BigE wrote:
monsterland wrote:
In my (very) limited experience with Judo, it seems to be careless about keeping the practitioner away from a concealed knife.
In general, I don't approach real-life self-defense as a fight (as in, an exchange of attacks resulting in a complete domination/submission of an opponent).
No, I approach it as a situation where I need to maximize my chances of getting out alive, even if I am in far worse physical shape than the assailant.
In that sense, I find Jeet Kune Do concepts of "immediately entering past any attack" to blend nicely with more formalized approach to similar concepts in Aikido. Enter in like lightning, stun and run away.
Nothing's going to keep you away from a knife except a gun. If you have a confrontation with an armed person with bad intentions, you're going to get cut. Your only options really are 1. Run or 2. Attack first, relentlessly and with so much force that the other person doesn't have a chance to pull a blade on you....which I think is similar to the point you made.
My Muay Thai teacher was also a JKD practitioner, although all the street fight stories he shared involved thai kicking attackers in the leg so hard they couldn't fight any longer.
We're on the same page. But I wasn't really talking about a bulletproof weapon panacea. I was talking about the basic footwork and habits the the art instills. Aikido habitually tries to limit attacker to being only able to reach you with one side, and it assumes that they may be armed. Jeet Kune Do is paranoid about "closing up" the vital arteries when you're "blasting".
Judo(at least the common, sport kind)... seems to encourage suicidal footwork that "goes in" so you can give your torso to the attacker for free stabbing practice.
It's not often possible to identify a knife. Accounts of many stabbed with a knife tell the same story - it wasn't brandished, the attacker didn't square off and make a little dance like in the movies - they just pulled it out at some point later, and the victim didn't even notice they've been stabbed.
Hence, the value of preventive footwork and positioning.
MrLoony wrote:
3. Move back when he tries to stab you and dislocate his elbow
4. Knock his arm away when he tries to stab you, grab his neck (taking care to trap his arm), and pull him to the ground
5. Any number of techniques that also work with striking blows and are taught with a martial art that doesn't depend on both fighters getting injured
Getting hit is Not A Good Thing, even if it's your arm (blocking). It's simple physics. And simple logic, when applied to weapons. You don't block a stab or a slash. You deflect it (preferably at the arm, though if you can hit the flat of the blade or the guard, that's much better than hitting the edge). If the martial art focuses on deflection rather than blocking, a knife isn't as big of a deal (especially since the extra weight slows the person down somewhat, making deflection easier).
Basic stuff for certain martial arts, especially ones that build on unarmed combat into armed combat (since the rules of Muay Thai or Judo prevent weapons, Muay Thai and Judo practitioners aren't trained to fight against weapons effectively).
Give your friend a red marker and put on a disposable T-shirt. Then ask him to try and "stab" you while you disarm him. After you disarm him, look at your T-shirt.
This exercise will open your eyes and potentially save your life.
Also, proper blocking is actually far more valuable than "deflection", "evasion", and especially "stepping back". Deflection/evasion means they will evade your deflection and deflect your evasion. And then stab you repeatedly. Stepping back means they will stab you repeatedly.
If you manage to explosively ENTER, isolate their elbow and blast your full body weight into it, they will have trouble transferring the knife to the other hand, and they can't evade the block because their balance is broken, and their wrist, no matter where it rotates, can't reach anything vital.
This looks like an extremely aggressive BLOCK. And, like everything else with knives, it is always a big chance to take, and the last resort. The first action is running... the less preferably action is using environmental weapons to extend your reach or "trap" the knife in, like your jacket or a big towel. The LEAST preferable action, when there's nothing left, is direct, explosive entry and praying you didn't mis-time it.
29 Jan 2011, 5:48 pm
