Disclaimer: The following information is shared for the express purpose of defending against knife attacks.
A lot of knife defense sucks. This is unfortunate because if you're training to defend yourself you have to learn what to do when someone pulls a knife.
Sometimes the techniques themselves aren't so bad but the application is. The real reason they suck is that people are training these techniques without a healthy fear of the blade.
The best way to learn that healthy fear of the blade is by learning what you can actually do with it. If you think you can learn how to defend against a knife without training how to cause harm with one, you are incredibly wrong and should go sit in a corner for awhile.
So where do you start the journey into knifework?
Step 1: Learn to box
Whoa. Déjà vu. You guys read my first book, right? (Click here if you're interested!)
The quick re-chambering (pulling back of punches after you connect) in boxing gives you an idea of how hard it is to catch someone's arm in combat, a motion that a lot of “knife defense” (quotes intentional) relies on. The quick jabs also get your arms ready for the speed you're gonna need for knife work. And, you should have already started boxing in your training anyway.
The parries and body motions of boxing defense have been the most useful techniques my students and I have pressure tested when using practice knives in our sparring.
Step 2: Find an escrima/arnis/kali instructor
These guys work knives. Learn from them.
Some escrima arts separate stick and knife completely, while others treat the escrima stick as a representation of a machete. This means every stick and open-hand technique you do is a knife technique too.
Step 3: Don't rush the basics
Start with the basic "military x", the first two basic escrima strikes. Hold your knife in your right hand (blade up) and use it to draw an "x" in front of you. Start in the upper right corner and bring it down to the left, then go to the upper left corner and bring it to the bottom right. If you're left handed, hold the knife in your left hand and do everything in the opposite direction.
Practice the two strikes with the goal of doing them 1,000 times, or until George R.R. Martin finishes his next book.
Keep the palm of your off-hand on your chest, over your heart. If you're too slow in a real situation, it's better to get stabbed in the hand than the heart. Later, you can take it off your chest, but keep it close.
Have a partner stand in front of you so you can practice cutting across the carotid arteries on either side of your partner's neck (WITH A PRACTICE KNIFE, YOU ANIMAL!).
Then, have your training partner raise both arms out in front of them. After cutting to the neck, do the same to their wrists with the same motions. The first cut is to their right wrist, the second cut is to their left wrist. Now you're learning to parry with your knife as well as attack.
Step 4: Keep working the basics
If George R.R. Martin hasn't released his next book yet, tell your training partner to sit down and rest before they collapse from exhaustion. Before moving on to the next 10 basic escrima strikes, look at the small details to be found in the first two strikes, like the grip, wrist position, and footwork.
Zen Koan Number 2,492
Don't strike with power, but keep a tight grip. This is hard for a lot of people to grasp (HA!) and takes time to get.
There's something to be said about hitting someone with a piece of steel, but you don't need power to cause damage with a good slash. It's better to focus on speed. At the same time, if someone blocks your strike with power and you don't have a good grip, you will drop your knife.
Be sure to practice slashing with a real knife on a solid target, like a tree or old table you're going to throw away. Don't cut yourself. That grip becomes important really fast.
Get that Harry Potter Shit Outta Here
When you slash, don't move your wrist forward like you're casting a spell. It's a waste of energy and it makes you look dumb.
Footwork
You can practice all of this from a neutral stance, and a good instructor can show you how to twist your hips as you slash. Turning your body with the slash can bring your cut across faster, much like twisting as you throw a hook punch gets you all the power and speed you need without throwing your arm out too far. (Boxing!)
Then, practice the slashes with your right foot forward. Repeat with your left foot forward (but the knife still in the same hand). A good teacher will show you how to rock back and forth with your attacks too.
If your standing partner has roughed it out with you all this time and hasn’t angrily left because you made them stand there for 3,000 cuts, just stab them in the gut and say “for the watch”. They’ll either love the Game of Thrones reference or hate you and never talk to you again.
Stabs
Stand in front of a mirror with your right foot in front (if you're practicing right handed) and stab forward to your throat in the reflection. Throw it just like a jab. (Boxing!)
