Knife Self-Defence

Well I agree with the awareness, perception and a bit of luck ideas and yes, control is everything with an added concern, you have to destroy the assailant either by beating, breaking or worse. If someone is trying to kill you, you are left with very little choice.

Learn one handed combinations.

Eskrido de Alcuizar
Buena Park, CA
Yes. At 16:52 of the OP video, Paulo advises to get a Russian tie (2 on 1). At 3:08 of the following video, Trav offers Paulo (aka GN) and Funker Tactical $10,000, if they can put him in a Russian tie 1 time out of 300 normal intensity knife attacks (100/slash, overhand stab, underhand stab).

Travis likes the flow drill below. Travis hooks over the top of a knife attack with one hand, further clears the arm then with the other hand throws the counter cross.


FightSmartTrav
Mar 20, 2021

In this video, I respond very directly to Funker Tactical's straw-man argument, and issue a friendly challenge of my own. Will he [Paulo] respond? Not sure... you should ask him...


Paulo can't catch any knife attacks in a "Russian tie." Paulo has not accepted the challenge, although he said he would...

 
agree 👍

Once worked as part of an armed team responsible for picking up and transporting money to banks in a semi-armored vehicle. We were taught, an attacker with a knife can cover a distance of 21 feet (approximately 6.4 meters) in the time it takes for an average person to draw and fire their weapon.

The 21 feet thing is true. Most people are shocked when they first do that drill.

I was part of a heavily armed team safeguarding one hundred and twenty six billion dollars in cash and searching every armored car that entered and left the premises.

I was shocked when I learned how little armored car employees earn.
 
These challenges from folks like “fight smart Trav” can be fun, but are meaningless in the grand scope of things. Against a trained knife fighter, your chances for survival plummet. The majority of knife altercations on the street don’t come from a trained knife fighter. Look at all the untrained guys that carry clip folders. Anyway, to catch the knife of an unsuspecting assailant is much easier (not easy) on the street than catching a knife from someone that KNOWS what you are going to do. We do speed drills against the fast thrust and return at random angles, sometimes you can catch, sometimes you can’t, but you STILL defend yourself. We purposely do sneak attacks to unsuspecting students. Street self defense. We practice running attackers at different distances, 21 feet is the rule for law enforcement. It’s amazing how fast a young perpetrator can bridge that distance.
 
The 21 feet thing is true. Most people are shocked when they first do that drill.

I was part of a heavily armed team safeguarding one hundred and twenty six billion dollars in cash and searching every armored car that entered and left the premises.

I was shocked when I learned how little armored car employees earn.
I worked with venomous snakes in the early1990s for $8.25/ hr. One of the more foolish things I’ve done for money in the past. I remember being stoked to work with Rinkhals cobras the first time, putting on the face shield and thinking how lucky I was at the time.
 
I worked with venomous snakes in the early1990s for $8.25/ hr. One of the more foolish things I’ve done for money in the past. I remember being stoked to work with Rinkhals cobras the first time, putting on the face shield and thinking how lucky I was at the time.

Damn! That’s crazy scary.
 
These challenges from folks like “fight smart Trav” can be fun, but are meaningless in the grand scope of things. Against a trained knife fighter, your chances for survival plummet. The majority of knife altercations on the street don’t come from a trained knife fighter.
The $10k challenge is for doing what Paulo is teaching Jesse in the OP video and does in flow drills. In his own challenge practice video, Paulo cannot get the Russian tie against his own friend. The street is less predictable.

In another video below, Paulo accepts the challenge. In the over 300 comments asking Paulo to stop making excuses and follow through with his word, Paulo replies, "I accepted… I'm actually not teaching any of it." While 3 years later in the OP video, there is a link to Paulo's courses for sale on a new website.

 
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Paulo GN Rubio is an exceptional teacher, articulate and sounds so credible too!


"In my mind I wanted to kill you."

I've experienced this on the receiving end in the dojo. It's different to seeing "red". It's almost supernatural. Reminds me of this passage in Kenji Tokitsu's book:

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It's as if intent, spirit, and energy can be intuited.

Good video overall, I like Jesse's curiosity about the arts and his humility.
 
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An unassuming-looking man turns out to be one of the pioneers
of knife fighting back in the day.


"There is no fair play, no rules, except one. Kill or be killed"

William E. Fairbairn



He is perhaps best known for designing the famous Fairbairn–Sykes fighting knife, or 'Commando' knife, a stilletto-style fighting dagger used by British Special Forces in the Second World War, and featured in his textbook Scientific Self-Defence Fairbairn also designed the lesser known Smatchet, and collaborated on the design of several other combat knife designs.


Nice to meet you 🙂

 
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Angered, Shioda tried to immobilize Musashi, but he was unable to cross the line Musashi had indicated, as though there were an energy field around Musashi's body that protected him.

If it was videoed,,,,wonder what the reactions would be ?

It's as if intent, spirit, and energy can be intuited.
"unified" would be the better word

Have you ever felt this ?
 
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If it was videoed,,,,wonder what the reactions would be ?

It would certainly be impressive, considering Shioda was a vassal of Lord Hosokawa and that Musashi was in his mid 50s at the time. Kendo practitioners call this "kizeme", which can be interpreted as "spirit/energy offense".

