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Copyright © 2003-2004 Phil Elmore, all rights
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Knife Fighting
By Phil Elmore
WARNING!
I
am not a lawyer. I neither encourage nor condone
the use of violence. The information presented here is for
educational use only and should not be construed as advocacy of any
specific course of action.
Knife training is an inherently dangerous activity.
The Martialist disclaims any liability resulting
from injuries sustained while training using any concepts contained
herein.
The first articles in this series dealt primarily with the
different types of knives one might carry and use for self-defense, laws covering possession of knives, and training one’s self in the use of
the knife. All of these components lead us to what is ultimately the
subject of this series: self-defense with a blade.
We will assume that because you are reading this you
acknowledge the necessity for self-defense. There exist within society a
number of predators. These predators will use violence against you to
take what they want, be it your property, your body, or your life. You
understand that in order to combat the predations of these bipedal subhumans,
it is necessary to use force.
I said earlier that the knife is the best second choice
for self-defense, after the handgun. The gulf separating the two is
a large one. If you can obtain a permit to legally carry a handgun
for self-defense, then by all means, do so. For those that cannot
carry a firearm for whatever reason, however, an alternative must be
selected. This article assumes that you’ve selected the knife.
Why a Weapon?
Many will ask, “Why do you need to carry a
weapon?” Some will dismiss the notion as paranoid. Others
will proclaim loudly that the dangers — legal, social, and otherwise — of
using a weapon are so great that they negate the benefits of carrying such an
implement. Still others will cluck chidingly and state, in their
ignorance, that the knife is “unsuitable for self-defense.” A
few will theorize that those wielding weapons are “insecure in their
skills” or that trained martial artists — presumably invincible in their
abilities — would have no need of such tools.
All of these excuses — be they the product of ignorance,
irrational fear, defeatism, or projection — are just that. A weapon is
simply a tool, a force multiplier that increases
your ability to deliver physical violence against
a given target or targets. Yes, I said violence. The use of force
is all about violence. When force is initiated against you — or
when you experience the credible threat of force
— you must respond with that force necessary to eliminate the threat.
This is the use of violence — morally justified
violence that is your right in defending yourself.
Weapons are not magic wands that immediately render you safe
from harm. They are not material guarantees. A few of the
more ignorant “martial artists” with whom I’ve spoken are quick to
dismiss the knife, or all weapons, on the grounds that one may encounter other
individuals with knives, or groups of individuals whose numbers negate the
advantage granted by your possession of a weapon. So what? All
self-defense involves risk. As I said before, possessing a weapon
is a means of improving your odds, of hedging your bets. When you defend
yourself, you must gamble. You cannot win every bet, but
you can cheat as much as possible.
Those who arm themselves responsibly and train diligently are
not paranoid. They are simply prepared.
They understand the gravity of the situation and are neither so arrogant nor
so stupid as to believe their training can overcome every conceivable
situation. Those who arm themselves understand that an attacker is not
someone who should be respected or protected for fear of the
harm delivered to him in stopping him from maiming or killing his
victim. As my
Wing Chun
instructor quoted: “To be kind to your attacker is to be cruel to
yourself.”
A weapon simply increases the options available to you.
The presence of options does not, in itself, determine the outcome of a given
situation. Only your judgment and your actions have any bearing on what
occurs in any given self-defense scenario. Prepare
now, or pay later, for you cannot schedule emergencies ahead of time.
Why the Knife?
There are a number of effective weapons available to the
individual. If we eliminate the handgun as an option (usually because
laws in your locality prevent you from carrying a firearm), we are left with a
number of other tools. These include impact weapons such as sticks and
clubs, flexible weapons such as chains, and edged weapons. I believe the
knife is the best of these because it is A)
discreet; B) portable; C) extremely
powerful; and D) generally legal (in the United
States).
A knife, especially a
tactical
folder, can be clipped unobtrusively to the pocket or inside the waistband
of one’s pants. It can be easily carried with a minimum of
discomfort. Despite the smaller size of most tactical folding knives, a
few inches of razor-sharp steel is a remarkably powerful weapon, capable of
causing great and possibly lethal harm to another person with very little
physical effort. In most parts of the United States, a folding knife of
reasonable size (even a fixed blade, in some places) can be carried perfectly
legally. (Trust no one to tell you the law!
