The Edge of Training
Many fighting systems, if not most, discuss the real possibility of knife attacks in their classes. These systems can be roughly divided into three camps:
- The Defense Only group, which assumes the attacker will have a knife but you will not.
- The Duel group, which believes you will have a knife to ward off his attack.
- Everyone Else, which is a fairly small number.
The first group is usually found in traditional systems whose origins are in cultures not particulary weapon oriented. The attacker produces a knife, and either stabs in or lunges in with the knife; the student carefully blocks the attack, locks the wrist, and disarms the attacker.
Unfortunately, this does not represent realistic knife disarmament. One simple experiment used by knife fighters to prove this claim uses either washable markers or sticks of colored chalk. The training attacker uses one of these writing implements as a knife against the traditional defender. In nearly every case, the defender is marked up. This indicates the defensive technique failed.
These techniques often work in class simply because the attacker is using a very simplistic, obvious, and pre-arranged attack. Twist any one of those three factors, and the techniques fail. This is not inherently surprising, since these defensive techniques were developed by instructors with no practical knife attack experience.
The second group is found in many knife-oriented cultures. The attacker produces a knife, and brandishes it at the defender. The defender draws his knife, and the two carefully cut and thrust, slash and stab, until the attacker’s hand is cut (“defanging the snake”), followed by a flurry of finishing cuts and stabs.
While colorful, and far more effective than the first group, this does not represent a typical knife attack anywhere in this part of the world. The traditional knife duel represents knife-fighting the way “pistols at dawn” represents a drive-by shooting.
The second group argues, correctly, that knowing how to trade knife attacks helps the student better understand the many ways a knife fighter can wield a weapon; still, this does not prepare the student in any realistic way for what he or she will most likely encounter.
The third group views this differently, and discards the cultural influences to address what really happens in a knife attack. Start with the premise of two typical knife attacks:
An attacker spots a robbery victim. He reaches into a pocket and withdraws a smaller knife. He opens the blade, keeping it concealed in between his arm and body. Walking up very close to the victim, he suddenly thrusts the blade into the kidney. As the waves of shock wash over the victim, the victim staggers: in slightly more than half the cases, the victim is unaware he has been stabbed—he feels as though he’s been sucker-punched. The attacker grabs the desired items (fist-full of money, expensive watch, inexpensive gold neck chain, or similarly accessible item), and runs off, re-concealing the blade. Bystanders rush to help the victim, who does not understand his sudden dizziness, until the bystanders explain he has been stabbed and is bleeding profusely on his back.
A person sits in a hospital cafeteria in the late afternoon. A security guard notices that the person is not eating, but effectively staring. As the staff wish to close the cafeteria to prepare for the dinner rush, the guard walks over to see if the person needs assistance. The guard receives no answer, and explains that the facility will be closing shortly. The person suddenly grabs a steak knife from his tray, leaps to his feet, and jams the knife into the guard’s shoulder.
It may be that neither of the first two groups trained their students about these types of attacks. In each, the victim made no apparent tactical mistake: he was simply unaware of the potential for a knife attack. What else was missing in both scenarios? Neither attacker displayed a weapon until the actual instant of attack. Neither attacker used a powerful hunting knife or exotic tactical blade, but used something simple and easy, and a weapon of no value (each can be discarded quickly). The attackers did not use fancy slashing techniques or specialized grip positions: they simply attacked with short-range techniques in a direct, violent manner. The knife attacks worked because the knife is a close range weapon that works best when reaction time is minimalized.
There is something else missing from these scenarios, as well: the victims could not easily disarm these short-range power attacks like the first group. Nor would they have had sufficient time to draw their own knives and begin a duel like the second group. The third group of knife students will likely appreciate this, and conduct training classes that spend a great deal of time addressing the most common scenarios.