That's not a knife, this is a knife.

For whatever reason I was talking about knife stuff, you tube videos with a friend and student at the playground. The truth is, the way I would react if someone pulled a knife on me would probably not be that different than a normal person's reaction. I don't think I would use some very clever and clean looking technique. Is it possible I would freeze like a deer in head lights?

That is possible.

Running or distancing your self might be the best solution. But that could be difficult if my kids are with me. So the main thing would be putting myself in between the knife and them.


Once in a physical altercation.. .would it make much difference that they had a knife? I don't mean in terms of my odds. My odds are screwed. I mean in terms of my reaction. I might go for the hand holding the knife... if I even saw it, which I probably wouldn't.

The one time this old guy pulled a knife on me, I just grabbed him (not the knife). He put the knife away. It was still in it's scabbard. In fact I was wondering did I really just see a giant hunting knife. This was only confirmed by the fact that I said to him "You pulled a knife on me."

He then said, "It's my knife, I bought it with my own money."

I never accused him of stealing the knife mind you. That was not my issue.

I eventually let him go. He tried to pull it out again, and it was my words admonishing him that actually stopped him. Some people would say I was way to merciful in that case. But since neither of us even got hurt let alone died I would say for that particular case, given the guy's age, that was probably the correct reaction.

The point is, the knife situation is always considered to be a situation where words are now useless. And so the answer for what you do is usually physical. Fight or flight. And the fight aspect is usually some cleanly demonstrated sequence of moves. I'm not saying those are ineffective. I know some stuff to do, but I don't practice them as much as my more basic stuff... so probably, my body would react with what I practice... When I grabbed that guy, running was not really responsible because it happened at the Kung Fu school and other people were sleeping there. So I had to be the attack dog.
I grabbed him in a way that was sort of martial artsy in some aspects... but in other ways it was just grabbing him like a bully. The only thing I learned from that encounter martial arts wise was that I start working on shaking chi gung cheun ging (inch power) with a sort of side ways Karate chop. But also I worked on all sorts of angles and techniques more, because I realized it's important to be able to hit repeatedly from strange or awkward angles with one hand, because other hand may be grabbing, and usually people really are not defending themselves and the spot you are hitting is just open and could remain open for repeated strikes. If I performed this type of thing, it would look extremely stupid and boring. People might wonder what the hell I am doing and if I have lost my mind. Although when I demo it with words and talk to people, some people have mentioned that they were impressed.


It's funny how stupid some advanced and powerful Kung Fu can look.