nature of the video…

We basically just finished some pre-emptive training when my mate Curran remembered he had is camera in his bag and suggested we film some stuff. We had just been doing pre-emptive stuff, which is why you’ll notice in the first disarm he (the baldy one) is still in fence mode.

Regarding the technique…

You’ll notice that each time we try to get to the outside of the knife arm and do a rear head-pull takedown. We do this simply because we have found that against the enraged, dedicated slasher/stabber this works… close the gap, make your way to the relative safety of being outside of the knife arm, take down by whatever means.

Bearing in mind that we didn’t plan any of this at all, it would seem that the attacks we are doing are somewhere in between the dedicated, forward-charging knifer and the cautious, evasive knifer who uses footwork and dancing around to try and nick and cut you while maintaining as much distance as possible. I hope that makes sense.

After doing this clip, we now plan on filming the some methods against the evasive, bruce lee-style, dancey, jabby slasher (as seen in the Venezuela Duel video elsewhere on this forum)

Disclaimer…

There are indeed many different scenarios in which we can be attacked with a knife. THIS ONE is assuming that you can’t run for whatever reason, there are no objects around to aid your defence and the attacker has drawn the knife at such a distance that stopping the knife-draw is impossible

Enjoy and please give us your honest critique


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOT40jWVI7E

Enjoyed the clip....

Ya knife defense is a slippery slope for sure.

It’s always good to explore this area since there are so many variables that can come into play.

In regards to the video, I think the attacks presented need to be more aggressive and less dance. If you watch a number of knife attacks, you’ll see that there is no dance, only gross stabbing and/or thrusting and sometimes hacking, for the most part.

I don’t believe that technique is more important than mindset. It’s a good idea to work on technique and to build motor skills, but IMHO mindset is more important, and the mindset needs to be “I am going to run your ass over with eclectic violence” Take out the computer (brain) so it can no longer function. At 1:04 in the video, guy moves in and has knife arm wrapped under his arm. At that point he should be beating the shit out of the attacker vs. re-gripping and then changing hands into an arm bar. Also get in the habit of beating the attacker when they are down, should you manage to get them into that position, it’s a good habit to form.

I do like the head take down… generally works well for me. If you’d like to add a little evil to it… use your fingers to the eye sockets instead of just general head, makes for a nice grip. You can do it in practice without hurting your partner… just use the brow

Hey tacpro, so with great trepidation I shall now wade into the waters of the "knife defence".I would say that your techniques of dealing the attcker once you have gained control of his weapon bearing limb are good.In fact your foward drive and attempts to gain chest to back and attack the face of the aggressor are very similar to my kind of training.However I would note the following.If the attacks had been done with full aggression and full force, that would change things alot, it would make it much harder to grab and control the limb.As well even if control was achieved if the attacker was in a wild rage, holding it with one hand as you attack with the other might prove far more difficult to achieve.

Personally I have moved to a more cautious approach.I try to use eye strikes and sometimes low line kicks to gove me the opportunity to escape, and to be disuassive to a charge.As well I also tend these days, to keep both hands or arms on the attacking limb and work with head butts, knees and biting.If the arm is slippery it is very ahrd to hold with one hand.Maybe you you should use a knife that you mark with with some kind of colourant and go full force and see how it works.

I hope you dont mind my comments, I think your overall approach is good but maybe needs to be tweeked a bit.For me knife defence has become almost an obbession over the past year, and i train it alot, full speed full force against avariety of types of attack.I find if I can parry, strike to the eyes, and run, then I have had a good day, if I should happen to get the arm or hand I hold on with everything I have and try to bite and bludgeon him with knees and headbutts.Thats my take, Regards and keep up the good work.

little bit basic jiu jitsu, but nice you post a video!

its not so realistic, because of the to obvious cooperation between you guys.

and ever experienced a knife attack?

its very very difficult to catch the knife arm.

nice vid mate,

i've never explored knife stuff much. my domain one on one, no weapons. i do loads of
limited multiples [3 or 4 attacking], but this is for good measure, and to teach focus, fight,
and flight accordingly.
having said all that. i might like to see different personality types conjured up in the attacker.
the rusher, the largely still slasher, the rapid poker, the haymaker knife equivalent...if i were doing it--as i've wanted time to toy with it. i'd do that stuff [my original plan] until i was blue in the face. then let go of the structure and have one of those rubber or dull knives and really try and apply pressure more--perhaps with protective goggles. those were my thoughts for myself, but i never set aside the time.
so i humbly offer them up to you as food for thought. lately the one on one is all i'm focussing
on as i'm neck deep in nappies and food preparation

otherwise, i enjoyed it--sort of bullfighting side step and a rip. nice. keep it up.
what's tacpro--tactical professional? i like your training space. nice to see people in vids and get a chance to know them other than from written words. gotta go. dad stuff

Thanks for the replies guys. Lots of info here.

