Budo international Martial Arts Magazine Jul.-Aug. 2014 | Page 31

Eskrima
In earlier columns on knife fighting I pointed out already that knife fighting is an
indispensable element in modern self-defense within the martial arts. The knife fight
becomes increasingly popular and more teachers agree with my view on self-defense
against a knife: “only if you know how to handle a knife you can defend yourself
against a knife”. If you are a trained knife fighter, you simply have a better chance
against a knife fighter or against someone who is attacking you with a knife.

More than lethal
You know the risk but also remember
that the knife itself is not dangerous, it
is only a tool. The knife is in fact used in
daily life for various purposes as you
know. I put butter on my sandwich with
a knife as you do, but these tools can
be dangerous weapons. The person
who is holding a knife can be
dangerous and unpredictable when he
or she intents violence. Research into
street violence shows people who carry
a knife often injure themselves.
According to the US FBI, who
researched violence where knives were
used, showed that in 2011 alone five
times more knives were the cause of
fatal violence than guns or rifles were.
It is ironic that people in the U.S. mainly
protest against owning guns. In Great
Britain, the number counts 60,000
cases of violence in which a knife was
used in one year alone, that are about
160 incidents a day. Especially men are
victims, and most victims are between
10 and 25 years old.
In London 1,000 incidents are
reported every day. In the newspapers
you may read about “a 19 year-old boy
with friends, roaming the streets late at
night was violently attacked and
stapped to death. He was attacked
because of a dispute with another
group of youngsters and found himself
suddenly attacked. A lethal glint of
metal appeared and minutes later he
lay bleeding on the sidewalk, stabbed
in the heart. (London 2009). There are
many examples of deadly violence
involving knives.

Psychological factor
It 's undeniable how dangerous a
knifes really are in the wrong hands.
The knife, carried for self-defense
purposes, often turns to the person
him or herself. In training with knives
you learn what a knife can do. Training
teaches you about its dangers and
how to act when you find yourself in a
dangerous situation. Try to avoid the
fight, out run your opponents. If

avoiding the fight fails, your basic
training might give you a better chance
of survival. In other words, who finds
himself in such a situation, usually gets
hurt. Violence can be predicted.
Almost in any group, someone is
carrying a weapon, and in 8 of 10
cases this will be a knife. In such a
situation, survival is the only goal,
before violence starts to escalate, you
have to estimate how the violence will
escalate, so you can be out-of-the-way
in time. In the above example, you can
read how a 19 - year-old boy got into
such a situation and did not survive. I
think the poor boy didn’t see it coming.
What really happened and what started
the violence to escalate I don’t know,
but what I do know is that violence
amplifies in groups. Young people
egging each other on, and then the
situation gets out of control. There is a
psychological factor in the game which
is enhanced through alcohol and
drugs, people lose sight of reality.
Research shows that alcohol
consumption is associated significantly
with violence, and an increase in
alcohol consumption of 1 litre per year
shows a signficant 8% increase in the
violence rate. So do the math I would
say. There is a group of youngsters
going out, or going home, consuming
a lot of alcohol. They are egging
eachother, there is a dispute with
another group, how fast will violence
will appear? Easy to predict. In
addition there is that decent dose of
adrenaline which are real game
changers and escalating violence
triggers more primary behavior which
can lead to more raw violence.
What people - who have never had
a knife in their hands or have no basic
training - do not understand is that the
psychological factor in the fight
suddenly takes on a whole new
dimension, when someone pulls a
knife. For example, lets say a good
boxer who is well trained in unarmed
combat and can defend himself
properly, he would probably win in a
situation where no knife is pulled. But

if the same boxer has to fight against
an opponent armed with a knife, the
outcome will be uncertain. Even if the
opponent is in poor condition,
mastered no boxing techniques and is
only armed with a knife, which has
only to be small to inflict real damage.
These kinds of weapons in the hands
of insecure people make these people
unpredictable because since they are
armed they suddenly get a false sense
of confidence. People with selfconfidence will not easily carry a knife.
Insecure or damaged personalities will
do more often. So more and more
people carry a knife. It may not always
be safe on the streets, but the chance
you will use a knife increases at the
moment you leave home with a knife
in your pocket. Take responsibility as a
teacher and emphasize again and
again that carrying knives is not tough
and not particularly smart. Who wants
to go to jail when using the knife in a
conflict. This is what I tell my students.

Knives forbidden by Law
· flick knives (also called
‘switchblades’ or ‘automatic
knives’) - where the blade is hidden
inside the handle and shoots out
when a button is pressed
· butterfly knives - where the blade
is hidden inside a handle that splits in
two around it, like wings; the handles
swing around the blade to open or
close it
· disguised knives – eg where the
blade is hidden inside a belt buckle or
fake mobile phone
· gravity knives
· sword-sticks
· samurai swords (with some
exceptions, including antiques and
swords made to traditional methods
before 1954)
· hand or foot-claws
· push daggers
· hollow kubotan (cylinder-shaped
keychain) holding spikes
· shuriken (also known as ‘death
stars’ or ‘throwing stars’)