5 Krav Maga Knife Defense Tips

These 5 Krav Maga knife defense tips can save your life. While it is always best to simply walk away away from a potential conflict, learning a good hand-to-hand fighting system like Krav Maga, does help when a brawl is unavoidable. Should an adversary decide to pull out a blade or knife during the course of a fight, knowing how to counter through effective knife defense can mean the difference between life or death.

1. Try to avoid a fight. Any Krav Maga master will tell you that you do not need to prove your machismo or show off your fighting skills in a heated situation. If it can be avoided, a fight is almost never worth it. In a crime situation where you are held up at knife point, just give up that fancy watch, latest cell phone or your alligator skin wallet. If you can, run away as fast as you can. Knives are totally useless at a distance unless your assailant traveled with a circus as a knife thrower.
2. Understand that you will get hurt. If you cannot peacefully diffuse a situation or run away, then you have to fall back on your training. However, even the best knife defense experts will admit that with so many variables and variations in movement it is almost impossible to come out of a fight against a knife-wielding attacker totally unscathed. If you commit to a Krav Maga knife defense against a person with a blade, you will get hurt. Those who cannot overcome this psychological hurdle, will most likely get themselves killed.
3. Focus on the attacker, not just the knife. Any good knife defense system will teach students how to avoid getting tagged by a blade. Krav Maga on the other hand, not only imparts the skills needed to dodge knife strikes, it also teaches practitioners to look at the assailant as a whole and not just focus on the knife. The focus is stopping the attacker not the knife because without the attacker, the knife is simply an inanimate object.
4. Attack the attacker. Krav Maga teaches its practitioners how to strike and strike with precision. Against a person with a knife, Krav Maga knife defense calls for strong strikes to the forearm, upper arm or shoulder of the armed hand. The objective is to weaken or gain control of the knife wielding hand. The primary wave of attack is also designed to divert attention. The goal is to go for the neck or head of the assailant to incapacitate him or knock him unconscious.
5. Stay close to your attacker. To get to the neck or the head, you must successfully bypass the bladed weapon. To divert the attack, there are several proven Krav Maga knife defence moves where you must learn to loop, parry, deflect and cut to avoid getting caught. After getting past the knife, it is crucial to move to the side or the rear of your attacker. Staying close is key as his knife is made less effective but will still give you all the space your need to land telling blows on your attacker.