| It is also not possible to gauge the requirements | | | | added by the length of the particular blade they |
| of building a successful martial art combat knife | | | | are using. |
| defense program without having first been | | | | Anticipating and recognizing the kind of strike that |
| exposed to expert knife practitioners. Training | | | | is coming at you must be tempered with the |
| with edged weapon specialists quickly dispels any | | | | ability to "hold ones nerve" and not attempt to |
| commonly held misinformed beliefs or martial art | | | | block or parry something that has not yet been |
| knife defense myths. The reality is that there are | | | | fully thrown, as this can lead to misjudging the |
| considerable differences in the skill sets being | | | | strike and missing the counter or block |
| taught at many martial art combat classes and | | | | completely. The result of that is usually being |
| those that are needed to effectively deal with the | | | | struck at full speed with the blade on the head or |
| reality of a knife or edged weapon attack. | | | | body. Keeping the correct distances will go |
| A primary issue with many traditional combat | | | | towards keeping you as the defender in the |
| martial art styles and even Western Boxing is | | | | "safe" zone as opposed to any other range which |
| that they can teach and entrench distancing that | | | | is of course "unsafe". |
| gives a competent knife exponent the chance to | | | | Physically reaching out and looking for the counter |
| cut the opponents extremities at will. Another | | | | or parry to the anticipated blade strike and not |
| issue that is rarely addressed in traditional martial | | | | waiting for it to come to you is a fundamental |
| art combat is that in order to counterstrike an | | | | error and generally results in injury to the |
| armed opponent you must first get past a bladed | | | | defender. |
| hand that can with a minimum of effort, deliver a | | | | Not allowing the attacker to fully extend and |
| devastating and even fatal strike to the unarmed | | | | commit to their strike is a mistake in that the |
| combatant. | | | | attacker can change the trajectory of the blade |
| The fact is that a blade strike requires little or no | | | | strike and "cut short" if they see that you are |
| pullback preceding the strike, can cut going out as | | | | going to counter before he has committed. |
| well as coming back and can deliver devastating | | | | Commonly referred to as "putting your hand in |
| injury with very small movements even when | | | | the fan", this mistake can result in serious blade |
| used in the front hand. Knife defense training itself | | | | injury to the hands and arms. |
| can initially offer more failure than success in its | | | | The bottom line is that traditional martial art |
| early stages with many of the traditional martial | | | | combat practitioners should seek out and work |
| art combat concepts of distancing needing to be | | | | with an edged weapon specialist in order to fully |
| reviewed and adjusted to more realistic distances. | | | | appreciate the different ranges in distancing that is |
| It is the defenders responsibility to adjust their | | | | required in edged weapon defensive tactics or |
| distance to their attacker and allow for the natural | | | | even weapon to weapon sparring practice. |
| reach of the opponent as well as the extra reach | | | | |