Neko, thanks, I really like the airsoft idea. It's more realistic than just a redgun and really shows the speed needed to avoid getting shot. I've worked with some LE self defense classes but I never saw anything more than redguns or maybe a cap gun. Great idea.

Recently Joss and I have been working some emptyhand vs. thug with training knife scenarios. As several others mentioned, you pretty much get cut. It's just damage control once he's decided to come at you. The longer the weapon is free the more you get stabbed and the longer the fight lasts the worse your odds of surviving it. I'd say right now I'm surviving 1-2 out of 10 attacks. My odds would be higher but there's just not enough room to really run.

I know a few people who have been attacked by someone with a knife.

One guy was lucky and was attacked like in the movies. The guy came from over his head with the knife straight down. The guy I train with caught his arm threw him and ran.

The other two people I know weren't so lucky. Both are still alive but didn't leave the fight without a lot of blood loss.

My advice would be run if you can but if the chips are down and you have to fight do it but with all you have. Weapons are nothing to mess with they designed to kill.

Like many of you, I don't train weapon disarms very regularly at all. But here is my philosophy behind dealing with weapons:

GUNS: Guns??? There aren't any guns here!! That's right, I have a next to nothing chance of getting shot! Hell, I didn't see a real gun till I was 16, and that was in the hand of a special unit policeman. You know, it's really simple to deal with guns in a country that doesn't have them. *rant over*

Knives: They are no that uncommon in England. There are only two bits of advice I can think of against knives. 1) Get some space and RUN!! 2) If this is not an option, grab the arm carrying the knife anyway you can, then unload a few strikes, untill you can get the space to run.

Or ofcouse, you could just scream for a passing bobby, there tend to be a fair few policemen/women around in the city where I am, we call them "bobbies on the beat."

I train with USSD. We have spent a good deal of time on street fighting techniques, including defense against guns and knives. There are definitely specific manuevers that you can use to disarm someone, assuming you have a moment or two of time. Generally speaking, you DO have time. More often than not, the perpetrator uses the weapon to accomplish some other crime, be it robbery, rape, etc. There are, or course, situations where there is no time to react, but that is not usually the case.

Like most defensive maneuvers, it is too complicated to write them... they should be shown and practiced.

USSD?

yeah, teaching people that somebody holding a gun on them is most likly not to use it is just plain dangerous, and will most probably lead to somebody getting killed.

I am as tough as the next fat old man. if somebody points a gun at me, I will do what he says. simple.

Good info from all.

Training for just a few sessions with Kyoshi Tino Cerebreano (40+ years in Goju Karate and Arnis) made me realise how ineffective the "good" knife defence stuff I've seen in Hapkido is against a trained person. The Hapkido stuff is meant to be gold compared to the other crap I've seen.

In short: train with a good kinfe man and see how deadly they can be. Then reasess your training before you make up a genral strategy.