Some of you might know that hopefully by the end of June my first book will be published: “Watch out for the Pointy End: Knife Defence Manual to Assist in Training Citizens, Law Enforcement and Security Personnel.”
In the book, I give the same advice as most people teaching reality based do: Always watch out for a weapon.
You may also (rightly) be told that in self defence one reason to up the level of force you are using is the fact you are losing.
But the bad guy can also abide by that rule.
Bad guy jumps you in an ambush expecting a quick beat down on you but you respond well and are winning – bad guy knows he is losing and in his world, that may mean taking real damage if he goes down – so he ups the level of force by pulling a weapon – a knife.
Do you train that a weapon might be pulled in the middle of something that started empty hand?
If you have a legal carry permit for a weapon, or you have a tool on you that can be used as a weapon (knife or even a pen), do you train for the possibility it is taken off you and used against you?
If you don’t train for a weapon being pulled in the middle of an altercation or someone taking something off you then saying be aware of it just isn’t enough.
How can you safely address it?
In my book, I promote using a very safe home-made training knife made from a folded gi belt covered in tape. (Pictures below).
One way to prepare for a knife to be pulled is to simply both have you and all your training partners armed with one for your practice drills.
If you have a specific trainer for what you carry then, of course, you can use that. I like the home-made trainer because it can be used all out without pulling the strikes.
Having that “knife” there so that it could be used adds an entirely different perspective to your empty hand altercation.
Thinking their might be a knife is very different to training when there actually might be. Training when one can be pulled changes things.
When you are engaged and the Aggressor’s hand goes down to their waist that is something you need to condition to pick up. The first few times you may not even see it. And NO, reaching for a weapon is not the same visual mechanics as drawing back to strike.
I believe good self defence includes always thinking there could be a weapon and that includes one appearing in the middle of the chaos. Training when a knife (for example) can be pulled at anytime alters what you see, how you see and how you deal with the threat.
If you carry a weapon or a tool that could be taken and used as one then it is good training to have a safe trainer on you when you train and, in the appropriate practice drills, your training partners get to take it and use it if they can.
Try it you’ll like it.
Oh, and I make a distinction that the knife is a tool and only a potential weapon (just as a pen is) because I don’t carry a knife to use it as a weapon, I carry it as a tool and have used it thousands of times and the only person I have cut was me.
And yes, this suggestion is in my book.