doc66 wrote:Getting cut is just what is going to happen. How much depends on how well you control the guy waving the knife and how much experience they have using it verses your ability and experience stopping them. If they have more experience than you, you are getting sliced up. That's the long and short of it.
For instance, this is not going to happen, but if you were to knife fight someone I've trained or my coach has trained, you're going to get cut/stabbed in places where it matters. I have never trained anyone who I thought was even criminally minded in the least but my stuff isn't rocket surgery. I can see a devious criminal figuring this stuff out. Sucks but there are some true bad ass's. Those I leave to docs care.
Murph, as far as trading blows for stabs that's why I stress block/strikes. Keep making everything they do hurt with the least amount of damage your way, make every block with the back of the forearm. I have no fool proof technique. Keep the block paramount, with the knife I take no chances. Make your strikes hard and make them count. If the strikes are enough, cool, if not your going to have to do a lock. You know all this already: Defending a knife is hard, I'm not saying man dance with the guy, but you can't just go straight for the knife when the guy is fresh. I've never in sparring gotten the lock or disarm right away. Granted, I've seen people do it but it's not easy.
Don't take this the wrong way but I think your looking for the perfect technique and I don't think it exists. Chiefly because no matter what, the first knife blow will be a surprise and be mentally jarring. Every real fight I've even been in I was not expecting it to go to that level, at all. The best I think you can do with a knife fight is minimize the damage to you and maximize the damage to him. At some point you're going to have to do some thing not in our nature to do, hurt the guy really bad. Sucks, I don't want to but the world isn't always the way I think it should be.
TLDR: Make blocks/counter strikes paramount. MOVE! Make the opportunity for counter strikes. When the opportunity becomes available you're going to have to hurt the guy gravely with everything you have. I don't want things to go like this but there are forces beyond my control and I will live in peace once the incident is over.