THE KNIFE YOU DEFEND AGAINST IS THE KNIFE YOU WILL NEVER SEE

KNIFE DEFENSE IS DECEIVING

I have seen a lot of knife defense over the years. Some good, most astonishingly bad. The issue with knife fighting is most fighters don't understand is what I call the Hand vs. Weapon Paradox. When you first learn to protect yourself from a strike with an empty hand you are taught to block the oncoming attack with the standard go to defense for your system. There is nothing wrong with this. As you advance in your training you generally find that blocking the strike is far less important than attacking the unit (attacker) as a whole. When I teach new students we work on breaking the habitual mindset of having to block an individual strike and attack the whole unit (attacker). This rule remains the same for defending against edges or bludgeoning weapons.

Knife1

 SO JUST DISARM THE KNIFE, RIGHT?

The Hand Vs. Weapon Paradox (which I explain in an earlier post) holds that in order to defend against the weapon do not attack the weapon, attack the unit. The wisdom in this approach is that your defense mechanisms remain mostly the same, with a few minor adjustments. In turn this can save your life because you almost never see the knife you are being attacked with. Knife attacks usually start as the primary attack. In the movies the villain pulls a knife only after being bested in the hand to hand confrontation, then he/she looks at the knife like money found in a couch while flashing it at the hero. Sometimes he/she even tosses it from hand to hand like a low budget juggler at the world's worst carnival. Unfortunately a knife attack IS the primary attack. It is usually premeditated. The knife comes out in a blur and goes to work immediately. Felons practice this in prison. They practice falling to one knee while being patted down and repeatedly stabbing the guard in the kidney at lightning speed. I have taught police, prison guards and military police how to defend against this exact attack over the years. The knife is invisible, brutal and has no soul. 

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