Drives Me Nuts

Here we go again. A question asked on a forum was: “If you had to draw a knife and stab someone to protect your life would you?” Time and again this question gets asked. Sometimes by people who were really threatened and other times by victim wannabes. Yes there are people who think they want to be attacked so they can prove their manhood or their skills. The question is unanswerable unless you are actually in that situation, have a knife, and time to access it. What is the exact threat level? Is the man bigger, stronger? Does he have just a knife and is he by himself or with others? Do you have an escape route or not? It is an extremely complex question with no one single answer. But what irks me more than the question is the stupid responses some people post. 1. “I don’t think unless you are trained you should ever pull a knife.” The only good part about this answer is “I don’t think...” They should have stopped right there. Unless you have been raised in a vacuum tube somewhere you probably grew up using a knife to open boxes, cut your food, maybe sharpen a pencil, etc. Who taught you how to do that? Did you have to take a course in knife usage 101? Anyone wildly swinging a knife back and forth is probably more dangerous than any dojo trained knife-fighter. Why? Because they are totally unpredictable. How many times have we heard of the 100 pound woman injuring or killing her attacker, using only a kitchen knife? Do you think she was trained or just scared and fighting for her life? 2. “I have trained in martial arts for six years and would not need my knife, I would just disarm him with my hands.” Holy crap I don’t want to meet up with this dude on a bad day! Six years, WOW! If he went to class every week that would be over 300 lessons. I wonder what percentage were specifically on knife disarms? I also wonder how many times those disarms did not work, even in his nice sterile dojo environment? I’ll bet he won’t tell you. William Fairbairn, a master of the knife, said “there is no sure defense against a man with a knife except a gun or to run like hell.” This was a man who had been nearly killed by thugs in Shanghai and as a result, became a 2nd degree blackbelt. He also wrote the books on knife fighting and self-defense used to train all of the WW-II Commandos and many other Spec-ops people. His response was “run like Hell.” 3. I trained in martial arts for over 12 years. That’s me, and I would never willingly go empty-hand against a man with a knife. Sure I have taught those same disarms for many years. Then I decided to study them, dissect them, and see how to defeat each one of them. Does Mr. Six Years not think that career criminals don’t do the same thing? Why do people with a few colored belts think that their attacker never studied martial arts? I have heard it said if “the attacker knew martial arts he would not need to use a knife.” How insufferably stupid can some people be? Just because I know (and have taught) karate, and some silat, and a bunch of kenjutsu: do you not think I would prefer to use a knife instead of my bare hands? A samurai did not begin to fight with his hands and escalate up through, tanto, wakizashi, katana, etc. No, he started with his bow and arrows, dropped down to his spear, then katana and worked his way on down until he was out of weapons and out of luck. I want to see Mr. Six years come to my dojo, face me and disarm me of a real knife. Yes, not just some sissy rubber knife or a wooden tanto, let’s see him strut his stuff. Unlike a ghetto mugger I promise not to kill him. I’ll even promise not to move too quickly because he might get cut. If he is successful I will take him out for a few beers and toast him as the greatest of them all. If he doesn't succeed I will provide the bandages.