Self Defense
Self Defense
might best him in a fight to the finish. For this reason, an air of confidence( no matter how hard it is to muster) can go a long way toward ending the confrontation without further ado. Again, I ' m not advocating that you try to bluff your way out of a bad situation- if you draw a knife, you ' d better be prepared to use it in anyway necessary to protect yourself. There ' s no such thing as putting it way with a weak grin and mumbling that you were kidding.
Two common grips allow you considerable leeway in using a knife. One is the foil grip in which the thumb is positioned along the side of the handle. The other is the saber grip. In this instance, your thumb should be behind the guard to protect it from any slashing motions your opponent might make. A third is the hatchet or ice pick grip, with which most women instinctively hold a knife. It ' s great for up or down thrusts, but leaves you wide open for an attack.
How you stand will determine how effective you are, as well as telling your attacker a good deal about your skill, or lack of it. If you face him with a full frontal stance, you ' re limited in the number and type of offensive / defensive movements you can make. You also present him with a nice big target for slashing, and an opportunity to throw you off-balance easily.
The skilled knife fighter will place one foot forward with the other one behind, allowing his opponent access to only one side of the body. The forward foot can then be used as a pivot point, allowing you to swivel or move forward / backward as necessary. If you are right handed as most people are you will have the right foot back. This is called the Apache stance which has been adopted by the US Marine Corps, the Israel Defense Force and most Elite fighting units throughout the world. At this point, let ' s stop and assess the situation. For whatever reason, you are now in a life-threatening encounter. You ' re there because there was no way to avoid it. Your opponent is armed with a knife and so are you. I ' ve given you tips on holding your weapon and facing your attacker.
When it comes to knife fighting there is no such thing as a fair fight. Use every dirty trick that comes to mind. Do your best to unbalance, unsettle and otherwise distract your opponent. Let out a vicious scream. Drop into a crouching position; pick up dirt, sand or stones; and throw them into his face, following up immediately with a quick body slash. Reach into your pocket with your free hand and throw coins at him. Grab a heavy stick if one is available and use it to deflect his thrust or to strike his wrist. The quicker you can disable him, the better. In short, turn into a vicious snarling animal before he does. The psychological effect on you will bring on the needed surge of adrenalin; in this case, it ' s likely to throw him momentarily off guard.
Here ' s how most experts would assess your situation. Your assailant undoubtedly picked you as a helpless victim. Suddenly you ' ve reversed his picture of you. The majority of knife-wielding attackers will break off the encounter at this point. The ones who do not are sadistic, stupid or on drugs. This type will probably press the attack for the fun of it because he doesn ' t know any better. If he does, it ' s important that you draw
first blood- and quickly.
Whenever a person is cut, it produces a peculiar form of psychological shock, especially if the cut starts to bleed profusely. This is why you should use a slashing motion and move quickly to make the attacker bleed. The person who is cut and starts to bleed may faint, draw back, or even lose his confidence and break off the encounter. If your attacker is not sufficiently upset to take off and reconsider his actions, you can be sure that you ' re in for real fight. At this point, you will probably have to either maim him or kill him to end the encounter.
As you can see from the situation I ' ve put you into, using a knife for self-defense purposes can bring you to the point where you will have to shuck all vestiges of what I call civilized behavior and fight for your life. This is something that not every individual can do that easily. And it ' s another good reason why I suggest you bypass the knife as a defensive weapon- unless you are certain that you can cope with a savage encounter without hesitation. He who hesitates in a knife fight is almost certain to
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