A brutal way of doing knife attacks
Learning how to defend yourself against “grab and pump” knife attacks is easier said than done. These are the kind of attacks where the attacker holds the top of your shirt with one hand and tries to stab you with a knife with their other hand.
There are various reasons why it’s so difficult to block such knife attacks. The first is that the attacker, once he’s held you with an arm, will use that arm as a range.
This will be especially true if the attacker is a larger guy. You won’t be able to attack the assailant because he won’t be in your range. It makes things really difficult.
Another reason is that most people don’t know how to defend against such attacks (for which you cannot blame them). With the attacker having full control over his range of movement, you try to block the knife attacks. That is one of the biggest mistakes to make in a fight.
To know why, check out this handy self defense video:
The best way to defend against such knife attacks is by parrying the attacker’s arm. That means not letting the attacker grab you with his hand. This, in turn, will prevent him from stabbing you with the weapon as he still lacks control over your movement.
To parry the arm, you need two things. The first of which is awareness. As the attacker starts getting aggressive, watch out for his hands. Make sure that the moment he tries to get a hold of you, you push his arm away. This will deprive him of leverage over your movement.
By the way, here’s a great knife defense parrying exercise.
The second thing you want to do is to maintain a defensive posture. That is similar to the stance in which you block punches. With your arms up, you’d be easily able to deflect the attacker’s arm away, not letting them grab you.
However, even if worse comes to worst and the attacker succeeds in grabbing you, all hope is still not lost. The first thing you should try to do in such a situation is to move off to the side, the one that is away from the knife-hand.
This will make it difficult for the attacker to stab you.
More tips to defend yourself against “Grab and Pump” knife attacks
Another thing you could do – especially if the attacker is smaller in size – is to strike him on the face while moving away from the knife-hand. If both these things aren’t possible, and the attacker is going to stab you, then you’ve no choice but to block the knife attack.
Keep in mind that it’s very difficult for anyone to trap a knife. The speed and the angle at which the attacker would be swinging it, would make it very difficult to snatch the knife from his hand.
What you want to do here is to block the attack, before trying to pin down the knife-hand.
Or, if pinning down the knife hand isn’t an option, aim for the attacker’s sensitive targets. Head-butt, knee strikes, punches, anything that keeps the knife away from your body is fair game.
If you feel you can empower someone else with this self-defense information, feel free to share this link with your friends and family.
Lastly, make sure to sign up to our self-defense newsletter.
Thanks for reading and stay safe.
Patrick Viana
Code Red Defense