Roadkill,

We do normally train for the charging, enraged hard stabber/hacker (in which this defense actually works a lot easier, as you don't have to chase him, just meet in the middle like two trains crashing into eachother). We've recently been training to defeat the more evasive dancey slasher (much more than the 'dancing' you see in this vid). Although we are aware that most attacks are the super aggressive type, we train for the other kind too. As I said in the original post, this seems to be somewhere in between.

When I had my arm wrapped around Curran knife arm, I wanted to get to the outside as by staying in that position I'm also equally as vulnerable to his free hand, his head, his teeth etc. But yeah, for sure I could easily do some Krav style elbows and what-not from that position, but I just wanted to shift myself behind him (where he has NOTHING to attack me with)

I like to think that in a real scenario I would go for the sockets or even hair but in training we always just use the forehead (I just don't wanna risk getting my mate's eyes). But I was actually thinking of maybe next time involving both hands in the takedown, kind of Senshido Shredder style.

You're right about the mindset too. I totally agree. We'll look to add more of that to the training. Thanks for pointing out.

After the takedowns, you'll see me put my knee on his face/chest. This is simulating a knee drop (which has to trained separately as it's very hard to 'pull' at the last minute. It involves dropping your entire body weight into the knee (and into their face or ribs). Sometimes we'll do stomps instead (depends on the take down and landing)

Danite,

You know, for us, we've found that against a more aggressive commited attacker, it's somehow easier to get control. As mentioned above it involves less chasing, you just crash into eachother. From that point, we don't try to catch the hand or arm, we try to find the shoulder attached to the arm and then follow it down to the elbow or forearm. If you can hear, I actually talk to Curran about it in the vid at one min in. But as I said to Curran, we really need to train with somebody else who is familiar with the knife... we might find that things change a lot!

I agree with your philosophy of attacking the eyes and escaping if possible. We've found that that only works against the guy who stands in one position or is not too committed to rushing in. Also JKD stop kicks, as you said. We're gonna experiment more with that in the next clip

Russ,

You've got a great training plan there I'd say. That space is actually the dance studio at my gym. It's tucked away so nobody can see us and freak out and call the police because we've got knives etc lol. Tacpro is an abbreviation of Tactical Protection (tactical-protection.com, my site)

I've also changed two shitty nappies today myself. Joy!

Richie... if you're reading... any input? I believe you like to blast through with palms in knife defence training. We'll try that in the next vid

Thanks again guys.

Hi Tacpro,
Cool that you are up for showing us your training and into some constructive criticism and comments.
Of course I am not of the camp that likes arm controls, and am firmly into the 'take out the computer above all else' camp. I am also not a fan of staying close for any length of time and prefer the 'stun and run' method. Humans are just too wriggly, grabby and unpredictable and blades are just too dicey to be around more than the absolute minimum time necessary to exit stage left.
I also think that though it seems counter intuitive to focus away from the weapon arm, there would be alot less 'blood' if you focus on the head. I saw slashed arms, kidney pokes and a cut belly even in the relatively soft attacks in your clip - this is not what I would volunteer myself for.
So if I had any advice to give, and obviously feel free to take and ignore as you wish, I think you have to think about your scenarios more - ask yourself what the attacker's motivations are and have them act them out better, to get a more authentic feel for the answers you are working.
Why would an attacker be doing the dancy pokey slashy thing? I'm thinking the only time it seems logical is when the other guy is a threat in some way i.e. is armed also, otherwise it makes no sense that they want to cut you but wait to enter.
I guess they could be taunting you somehow, playing cat and mouse, but why?
If they show you a blade as a threat to get you to hand over your money, I guess it would make some sense if you refused, and then they felt the need to force you, but that's the only one I can come up with, and even then the dance-y thing is kinda weird, they'd more likely just walk into you, grab you and jack you.
So, if you rule out the scenarios that happen when the blade is not pulled until grappling, or not seen for some other reason until too late, which are obviously not what you are working here, you are left with an attacker bent on doing harm to an unarmed victim with a blade.
I suspect at this point the single minded focus of the attacker would be rather more tenacious than what was shown in your clip. Even if you are working realatively light and at half speed, I think it is no good training against an uncommitted, easily dissuaded attacker who has forgotten about the use of their left arm, does not grab or hit, and does not resist what you do. It's got to build in bad habits.
I think it's worth having a default reaction - 'if there is one thing to remember, do this' kind of thing - and for me that would be stun and run.
I'm not saying you can NEVER catch the weapon arm, but if that's what you are focusing on every time you see a knife and are working knife 'defense', I think you are putting yourself at far more risk than focusing on the 'computer' and exit.

