Combat Kempo

 

From our association with Tom Sotis of AMOK! and benefitting from his vast combat knowledge as well as his special expertise in all things bladed, we quickly learned that there were many things that should not be done in attempting to defend against the blade, and in turn what needed to be done became much clearer.

It is not fully possible to understand the requirements of a successful knife defense program without having first been exposed to expert knife practitioners, who quickly dispel any commonly held misinformed beliefs or “Martial Arts” knife defense chestnuts that still linger in martial arts training halls all over the world. In fact the skill set to play the child’s game Rock, Paper, Scissors is probably more useful than that of the majority of skill sets being taught at many martial arts classes when it comes to dealing with the reality of a knife attack.

The main problem with most martial arts and even Western Boxing is that it relies on and teaches distancing that gives a competent knife exponent the chance to cut the opponent’s extremities virtually at will, and doesn’t fully recognize that an attack or counter attack to the body or head by the martial artist or boxer on the knifer, must first get past a bladed hand that can with the minimum of effort deliver a devastating and even fatal strike to the unarmed combatant.

The Guys with Tom Sotis of Amok!

The fact that a blade strike requires little or no pullback preceding the strike and can deliver devastating injury with very small movements, even when used in the front hand also compounds the average martial artist’s or boxer’s difficulty in effectively dealing with the blade. The level of awareness and control over ones reflexes and nervous system as well as the ability to anticipate the nature of the strike are crucial tactical elements that must be exactingly refined in order to develop the skill and dexterity to counter such a potentially deadly strike. The knife defense training itself can offer more failure than success in the early stages with many of the concepts seeming to be at cross purposes or even contradictory.

The need to develop heightened visual awareness to effectively anticipate and identify the strike that is coming must be tempered with the ability to “hold ones nerve” and not attempt to block or parry something that has not yet been fully thrown, as this can lead to misjudging the strike and not effectively countering it or even worse missing the counter or block completely, and being struck at full speed with the blade on the head or body.

The other difficulty in not allowing the attacker to fully extend and commit to their strike is that the attacker can change the trajectory of the blade strike and “cut short” if he sees that you are going to counter before he has committed, known as “putting your hand in the fan”, resulting in serious blade injury to your hands and arms. During research it was found that physically reaching out and looking for the counter or parry to the anticipated blade strike and not waiting for it to come to you was a fundamental error and generally resulted in injury to the defender. After many long hours of blade defense training it was concluded that there is an essential problem with any knife defense method that does not deal with the concept of the multiple strike attack.

That is, assuming that your attacker will strike once and not forcefully pull back his knife hand and attack again in a repeated striking fashion. Statistics show that people who die as a result of knife attack and even suicide are almost never stabbed only once, and that many knife assaults are initiated in a “blitz” style attack. The need to intervene instantly in order to stop multiple knife strikes is crucial to any effective efforts to defend in a real life scenario against a determined and sustained knife attack. Whilst this is in no way meant to be a criticism of the efforts of the many martial artist styles approach to knife defense, some martial arts instructors believe that it is possible to catch and restrain the knife hand of an attacker which leads to effectively disarming them.     

We have found that in fact this tactic is in nearly one hundred percent of cases incorrect, and simply does not work against even a physically smaller adversary, if they are fully committed and determined to stabbing the opponent numerous times using whatever means possible.

There may well be attacks with a knife that take place where the attacker is not determined and it is possible to disarm them easily, but to believe that a hysterical, drug fueled psychopath with murder on their mind, is going to be easily restrained without injury to the defender is indeed fanciful. Any knife defense method that relies on “posed” or prearranged scenarios are destined to be harmful if not fatal to those who are learning them because of the likelihood  that they may be instilled with a false sense of ability and find out only when it is too late that a knife incident rarely happens in the fashion that they have trained for.      

Knife defense training has to be based on the theory that any real world attack will be random by nature and not run along any prearranged rules of engagement, and needs to be treated as an extremely serious matter ,whereas the martial arts concept of “sparring”, can lull the practitioner into a “take one to give one” mind set. Survival in a knife encounter is based around the principle that you must do what it takes to nullify the attack without being hit with the blade at all.

It is a pointless exercise to destroy your attacker and subsequently bleed to death from the wounds received whilst doing so. The defender must be ready to deal with not only attacks where the knife assailant makes it known that he is armed with a blade, but also for those situations where the perpetrator is attempting to successfully attack by stealth or by trickery. Effective early danger recognition skills are the key to predicting the nature of the attack that is about to follow. and then hopefully being able to pull off the most effective response under the unique circumstances of the moment.                                                                                           

Violent criminals or more specifically a person that is prepared to use a knife to impose their will over others, will use any tactic at their disposal to ensure a successful criminal venture that ends in a speedy get away, and regardless of the motive for that crime, whether it be robbery, revenge or even sport, one simply cannot assume that the criminal has any interest in fighting fair and square. There may be honor amongst thieves, but there isn’t between thieves and anyone else. It is true that in the normal course of an average person’s life, that they may never be required to contemplate the need to defend themselves against a knife wielding criminal or psycho-path,  but for those that are placed in harm’s way by the circumstance of their employment, the need is a growing reality.                                                       

Every day stories about the real victims of knife attack appear in our newspapers with these incidents involving violent robberies, rapes, home invasions, domestic disputes, arguments amongst youth gangs, extortion and the list goes on and on. To the many victims injured or killed by knives in our society, the threat has already proven to be only too real, and regardless of the remoteness of it happening to you, having some knowledge of what to do and more importantly what not to do, may be the difference between life and death at the critical moment.

To members of the general public there is a lot to be said for using the well documented advice of giving a knife attacker what they want by handing over watches, wallets, mo-bile phones and even expensive designer running shoes, or just running away as fast as your legs can carry you. If you find yourself on public transport or at home with the family at the time of an attack, the second advice about running away may be difficult. If you are a law enforcement officer or a transit security guard, saving yourself at the expense of the other members of the public may well be viewed by your superiors as a cowardly act.

An added complication for law enforcement is that they are required not only to stop such an attacker, but to also make an arrest of the lawbreaking individual, and although they are usually in possession of a firearm, there may not be sufficient time to deploy the weapon, or the officer may be unable to use it without hurting or killing innocent members of the public.  

Yep, knife defense is tough……