Knife Defense
KRAV MAGA Bare Hands vs. Knife
02
Sep
Sep
Boaz Aviram is one of the only Krav Maga experts who were there at the very beginning, and holds the secrets of this most effective Hand-to-Hand fighting …
Boaz Aviram is one of the only Krav Maga experts who were there at the very beginning, and holds the secrets of this most effective Hand-to-Hand fighting …
You say your are using Krav Maga Knife Defenses but are you really? Knife Defenses and Pistol Defenses and Bat Defenses in the Original Israel Defense Force Krav Maga had a unique prescribed technique for each one of the angles off attack. For the average student it always amounted to learn that technique or learn this technique. For the founders of Krav Maga, it was a method of dog training.
After years of Jujitsu training, learning a variety of methods of release from front choke, learning the methods Krav Maga release from chokes led me to believe, that in Jujitsu, over the years, instructors and students created variations out of context.
They took methods of creating leverage from one tactic and applied it to others multiplying the number of techniques and options which might work against a complying and respectful student but not against an attacker with intent to prevail.
Remember for each grip or strike there is not only a unique angle and leverage but also a different impact on a pressure point. Each grip take different amount of time and you need to consider your opponents capability to turn the fortunes by having sufficient time to recognize what you are about to do and counter it. Just sticking to your idea and hoping that with repetition you will become faster is not a set realistic goal.
For example a release from a shirt hold should be totally different than a release from a shirt grab. While the shirt grab can be used to shake and humiliate you, it can be used to take you out of balance and throw you, and it can be used to pull you for a head butt, a knee kick, a punch, or a knife stab.
A choke on the other hand can break your windpipe in two splits of a second. You immediately feel the pressure on your windpipe. If you do not economize your motion, your throat will be plucked.
However if your training partner is massaging your neck when you ask him to choke you, then you are horrible for throwing him to the ground or even punching him without paying him for the service.
The founders of Krav Maga never tried to appear unique just for being different. They were testing each technique as the most suitable tactical approach to a prescribed scenario taking into account the invisible elements of hand-to-hand-combat.
Imrich Lictenfeld aka Immi Sde Or, had sufficient background in Jujitsu, Boxing, Wrestling, Swimming and Gymnastic Acrobatics. He also had sufficient background in the British Fairbairn hand-to-hand-combat training.
Immi also was introduced to other Martial Artists in the IDF and there were always challenges and amicable solutions. Eli Avikzar Immi's successor in the IDF, was proficient with Krav Maga, Karate, Judo, and Aikido.
While like any other military organization, once you are in charge you are the authority, there are always opportunity for challengers in the forms of public application of high ranking martial artist to teach in the IDF, to do a demo, to free teach, and students of any other martial arts who are serving in a special unit to challenge their Krav Maga instructor in the IDF. Why then they concluded of a short curriculum of only?
Krav Maga's short chapter of impact generation is limited to the following: eight times two (front and cross hand) hand strikes, eight elbow strikes, eleven times two (front and cross leg)kicks, five hand tactics vs. kicks, seven hand tactics vs. punches(there was one more which was eliminated for tactical misfit),one leg tactics vs. kicks, and two body tactics vs. punches.
This Impact generation to all directions chapter of hand to hand combat teaches you the bulk of fast and effective reach to pressure points, while helping your training partners drill their defenses effectively.
Now lets talk about knife defenses! Today there are thousands of people using the name Krav Maga and teaching all kinds of mixed salad Jujitsu, Karate, Grappling, Muay Thai, and Boxing techniques.
Immi was against these types of Jujitsu moves because it seems they would not work against a person that swings with the knife with intent to stab or cut you. It is complex the idea of counter attack and the control of the knife and figuring out what happens in training and how it is compared to what will happen in real life.
But you need to sort it out properly. In a way it is a logical estimate tested by keeping encouraging the attacker role to stab you properly and sip his arm out with that retracted swing motion ready for the second stab.
If you hit him hard enough it will be over. You can hit his shoulder hard with the palm with open hand and see that it works. But if he recuperates it starts over. Not hitting hard enough or not being able to hit at the exact same moment, opens you up to need control until you can hit.
