Knife fighting

Over my years of experience & training in knife fighting combat, the obvious solution is to not get into one.  It may sound obvious to those who’s been in a knife fight or even to those who’s never been in a fight before.  However, there is an abundance of “knife fighting practitioners/experts” who still train with a mindset of invincibility or arrogance because they believe they have been taught the ultimate secret to knife combat. That is a ton of BS. Knife fighting/combat is unpredictable, brutal and probably the most savage method of inducing harm to another human being. The knife in an “untrained” fighter poses just as much of a threat a one in an “expert/practitioner” knife fighter. The reason is because the tool is a sharp edge weapon that does not take much force to penetrate human tissue. An untrained knife fighter can unintentionally cause damage by severing an artery, limb, or major organ just because his/her movements are erratic and irrational from the point of view of someone who is “trained knife practitioner/expert”. There are numerous “trained knife practitioners”  that trains with other practitioners of their own “style” with choreographed sequences with intention to learn the moves of the system.  Their objective is to respond to an attack from various possibilities they have trained within their system. This is not enough in my opinion. Knife fighting has variables that range from strategy, principles, emotional content, assassination tactics(no defense to this by the way), type of weapon, how many attackers (is it an organized attack or not?), is it day/night, is the person attacking you someone you know or a stranger?, etc. Can you really prepare for everyone and anyone? Not likely unless this is your full time profession like some special ops or james bond type of guy which in reality even they are not invincible.

So what do I propose is the answer to knife fighting? To be practical. Of course if you can avoid a fight you should. However, there are times in life where you have to take a stand, and in this situation you must KNOW your skill sets and be willing to do whatever it takes to destroy your opponent and for you to survive. You should train knife attack scenarios with humility, full awareness and respect for the knife and the opponent.

Make sure wherever you are learning the realities of knife combat that your instructor is someone who cares about you. Make sure they are not trying to just sell a system to you. Make sure they don’t make their techniques more important than the fact it may not work for you. Make sure they help you to be effective to defeat your opponent not dancing around like it’s some kung fu movie!! Seriously if your instructors are taking your money and promising you the ultimate knife fighting system…just turn around and say no thank you. Knife fighting is not a game. Chances are high that there is death or permanent disability in a knife fight. So if you gonna train it, then train smart & hard!!