Thanks for your in-depth reply Maija.

I'll try and respond to the various points you made

"I am not of the camp that likes arm controls, and am firmly into the 'take out the computer above all else' camp. I am also not a fan of staying close for any length of time and prefer the 'stun and run' method"

I know what you are talking about. I am starting to re-think my whole knife defence based on this idea. Even the static knife threat scenarios (*knife to throat/stomach* "give me your money" type of thing). In the Philippines they had me doing all kinds of joint manipulations that took a while to shake off. But the other day, we practiced some static knife threat stuff where Curran had a helmet on. We simply parried or smacked the arm away and blasted through with rapid palm strikes and legged it. This is how I used to train disarms before the Philippines - it seems I was probably right the first time lol


"I also think that though it seems counter intuitive to focus away from the weapon arm, there would be alot less 'blood' if you focus on the head. I saw slashed arms, kidney pokes and a cut belly even in the relatively soft attacks in your clip - this is not what I would volunteer myself for"



We're going to pressure test this soon (and film it probably). You're right it does seem counter-inuitive, but from what I know about being smacked about the head (which is quite a bit ) I know you are right; not much stabbing going on when their world is being rocked. But then again... what about that lucky stab or slash that connects as their consciousness is being taken away? Like the man who gets shot in a gun fight and instinctively fires off his weapon as he falls to the ground and luckily manages to shoot his shooter. We'll see when we test it I guess

"Why would an attacker be doing the dancy pokey slashy thing? I'm thinking the only time it seems logical is when the other guy is a threat in some way i.e. is armed also, otherwise it makes no sense that they want to cut you but wait to enter"

This is similar to what other guys have said. You'll just have to believe me when I say that normally, we DO train for the enraged, dedicated, charging, rapidly-pumping psycho. We do, honest!

After watching some Paul Vunak stuff, I did wonder about the what-ifs of somebody who wants to cut you, probably doesn't have the balls to really get in there and gut his opponent, and is maybe a bit cautious of being close to his opponent (even if he is unarmed). You see this in untrained fist fights all the time - they wanna punch their opponent but wanna stay back at the same time so they end up throwing crappy punches while dancing around like fannies.

It's a possibility, so we train for it.

"Even if you are working realatively light and at half speed, I think it is no good training against an uncommitted, easily dissuaded attacker who has forgotten about the use of their left arm, does not grab or hit, and does not resist what you do"

Yep, there was a bit of co-operation going on in that vid.


I'm not saying you can NEVER catch the weapon arm, but if that's what you are focusing on every time you see a knife and are working knife 'defense', I think you are putting yourself at far more risk than focusing on the 'computer' and exit.

To be honest we're not really catching the arm. I'm not trying to catch it mid flight. The idea with this defence was to crash bodily into the knifer, then whether from an inside or outside reference point, follow the shoulder down to do the arm control. It's more 'crash and grapple' than 'catch and control'. And to be honest, I'll never put this tactic in the bin - against the dedicated attacker it works. Honestly. But depending on the results of our testing of the "shut down the computer and run" method, I'll probably, as you say, train it as a back-up technique. Something to fall back on if the attacker does manage to get in close. On that note, this defence you see in the clip, we've found to be the best thing to do against the prison style rapid pumper who come right up to you, holds you with the free hand and starts pumping away.

