OK - correction - another topic Stranger has good basic info on. You good w/ that?
A huge portion of the knife/stick training we did was to be familiar with the various angles of attack and to work on body mechanics. Tho we all carried blades, I didn’t know anyone who used their other than to open boxes, strip wire… As far as using a knife for self defense, it was pretty straightforward. Don’t pull the knife unless you intend to use it, don’t show it until you are using it, then slash/slash/stab until you can run away.
One often under practiced aspect was actually pulling your knife. Doesn’t do much good if you can’t get it out of your pocket/sheath and open quickly.
It was always a hoot, the first time someone fought with markers - when they saw all the ink all over their body!
I assume most people here are familiar with
the Dog Brothers.. Their vids are a lot of fun and - IMO - about the closest you can get to actual stick and knife fighting. (Personally, I never did full contact stick sparring w/o considerable padding.)
Good instincts. But it is hard to beat a nice X pattern of slashes. Also familiarize yourself with the most accessible arteries.
The baddie is grinning maliciously, licking his lips as he tosses his knife back and forth between his hands. Then he fumbles and drops it, and while he’s bent down trying to retrieve it, the hero kicks him in the head.
In sports (especially combat spots like boxing and martial arts), this is called changing stance. I don’t see any reason it couldn’t apply during a knife fight.
My expertise is learned entirely from my cringey ninja phase in early high school but I think conventional advice is that slashing is better than stabbing, at least early in the fight.
The last knife fight I was in was when Carl threw the Play Do knife tool at me in preschool. Cutting remarks sure.
You all have lived different lives than I have.
If a knife was pulled out in me I pull out the wallet they’d be asking for. And it doesn’t flip from hand to hand.
I did grow up with a kid, a tough of our grade and high school, who took his tough act on the road and died of being knifed in some city bar. I doubt it lasted long enough to called a fight.
What I’d suspect most knife fights are is two people both circling doing nothing, staying out of each other’s reach, or a quick attack and over.
I have read here I think that wrapping a coat or such around one arm to defend with, maybe to get the attacker’s blade tangled up with is a good tactic. Seems to make showy flipping between hands impossible.
Yeah, i did disarm my little brother a couple of times when we were kids. Once he had a hatchet in the middle of the living room floor. Another time he had an open pocket knife. But he was my little brother, not very strong, and didn’t actually want to damage me. I’ve never been in an actual knife fight, and hope never to be in one. That military guy who demonstrated the best defense against a knife runs a lot faster than i can.
I have a butterfly “balisong style” bottle opener. A few times I’ve pulled it out of my pocket at parties/picnics and flipped it open. It scares people for about two seconds.
FWIW, I took a self-defense class for PE credit in college. It was taught by a former unarmed combat instructor from Fort Benning, and was primarily aimed at women; I was the only guy. That big tough Army sergeant also stressed Nike-do as the best form of self-defense, and everything else he taught was contingent on “if you have no other choice”, and each technique ended with “and then run away as fast as you can.”
His suggested form of knife combat was strictly defensive - hold your non-dominant forearm about a foot in front of you, waving the knife back and forth in your dominant hand. If your assailant puts his hand or arm past your guard, slash; but never let the knife go past your forearm.
Carrying a pocketknife is a good idea, but only because it’s an excellent tool; I’d never use one as a weapon.