Combination of the two lesser power in the strike and control could be used if you value the attacker's life more than yours. But even a mixed salad that is not precise could cause a fatal mistake. You either strike or catch whichever is more convenient to do first but the second must follow immediately unless the strike killed the opponent.
If you are going to grab, you better have a cut proof method which means you can see where the blade is and be able to have a speedy grip and control so he cannot pull it out fast enough, cut you on its way out and or stab you again.
Testing a technique, the main question is to try and eliminate that particular stab. Perfect the stab and see if you can grab it without interruption. Remember the attacker can also drop the knife and punch or just punch and keep the knife, or pull the knife out and cut you on its way and stab again.
Of course once you have your whole body weight on it, it is hard for him to pull it out. But do you have the time to get there knowing he can pull the knife immediately and cut you or punch you with his free hand…
The abdominal stab goes in a swing motion. The knife or bayonet intends to penetrate the abdomen center and in a circular motion rip the intestines by a lift and pullout. That swing motion helps cut a resisting opponent's arm if he tries to hook on it improperly. The whole arm is used as a pendulum to create the momentum. The idea is to get close to maintain the element of surprise.
The top-down stab could be swung as a cutting motion against your arms, or repeated hammer like strike against your face, clavicle and chest , or if you get close it could be used to stab your top back or side of your body.
Straight stabs have the farthest reach and if you try to jump back or to the sides, a second stab will surely reach you. If you move forward using improper techniques, you will get stabbed again.
It is also hard to attack back in the exact same time of the stab if you are blocking, and if you had enough time offhand you could have done it with a kick. The slash has almost the same range of a straight stab, but it is a forceful circular motion where the tip of the blade can nick your arteries of your arms and neck.
You need the body swing motion to help that slash. If you try to do a small motion with your arm and wrist without the body's support unless you have a razor sharp knife, you will not be very successful. To reach the femoral artery for example you will need a pretty much a sharp devise with a perfect shape of a hook.
So if you are a serious student or instructor stick with the original Krav Maga techniques and study in depth whats behind them. That could safe your face as an instructor, and save your life as an instructor and save your students lives.
Knife Defenses in Pure Krav Maga – Proposal to retrieve proper Military, law Enforcement and Civilian Life saving Skills/Boaz Aviram, Pure Krav Maga Founder
Instead showing techniques from the "Bible" and blaming students for not being able to master them fast enough, and to tell them they need years of training for mastery, if you want to provide students with significant help of how to defend themselves you need to show them first how humans can use their bodies and weapons to maximum reach, force, speed. These amount to being more efficient in controlling your fate. You must also teach the invisible forces so called of awareness, timing, feinting, its consequences and cure.
Once this is achieved, students get the idea of how to attempt to do it and how to attempt to defend it and what to expect.
Now you would teach the best approach to handle each angle and methods of knife attack.
When using a handy object which could also be the same weapon the opponent has there are four approaches usually to one side which is in front of the opponent. The preference of that is perhaps the ease of reach to pressure points to end the confrontation swiftly with strive to one kill shot as a counter.
For Using your boots vs. knife you learn four tactics using kicks: front side, roundhouse and Scissors Kick. These kicks provide with best tactical approach within the kicking range. They can be used preemptively, or when an opponent did not execute a committed attack and is jumping backward after the initial attempt that may have been deflected or may have been an out of reach feint.
For bare hands vs. Knife, there are four of these in pure krav maga with slight finishing variation depending if you have the luxury to end behind the opponent's back, or end in front of him.
There is also another curriculum drill to deal with opponent that uses his front foot or hand for distraction with a kick, punch or continuous slapping so he can use his cross hand to stab you with no interruption. Here you learn to prioritize as well.
Pure Krav Maga Four Knife Tactics are proofed to prevent repeated attack of any sort. These characteristics lie in few components considering reaction time, physical reach and control methods in which a strike provides the most effective control as it distracts the opponent, break his plans momentarily or permanently.
Students do tend to get confused from the mass details required to memorize to ensure success. So be patient and keep in mind that you can always go back and rehearse prior training drills if forgotten. The key is now to aspire to have the students mind and body being able to retrieve their knowledge and use their judgments within an instant. Therefore, what is called intuitive drills such as "sparring" where students in the attacker role keeps changing his position and knife hold prior to entry into the hot zone. In such a fashion, instructors should supervise that all critical forms of approach that can contribute for such purpose had been drilled sufficiently.
