Sundar J. M. Brown: I am Sundar J. M. Brown with Joe Diamond's Mixed Martial Arts Academy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today, we are discussing practical self-defense. When I am faced with a very serious weapon, such as a knife, my best self-defense strategy is cooperation. If I am not a trained martial artist who doesn't know how to finish the fight, I may only anger my opponent and make him twice as aggressive. In this instance, my life is at stake. If I have to fight for my life to survive, this is my best option. Let's look at the movement step by step, so we can understand how to execute it. Initially, my opponent is coming at me with an overhand knife struck. If I try and reach inaccurately, I’ll end up grabbing the knife and slicing my hand. If my face is too close when I grab, I am going to get stabbed in the face or the eye or the head, anywhere.
So, two very important details here, I have to recognize that I must close the distance between me and my attacker in order to neutralize the knife strike, but I have to do that while keeping my face out of the way. So, when I enter, I enter like this, back. I must also make sure that I direct my hand towards the wrist not towards the knife. The goal is just to slowly attack, so that I can neutralize the attack finally. So as the knife comes down, I lock like this and step in with my main foot. One more time, the knife comes down, I enter and lock the wrist and now my second hand inserts behind my opponent's hand, overlapping my own hand. I tighten my elbows like this and now I apply a downward pressure, which creates enough pain to make him unlock the grip and drop the knife.
Again, as my opponent enters with an overhand strike, I step forward and catch the wrist with my face back. Now, I insert my second hand under the attacker's arm and overlap his hands, stepping my feet together. I squeeze my elbows in tight and I apply a downward pressure, until the pain causes him to unlock his grip and drop the knife. If the attacker is very resistant to this, I may need to put the attacker on the ground. Alternatively, I’ll do this. As the attacker strikes overhand, I repeat the same procedure, I catch the knife with my face back, I enter with two hands.
Now, I use my second leg, not the leg with I lead with, but in this instance, my right leg and I am going to continue the pressure here with my elbows squeezed in and I sweep the leg at the same time. It's important that I never let go here. If I do, the opponent regains control of the knife and he can cut anyone of the arteries in my legs. So, from here I continue this pressure and if I like, I can kick the opponent; I can kick the opponent in the head; I can strike the opponent's face. Let's look at it one more time at regular speed and with the take down.
In the next segment, we will learn how to defend ourselves against the most advanced weapon, a gun.
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