Thanks again for your reply. We'll post another vid next week.

tacpro, while I too favour the stun and run approach, one must also train for the situation where one cannot run and a stun wont do the trick.Might I suggest putting yourself in a narrow confined space, have the attacker smear his weapon bearing arm with soap then wet it so it is very slippery, then have him attack you with the intent to "kill you" Doing that really helped clear up alot of questions for me, like if I get the arm I try to hold with two hands and not let it get free.If one has the arm under control that is half the battle right there, in fact some times the "attacker" is so fixated and invested in his intsrument of power that he is at a loss what to do when his power source has been neutralised. its great that you are investigating this VERY important issue.

Danite wrote:

tacpro, while I too favour the stun and run approach, one must also train for the situation where one cannot run and a stun wont do the trick.Might I suggest putting yourself in a narrow confined space, have the attacker smear his weapon bearing arm with soap then wet it so it is very slippery, then have him attack you with the intent to "kill you" Doing that really helped clear up alot of questions for me, like if I get the arm I try to hold with two hands and not let it get free.If one has the arm under control that is half the battle right there, in fact some times the "attacker" is so fixated and invested in his intsrument of power that he is at a loss what to do when his power source has been neutralised. its great that you are investigating this VERY important issue.

I guess the type of defence for this situation would basically be what you see in the clip then. I would say that if ever was in the unfortunate situation of being trapped in a corner and attacked by a soapy-armed attacker, I would do the crash-control-takedown method you see in the video

I can't confirm it yet (not until I do further experimenting on friday with Curran) but I think i've got my knife defence 'system' clear in my mind (based on experimenting and the very helpful insights from you guys ). We'll see. We'll keep testing, testing, testing. Hopefully at the end I'll be able to present a very sound 'system' of defence. (which I reckon will probably be almost exactly congruent with Richard's ideas on the subject based on his experimenting)

Pretty exiting stuff

Watch a number of real world knife attacks... They are really quite useful. Let me know if you have difficulty finding some and I'll hook you up.

If you haven't read this yet:-
https://streetfightsecrets.darkbb.com/general-f3/knife-dvds-t689.htm

You can't really expect to walk away from a fight without at least a few lumps and bruises to show for it. Wherever the knife goes, whether by design or wild flailing, it is doing something. From a fist you get lumps and bruises. With a knife they become gashes and punctures. With luck they are just disfuguring scars. A less fortunate result is having nerves and tendons cut, which although it may be fixable to some extent, will probably never be quite the same afterwards. Or your injuries may be fatal. Defense against knife attacks is ugly stuff. There is no failsafe way of doing it. Hell, there isn't really even a good way of dealing with it. The best solution by far as defense goes is armor.

On the most basic level, the function of the knife is to make the hand sharp. It is the speed and ferocity that turns it into a real problem. Just as in a fistfight, if the guy really means business he will probably land a few solid hits. Up against a knife those are gashes and punctures. Knife defense really should be something that works against an unarmed attack if you want to be able to rely on it.

How knife defense ideas stand up to unarmed attacks may be a good indicator of how useful they are in reality. When using a knife people might move differently because holding it demands slightly different angles of force, but the speed, power and intensity appears to match well with that of unarmed attacks. They are trying to put the knife into you forcefully, whether it is by slashing or stabbing. If they are fearful, they might be pulling back too soon, resulting in the dancy stuff, as others have remarked. Yet they are still trying to get you as good as they can, despite their divided mind. It is violence. It is a fight.

The article "The four basic truths of violent assault" by Rory Miller http://www.budoseek.net/articles/Violent_Assault.htm is a good description of this intensity.

Quote :

Assaults happen closer, faster, more suddenly and with more power than most people can understand.

Closer: Most self-defense drills are practiced at an optimum distance where the attacker must take at least a half step to contact. This gives techniques like blocks enough time to have an effect. You rarely have this time or this distance in a real assault. Give some thought to how your technique will work if there is no room to turn or step. Remember that the attacker always chooses the range and the location, and will pick a place and position that hampers your movements.