Other knife threat scenarios could be couples with the grappling chapter or could be rehearsed with the knife chapter as well. The reason is that they are more in the grappling range. Knife on the throat from the front or back are the major threats, and aside from that sparring drills on the ground could be added where students need to prioritize between controlling the knife and attacking soft pressure points. The reason why this area is not stressed in civilian environment and should not even be stressed in Military environment, is because you are talking about Pure Stupidity of allowing the fight to escalate that far. But if you have extra time on your hands you can drill them as well.
The military does not use disciplined marching for his combat tactics, and therefore there is no merit for line up calisthenics and stand up demos instead of unarmed combat training methods.
Pure Krav Maga – Excellence through Proper Sequence!/Boaz Aviram
All martial arts share common ingredients.
People – A creature with generally two legs and two arms of which natural motion could be generated in any direction to create impact with any point of body contact. Generally it is wise to use hard bones to hit soft pressure points…
Strikes – to strike at pressure points you need to create momentum which is acceleration of mass over distance and maintain it through penetration of that pressure point to reach the desired effect of control, damage or death. You need not project your attempts as your opponent might move away from your intended hitting location and your attempt will be futile. Also you need to plan your next move if that happens.
Kicks – To kick at pressure points you need to create momentum which is the same principle of aforementioned strikes.
Pressure Points – Striking, tearing and gouging points which upon activation, cause distraction through the senses, and bodily damage limiting functioning to the purpose of being unable to attack back.
Using Leverage – Using greater force achieved with more parts of the body or with a stronger part, motion, or faster speed, in the weakest direction or redirection even in the same direction to deflect strikes, kicks, and to escape restraining holds.
Using bare hands – Meaning using your body only.
Using Sharp Objects Using a handy object or a knife.
Using Blunt Objects Using a chair or a club or such.
Preventing getting shot at when possible Using the limits of reaction time to overcome a gun threat.
Preemptive attack makes sense that if you are the first to properly attack your opponent will not be in attack mode and you will have an advantage, so if you keep going and nothing stops you, you will prevail. If you let go, there could be a reversal of fortunes.
Defensive reaction Last resort possible defensive move that will foil attacker's intent. If you immediately use that split second to counter attack, you are now the leading fighter that if you use your advantage properly you will not let reversal of fortunes happen again.
As you see the above ingredients are found in all martial arts. However, learning the most efficient sequence of thought, analysis, motion, training drills, and curriculum, is the most important factor to success.
There is a difference in the goals of using martial arts as fitness and friendly grappling, wrestling, boxing, MMA etc, where the fitness, resilience of the physics are competing to certain limits. In these scenarios the goal is staying within these limits. At times athletes are encouraged to prevail by endurance and all sorts of virtues derived by nature.
Seeing the whole picture of a scenario or a sports fight is the essence. While the tendency in sports fights is to look back at prior opponents in the field, the tendency in Self Defense should be to look at the human capacity.
This is because you are dealing with the average Joe that does not have time to train all the time, and you want to ensure he or she will get optimal results when needed.
Prioritization is an important virtue of serious coaches.
Consolidation and specific applications are important as well. The bottom line is to find the most consolidated way to overcome any obstacle, teach the essence and let the students connect the dots.
Specific application ensures that when connecting the dots, students will not bypass an essential point!
For self defense, the optimal thought would be to use those last resort natural tools available to overcome an attack. Being more efficient is the essence! Using the best sequences in thought, training, and defense throughout the matrix is the key!
Pure Krav Maga Training Consists mostly of consolidated most efficient methods of safe entry into the hotzone, for the purpose of reaching opponent's pressure points to control them and secure your safety. These entries include scenarios where practitioners enter first or wait for the attacker to enter first.
What can Pure Krav Maga do for Fighting Sports and other martial Artists? It can make them more specifically efficient to what they do and much better prepared to realistic self defense. It can also make the competitions more pure and technical.
While it appears that most champions posses a combinations of those principles of Pure Krav Maga making them overall more efficient opponent than the rest of their members. Through learning Pure Krav Maga, it can enhance them and also enhance those who were not so fortunate to have the correct sequences in training.
