(Unarmed) Grappling Vs. Knife

[Knifefighter]

Interesting topic...

I'll be back...

[Knifefighter]

Assuming those are real and not Romoshopped....
If that guy was a cop, he sure wasn’t wearing a vest. I’m guessing he might not have even been wearing a shirt, because it is hard to get those kinds of slashes through clothing.

As far as grappling unarmed vs. knife, probably not something you want to do if you have full options. However, one doesn’t always have full options.

Ideally, one has seen the blade beforehand and has time to make space, use barriers, draw ones own weapon and/or grab an improvised one. Trying to strike empty-handed against a blade is just as stupid as trying to grapple.

It is not really true that a trained guy will not let you see the blade. He will if he is confident in his abilities, but really doesn’t’ want to fight. It’s the guy who wants to kill you, trained or otherwise, who will attack and conceal the blade.

Close quarter attacks where the knife is not seen until the last minute, or not seen at all, are the most deadly and the ones that end up in grappling situations. Once grappling range is reached, probably the most important consideration is to control the knife hand. Trained guys are good a switching to the other hand, and it is important to know how not let the opponent do this.

Since standing grappling gives relatively little control over the opponent, if an immediate disarm cannot be done, it can be advantageous to take the opponent down to the ground (still controlling the knife) where positional control and dominance can be used to more effectively achieve a disarm. With good ground control positioning achieved, the opponent will be completely helpless once the disarm is achieved.

[David Jamieson]

there's plenty of drills.

I agree with KF. Contain the knife arm, take the weilder down and break his structure while doing it and keep that knife arm locked up tight until you can go for a disarm.

One of the drills (because there are many) that I've taken part in was called x cuts. where x = a number chosen beforehand as to how many times the attacker has to hit you with the knife before the drill ends.

drills ends when you end the assault or the attacker has made all the hits with the blade.

our number was 30. 9 out of 10 guys when doing this drill got hit 30 times.

techs that worked. underhook, pull the assailant in and down, then look for a disarm technique, focus on the blade arm don't worry about getting punched and watch that other hand when you can.

forward push kicks in a relentless fashion has some good effect too.

and ultimately, escape was the most successful technique.

Anyway, I live in Toronto, so my problem would be more along the lines of stray bullets from handguns popping me. lol. *knock on wood*
I would think that the same would hold true in most large urban areas.