EMERGENCY DEFENSE PREP #4: KNIFE, STICK, OR BAT DEFENSE

Disclaimer: This post contains graphic content focusing on defending oneself in an emergency, aspects of which may be triggering for some people, and considered adult in nature.  Defense situations (such as knife defense) can vary and no one technique will work for every situation.  Technique and weapons use are subject to local laws governing self-defense and personal protection.  Please consult local and national laws as part of your defense prep.  These laws may also vary depending on whether you’re at home, in our car, at work, or out in public.

It’s a typical morning.  We get our kids ready and see them off to school.  Then we head to work.  We work at a local high school in Pennsylvania.  We get to the school, park, and head towards our classroom.  As we walk down the hall, thinking about our busy schedule, we hear a commotion down the hallway.  We look up!  There’s a boy with a knife.  As he stands back up, we can see he just stabbed another boy in the stomach.  That’s when he starts running straight towards us.

What can we do to protect ourselves?  Let’s take a closer look at knife defense.

EMERGENCY DEFENSE PREP: BLUNT OR EDGED WEAPONS

A knife, stick, or bat are all considered close range weapons.  If they can’t touch us, they can’t hurt us.

Some might ask about throwing knives.  Knife throwing skills are uncommon and if someone feels inclined to throw us their weapon, we’ll happily use it to defend ourselves.  A knife in the hand can cause a lot more damage than a knife that’s thrown.  If we need to defend ourselves against a knife throwing attacker, we would move offline (just as with moving off the line-of-fire discussed previously) and then sprint in to finish the fight.

A knife attack most likely means a slice or a stab (from an attacker holding the knife or edged weapon) while a stick or bat attack could mean a blunt impact to the muscle, joints, chest or head.  The goal of a knife attack is to cause tissue damage (slice or stab to parts of the body), to disable (cut joint tendons) or kill us (we bleed out).  The goal of a stick or bat attack is to stun, disable (joint attacks) or even kill us (chest or head attacks).

As discussed in the weapon defense post, realistically we want to assume we will take some damage.  Our primary focus is on controlling where we take damage.  Taking cuts or blunt force to muscle is preferable to major arteries (for cuts), or the head, chest, or joints (for cuts or blunt force damage).  For example, taking a cut or blunt force strike to the knee joint may mean we can’t stand or walk.  Without standing or walking, defense and escape would be very difficult.  We do not want to be defenseless against an armed attacker.

KNIFE DEFENSE #1: THREAT MISTAKES REVIEW

Remember the two mistakes from the gun threat section? 1) The attacker pulled out a gun and then wanted to talk, and 2) they took a ranged weapon and brought it in close to us.

A knife threat works the same way as a gun threat.  The attacker is using the knife as leverage to get something they want.  This could mean the attacker puts the knife next to our body, such as against our throat, or may just display the knife.

When we respond to a knife threat, we’ll follow a similar method discussed previously in the gun threat section.  We want to take advantage of the attacker wanting something (mistake one).  So, we will appear to comply as we position our hands favorably.  Then we will ask, “What do you want?” to slow down their reaction time.

Then we take advantage of how close the attacker is to us (mistake two).  First, we will stop the immediate threat and second, we will finish the fight.  What is the immediate threat?  Receiving a cut that makes us bleed badly (e.g., a cut to a major artery) or limits our ability to defend ourselves (e.g., a cut disabling our joint).

KNIFE DEFENSE #2: KNIFE THREAT

Again, if an attacker wants something material (like our wallet) and we believe they will leave after we give it to them, then it is not worth the risk that comes with defending ourselves.

Now, if we need to defend ourselves, let’s look at that situation.

To stop the immediate threat:

• Shove or plug the attacker’s arm to prevent getting cut.
  1. Shove: This option simply means, after appearing to comply, we quickly shove the knife arm away from us.
     1. DO NOT shove the knife so that it drags across our body! If it’s on the right side of our throat, do not shove it towards the left side.
  2. Plug: This option means we plug the forearm (of the knife arm) to our chest with the palm of their hand facing away (to limit their ability to cut us).  Training is preferred for using this option.
• Use our arm(s) to forcibly pin the attacker’s arm (to their body, the floor, wall, etc.). Move in to pin the arm right after the shove, so their arm is still moving away from us, and focus on pinning their elbow or forearm.

To finish the fight, we want to survive by escaping, disarming, or finishing another way.  To disarm:

• Keeping the weapon arm pinned, deliver a strike and then overlay (place on top) our fingers on theirs (of the weapon hand).
• Curl in squeezing their fingers and applying pressure to their wrist, continue curling until we have the knife handle.
• Peel the knife out of their grip.

We need to get out of the situation safely and call the police.  Do not assume that taking the knife away means the fight is over.

KNIFE DEFENSE #3: KNIFE, STICK, OR BAT ATTACK

Now an attacker is trying to slice us (knife), stab us (knife), or bash us (stick or bat).  Would we use a different defense for each weapon?  No!  The mechanics of each attack are the same just with a different object.  Since we don’t want that object to touch us (whether knife, stick, or bat), it shouldn’t matter what is in their hand.  We want to stop the immediate threat, which is the same across all three weapons.

To stop the immediate threat, we want to deal with the motion and then pin the attacker’s arm (to their body, floor, wall, etc.).  When the weapon is moving towards us, we want to use one of these options:

• Block their forearm then pin the arm, or
• Move our body (evade) out of the weapon’s path (harder for sticks and bats due to length) then pin the arm

When blocking, it works best to use our forearm and jam it into theirs.  That way we do not risk breaking our fingers while blocking and then we’re unable to use our hand for the rest of the defense.  When moving our body out of the way, we can move our head, our stomach, or even step out of the way.

Once we have stopped the immediate threat of the attack, we will do the same as described above in the “Knife Defense: Knife Threat” section, starting at #2 of stopping the immediate threat.  We will pin the arm and then finish the fight.

WRAPPING UP: KNIFE, STICK, OR BAT

Just like guns, knives have been used in individual and even mass casualty attacks.  Going back to the high school in Pennsylvania.  This was a mass casualty event.  A 16-year-old boy took knives to his high school and injured 24 people including a security guard.  Five of those were critical injuries.  One boy was placed on a ventilator from his injuries.

In another mass casualty attack in Calgary, Canada, a 20-year-old attacked and killed 5 people attending a college party, stabbing them to death with a knife.  In New Orleans, Louisiana a woman was carjacked by two men who ran at her, pushed her down, threatened her with a knife, and stole her vehicle.

Baseball bat attacks also occur. In Seattle, a woman was attacked by a man she did not know who wielded a baseball bat.  The attacker came up, unprovoked, and hit her on her head with the bat as she walked down the street.

I highly recommend Krav Maga (Israeli Martial Arts) training as it is the most real-world training system that is also widely available and includes defense against weapon attacks.  In fact, I would make sure the instructor teaches weapons defense at the beginning of the program.

Check out the other posts in this blog series:

• Fundamental defense prep ideas (post 1),
• Defense against weapons (post 2),
  • Gun threat or active shooter (post 3)
  • Knife (post 4)
  • Rope or cord used to choke (post 5)
• Using a defense weapon to survive (coming soon).

If you’re looking for more on emergency prep, check out the emergency prep strategy blog series (with a closer look at day-to-day prep, and coming soon: cyber prep, shelter-in-place prep, and evacuation prep).