A commonly heard statement in the FMA is that most traditional martial artists aren't prepared to face a competent knife-wielding attacker. It's a given that anyone is in bad shape if he or she is unarmed and the opponent has a knife--those are long odds--but there's a belief that traditional karate, Tae Kwon Do, aikido, etc., defenses are especially unrealistic. Certainly I have often seen people in these systems practice defenses against knife attacks that are lunge/reverse punches while holding a knife, which is an unrealistic attack if the attacker is knowledgeable about knives and knife fighting.
What do karateka think? As a former karateka who is now a FMA practitioner, I know that studying the FMA made it clear to me that I knew much less about defending against the knife than I had thought I did! On the other hand, the one time I was attacked with a knife (omitting the time I was able to get away), I did use some of my karate training as well as my FMA training.
What do karateka think? As a former karateka who is now a FMA practitioner, I know that studying the FMA made it clear to me that I knew much less about defending against the knife than I had thought I did! On the other hand, the one time I was attacked with a knife (omitting the time I was able to get away), I did use some of my karate training as well as my FMA training.