Tempest

Some really good points here.I would like to point out that the best knife defense "game plan" is to not have people try and stick knives in you. It is also worth noting that saying wearing protective gear is not the answer is like saying that boxing is not the answer to learning to punch because they wear gloves. All training has flaws, that's why we can use it for training and not end up with broken bodies at the end. The key is understanding what flaws you are willing to accept. For me, and most people that I know, the flaw of protective gear that mimics the behavior of heavy clothing which you MIGHT be wearing, is less damaging than the flaw of believing that you can do something when your life is on the line when you have only ever done it in slow motion in a controlled environment.

Agreed. Most martial artists have very little understanding of the realities of violence outside of a controlled environment. The truth is, chaos, damage, and pain are just facts of life in non-controlled violent situations and frankly training that will truly prepare you for that does not appeal to everyone. How often do most Aikido practitioners, for example, train to anaerobic failure and THEN try to do a sankyo against an armed attacker at full speed?

Fair enough. I have seen that work. It does have some disadvantages though. I am not looking for a submission or a tap out either. The thing many people forget though is that the reason folks tap to something like an Ude Garami is that the alternative is that arm not working any more. My main focus is not dying, so I am absolutely going to grapple with my foe, or fence with them if I can get something in my hand because that is what I am trained to do. In my experience with knives, stopping the knife hand from moving is the most important key, followed by taking the wielders balance, then taking the knife out of play or gaining control of it. If you can skip any of these steps and still accomplish the goal, great, but if you mess up when skipping a step, your chances of bleeding just went up.

Called renraku waza in Japanese, these are fakes and setups that are used to create and ultimately exploit an opening in your opponents balance. Now, one question I have, for those of you who practice BJJ, how do you incorporate combining takedowns with your position/submission game to ensure a smooth transition from standing grappling to dominant groundwork?

If I MUST fight a knife, and I cannot run, my first response will be to get something between me and the knife. ANYTHING is better than my hand and arm. Most small knives, of the type carried around for assault and other similar tasks, surprisingly will not cut through heavy fabric. A wadded up shirt of the type I typically wear is an excellent buckler in this situation. A heavy coat, which I have on my person quite often as they are used in HEMA, will stop mist knives at least once or twice. Then I would close distance and grapple. Stop the knife arm from moving, control the attacker, techniques such as what the Japanese call Ude Garami and the Brazilians call the Kimura are very effective for this. I am a reasonably experienced grappler and have practiced these techniques against a live resisting opponent so I am reasonable confident in them, that being said, once you go hands on, fights are CHAOS, so my main priority will be to keep the knife off of me. Now, all that I just said sounds good, except for the part where I get stabbed because I screwed up somewhere. There are no guarantees in any fight and the variables involved in fighting a better armed opponent are just too many to count. Since you asked, that is my plan.

Context is very important, that being said for military and police there knife defense needs, at least in the US, are limited as a knife at close range, usually within the oft cited "21 foot rule" that Tueller developed, is considered deadly force, therefore the proper response is to create space and deploy your firearm. Complex knife defense is largely a civilian game.

Depends on the knife. Even VERY sharp knives need the 3 elements that I mentioned regarding a cut. I didn't say kitchen knives were not sharp, I said that unless someone is a pure idjit, they can still handle sharp knives roughly by the blade, without getting cut even with their hands. Add clothing, moving targets, and other combative factors and it all of a sudden is not so easy. Most knife attacks are dangerous not because 'OMG KNIVES" but because knives are typically used from stealth and ambush. Often the target does not know that a knife is in play before they are stabbed. Knives are VERY dangerous, but mostly because they can be well concealed, are fast, and still deadly. If you KNOW your opponent is bringing a knife, and you KNOW a knife is in play, then there are a LOT of things you can do that may work quite well, but if your first indication of a knife is the guy punching you and you smelling your own blood, then your options are limited and they all suck. I would agree with you that a lot of knife defense as taught is unrealistic and silly, but then again so is a lot of punch defense, and lot of take down defense. If a person doesn't have a lot of experience with something, they shouldn't try to teach as if they do. Martial arts is not a holistic field where every black belt has experience with every type of fighting. Customers of Martial Arts schools and gyms and other places where these things are taught should be made aware of this and be very wary of anyone claiming to teach it all under one heading. BTW, this is a fun discussion.

Up until this point, and after, I agree with your entire post. I must however call out this point because far too many so called 'TACTICAL" instructors will use this drill to discredit legitimate techniques that they simply can't do correctly. Knives, for the most part, are made of sharpened steel. Now, sharpened steel is dangerous, but it does not cut you just from a touch. You can test this yourself with your kitchen knives. Try washing your knives by hand in the sink. Unless you're a pure idjit, you should be able to wash the whole knife, including the sharp edge, without gloves and without cutting yourself. It takes 3 things to make a knife cut. 1. Edge contact - The edge must be in contact with the surface you wish to cut. 2. Pressure - you cannot cut anything serious, like human skin or clothing, without some pressure. 3. Movement - A blade has to move relative to its target in order to cut. Remove any one of these elements and you will have no more than a scratch. Remove any 2 and the blade will not cut at all. Most knife defense techniques are designed to remove 1-2 of these elements, not necessarily all 3, so the drill you describe with a marker will give a false idea of what works just as much as the slow speed demos do. In my, admittedly limited, experience the best way to learn knife defense is by working with steel training knives and safety equipment to do both sparring with knives and realistic knife defense scenarios. That being said, before you start studying knife defense, it is valuable to handle and work with sharp knives and understand what they can and cannot do.