Check all state and local laws for yourself to determine what is legal, and
err on the side of caution.)
Some would say that the advantage of the knife lies in its
usefulness as a utility tool that can be pressed into service as an expedient
weapon of self-defense. This is true, but one’s self-defense blade must
be as sharp as possible to take full advantage of the knife’s power. As
a result, I believe a self-defense knife should not be used for daily
utility, on the chance that when you need it the knife could be dull from
regular use. One way to overcome this potential difficulty would be to
carry two knives — a general-purpose utility blade and one reserved
specifically for self-defense.
Selecting a Self-Defense Knife
Selecting a knife is up to the individual, and the details
of making such a selection are outside the scope of this article. The knife
one chooses to carry depends on any number of factors, from legal concerns
to body type to personal preference and even style. One good book on
the topic is
Michael Janich’s
Street
Steel: Choosing and Carrying Self-Defense Knives.
Carrying a Self-Defense Knife
A
knife can be carried on the body in any number of ways. Concealment of
knives is also beyond the scope of this article, but I will touch quickly on the
basics. You can carry a knife in a variety of specialty harnesses,
clipped inside your boot or waistband, strapped to your arm (not advisable
because a knife that is accessible while strapped to the arm tends to expose
itself when least expected), on a chain or cord
around your
neck, worn openly
on your belt, or clipped inside your pocket. As with selecting a knife,
your chosen method of carry is entirely up to you and depends on what best
suits your needs. I again recommend Michael Janich’s
Street
Steel: Choosing and Carrying Self-Defense Knives. Another useful
book is
Andy Puzyr’s
Concealed
Carry Revealed. Jerry Ahern’s
CCW
book has some material on knives as well.
CRKT M16 in custom leather belt sheath.
Ryan Plan B fixed blade inside
the waistband (left)
and Schrade folder clipped inside a pocket (right).
Fighting with a Knife
If I remember correctly, there’s a line in the Antonio Banderas/Anthony
Hopkins Zorro film in which Hopkins ask Banderas if he knows how to use a
sword. Banderas says simply, “The pointy end goes in the other
man.” That’s one of two things you need to remember where fighting
with a knife is concerned.
Before I began the most recent stage of my martial arts
training, I was aware of the various schools of knife-fighting thought.
These include the venerable debates on knife hand leading versus knife hand held
back, forward grip versus reverse grip, the details over various stances
advocated by different parties, and so forth. I’m not going to get into
the specifics of that here, because what I’ve learned is that none
of it really matters.
You see, while any number of training curricula out there
advocate one or another stance, grip, or set of physical motions for wielding a
knife, these focus on the weapon, on the techniques used, rather than on
fundamental principles. Your weapon — any weapon you wield — must be an extension
of your body. As such, the way you use it should be a reflection
of the way you already fight. Obviously, if you have no martial
training, the task before you is to learn to defend yourself effectively using
your chosen tool — but your focus is on the flow of your body, on the
integration of mind and technique.
I
came to this realization after having it somewhat forgivingly slapped,
driven, slashed, and stabbed into me. I have had the opportunity to train
with two truly accomplished martial artists, both of whom are my teachers as I
write this. Dave (right), founder of
Shanliang
Li, was the first to teach me this lesson. Sifu Anthony Iglesias
(left), my
Wing Chun instructor,
reinforced it through his superb training.
When I first sparred Dave using rubber training knives, I
dragged out every trick, every technique, every stance, and every variation I
knew. It did not matter what I did. Dave was able to beat me,
easily, every time. More impressive still were the times that I would
wield a knife and he would throw his aside. “When I want one, I’ll
take yours,” he would tell me. He would do just that, too. It
did not matter what grip I used, though Dave generally used a reverse grip (edge
out) out of preference and habit. It did not matter what stance I
adopted. Sparring Dave with knives was an exercise in the principles of
fighting. The knives made the game more “dangerous” in theory,
but did not change its nature.
Dave
is not a knife fighter. He is a fighter,
period. When he fights with a knife, it is simply an extension of his
body. He moves almost exactly the same way as he does when his hands are
empty. He flows. That is the goal
towards which all martial artists must strive, and the ideal state in which to
face and defeat an opponent.
