- Southpaw wrote:
I'm sure doormen get this all the time.
True, that.
A lot of MA or SD practitioners have the misconception that if you train hard, and study the "correct moves" and procedures properly, you'll be safe when confronted with a knife.
The truth is, that doesn't hold up to much, innit?
From my experience with sharp edged implements (in wielding and defending against one), I can safely conclude that there is NO safe way to defend yourself, unarmed, against a blade. Be it a shank, a tactical folder, switchblade, butterfly knife or even a shred-up piece of beer can, you're not safe. The only safe way out is to haul some ass and get the hell out of throwing range.
In knife defence, survival is vital. Receiving some damage for the price of survival is not that bad a deal, I'd say.
I've been a bouncer (or doorman. Whichever is pollitically correct nowadays) at numerous clubs located in the seedy areas of towns before, but I quit the scene due to reasons of health, don't ya know. I am in th' mind of keepin' it, not ta waste it away wit' me life's blood runnin' quick as mercury into th' gutter.
Guns are outlawed where I come from, so the weapon of choices for most troublemakers are blades.
Getting one in you is not a nice experience, but at least, you can make sure that it doesn't hit any of your vital parts.
During the times when I came through a knife-scrap unscathed, it was only because of either one or more of these factors:
a) I had the element of surprise
b) I had a cleared head
c) I had something other than my bare hands to defend with (my doorman coat / the door rope / the rope-stand / another guy's hands)
d) I held a knife myself
Of course, when facing a knife, you've got to be fricking aware of the distance. Of the bugger with the blade. Of the blade. Of the effective range.
Kicking works, but if you can't kick that high, or you kick too slow, all it'll give you is a few lacerations to your lower leg.
And that hurts like a mother.
I always believed that running away from a knife is a good idea.
But if you can't do that (maybe you're cornered, or maybe you're the 1st line of defence against that perp, or maybe you have a moral obligation to get stabbed so others don't. It's your call) and you have to engage with the bugger, then stay away from that pointy thing.
What I've learned is that people who utilize short edged weapons fight like crabs. Which means they can only do damage from the front, top, bottom and a bit to the sides. I learnt this in my school of silat. The techniques for defending, unarmed against a knife-wielding assailant is loosely translated as
"fighting the crab".
The danger zone can be mapped out, if you'd care to anyway.
What I'm getting at here is that, if you could sidestep out of the way, and enter his 'circle' from the side and back area, you'd have a fighting chance of rendering him immobile, unconscious or in just plain words, finish the fight. Note that I said "fighting chance". One will have to fight for the chance. That means training. And applying that training.
If it's a long blade like a katana, you'll have to understand the range, motion and dynamics of the blade. I've studied that sword-wielders have it hard up when someone comes at them in close-combat range. You can't really execute a full downward stroke when the other guy is chest to chest with you. But that can be told, another time.
Like I said, running away always sounds like a good idea to me.
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