Nothing has frustrated me more than the attitude of martial artists about dealing with knives. They all seem to want to use multiple strikes and take the knife away, all of which are dicey. I go over here the most basic and least failure-prone empty hand versus knife countermeasure. This has worked in competition, 10% of the time. All of the other stiff never works in competition.

Please resist the temptation to turn the eye spear into a punch. Any attempt at using leverage in long hand striking range will fix you for a stabbing.

Grappling does work against a knife but that is a close range method. If you are at range, tying to get to close range or letting him get in—while he’s bringing the knife point first—is a real risky move.

This was Sean’s first time practicing this. I wanted him unpracticed so that I could address the common mistakes an empty hand fighter brings to a knife situation, like his chambering of the lead hand early on, which I correct.

Keep in mind, Sean is a competition level empty hand and weapon guy, but, was still suffering some problems converting those habits to a functional empty hand versus knife.

Take your tie with this.

Fighting Smart: Boxing, Agonistics & Survival