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Quote by william
"I recently met a person who has been an instructor for 20+ years in an art that you would all be very familiar with (I will not name the art or the person). He is very good at what he does hand to hand. He had developed his own set of knife disarms and counters that he taught to his students. About 8-9 years ago one of his better students was killed in a knife fight in a bar. He felt somehow responsible for his students death (whether he was or not …?) and quit teaching his blade techniques".
First I would like to address William. I am very sorry to hear about the student who was killed what a terrible tragedy.
I also have a question, would the student have been better off if the instructor had not taught any knife techniques at all? What I’m asking is do you think that his training gave him a false sense of security and he thought he could take the perp with the knife? Or do you think if he hadn’t had any knife training at all maybe he wouldn’t have had any false confidence and he would have found a better alternative to fighting like running away?
I think that many instructors do not apply the science of knife fighting correctly or just give their students a few drills to perform and then say you are good knife fighters. A lot of instructors do not have any real experience and just buy into what their instructors told them good or bad.
I have received some knife training in the military albeit a one-week course it wasn’t much. Some of that training has been reinforced in some combative courses I have taken since. Some of this training has been very good, but I have to admit I have received what I now know was some bad training (I didn’t know any better at the time).
I want to tell you a story about what one of my more imaginative teachers did.
In our class one day each week was devoted to weapons (knife and stick), the rest on other skills and sparring.
We would practice disarms, then do drills and at the end of each class we always did free knife or stick, or mixed sparring. After 3-4 months we all thought we were pretty good.
One day we had some guests show up at our school, nobody knew who they were. We all had to go out into the hall way and wait until we were asked to come in. One by one we all went in. As we entered the floor from the hall way one of those strangers was standing there as we neared he would quickly pull a knife from his belt and wham, one by one we all fell victim to a knife that the stranger stuck in our bellies or sliced our necks.
We would try to ready our knives but usually we would be nailed before we could do so, or those who were able to ready themselves were cut during an onslaught of stabs and slices.
It turns out he brought some friends in to demonstrate to us how dangerous, sudden and explosive a real knife fight could be. Not one of us was successful at defending ourselves. Boy was it a blow to our pride and egos.
My instructor then got up in front and said, “none of you used your best weapons, your legs”. We asked you mean to kick with? “He said no to run”! We all tried to stand toe to toe with the attacker and fight.
My philosophies about knife defense are this (in order of importance).
1) RUN!
2) Use an obstacle to keep between you and the attacker (Table, car, desk, etc.).
3) Hasty weapons: Weapons that gives you better distance like a chair (you can swing it or throw it at the attacker to give you an opportunity to escape), Pool cue, beer bottles (beer mugs), end tables, etc can all be used as weapons to keep distance and, or provide time/opportunity to escape.
4) Knife: If you are armed with a knife use it but be fast, and strike to cause damage. * Dueling is very bad!
5) Kick- kick to cause damage. This also helps to maintain distance.
6) Unarmed techniques: All the above has failed perform unarmed against armed techniques.
* If you were armed with a gun, I would still attempt escape first, if there were no practical escape then shoot.
First off you need to be honest with yourself and your students about the realities of a knife fight (good chance at death or severe injury). Training needs to include drills, work on footwork, sparring against uncooperative opponents, and the practice of realistic scenarios using props, actors, and scripts.
Knife fighting is a serious business the best advice I can give anyone is not to do it. Last resort only! Use common sense to keep yourself safe and for god sake leave your egos at home.
I tell people all the time that no matter how much you train there are no guarantees that you will win against a knife. Knife training will help you to be more likely to be successful, but don’t think for a second you are invincible. I think training with knives shows you just how easy it is to seriously hurt, and if that make you realize that you best not do it, then that alone is worth the training.
Emphasis needs to be placed on how to avoid being victims of violence in the first place through intelligence, situational awareness, threat assessment, escape and evasion and so on.
Keep in mind your training needs to be kept up continuously to maintain your skill level. When it comes to knife fighting: skills, reflexes, and mindset diminish quickly if you let you training stand idle.
