How to Defend Against a Knife Attack with Nick Drossos

Hey. Ando here from senseiando.com. Boy, am I a lucky guy. Today, I'm with Mr. Nick Drossos. If you haven't seen his self-defense channels, I'm going to put those links below. Definitely check it out. He's got a mountain of good material there. It turns out he's a pretty nice guy, too.Unless he's hiding some evil streak.

How to Defend Against a Knife Attack with Nick Drossos

 We'll find out right now. Oh, there it is!Today, I wanted to bring you something about weapons.I haven't done any videos yet about weapons and Mr. Drossos has spent a lot of time working weapons, seen things in real life, he's done a lot of random person attacks in the park. If you haven't seen those videos, they're fantastic. So, I thought I would turn it over to him today and you could help us figure out the big do's and don'ts about knife. Just give us the Basics 101.<You know, okay. First of all I want to share a little bit of my experience. I worked in clubs. I actually saw people get stabbed. And the first thing when people got stabbed is nobody knew who had the knife. Nobody saw the knife. All we knew was somebody got stabbed or somebody pulled out a knife.Because that's the reality of how fast an attack happens. <Sure. <And a lot of people focus on knife defense when the knife is out, or most of the videos look like this. So, come at me. <Right.<All right. And then it's like, all right, come at me really fast. Okay.What I hate about this stuff is that it gives a false belief to people and it's going to get them killed. <Yes, sir. < Anytime you you have this type of training, and when you see a video like this, you've got to tell yourself this is not real. That shit doesn't happen like that. Number one, if somebody's going to attack you with a knife, what does he have to do? He has to come into your range.Chances are the knife is going to be concealed here, here, here,either rolled in a paper, could be in a bag. So, that's the first thing. He's got to come in your range. So, he's got to come at least 5, 7 feet, pull out the knife, and then start attacking. Attacks are going to last, the guy's not going to sit therefor a minute and do a sparring drill with a knife. He's going to spend maybe four, 10 seconds, and he's out. So, your reaction time has to be super fast.Now, what a lot of people are missing in order to defend yourself against the knife. First of all, it's all about being proactive. Being able to be aware. To see,okay, I see the guy approaching and he's talking to me here and I can't see his hands. I could only assume he has a knife. I don't care if he's holding his phone, I'm not going to take a chance. I don't know you. You're in my space. You're moving around as I'm just, concealed, and I see this, my hands are going to come up. One hand is going to come a little bit lower because I want to be able to trap or jam that knife. Now, it's not going to be a perfect trap. I'm not literally fixing to grab it. If I do, great. If not, I'm still going to try to pin it. <Right. <Now, the reality is that every time I make a move, he makes a move. There's action/ reaction.So, it's not going to look like 1, 2, 3. No. Once I trap the knife, he's going to start pulling. So, start, give me resistance. He's going to come here. He's going to try to cut. I'm going to come right over here. The knife just switched hands, right? If I'm here, what would I do?I'd, sorry. You okay? <Yeah, sure. < I'd bring it here, I'd head butt, I'd knee, I'd try to trap.If he continued going, keep going. So, he's trying to pull me down. Try to grab. He's coming around.Don't let him get that knife. Again, I'd be striking, but look...I'm pinning the knife. Now, here's the thing-- people tell me against the knife we should run, yes. But I need to be this many feet in an open area. Now, I did this test where, because we get a lot of comments, people telling me you're an idiot, you're going to get people killed. <Sorry about that. <Yeah. And I get this comment, and what I did, and I test it out full out, where we had one guy, the attacker here, I was here, the door was there. By the time I run to the door, I got stabbed. So, the idea that you're going to run is not always possible.Your environment is going to play a big role with what you can do. If I'm in an elevator-- start attacking like this-- I can't parry in an elevator. I need to trap because I'm in a confined space.Start again. If I'm here, I could do this, then, yes, I can run. If he's grabbed me and he's here--now, you see? Now, he's grabbed me here, I didn't know-- great example.I said to grab me. Some people do this, some people grab here, he went for here,which is even more dangerous because he's controlling the neck. What happen sis it becomes hard. So, he starts pumping. So, I got to start, I got a trap as quickly as possible. So, running is not always an option. So, what are the best options against knife defense? Number one-- awareness. I have the distance, I see him with a knife. Here, I'm out. Two, an improvised weapon. I'm in the restaurant, a bar,there's weapons everywhere. I'll throw the glass, throw a plate, pick up the chair, pick up the bars tool, and get out. If I'm in open space, I can--attack. I could parry and use my legs and try to move. If I'm in a closed, confined space, I don't have a choice but to trap a knife, to trap it.Once I trap it, I either pin it to my body or to his body, depending on where he moves.And I got to strike as quickly as possible. If he grabs me here, this is apump and grab, as I call it, this is very dangerous because what happens a lot of times, people forget about the arm and they focus here. But unless I move the arm I'm going to keep getting stabbed. So, there's no black and white. There's no fool proof system. And again, the basic to all this is when you're faced with an attacker is you're looking at his hands. So, conceal the weapon. I'll open my eyes.If I'm here and I'm talking to him, and I see this, I'm ready to move in and make sure I trap the knife as quickly as possible.Right? If he's got the knife here and I'm talking to him, my hand is going to come a little bit low to come in and jam it and strike at the same time. So, really focus on that. So, my best tip to you is when you're faced with an attacker, the first thing you do, as I'm talking to him, my hands come up.When I used to be a doorman, I used to talk to people like this. I was always like this.Here, here, here. My hands are always up. I always looked at their hands. If I couldn't see their hands, I was ready to strike and go pre-emptive. So, at the end,it's your life. You got to decide what you're going to do when you'refacing that situation. <Yes, sir. Wow. A lot of truth bombs in there. A lot of stuff for people to think about. Especially when the knife comes out in training, emotions seem to run a little bit higher and your sense of mortality is really right there the whole time. So, even if knife is not your thing, in a world like the one we live in, I think it's really valuable that everyone finds a little bit of time in their training to bring out a knife and just, even just to put it down and look at it and think about it for a second, and then to have someone actually standing across from you with that knife, even if we're just moving around a little bit, and just talking and theory, you can just feel if you have, your emotions are starting to change, that tells you something. You really need to take another look at this weapon and make peace with it. You want to make peace with it, hopefully then you can actually take control of it. So, thank you very much. This is an awesome quick tutorial. I'm going to keep the knife.Again, I'm going to put the links below. Please go check out Nick Drossos'YouTube channels. I'll put the links below. He's got two really great ones, so check them both out. And until next time, let's keep building bridges with one another.Let's all keep learning from each other. All martial artists, we should hang together or we surely hang separately. Until next time, keep fighting for a happy life. <Wow. Very well said.