Welcome. Glad to have you here.

Press him or her. Take away the space he needs to do that. If the rules don't forbid it, press him out of the ring or contest area. Stay defensive and use good parries until you are ready, but the best way to deal with someone who needs a lot of room to fight, is to take away their room to fight. Alternatively, presuming you have enough room, bait him or her. Leave an opening that anyone would have to throw at, but be ready with the counter. See, the problem with a defensive movement strategy is it cedes control of the fight to your opponent. Now this is fine if you were not going to control the fight anyway, but it does leave you vulnerable to a canny and patient opponent. Be patient, and pick a strategy. Press them out or bait them, your choice.

Pay attention, sometimes means to listen. Sometimes it means to see. Mostly it means to use your senses and your brain to take in information without needing to hesitate or ask for additional context than what is offered freely. It allows you to absorb information without necessarily being voluntarily given said information. People who intend to ambush you often do not schedule it with you in advance. You need to pay attention to the tiny details that give you a clue something is wrong. Keep your hands up is not a very good defense against, for example, a single leg take down. I will keep spamming this word till it is engraved with fire in the minds of MA practitioners everywhere, but CONTEXT. Principles are great, but it is through specific techniques, repetition of drills, and then application of those drills to a non-cooperative partner that we are given CONTEXT in which a principle applies and without that context, you might just as well say that the greatest martial artist in the world is Bobby Fischer.

See, this is exactly what I am talking about. Nobody tells people to keep their hands up to avoid the sucker punch. They tell them to keep their hands up to be ready to defend the punches that are in front of them. Sucker punches, or other ambush and flank attacks, are best defended by keeping your EYES up and your EARS open so you know what is going on around you. These sorts of attacks are effective precisely because you do not know they are coming. Flanking is a universal strategy, but flanking is just attacking an enemy from a side, that is taking an angle on them. Ambushes and sucker punches often come from a flank, but sometimes from behind as well. Sometimes, they just come from the front but you were not paying attention. The proper thing to shout at people to get them to avoid sucker punches is PAY ATTENTION. See what I mean about context?

Principles, yes but which ones? Movements that are fundamental to one art are anathema to another. Teach principles, but always in context. Techniques and drills are the snapshots in time through which we view principles in context.

I play pool, do medieval re-enactment, read, play and run a D&D campaign... mostly I just try to participate in as much life as I can.

Nicoletto Giganti

Yes. The reason is quite simple and can be answered by trying ti the opposite way. If you are right handed it does not work as well leading with you left foot. Your body is out of alignment. See... this is why I said sometimes. There are in fact a number of two handed sword systems where that is in fact exactly what you do. Look at Lichtenaur's Vom Tach or the Italian Culpa di Villano from Fiore. That being said, modern boxing and kickboxing are really the only arts that DO insist on a weak side lead. That is mostly because that side is used for ranging and feeling out an opponent. If you look at Judo, older Karate systems, most Chinese gung-fu, wrestling, most swordfighting systems, and several of the weird hybrid systems of the Philippines and Cambodia such as Silat and Arnis, most, if not ALL of them have a strong side lead as the standard. If grappling and close weapons work are going to be what you do, then strong side lead is preferable for a variety of reasons.

When? HA! I will be trying out for the team when God and Satan host that great Judo tournament in the sky. If I don't make that one, I will try out for the historical fencing tournament. I bet the Archangel Michael knows a lot about how to use a longsword...

Sort of.... sometimes. In the Lichtenaur tradition of German longsword, no. In most single hand sword systems, yes unless you are either closing to grapple or have something in your off hand. Many systems also have specific places for your off hand to be that either keep it out of the way or ready for use in grappling or both.

Triangle Choke.

Juji-Gatame from the guard.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for PS3. Kinda working my through Skyrim for PS3. Torchlight for PC.

Why not? I don't really know much about them as Judo is typically tought a bit different anyway. Our curriculum is a bit flexible until you are studying for a test. But I would like to know what you don't like about rotating curriculums?

I wonder if this is a perversion of the mindset or not. See, one part of motivating people is helping them to discover if this is what they truly want. Motivation, true motivation in martial arts, must come from within. This is a marathon, not a sprint. And sometimes we as martial artists are going to feel like we are running it alone. When that feeling hits, that is when you will look back to the hard times in the dojo and think "I got through that, and I will get through this." See, the reason that motivation must be internal is that schools come and go, so do instructors, but each of us, as students, must choose whether to remain.

Jimmy Pedro comes to mind. Rickson and Redon Gracie. For Karate, Higaonna Sensei would be cool to train with.

Being an Uke is something that takes more practice with most Aikido techniques than being Tori. You do spend a great deal of time learning Ukemi, terminology and etiquette, but it is interspersed with learning basic techniques. Aikido is VERY possible to start later in life, in fact I don't recommend the art as it is usually practiced for children because of 2 things. 1. Aikido contains a number of techniques that rely on the practitioner understanding fighting in general to be effective. 2. Several of the techniques require higher level reasoning and exploitation of psychology as well as physiology. This means that you, as the practitioner, should be emotionally in control throughout the technique. This feeds in to the philosphy of Aikido as well as the technique.