Faster: When your martial arts students are sparring, use a stop watch and time how many blows are thrown in a minute. Even in professional boxing, the number is not that impressive. Then time how many times you can hit a heavy bag in a second. Six to eight times a second is reasonable for a decent martial artist. An assault is more like that. Because the attacker has chosen a time when the victim is off-guard, he can attack all-out with no thought of defense. A competent martial artist who is used to the more cautious timing of sparring is completely unprepared for this kind of speed. You can strike ten times a second. You can’t block ten times a second.

More suddenly: An assault is based on the attacker’s assessment of his chances. If he can’t get surprise, he often won’t attack. Some experts will say that there is always some intuitive warning. Possibly, but if the warning was noted and heeded, the attack would have been prevented. When the attack happens, it is always a surprise.

More power: There is a built-in problem with all training. You want to recycle your partners. If you or your students hit as hard as they can every time they hit, you will quickly run out of students. The average criminal does not hit as hard as a good boxer or karateka can, but they do hit harder than the average boxer or karateka usually does because of gloves and dojo etiquette. More often than not, the first strike in an ambush will find its target. Fighting with a concussion is much different than sparring.

Exchange the references to punches with stabbing and slashing and it begins to look more like it is supposed to. Maybe add pictures for visual effect... Both of these went through bone. Those knives can come in pretty damn hard, and fast.



A possible training exercise could be agreeing on a hand that is designated as the knife (maybe marking it clearly with a differently colored glove or something), and having the guy punch and attack unarmed, while you treat that as a knife attack. Just make sure the training partner is not cutting you any slack. Which is a lot easier when it's all unarmed with protective equipment.

Controlling an arm is not something people usually prioritize in unarmed fighting. But if you were to, could you reliably pull it off? (as if there was a knife in it, of course) This is important because if seizing control of en empty hand is difficult, there is nothing about placing a knife in that hand that makes it any easier. Except of course in such cases, the stupidity and incompetance of the knifer... To quote Marc Denny "It is stupid to assume stupidity on the part of the enemy."

maija wrote:

If you haven't read this yet:-
https://streetfightsecrets.darkbb.com/general-f3/knife-dvds-t689.htm

OK... after reading the posts in this link by the main man of the site Richie G, I fee I should make a couple of disclaimers before this threat turns into a total gang-fuck.

First, I didn't quite realize the extent of damage this subject has done in the past on this forum, so I almost regret starting it. BUT...

Second, I'd like to officially change the subject of this thread from "take a look at me and my mate pissing about with knife dissarms" to "I'm gonna keep you updated with my experimenting with knife defence (by videos) to see if we can come up with a comprehensive system of defence against the various kinds of knife attack there are (with help from your input as well as the video evidence)"

Third, this will be done in the same experimental spirit that Richard made his videos in so that we can see if the two experiments come to the same conclusions. And as a personal opinion... although I'm not TRYING to prove that Richard's taught method of knife defence is the ultimate method, I personally reckon that Curran and I will end up backing up what Richard has taught in his DVDs.


This has been a political broadcast from the Self Protection Party

"Gang -f#*k"? - I hope we were all somewhat more polite than that!

Anyway, good on ya for working on it, and remember, as some guy who has a radio programme here in CA says: "We find comfort amongst those that agree with us, and growth among those that do not".
As far as I'm concerned we are all here to improve our skills, and any criticism is given and hopefully taken, in that spirit.

Quote :

First, I didn't quite realize the extent of damage this subject has done in the past on this forum, so I almost regret starting it. BUT...

ha! didnt damage the forum, just put me in a bad mood for a day

this thread hasnt become a gang bang, I think its very brave of you to post clips of yourself and leave yourself open for criticism- braver than most instructors (even the "big" names, look how many of them have clips of themselves up not doing anything that is totally pre scripted, few it is, few!)

my view of "knife defence" is that defensive tactics make you a nice target for the knife man, offensive tactics give you the best chance- and yes they are dangerous, moving towards a slashing stabbing knife isnt big or clever, but its better than standing still and waiting... the best is running away

a mate of mine asked me to show him some "knife defence" last night- takes me about 5 minutes to explain the way I approach the subject, then I let him try any defence he wanted for 5 minutes... 10 minutes to convert a person out of the kung fu, jason bourne film trained, trap slap mind, neat solution mindset and into the frantic, frenzied, berserker "scare the crap out of the attacker" and Attack the Attacker frame of mind

my mate did very well, I wish Id filmed it

I found myself advising:

