It's a decent list, but nothing earth shattering to my mind and approach. To be honest, I saw an old clip of Mark doing some knife defence work which I felt was a little lacking, but then again that was a while ago (that the clip was made). But for the record....:
1: Yep, especially if it's a folder. There's a law that states that anything mechanical will always fail when its needed the most....
That is, of course, in addition to Mark's point about not being aware of a knife being involved until far too late to draw your own (knife or gun).
2: Absolutely. Although I don't think that this idea is restricted to knife, or even armed assault, I think it applies to most assaults honestly.
3: Okay.... yeah. More about the mindset that can be applied, really. And honestly I think that that is again a big difference between martial arts and self defence, martial arts deal with engaging in combat, self defence is more about doing what you need to to get home safely (including leaving the situation/running away when you can or need to).
4: Once again, very much what I have said here on a range of threads about the difference between a trained attacker and an untrained one. Oh, and I quite like Don's book, by the way.
5: Yep, again. This is where our resistance training comes into it, built into our drills (more on that later).
6: On the subject of gross-motor techniques having a chance, and the fine-motor and complex ones being far less available, well, I think I've mentioned that once or twice myself.... however, I disagree with Marks' take on why they exist in systems. I've said it a number of times, if the only reason for the training is pragmatic skills, then training in a martial art is rather counter-productive for the most part, as it's teaching things that are rather counter to that aim. So there are other reasons for such techniques and tactics to be there (and it's not so devious as simply taking people's money).
7: Hmm, now here we start to disagree. The reason to use Bio-metric cutting is not to be "merciful" and try to avoid lethal actions, it's to end the threat as soon as possible. A lethal action can take a while to stop the threat, during which time you can still be lethally injured yourself, whereas a cut to the tendons controlling the knife arm (for instance) can stop that threat immediately.
8: Ha, agreed in spades! Simply look to a recent discussion on "What Sword System/Kata is This?" for more about that.....
9: Agreed again. I'd add more to it (the way Kali acts when dealing with blades versus the way a blade is typically used, but that simply takes us back to Number 4)
10: Okay, he's applying a more limited use of the term "grappling" than I do (seeming to limit it to just ground-based grappling), so while I agree about the ground-based aspect, stand-up has a huge number of benefits, namely in controlling the weapon hand itself. Of course, that presupposes that by that stage you are aware of the knife....
11: Yep, weapon work is weapon work, not unarmed with a weapon... one of my biggest gripes too (my students know that pretty well, I hope....)
12: Masters of various knife and blade-based systems? Certainly exist. People with real experience at using a knife against other people? Ditto. Are they the same people? Very rarely (and hopefully less often than that!). One is a martial artist, the other is a criminal (murderer). So, in essence, agreed. That said, there are the stories of people like Jim Bowie.... although I always look at the number of almost lethal injuries he took on during the course of gaining that experience. Not a recommended career path.
13: Absolutely.
14: Hmm, I agree that such measures are required, to me the "expect to get cut" quote doesn't mean that nothing is done to prevent it, it is a way of making sure that the person doesn't freeze at the (unexpected) sight and shock of their own blood. Being aware of the fact that statistically anyone involved in a knife altercation will be cut (at the least) means that an understanding of the damage is being taken into account, and if the teacher isn't taking their limiting the amount of damage taken into account when training the students, then they haven't understood the phrase in the first place.
15: Once again, agreed. Personally, I go primarily to Michael Janich, who is trained in FMA's himself, but has spent a lot of time exploring things such as the realities behind Fairbairns "Timetable of Death". There's a lot more to why I go for Michaels approach, of course, but that's enough of an intro (do check out his stuff if you get the chance, though!).
16: Ha! When I last took my students through what we refered to as "Knife Survival" (see below) I asked for feedback afterwards, and one of my students basically said that any thought they had about how easy it may be was completely and utterly destroyed. See a knife, run! And make sure you get as much distance between you and them as possible (at least 20+ feet).
17: Once again, completely agreed.
18: Well, it may be said that if the drills are approached properly (teaching principles of movement and so on), then it does teach you to fight/survive etc. But it does come down to how the drills are conducted and trained, as Mark says.
19: And finally, completely agreed. Again, self defence dictates an understanding of the law as it relates to the material being taught (whereas a martial art isn't concerned with that at all).
Below is something I posted on another thread, dealing with pressure testing training. It goes through our approach to knife survival training (although obviously not giving everything away....), I feel it covers a fair amount of the things that Mark was talking about, although it's not knife fighting, as in this area only the attacker is armed.
The way I covered knife survival (as opposed to knife defence, by the way) was as follows:
Week one - basic evasion skills and awareness of a weapon. Covered as a concept, then drilled. A set routine of attacks (high cut from the right, high cut from the left, low cut right, low cut left, high thrust, low thrust) with one specific jam-and-redirect concept. This is followed by drilling, increasing the pressure. At the end of the class, free evasion and deflection against random knife attacks (working on escape and distancing).
Week two - Working on the same as the week before, adding evasions against the cutting routine, and jam-and-push against the attacks, then again a more free-form with the added options for the students, again working towards attacks.
Week three - Adding jam-and-catch to the outside to the drills. Then adding the opponent trying to get their weapon back, ensuring that the catch is stable, and that you aren't about to be knocked over. Then, simple striking (to viable targets without releasing control of the weapon) to escape. Free form training to test the skills (any of the previous trained skills are allowed).
Week four - Same as week three, but jam-and-catch to the inside (less safe, so outside is prefered, that's why we did that one first). Resistance with the opponent trying to get their knife back, strike to escape, and then drill as a free-form exercise.
Week five (if the month allows) - add gross-motor takedowns, drill, drill with resistance, then free form with any of the previous skills allowed.
By the end of the month the students should have developed some skill with evading and escaping knife attacks. After each free-form pressure drill, I asked who was cut. And frankly, I told them that if they didn't get cut, they weren't under enough pressure.
On another note, I noticed that Marc was active on another forum, so I had emailed him, extending an invite and SM here. His last log on here was in 2009, but it would be nice if he did pop on and clarified some things.
