Defense against a knife!

Being attacked with a knife is one of the scariest scenarios I can think of.

It’s comforting to believe that you’ll never find yourself in a situation like that and if you’re not a drug dealer, a police officer, or someone who gets into trouble on a regular basis, chances are you’re right.

But the reality is you just might need to defend yourself against a knife at some point in your life.

In fact this happened to someone I know very well. Not only that, it happened during the middle of day in a relatively safe neighbourhood.

Before entering her appartment, my friend was pressed up against a door by a robber armed with a knife. He placed the blade of his knife against her throat, she couldn’t move back and had she moved forward or to either side, she probably would have slit her own throat.

She could probably have landed a kick to the groin of the attacker, but even if she did this without leaning her upper body forward, it would have been fatal if the hand with the knife was to move as a result of the sudden action.

“Strike to keep distance.” “Pin the knife to your opponent or your own body.” “Find an improvised weapon to use as a shield or to strike with from a distance.”

There’s many thoughts on what you should do when faced with someone armed with a knife.

During my recent trip to Italy, I decided to face someone carying a knife. Luckily it was a foam knife for sparring and I got to use one as well.

My opponent trained in a style influenced by kali/arnis and it showed in his apporach to knife fighting.

Below you can see what went down as well as my analysis of what parts of the sparring could work well in self defense and what parts you’d be better off not attempting.

In the best case scenario your attacker will reveal his intention of stabbing you before the distance is closed and you’ll be able to pick up an improvised weapon, like perhaps an ashtray or a brick you can throw at the attacker.

But most likely that won’t be the case, it’s likely that your attacker will pull out the knife from a close distance and even if you survive the attack, you’ll most likely get cut. But where you get hit can be the difference between life and death so keep that in mind.

When it comes to knife attacks, these are the most vulnerable parts of the body.

Also, cooperative drills with a partner can be okay to some extent, but you must be able to constantly adapt to the chaos and dynamics of fighting.

In this final video, again with Nick Drossos, you get to see what actual knife defense might look like. In spite of good footwork, striking and trapping techniques, he still gets “cut” with the marker more than once.