1. lead with your feet, dont just stand still and slap at the knife arm, move your whole body
2. be brave, committ
3. be aggressive, move explosively
4. every move is offensive, dont just parry my knife arm, smash it, palm pops are good
5, go for the head/face- even if you dont hit you will get a flinch, a flinch is an opportunity for a stronger hit or an escape


you could try some of these... maybe limit yourself a bit, start with your back to a wall and try and escape out of there, have the knife man move a bit faster maybe

see how you go and how you progress, take it easy, slow, intelligent training for technique development- fast, pressurised training for pressure testing of techniques innit

ps to Tacpro

not every post on here needs to be in "political" agreement with what I say, take a look around many arent, but when people use my forum as a marketing outlet for their chosen system and their chosen system is indefensible rubbish and when I reasonably point out why its rubbish and am ignored I get a cob on- I put a lot in to this subject and I take it seriously

these are some of the key points for people lookin to tackle this one :

1. if I dont want you to catch my arm, you wont catch my arm, I will hack your hands in half whilst you try- you can train to only fight half speed zombies if you want, fat lot of good it will do you when a double speed meth head goes for you though

which kills the "immobilize and counter strike" control fantasy - please dont train each other into believing in and attempting this "immobilty" thing, the more the knife man struggles the more you must commit with your hands arms and body to keep control- you want to turn a knife attack into a close range wrestling match where you CANT SEE anything?

Bad idea.

2. training with compliance- BE CAREFUL (this is called "the russian trap" ) you think its logical to assume that what will work at half speed and half force will work at full speed and full force as long as the defender puts more speed and power in? WRONG - unfortunately, this seemingly logical asumption is just not borne out in application

Im not saying go out now and train at full speed full resistance immediately, but bear it in mind, dont kid yourself and fall into a comfort zone trap- what works with compliance is unique to compliant movement PLEASE TRUST ME and if you dont then PLEASE TRY IT

the human body at speed and with force is a totally different animal (in every sense of the word)

allow me to give an example: those nifty head control takedowns you are doing on each other I can see from watching the video BOTH of you could get out of them so... please do. If you need to know how, its called bending your knees, pulling your head in, curving your spine and turning. A standing foetal. Yes, any mug on the street can do it with no training whatsoever. ANd will do it if they feel themselves going off balance.

Most cool looking head control take downs are ruined by this simple response, hunch shoulders, wind neck in, curve back, and get lower.

Its mean to ruin cool techniques I know, but our job is about chipping away to the essential stuff, not acquiring more combatively falvoured candy floss to munch on

3. prescripted movements- there should be no presecripted attacks, there should be deliberately hard to defend attacks inclusive of feints and deception

4.dying too easily- you are both dying to easy in that clip Im not saying that to criticise the clip, that clip is fine, Im offering advice for future clips- die less easy

5. be nice to see you attack that f@*ker from the word go and seek an escape rather than a take down... you do take downs on people in situations where you are dominating, its hard enough to do that in a fist fight, let alone when they are holding a knife

in this day and age, surely others can provide footage of similar experimentation? shouldnt all be on tacpro should it?

Richard Grannon wrote:

in this day and age, surely others can provide footage of similar experimentation? shouldnt all be on tacpro should it?

Cheers and well put.... Give me some time and I will gladly oblige.

very cool, much respect to everyone who puts themselves out there, money where the mouth is and all that...

any other takers want to SHOW rather than tell mr. Tacpro what they mean? there is no way we wont all benefit loads from the effort

Thanks for your posts Richard.

Will take your advice on board. The attacks will not be pre-planned or scripted, although it wont ALL be 'rush in and stab with as much force as possible'. We'll also address how to deal with the stand-on-the-spot-ready-pounce type attacker and the dancey, cautious doesn't-want-to-get-hurt-himself type attacker. These may be very rare, but we'll cover them anyway. I'll just tell Curran to attack in whatever fashion he wishes, as long as his sole intention is to cut me. And I'll do the same. And of course, we'll do lots of super-dedicated aggressive stuff where the knifer grabs with his free hand and pumps (which seems to be a natural thing to do for most attackers)

This will be very interesting... hopefully some other guys here will do the same.

