(Recently consulting with contacts in London, they sent me two video clips of unarmed versus the knife and asked me about them. One was by a good FMA friend of mine, the other, a product of a popular FMA “new-breed, tactical” instructor. Coincidentally, they both showed the popular, double-handed grab of the knife attacking arm. My response.)
The unarmed versus knife thing. Very tricky. The double-handed grab of an arm, whether it’s holding a knife or not, has certainly reached pop, fad status. And for some now it seems, it’s THEE go-to move. It speaks to a “GRAPPLING FIRST” solution” that has leaked into all self-defense, problem-solving.
It should instead be “GRAPPLING-ALSO,” not “GRAPPLING FIRST” but things like the BJJ craze and wrestling offshoots have a mindless, compelling aroma that spreads and interferes with critical thinking. (Makes me think about the old line, “What’s the best martial arts move? Punching the nose. What’s the second best move? Two punches to the nose. Then do other stuff.)
I too have long taught-included grabbing the weapon limb, (hopefully after a stunning blow or eye attack first when possible-feasible) as a really good idea if you can do it. I emphasized such situational grabs going back to the 1990s in magazines and video tapes and I was both skinned alive as a fool by some, and regarded as a genius by others.
“Impossible” they say.
“Fantastic” the others say.
And all I was doing was showing many various options, not just grabbing the attacking arm. But, I was always worried about the knifer’s support hand.
One clip sent to me of the two, (one by my talented friend Burton Richardson) is better than the Pekiti film clip. But, they are showing solutions to a specific, grabb-able knife attack. Both clips are double-handed grabbing. Smartly Burt does worry-mention about what I am about to emphasize…the potential of follow-up punches, eye rakes….etc. of the support arm. But when showing solutions to specifics in short clips, we are always incomplete. They’re just film clips out of context.
While you are busy two-hand grabbing an arm, you’ve lost an eye…versus a trained cat. In simple English the web is now chock full of people forgetting to first knock the high-holy fuck out of an opponent, then grapple. (I once made a statement attending a judo seminar, “All throws work after you break the guy’s nose.” You would have thought I was an alien vomiting in the dojo. But a self evident survival truth? You have to strike hard and fast.
Big picture on knife attacks? We can safely say that the no-trained and half-trained attacker in war and crime is psychologically very knife-only centric. His “universe” is his knife in hand. No support strikes or kicks along with the knife attack. But, the over-taught, over-emphasized “GRAPPLING FIRST,” high expectation, double-handed arm grab response leaves your head-eyes-neck-torso-leg wide open to an instantaneous support strike. The properly trained knife attacker, as we teach in the Survival Centric: Knife course, tries to use a:
“Knife with a support-hand- strike and/or kick before, during, or immediately after the knife part of the attack, In fast combinations.” Versus the unarmed criminal or soldier.
Now, we the “good guys” should not normally be attacking an unarmed person with a knife anyway, however sometimes that does become a legal response in the vast situations of crime-fighting and war-fighting. Remember the matrix we use:
Knife vs. hand.
Knife vs. stick.
Knife vs. knife.
Knife versus gun threats.
Stay out of jail!
On the flip side, a properly trained defender (unarmed or armed, must surely prepare for this multiple combination attack. Otherwise, the defender always fad-pop-double-hand-grabs the arm with two hands and then is blasted in the throat or eyes by the knifer’s support limb. (The next time you see a video clip, think about that quick support strike and the incomplete ineptitude of the complying “attacker,” failing to do this. His free hand just dangles there doing nothing) This quick, accompanying, support hand strike renders the double-handed armed grab rather dangerous and problematic.
There will never be a primary one-stop-shop-defense against the knife attack. Too many situations. Too many variables. In this tricky matter I have learned to teach a series of skill exercises and drills to cope with the varieties. Standing through the floor-grounded. With no guarantees. That is the best I can do, or any of us can do, but many are too myopic to realize it and may fixate on the pop-fad moves and see them as first choice universal. (By the way, I am glad to do an unarmed versus knife one-day or two-day seminar anywhere in allied countries of the world. As I have for years. I will show double handed grabbing the knife arm but it will be just a part with a high, HIGH regard-lookout for the incoming support strikes and kicks. )
But there’s good news! What good news? Most knife attackers in crime and war? Are stupid about it, and-or are insufficiently trained with no support strikes imperatives. But that is not an excuse to have an incomplete doctrine.