STAYING ALIVE AGAINST A KNIFE ATTACK
I Dont’ Know if I have any steady readers, but, if you happen to be one, you have noticed that I haven’t been posting in a while. For the last couple months I’ve been on The Road conducting back-to-back-to back PPCT (Pressure Point Control Tactics) Instructor Certification Trainings for law enforcement officers
 from State College, Pa. to Bryan, Texas, to Charlotte, North Carolina and, now, Reading, Pa. While I am sure my global positioning is not why you are reading this, I thought maybe you would be interested in some SSPS - Super Secret Police Shit -  which I shared with some of my classes in Spontaneous Knife Defense (SKD), Ground Avoidance and Ground Escapes (GAGE), Defensive Tactics (DT) Violent Patient Management (VPM) and others. Who knows? Might save your butt some starless night in any one of a number of attack situations.
EDGED WEAPONS
My SKD program is simple and realistic. There are plenty of sexier trainings out there, folks, but edged weapon attacks are grisly, heart-freezing events, and, if the attacker has a plan and knows what he (or, she) is doing, you had better do something - like right the heck now -  otherwise fear will immobilize you. I’ve been there and if you don’t respond immediately, you will be cemented to the ground. And, trust me, epoxied to the deck is not where you want to be when the Bad Guy has a knife.
First, a few things about an edged weapons (knife) attack:
Ø      Almost every attack will be preceded with a distraction.  A distraction can be almost anything, including asking a question that will cause you to look away or to “go into your brain” to think of your reply. A handshake, or just extending one hand toward you while flicking a razor in a blur into your wrist or forearm to cause a gush of blood designed to freeze you. A harsh psychological wound.Â
Ø      The intent of every edged weapon attacker are twofold: (1) To close the distance and (2) to penetrate a vital organ (heart, stomach, sub clavian (inside the clavicles, under the armpit), radial and carotid arteries).Â
Ø      The Bad Guy/Gal - at least the dangerously skilled knife fighters - has a definite strategy aimed at, in my estimation, playing a merciless cat and mouse game with his or her victim. The attack can begin with several maddening Flick Attacks, directed to the wrists and forearms to cause superficial wounds and bleeding to psychologically freeze the victim and/.or to cause him or her to grab the bleeding wound with his or her free hand, thereby opening him/her up for the next attack, usually a series of lightning fast slashes followed by a thrust or three, delivered like a punch into the vital target. The Thrust of all the knife strokes is the most deadly.
Ø      The thing to remember here, though, is it all started with the element of surprise and a flick, which, while painful , is relatively benign. Surprise plus speed equals the Freeze Factor equals serious injury or death. The key is to Do Something ASAP and to Reverse The Elements on the Bad Guy. Once uncertainty and fear takes over and the heart rate spikes from 80 BPM to well over 220, our Sympathetic Nervous System will flood our Central Nervous System with stress hormones and we will freeze in abject fear.
SOME SIMPLE SURVIVAL STRATEGIES
1.      THE 4 A’S. Always be aware, assess our surroundings and others in the surroundings, anticipate, meaning have some idea in your mind what you would do if you were approached and/or attacked, and take action immediately when your gut instincts tell you something is wrong.
2.      BY “TAKE ACTION,” I mean one or more of the following acts designed to kick start your motor skills and break the Freeze/Fear Factor:
Ø      Breathe Don’t Freeze. Our brain needs oxygenated blood in order to do what it has to do.
Ø      Disengage Quickly: Remember: the attacker must close the distance before he can use the weapon. Distance Is Our Friend.Â
Ø      Move Diagonally: Most victims try to disengage by moving straight back. Fact - an attacker can easily out run you moving forward as you run backwards. Plus, you will most likely trip, and, if you don’t trip, you will definitely be off-balance when the attacker does catch you. Use a neat J-Step or simply move diagonally.
Ø      USE BARRICADES IN THE ENVIRONMENT TO GAIN TIME AND SPACE ADVANTAGES: This requires you to be alerts and aware of your surroundings. Sadly, most of us are oblivious as to what surrounds us that can save our lives. Use a chair, table, car, garbage can, door, desk, pole, et al. to make it hard for the attacker to get to us directly. Doing this might short circuit the attacker’s thought process, also.Â
Ø      THROW AN OBJECT(S) THE ATTACKER’S FEET, ET AL. Throw whatever you have in your hands or near you at the attacker (this is a great strategy if you have distance on your side. If the attack is spontaneous and at close quarters, we will have to rely on our personal weapons to save our lives (another blog perhaps) I have delayed and eventually escaped an attack long enough to draw a firearm by throwing chair - one after the other - at an edged weapon attacker’s (sharpened screwdriver) feet.
Ø      A WOUNDED ATTACKER IS NO ATTACKER AT ALL: I know this is easier said than done, but I know several people - none skilled martial artists or known warriors, but each and every one of them possessing that Warrior Mental Attitude filled with determination and grit - that understood my above Fighting Arts Premise and have turned the element of surprise against the Bad Guy and, immediately upon suspecting that the person in front of them - going by understanding body language and by trusting their gut instincts - had an edged weapon and was about to attack = have struck like a cobra BEFORE the attack even begun, both short-circuiting and fracturing the attacker’s plans and confidence.
NEXT POSTING: Strategies to prevent being taken to the ground. Strategies to recover, even if taken to the ground.
BY HAMMER