Re: the brave thing. I don't feel very brave putting my technique in the public domain, I just feel honest. I like to keep it real, much like you Richie. I made a decision when choosing to become an instructor to forever be the student, always updating my stuff as I learn/improve. That's why like you, I don't have a name for my 'system' which can get very confusing for most 'civilians'

Person: "So what do you teach?"

Me: "Self protection: awareness, conflict management, self defence etc"

Person: "Yeah, but I mean, like what martial art is it?"

Me: "You mean, the physical stuff?"

Person: "Yeah"

Me: "I don't give it a name. But if I did, I'd call it violence. Coz that's what it is. Countering violence, with more fucking violence"

Person:


I'm sure you've had this situation many times before too lol

"we do fighting. call it what you want."

Cheng

sorry mate but your get cut to FUCK trying that

1punchko wrote:

sorry mate but your get cut to FUCK trying that

A thread of over 20 posts of constructive theories and opinions written by about 7 different intelligent, experienced martial artists...

And you come in with THAT?

Was considering to put this in a new thread. Let me know if you think that's better, Richie.

Ok, some notes on the video and some stuff I noticed....

- Again, this was done at the end of a long session (we are training for a seminar we're teaching this sunday luckily not involving knife defence!).

- I've left in some musings as well as 'fight' footage

- I was 'trying' different stuff in each attack. Some worked, some didn't.

- I felt eerily calm and un-panicked. I think this is a BAD thing in this case.

- I was thinking a lot. Not much adrenaline-induced brain shrinkage. I was thinking TOO MUCH.

- Knife defence is fucking scary. And my confidence in defending against a knife attack has committed suicide.

- I'm aware Curran is doing pretty much the same style of attack each time. We'll try something else next time

- It's Curran who makes the grunting noises, not me

What worked:

1)Palm strikes to the face. I couldn't bring my self to do full force palms or punching. Not to blow my own horn, but Curran will testify that I'm a heavy hitter (lots of heavy bag work) and he was grateful I didn't use full force. You'll see in the first two attacks, they are kind of finished with palms. Curran stops as he feels that had he not had the helmet on, and had I use more force, it would have been over. (I stopped doing them after the first two attacks - so I could try other stuff)

2)Blocking (!?!). Always thought blocking a knife attack was suicide, but you know what... 'blocking' that pumping action didn't end the fight, but it definitely saved me a little bit. I still got seriously fucked up in almost all the attacks, but the blocking seemed to buy me time (?).

What didn't work:

1)JKD style stop kicks to his lead knee/shin.

2)Grabbing the arm (surprise surprise).

3)Grappling into the 'two-on-one' position you saw us doing in the first clip (although I didn't try very hard)

Other Thoughts...

I wanted to try 'other stuff' but I have a feeling my old fail-safe would have been the best option. That is to say... BOXING. We didn't try it so I couldn't say, and I don't think I'll ever be able to bring my self to hit Curran FULL force with combos... but as the palm strikes seemed to be the most effective thing (and bearing in mind that I punch harder than I palm) I reckon that just good old "fuck the knife and box his face in" would do the trick. If not by KO, then by triggering the flinch/on-the-back-foot syndrome in my attacker.

I don't know why - maybe I'm just trying to find some comfort in this - but I have a feeling that Curran was attacking with much more dedication and aggression than your average mugger. I'm not talking about somebody who is insane or really hates me (although I don't know why that would be!), but you average yob gang attack (people who stab for fun) I just don't think would want me dead that badly. I have a friend who was kind of 'played with' by two guys attacking with screwdrivers. They didn't want to kill him, just poke him up a bit. Weird, I know.

Some notes on the ground fight at the end...

I try to put Curran in an arm-bar. Unsuccessfully. I thought I'd trapped the knife arm, but didn't notice he had swapped the knife into his other hand! I then proceed to kick him in the face (softly though, he is my mate!)

Any notion of little dirty tactics like eye gouging/pinching/biting on the ground never entered my mind at any time. I was thinking only of gross motor grappling techniques.

And the funny thing... while we're doing our grunting and heavy breathing session on the floor, as if it didn't look homo-erotic enough, Curran says (in reference to the defence).

"You see how hard it is? It's fucking HARD mate"

lol