Customer Reviews

Self-Defense Against Knife Attacks

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When I read Safety Steve's review of this book I decided to pass on it and ordered something else. Today I saw this book at Barnes and Noble and was impressed enough to buy it from Amazon(see my other reviews). It's another very well done book in the Braun Jiu Jitsu series by M&M. The photography is well done and it's easy to understand the material. The knife techniques are very similar to the empty hand techniques that I teach, and are a good fit for our JuJitsu class. There's nothing too exotic here, just evade and deflect the attack, trap the knife hand and neutralize the attacker.
It sounds so easy. Unlike the other books in this series I hesitate to recommend this one to anyone not already skilled in some form of martial arts. If you are an advanced student, you should have developed the timing and reflexes to benefit from these techniques. If you have no martial arts training and try to defend against an edged weapon you will wish you carried a gun.
Knife Self Defense is a great addition to the other Books in this series because it is so well done and the techniques build on those taught in JiuJitsu Basics and JiuJitsu Training. Buy the book, learn some new skills, practice them, and maybe some day it will save your life. But if you're self taught and go against a knife your best defense is two shots to center mass.

If you are interested in traditional Filipino knife defense material this is a great resource. However, if you are interested in learning how to successfully defend yourself against a knife-wielding assailant bent on killing you, I would pass on this book.

The author covers numerous traditional Filipino knife defense techniques that work great in a controlled training environment, especially if the practitioner is highly skilled. However, these same techniques tend to lose effectiveness under the stressful and chaotic nature of real assaults. Some of the techniques include stripping disarms, without any kind of diminishment, which is hard to pull off when the assailant has a convulsive death grip on the weapon. It also includes complex lock-based disarms and artsy takedowns. The author even shows techniques where he disarms the knife and then uses it against the unarmed attacker. Apparently he isn't familiar with the self-defense laws in most states. Simply put, if you take the knife away and then use it on the assailant, there is a good chance you will end up behind bars, unless you can prove without a doubt that you had no other choice but to use lethal force against an unarmed person.

As an edged weapon defense instructor I can tell you that it's not a subject to be taken lightly. The best defense against these types of situations is to remove yourself immediately. If that isn't possible, resort to improvised weapons. Empty-hand defense should only be used as a last-ditch option. Even then, the skills should be simple gross-motor movements that are easy to learn, easy to retain, and easy to use under stress. Don't bet your life on the skills shown in this book, I know I won't.