"I recently met a person who has been an instructor for 20+ years in an art that you would all be very familiar with (I will not name the art or the person). He is very good at what he does hand to hand. He had developed his own set of knife disarms and counters that he taught to his students. About 8-9 years ago one of his better students was killed in a knife fight in a bar. He felt somehow responsible for his students death (whether he was or not …?) and quit teaching his blade techniques".
First I would like to address William. I am very sorry to hear about the student who was killed what a terrible tragedy.
I also have a question, would the student have been better off if the instructor had not taught any knife techniques at all? What I’m asking is do you think that his training gave him a false sense of security and he thought he could take the perp with the knife? Or do you think if he hadn’t had any knife training at all maybe he wouldn’t have had any false confidence and he would have found a better alternative to fighting like running away?
I think that many instructors do not apply the science of knife fighting correctly or just give their students a few drills to perform and then say you are good knife fighters. A lot of instructors do not have any real experience and just buy into what their instructors told them good or bad.
I have received some knife training in the military albeit a one-week course it wasn’t much. Some of that training has been reinforced in some combative courses I have taken since. Some of this training has been very good, but I have to admit I have received what I now know was some bad training (I didn’t know any better at the time).
I want to tell you a story about what one of my more imaginative teachers did.
In our class one day each week was devoted to weapons (knife and stick), the rest on other skills and sparring.
We would practice disarms, then do drills and at the end of each class we always did free knife or stick, or mixed sparring. After 3-4 months we all thought we were pretty good.
One day we had some guests show up at our school, nobody knew who they were. We all had to go out into the hall way and wait until we were asked to come in. One by one we all went in. As we entered the floor from the hall way one of those strangers was standing there as we neared he would quickly pull a knife from his belt and wham, one by one we all fell victim to a knife that the stranger stuck in our bellies or sliced our necks.
We would try to ready our knives but usually we would be nailed before we could do so, or those who were able to ready themselves were cut during an onslaught of stabs and slices.
It turns out he brought some friends in to demonstrate to us how dangerous, sudden and explosive a real knife fight could be. Not one of us was successful at defending ourselves. Boy was it a blow to our pride and egos.
My instructor then got up in front and said, “none of you used your best weapons, your legs”. We asked you mean to kick with? “He said no to run”! We all tried to stand toe to toe with the attacker and fight.
My philosophies about knife defense are this (in order of importance).
1) RUN!
2) Use an obstacle to keep between you and the attacker (Table, car, desk, etc.).
3) Hasty weapons: Weapons that gives you better distance like a chair (you can swing it or throw it at the attacker to give you an opportunity to escape), Pool cue, beer bottles (beer mugs), end tables, etc can all be used as weapons to keep distance and, or provide time/opportunity to escape.
4) Knife: If you are armed with a knife use it but be fast, and strike to cause damage. * Dueling is very bad!
5) Kick- kick to cause damage. This also helps to maintain distance.
6) Unarmed techniques: All the above has failed perform unarmed against armed techniques.
* If you were armed with a gun, I would still attempt escape first, if there were no practical escape then shoot.
First off you need to be honest with yourself and your students about the realities of a knife fight (good chance at death or severe injury). Training needs to include drills, work on footwork, sparring against uncooperative opponents, and the practice of realistic scenarios using props, actors, and scripts.
Knife fighting is a serious business the best advice I can give anyone is not to do it. Last resort only! Use common sense to keep yourself safe and for god sake leave your egos at home.
I tell people all the time that no matter how much you train there are no guarantees that you will win against a knife. Knife training will help you to be more likely to be successful, but don’t think for a second you are invincible. I think training with knives shows you just how easy it is to seriously hurt, and if that make you realize that you best not do it, then that alone is worth the training.
Emphasis needs to be placed on how to avoid being victims of violence in the first place through intelligence, situational awareness, threat assessment, escape and evasion and so on.
Keep in mind your training needs to be kept up continuously to maintain your skill level. When it comes to knife fighting: skills, reflexes, and mindset diminish quickly if you let you training stand idle.
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