Knife defense article in Black Belt magazine

[Anonymous]

Just wondering if anyone has read it and what you thought about it. The author apparently teaches in the military and claims those techniques are the only realistic things to do when you are attacked by a guy with a knife.

He says there are three different kinds of attacks. The ambush (you are totally surprised and might have gotten stabbed a few times before you even know what is happening), the escalation (you are fighting a guy, who suddenly draws a knife during the confrontation) and an attack you see coming (a robber, who threatens you first, then decides to stab when you don't comply with his demands).

For the ambush he says you should first of all practice to immediatly get into some type of fighting stance the moment you feel the attack. You muscles should tense up and your hands should come up, chin tucked, so you protect all vital parts of the body as soon as possible. You should train to make this an automatic response, so it will happen without thinking (the way you would pull your hand back if you were touching something hot).

That makes some sense, but then he says, you should drop to the ground and continue fighting from there (kicking him, to the knee for example). He says that would surprise the attacker, catch him off guard and get all your vital parts out of the reach of his knife quickly. That's true, however then you are on the ground and he is standing above you, still holding the knife. Would a few kicks to the knee be enough to stop him? Or would a quick counter attack to the face from a standing position (the way we would probably do it in Krav Maga) be more effective? If you stun him with a counter to the face and you are still standing you could also then run away more easily. If you are on the ground it will be hard to get back up if that knee kick won't hurt him. So, I think I would prefer to stay on my feet.

Another technique he showed was against the straight stab. Against a right handed opponent he took his own right hand, hooked the guys arm with it as he was stabbing and redirected it past him, then wrapped his arm around the guys arm and neck and tripped him, taking him down. He then punched from the top. Could work against a same-sized person, but probably impossible against a bigger one.

Seems like he wants to take the fight to the ground when he is attacked with a knife, but that seems pretty dangerous.

So, has anyone read it? Any opinions?

[AFLT]

I didn't read it in depth - because I thought it was crap. You NEVER go to the ground if you can help it, particularly when facing an edged weapon. Further, if he does in fact teach in the military (which I doubt) - this doesn't take into account the fact that military personnel will be wearing 20-30 lbs worth of gear. I've never seen this type of response taught in the military (either in the Marines, or in the standard Army doctrine, or in the Air Force Security Forces) nor could I advocate for it. The standard krav responses are far superior.

[CLFMak]

If you take yourself to the ground, you commit yourself to groundfighting, and if he gets past your legs, you're grappling. Most conventional groundfighting is destroyed by knives- especially the guard. That seems like too much of a risk. And it seems if you're fighting for any length of time with multiple wounds, you might not be able to get back up when its all over. However, the continuous kicking from the ground is most likely the best defense against a knife if you accidentally fall down.

Another aspect that comes into play for military personell- in a warzone, the ground is often a very bad place to go. There's rocks, broken bricks, twisted pieces of rebar, etc.

The army does teach a hand to hand curriculum based on groundfighting- and there's a bunch of old school combatives people shaking their heads- no more edge of hand blows, bronco kicks, chin jabs :cry:

[Anonymous]

So BS, huh? Yeah, that's what I thought...

[jerry68]

Military units (especially High Speed Low Drag units) will often pull in outside trainers just looking for better methods. Likewise, soldiers will often seek out \"alternative\" training on their own. Many of these alternate training methods are discarded as garbage... The problem is that \"garbage\" trainer can then claim to \"train the miltary\". I once knew a firearms instructor who claimed he trained the DEA because he had a couple of guys in a CCW class who worked for the DEA (not Agents, desk employees, mind you).

Military doctrine would NEVER call for going to your back. A soldier wearing 90lbs of gear, and body armor is like a turtle on it's back, it is almost impossible to get up from this position, much less fight a knife wielding opponent. A combat soldier attacked by a knife wielding opponent is going to buttstroke the assailant with his M4, and then double tap a couple of 5.56mm's to his chest.

[atakrav]

I would think the stunning to the face would work better, other than that if it was a robber I would just give him my money. But IF I had to fight with a knife, Id run, but if i really had too, I would deffently try to keep it standing UNLESS I was on top. Its hard to say though, because when adrielene is pumping and your in the confruntation, there are alot of different factors that contribute to what an expierence martial artists would do. but dropping to the ground seems impractical its alot of motion that someone could see, and your falling on concrete, its not like your training in your do-jang, but hey, maybe it worked for him one time. You never know. Try asking someone else about him because you have people's points of view that have been doing Krav Maga try another source.

[dalamar]

Civilian situation best defense against a knife......run.

[CLFMak]

Well, I actually got around to reading the article...
The guy who wrote that was the owner of Emmerson knives. They make some excellent knives that you could actually carry. He's also responsible for the folding karambit along with the karambit craze (or Kraze, if you're into marketing) in general, along with Steve Tarani (each independently I think). My mom has met him because she works for a knife distributor. He's the king of the scary face.
I maintain everything I already said about taking it to the ground. Aside from that, though, it was a pretty good article on the reality of edged weapons. Much of it echoed what survivors have said. It gave some interesting drills to try.

[Anonymous]

Black Belt Magazine is a joke. Worst paper ever read in my life. Meaning on any topic almost.