After all they learned the hard way and took few falls in their career, and will take another fall at the end of their career. While some things are inevitable, knowing the intricate details of scenarios and understanding them proficiently could very well help to avoid falling into making critical errors and waste time.
What can Pure Krav Maga do to the average folk? It can make them aware, and train them to be more efficient in awareness and reacting using the last resort tools available to all humans driving them to use them when needed!
What Can other Martial Arts and fighting sports can do for Pure Krav Maga – Keep it at bay if anything suddenly changes in their practices.
Can sports and stand up martial arts adjust their training to realistic self defense scenario? Of course they can, but since there is so much to adjust starting with understanding the hotzone timing and sequences of unfolding scenarios, and being efficient throughout the process, there are many areas to adjust at once. It will be surely a long road of self learning, and all it takes one more efficient attacker to end your life!
Pure Krav Maga – Self Defense Mastery 7 Disk DVD Set teaches you the most efficient sequences!
Pure Krav Maga Training Consists mostly of consolidated most efficient methods of safe entry into the hotzone, for the purpose of reaching opponent's pressure points to control them and secure your safety. These entries includes scenarios where practitioners enter first or wait for the attacker to enter first…[Boaz Aviram, Pure Krav Maga Founder]
Principles of Knife defense.
Beat the Element of surprise by awareness, analysis of the possibilities, and proactive reaction or even instinctive reaction when possible. You should be aware of the threat and know your response time limits. Be aware of any possible opponent using the element of surprise and possibly having an in-sight or concealed knife.
Avoid anything that causes distraction which will slow down your action. After you analyzed the potential danger in your immediate surroundings, pay attention to the speed, angle of approach and body positioning angle as he is approaching the hotzone. That means that if your opponent is talking to you , do not talk back as it slows your brain from executing a prompt reaction.
React proactively if you can. That means that you either avoid getting to close, or turn the tables and attack your opponent first. Your mind could be rehearsing your move before you execute it if you have the time on the conscience level or subconsciously. Keep the correct sequence of desired unfolding of the event, and the execution of desired technique.
Remember the knife is just an extension used by a more capable destructive opponent. You must eliminate your opponent's capability to react within a split second in order to secure your safety!
While you learnt to deflect and counter attack moves, you must drill enough and know that in feinting scenarios, your desire is to attack according to the distance. If you were thinking that the attacker was coming from a certain direction charging the blade from a certain direction, your brain made a plan how to deflect and hit him before it was too late to do so. However, if he did not complete his first motion as he advanced toward you do not get hung up about catching the arm holding the knife, but rather deliver impact to his accessible pressure point instead. If he retracted, chase him with a kick.
Krav Maga: Hebrew Terminology first used for the Original Israel Defense Force (IDF)Hand-to-and Combat Training Method which was based originally on counter techniques against all the other martial arts. It was distilled in the IDF for the first 30 years and was diluted when it hit the civilian market. After Imi's death, the name was stolen by many martial arts schools that adopted the name and were teaching whatever they pleased based on their motivation and personal assumptions. It was diluted back when it returned to the IDF after a break directly from the civilian market…
What the original Civilian Krav Maga had in common with the original IDF Krav Maga was about the same set of selected techniques to teach the system. What it lacked was the know how to execute them(the concept of sequential execution), and apply them in the matrix of the human fighting navigation trail(new concept pertaining to succeeding in the goal of victory in self defense scenario based on being familiar with all the trails of the human hand-to-hand fighting capacity). [Boaz Aviram]
When you think about self defense training system, sure it can be used as a tool for awareness and quick fix to a potential victim using the natural instincts of survivals coupled with logic. That natural instinct to live and realization of what can cause one injury or another is partly innate and partly taught.
The mindset of an attacker is not the mindset of a fighting sports athlete, although if he had the training in one of the competitive fighting sports, he would have a quicker reaction to changes in the unfolding scenarios.
In a modern world people are reluctant to get daily Spartan training, and the whole idea about self defense is to be used to protect physically weaker individuals…
However, as much as the lesser priority and interest in fighting sports, and more of self defense, but at the same time maintaining a balanced career and family life, keep in mind that just fitness or just fighting sports are not going to cut it.