Have you ever felt this ?

Yes, but only once - and I was on the receiving end.

I'm still studying and training to be even close to the level of my seniors and sensei. And who knows if anyone will ever feel what Musashi felt, let alone come close to his ability to defeat without striking - in actual combat.
 
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I've heard several theories for knife defense. Even pressure tested a few. Some worked but not even 90% of the time. That's a huge gamble against a blade. I'll list the ones we tried out. Obviously some of these are situational and will not work in every situation. Method 1: defang the snake,. Almost everyone has heard of this one, it's to the point that it's in tons of videos now on the internet, because of that it might not have such an advantage as it once did. Basically your attacker thrust or slashes towards you and you intercept by slashing his hand or forearm, hoping to cause damage to the ligaments and tendons and he will drop the knife or be incapacitated. Yes it works, I'm a better stick fighter than knife fighter, but with a knife I could only pull it off 7 out of 10 times when we drilled this before. The smaller your blade the harder it is to pull off. Defang #2 in ww2 combatives a technique called master arm parry, basically the same idea but you use footwork to get off line and throw a knifehand strike aka karate chop to his wrist and break his wrist. I never broke anyone's wrist with it but they did drop the knife several times, we weren't going hard enough to test the "wrist break" and it's a good idea we didn't I'd hate to of injured someone. I'd rate it 6/10 effectiveness. The next one: use a chair to counter a knife. This is probably the most effective one i tested because the chair protects you a bit of shield and you can maintain distance. Effectiveness 8/10 because it will only work if you have a chair. And for the hail mary: this is a last resort: low line kicks, try to keep distance and kick their knees out. If they can't walk they can't get you. What I learned is there's so many variables that I haven't found a technique effective enough to use. One of those techniques I've listed might work, or it might fail. So yeah I've found nothing effective enough yet.
 
It would certainly be impressive, considering Shioda was a vassal of Lord Hosokawa and that Musashi was in his mid 50s at the time. Kendo practitioners call this "kizeme", which can be interpreted as "spirit/energy offense".

Yes, but only once - and I was on the receiving end.

I'm still studying and training to be even close to the level of my seniors and sensei. And who knows if anyone will ever feel what Musashi felt, let alone come close to his ability to defeat without striking - in actual combat.

👍 good..
Not the topic of the thread.
an interesting study....🙂
 
The $10k challenge is for doing what Paulo is teaching Jesse in the OP video and does in flow drills. In his own challenge practice video, Paulo cannot get the Russian tie against his own friend. The street is less predictable.

In another video below, Paulo accepts the challenge. In the over 300 comments asking Paulo to stop making excuses and follow through with his word, Paulo replies, "I accepted… I'm actually not teaching any of it." While 3 years later in the OP video, there is a link to Paulo's courses for sale on a new website.

I’m not totally hip to this stuff, but isn’t this how they make money? I might be wrong.
 
I worked with venomous snakes in the early1990s for $8.25/ hr.
What the flippin’ heck? That’s a job? 😉
One of the more foolish things I’ve done for money in the past. I remember being stoked to work with Rinkhals cobras the first time, putting on the face shield and thinking how lucky I was at the time.
Look, you need help…long, protracted expensive therapy!
 
"In my mind I wanted to kill you."

I've experienced this on the receiving end in the dojo. It's different to seeing "red". It's almost supernatural. Reminds me of this passage in Kenji Tokitsu's book:
Yes, me too. I pride myself as being impervious to ‘woo-woo’ nonsense but once a teacher showed me how he can ‘turn on’ his intimidation. Post hoc analysis suggested there was something in the predatory way he moved and pursued me, held my gaze that was intimidating triggering a primal instinct in me to be fearful and to take flight….rather like Rubio’s pre-attack indicators are signals of imminent attack. I wouldn’t believe it was possible if I hadn’t experienced it.

Having said that, I was able to nullify it by ‘placing my tongue in the wrong place and raising my two big toes’ (if you know that reference, you need to get out more).
 
On the subject of jobs, the local hydroelectric plant has been the cause of some of the most miserable hours of my life. One time the concrete channel (known as a leet) broke through, and for a device that's supposed to transport water by gravitation, it didn't half have a lot of uphill sections. I was there for days.

As regards knife defences, I'm only in favour of them when done as part of a more comprehensive system. I think the passive drills that we used to do in some karate classes only really encouraged a false sense of security and people weren't really made to understand how dangerous knives can be. This guy seems different though.
 
Some might find interesting


Old book covering different aspects of hand to hand and weapon training...
written by Colonel Rex Applegate, trained under William E. Fairbairn

KNIFE DEFENSE
A successful knife defense depends upon being able to see the attack coming, or at least being forewarned through
knowledge and training. A knife assault is many times launched in darkness, or in such a way that it is impossible
to detect immediately the opening move of the attack, such as drawing the weapon.



William E. Fairbairn, along with Eric A. Sykes, developed the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife and contributed significantly to the creation of the hand-to-hand combat training programs used by the British Commandos and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. Fairbairn's methods were based on his extensive experience in the violent streets of Shanghai and emphasized practical and brutal techniques suitable for real-world combat situations.
 
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