At the
Syracuse Wing
Chun Academy, Anthony trained me in a variety of knife defenses against simple
thrusts, slashes, and overhand attacks. These were sound techniques,
involving slapping the attack away and then seizing the wrist and applying
vicious torque to it to affect a takedown and disarm. I found these very
practical, in that even if the seizing takedown and disarm could not be applied,
the initial slapping deflection was enough to prevent a lethal strike. I
have long believed in fast, slapping deflections for knife defense, so this was
good reinforcement for those beliefs.
Useful as this was, I wanted more. I asked Anthony about
defense against a trained knife fighter — someone who knew more than simply
‘sticking the pointy end in the other man.’ He tossed me a rubber knife
and told me to feel free to attack him.
Again I dragged out every trick I knew, this time applying some
of the assaultive techniques of the reverse-grip, edge-in school of thought (imparted to me through a certain martial artist and narcotics officer who spends
time online).
Slap! My elbow was trapped and Anthony was moving in for
the counterattack.
I tried other styles, other motions, and different
rhythms. The result, each time, was the same: Slap! My elbow
was trapped almost before I had completed the thought, “Now I will
strike!“
The key, as Anthony explained it to me, was the key in so much
of Wing Chun and in the martial arts in general (for “what works is what
works,” regardless of style). Watching the body’s dan
tien — the center — in conjunction with watching the elbows is all that is required. From there, all movement of the body can
be detected — and intercepted before it is completed, as I found out. In
Wing Chun we actually perform an elbow watching drill
for that very reason. This, then, is the second lesson you must remember
where fighting with a knife is concerned. Watch the
center and mind the elbows. The rest follows, armed or not.
Fighting with a knife, then, is simply adding a sharp tool to
the weapon that is the human body, and applying the increased options that tool
provides to sound
principles
of fighting. Knife fighting is NOT two people with blades fencing each
other until one of them gives up or dies. We’re not talking about dueling
we’re talking about using a knife to make someone rethink their choice to use
force against you.
Health Concerns
Using a knife — or worse, facing a knife — can expose you
to serious health concerns. Human blood may contain a number of
pathogens, including Hepatitis and HIV. Simply punching another person
can expose you to disease if you break the skin of your hands and are
exposed to bodily fluids through this break. Any violent action that
opens an assailant’s body and exposes you to his blood is dangerous to
you. You must consider this when taking action against another
individual.
An “urban encounter,” as my friend Morgan Atwood
put it, may also leave you in need of medical attention. It’s a good
idea to carry an urban encounter survival kit as
Morgan describes.
A blade can hurt you seriously, kill you, or — perhaps
worse — leave you maimed and crippled for life. A simple cut across
one of your tendons is all that is required to alter your physical abilities
forever. Be aware of these risks.
Legal Concerns
I believe that the
preemptive
first strike — preemptive,
retaliatory force — is morally justified. This, however, is not
necessarily the way society and our legal system view the morality of
violence. Whenever you engage in self-defense, you run the risk of
being charged with a crime. When you use a weapon of some kind to
defend yourself, the chances that you will be put on trial for your actions
increase dramatically.
I am not a lawyer and I am not going to give you legal
advice. You must use your own judgment in deciding if you are, in
fact, in imminent and potentially lethal danger that justifies the use of
lethal force. You must use your own judgment in determining how
credible a threat has been presented, and act accordingly. You must
also live with your decisions.
If you must use force against another person, assume you
will be arrested and tried, forced to justify your actions in a court of
law. I recommend that you do the following in such a situation, but
remember: this is not legal advice.
Your mileage may vary and you alone will answer for what you’ve done.
1. If you used a weapon to
defend yourself, remove the weapon from your person and place it nearby in
plain sight. Make no moves toward it and inform law enforcement
officers of its presence.
2. Make no other statements to
police without a lawyer present.
3. Request treatment for shock.
4. Remember that, above all,
you have the right to remain silent. USE IT.
Do as much research on this topic as you possibly can.
Marc “Animal” MacYoung’s
website
is one good online resource, but do your homework. You cannot afford
to treat this lightly.
Conclusion
A knife is an effective and powerful weapon of self-defense
that can improve your odds of surviving and winning a violent
altercation. It is not a guarantee of success. Its use carries
with it a great deal of risk. No single article, book, or video will
provide you with the training you need to use a weapon effectively and
knowledgably. You are responsible for
your education and training.
Act accordingly and use your head.
Self-defense with
or without tools is primarily an exercise of the brain,
not the muscles.