At the same time keep in mind that dry techniques are a small part of the training in any case. You need to practice to apply them or similar motions and tactics to resolve unfolding scenarios. You basically need to create few scenarios where to test your confidence and skills.
If your time is limited, these scenarios and their complexities must we chosen very carefully to provide maximum learning and coverage of all the material learned which is the essence of self defense. Same as in boxing, just learning how to punch and having few bag drills is not going to make you a boxer.
Learning few releases from holds, chokes, or few strikes and natural blocks, might enhance your reflexes, but will not make you self-defense proof. You need to learn to see and feel the whole picture.
So even if your training course is short and amounts to few weeks or training or few seminars, you need to consider drills that force you to utilize the principles you are using in your techniques and not the techniques you learned. The principles are efficiency throughout by paying attention to the sequences of chain of defense.
Pure Krav Maga Offense and Defense Knife Training Methods/Boaz Aviram
For all these people that still look at a knife technique and are still thinking it will work, maybe it will work, and maybe there are so many ways and techniques to answer the same scenario?
Before I start, let me make one thing clear. Krav Maga does not teach butchering techniques. These can be applied to dead animals and wounded humans.
The assumption is that the defender is a human using a military type modern bayonet knife or even a good kitchen knife. If you happen to use other sharp objects for offence or defense, use your brain and apply the principles you have learned.
Pure Krav Maga Knife Defense Drills incorporate selected few distilled Original Krav Maga techniques presented in the below linked video clips.
These tactics and training methods are comprehensive approach for Use of a Knife for Defense and Offence in Combat Scenarios and use of bare hands or kicks against an unknown opponent attacking you with a knife.
In fact in Pure Krav Maga we do not deal with all realistic scenarios, but just the best theoretical and practical scenarios.
We use these scenarios to learn the principles of how to respond to any knife attack with a simple formula. Then we drill the proper response with Pure Krav Maga Techniques.
Rather than exploring endless possibilities, the most efficient approach is chosen where an opponent might hold a knife in a any possible grip with the front or cross hand or hiding it behind his back. This includes various methods of approach to close and enter the hotzone.
Pure Krav Maga takes the assumption that the first cut is the most critical as it creates distraction facilitating further injury and lack of quick response for further fighting.
Therefore knife attacks are dealt with up to two to three stabs at a time only exploring the failed first attempt or feinting first attempt and its outcome. Generally the third stab is attempted by students in the attacker role never makes it, and can only be used by the defender as a finishing kill shot.
Since Krav Maga is using the invisible principles of reaction time in its training system, it considers any multiple attacks beyond the first 2-3 stabs as irrelevant and belonging to another scenario.
Pure Krav Maga techniques provide its users the optimal training method of defense. The training method first considers, the type of bio-mechanical motion expected from the way the opponent is standing: Straight-stab, slash, bottom-up, and top-down and then the differentiation of response whether the attacker is holding the knife in his front hand or cross hand. In addition technical solutions in form of techniques are variant depending which sides of the bodies of both opponents face each other as they get closer to the hotzone.
Let me put it in other words, if you try to apply any other techniques against an attacker that is using the most efficient advance and reach of the target realistically you will fail!!!
Pure Krav Maga does not explore what you are doing far out of the hotzone. It is only exploring what is in a split second reach without losing the element of surprise.
The reason is due to the reaction time principle in which human brains need a split second to plan an action of attack or defense and another few split seconds to execute the maneuver.
Very simple, if you hold a knife on a certain plane, your body can create leverages with its limbs to drive the knife into a poke, cut or stash, or tear in various angles. And if you combine that fact with a straight line from this position is the fastest way to reach the target, you become more efficient.
If a defender recognizes your initial hold of the knife and body positioning just before you enter the hotzone he can predict how long it is going to take you to complete that most efficient motion. The rest of the move is a race. The attacker is either completing the most efficient motion or stops and redirect the attack.
The defender is racing to reach the wrist in its entry point to the hotzone and counter attack at the same time. Even if the attacker’s wrist was pulled back or moved to the sides the defender completed his counter attack while the attacker is still in changing tactics mode. The hotzone is the breakeven point of no return…
Umm could you explain why would go for such a low line ayyack instead of your upper body? Most low line attacks from closer attackers to set you up for a high line attack. So I disagree with having him attack from that far away while going for a low line attack.