Let's get real

Why is this photo a bad defense? Let me count the ways

1.       She is  standing right in front of him, the only direction she moved was straight back

2.       She is fighting him strength on strength

3.       She is totally off balance, bent at the waist and legs straight

4.       She is totally relying on her arm muscles to move him

5.       She was counting on actually seeing the knife come at her

Relying on observations only, if this had been a real attack, this woman would have gotten hurt or possibly killed. What she is doing will not stop a strong man from stabbing her if he has decided this was going to be the course of action. He still has full balance, he has a free hand, and this spells trouble for the victim. He could grab her by the hair and throw her down as easy or he could sneeze.

I am not trying to knock someone else’s defense, I am just analyzing for learning purpose. If you are caught by surprise (and most attacks will catch you by surprise that is what the attackers relies upon to be effective) doing something, anything is better than just standing there and getting killed or injured. But if you want to stack the odds of survival on your side there are a few principles with which you need to condition your mind and body.

1.       Unless you are absolutely stuck (like on the ground or in a bad corner) never stay standing in front of your attacker. Get yourself to a safer position. Just standing there, you will keep taking damage (hits, stab), and you will have to be Bruce Lee fast to avoid the attacks.

If you just keep moving straight back, you will eventually run out of places to go.

And there is also the possibility that his arms are longer than yours. He may still be able to stab her even if she scooted back.

2.       Let’s face it, you will most likely never get seriously attacked by a small child or an old weak woman. Pound for pound, men (your potential attackers) are stronger than you. If you think you will stand there and wrestle a knife out of his hands, you are seriously mistaken. First of all, don’t worry about disabling the knife, disable the attacker.

3.       You can make yourself much stronger by staying balanced. A light wind would blow this woman over, I am sure a strong man can do even worse. The sheer power of his attack may possibly just shove her off balance enough to make her a very easy victim. Or a side step on his part will make her fall on her face, again becoming an easy prey. Keep your head over your hip, flex your knees in an athletic stance and ground yourself.

4.       Use body mechanics, use the opponent’s movement. This is much more effortless then trying to move someone who does not want to move. An object in motion tends to stay in motion. Instead of muscle in his chin, if she would have just connected with it and made her entire body back up her arm by moving in the proper direction, she would have most likely knocked his block off.

5.       If an attacker waves a knife in front of your face it is most likely to scare you. Someone trying to kill you will get uncomfortably close to you. If you see a knife and you can run and avoid the situation, then by all that’s Holy RUN!!!  Remember, if you have time to ask yourself if you should engage, you probably don’t need to, and you should definitely run toward safety.

Don’t let people get uncomfortably close to you. Of course people will bump into you in a bus, at a club, restaurant, stores.  You have to be able to judge when someone is inappropriately trying to get close to you.

Be smart, stay safe!