bLikeWater

Sounds like you're mostly looking for partner drills. But, solo drills that help develop and get in touch with your own balance will also make a huge difference in your ability to maintain your own balance and feel your partners energy in live application. Standing yoga poses are great, as is tai chi. My favorite exercises involve balls though. Standing on a rubber school yard style ball is fantastic for the balance muscles in your legs and core. Use a wall to help you mount. And those big yoga balls allow you to balance in all sorts of positions on both your hands and legs which is fantastic for jiu jitsu movement. You can also sit on them with your feet barely or not touching the ground, and also mount them. Be careful though if you try these! The balls can fly out from under you if you lose focus. Work your way up, be aware of dangerous obstacles, and always be ready to catch yourself/recover in a safe fashion.

google 'knife fighting tactics of the us marine corps'. There's a short pdf covering basic practical concepts that I've found quite useful. As already stated, Kali is excellent. Good training is of course key, but even just learning the basic slashing movements from some competently done youtube videos and practicing them over and over again (I recommend using a stick to help you get comfortable as well as a blade) would be better than nothing. Worth keeping in mind though, is the common opinion that I thoroughly agree with is to always avoid going against someone else with a knife if it's even a remote possibility. The greatest flaw in knife training is that it gives people too much confidence in their ability to fight against an edged weapon. If someone pulls a weapon, regardless of whether you have one or not, escaping should always be first priority, with fighting back as an absolute last resort. Cheers