What about escrima strikes 3 to 12？
You'll get to those in time. The goal now is to focus on the attacks (and defenses) someone is most likely to throw in a knife situation, and the chances of someone throwing a number 7 strike at your lung is smaller than the chance of Angelo Ferrer getting your last name right on the first try.
But, they're the 12 basic strikes!
And you'll learn them later.
But…
Shhh.
Take that stab to the throat and repeat it to the solar plexus and groin. Switch feet (not hands) and do it again. Keep in mind everything you've worked on regarding grip and footwork.
Go Get 'em Tiger
Now you're ready to spar with a noncompliant partner (and rubber practice knives). My lawyer tells me I have to tell you to wear eye protection too.
You'll quickly see how easy it is to get cut up. Rely on boxing defense and pressure test the knife disarms you know. Use wooden knives, shock knives, or LED knives when you're ready to step up your defensive technique testing.
Step 5: Buy Hock Hochheim's Knife Combatives Book
This book is a bible of knife information that goes much more into knife work than I'll cover here. Check it out here.
I highly recommend checking out his "Death Grip of the Knife" drill and pressure testing your same knife disarms with it.
Step 6: Read this link
For those of you reading with internet access, click here: https://www.urbanfitandfearless.com/2016/09/self-defence-against-knife-attacks.html?m=1
Otherwise go to Google and search for a page called "Urban Fit and Fearless" and an article called "Self Defense Against Knife Attacks, an Evidence-Based Approach".
AND ANOTHER THING…!
A lot of self defense experts love to say “just run away” if a knife comes out.
Yes. That is actually great advice. Some of the toughest fighters have been downed by a knife, and a lot of self defense techniques shown on YouTube will get you killed. In a one-off situation, if you can run, do it.
But I love to bring the following story up in response because it happened in the San Leandro/San Lorenzo area of California, a couple blocks from where I grew up. It also shows how more than one self defense tip can go wrong. Look up the article in the East Bay Times if you want to corroborate the story.
On December 22, 2016, a man in his 30s was coming home from work after midnight when a 22-year-old man he did not know brandished a 10-inch fixed-blade knife and demanded wallet and cellphone.
After the 30-year-old tried talking to the man (verbal jiu-jutsu?), the man attacked him with the knife and successfully stabbed him. The article is not clear how dangerous the stab was.
I hesitate to call the man in his 30s the "victim", because he's the one who survived.
The victim (?) then grabbed his wallet, threw it in one direction, and ran the other.
The mugger ran after him (and not the wallet) and caught up.
Another struggle ensued, resulting in the victim(?) getting a hold of the knife and stabbing the mugger several times. Both men were taken to the hospital, but the mugger died.
That's it. End of the article. Now go practice your knife work. It's an assassin's weapon, and if you're studying a self-defense art, you might wanna work on it.
Realistically.
To see the above information in practice, including Hock's "death grip of the knife” drill, check out our video on YouTube here.
If you liked this article and want to read more like it, be sure to check out our new book, "Blood, Sweat, and Bone: The Kajukenbo Philosophy".
American Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Sweat-Bone-Kajukenbo-Philosophy
Japanese Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.jp/Blood-Sweat-Bone-Kajukenbo-Philosophy
If you want to read a more recent article on how martial artists misuse the word "respect", click here.
Post Script History Break: Sijo Adriano Emperado and Escrima
The following is information I received from Grandmaster John Bishop.
Around the age of 11, Adriano Emperado (the founder of Kajukenbo) learned the 12 strikes and some escrima movements from a man he only knew as Professor Alex.
Around 1960 Emperado studied more escrima under his step-father, Alfredo Peralta, a native of Ilocos Norte, Luzon, Philippines. Peralta trained in a mix of Ilocano, Visayan, and Tagalog styles of escrima. Peralta is said to have been a well known stick fighter who fought in official matches before the Territory Gaming Commission put a stop to them.
Peralta's escrima specialized in single stick, stick and dagger, and single dagger.
According to Sijo, they rarely trained with rattan sticks and instead used two-by-fours with tapered handles.