Self Defense & Knives

The Grip:

I am acquainted with all of the B.S. about knife fighting and “grips”. In my many years of formal training with sticks and blades, I’ve come to the conclusions that the grip is determined by the situation, and that all grips have their place in blade fighting. Long hours of practice will prepare you for using the knife in whatever position you want, and not be in the least disadvantaged. Practice – I promise!

Stance:

I just read another load of “cr*p” on the “proper stance” for knife fighting. It’s preposterous to believe, that a single stance will hold up in vigorous life and death fights against a similarly armed adversary. The stance should be close to a “boxing stance” and one should be comfortable in either right or left foot forward stances. Let’s make sure the weight is distributed fairly evenly so that you can move in any direction without loss of speed. Practice!

Footwork:

“A fighter’s body should be able to move in all directions, either to avoid a strike by the attacker, to attack, or carry out a combination of moves. Footwork will be used in combination with knife attack and defense moves.”

Footwork needs to be taught to fighters and “trained”, to move in a proper response to achieve your attack, or to defend against one. Feet should never “cross the centerline” of the body and whether left foot forward or right, one should be able to quickly glide to the right or to the left, also easily move to the same sides but in a 45 degree angle forward-right and forward-left (with either foot forward). You should be able to attack or defend by thrusting forward (a shuffle) and backward. One must also be able to shuffle his stance quickly, back and to the right, or to the left at a 45 degree angle, with either foot forward, while attacking or defending. This covers eight directions with a “left forward” stance and eight more with a “right forward” stance. Sixteen (16) smooth boxing-like stance shuffles. Practice!

Attack and Defense:

Beginning knife fighters will learn basic cuts and thrusts. To keep the blade moving lightning fast, the wrist and arm should be relaxed during the execution of the movement. Strength (muscle power) is not everything, as speed = power when exerted with a knife blade, or other weapons. Knife defense moves often “mirror” the cuts and thrusts already learned, but they’re now applied against the attacker’s attack. This engages and blocks their blade as they attack, or better, slide a little deeper into your opponent to engage the arm and damage it, to disarm, disable or kill them. Practice!

Combination Techniques:

As with all fighting attacks, defense and footwork are all merged together into combination movements with the objective of disabling the attacker. Take care of your training partner! Drills with knives and rattan sticks get extremely fast and powerful. I have to be able to trust my partner NOT to hurt me if I “goof up” and he needs to have that same trust in me. Good training partners are hard to find, so take care to keep everything at a safe and controlled speed. Try the footwork movements above and add a cut, or a block, and you have quite a training regimen to begin with. Practice!

Training Aids:

Good knock-off versions of a knife (similar to your “carry” knife) can be purchased cheaply. Just blunt the edge of the blade for use in training. Rubber knives are also fairly decent for drills as are rattan sticks. As the prospective knife fighter drills more, and over a period of time, the knife fighting technique becomes instinctive, affording very fast reactions to attacks and confidence in battle. Practice!

Targets:

There are several major targets in a knife fight, muscles and nerves, blood vessels and vital organs. Cutting through the muscles and nerves disables the attacker’s limbs causing great pain, loss of weapon (hopefully) and loss of coordination. Severing blood vessels or vital organs causes the inevitable death of the attacker. Oh yeah, this all takes quite a bit of practice!

Don’t forget to select a 400 – 440 stainless steel knife along with those rattan training batons Grasshopper!