Knife fighting question

[PHILBERT]

I am reading something over at nononsenseselfdefense.com about knife fighting and in it, he talks about "prison yard rush". What exactly is that? He doesnt describe it, but talks about it.

[Black Jack]

In my practices it has been called the bulldog and I believe it is the same thing as the prison yard rush as I have heard people call it that as well.

It's actually a great knife attack method because it is very hard to defend against. Picture it like a crazed knifers rush, thrusting, stabbing, slamming and clawing into him at the same time, its even better if the target has a obstacle behing him so he is stuck by your forward pressure.

Here is how I do it,

Take a football linemans stance, your blade held in a forward grip, tip pointing towards your attacker and the knife held low by your waist.

Now charge the douchebag!! Your freehand which is in a tigerclaw/rake position goes into his face and eyes, your goal is to push, claw and manipulate his head backwards, messing up his balance, as you slam into him with your forward pressure and start jacking away with the knife, pretend you are a crazed lunatic connecting the dots, its all thrust, sink the knife in there and roleplay that its a freakin stickshift.

I hope that helped

[PHILBERT]

Well right now off the top of my head I can think of a few *theories* of escaping such a situation, but the man must be a few feet away rather than in my face to start. For one I'd step diagnolly either left or right and rotate to attack him, but timing would have to be perfect. I will try these out tomorrow night after class to see how well it works.

[Black Jack]

This move is made to overwelm your attacker/victim with relentless aggression and suprise.

When done right it is very hard to defend against, this move alone can mess up much more technical knifers in sparring because it is just so simple and direct, it is a 100% offensive manuever, its very common in prison shankings. When you practice it, make sure the feeder is not far away, it is not a move where you see a guy running across a football field with a knife in his hand, its all close quaters entry, picture a wrestlers shoot or the forward power delievered from a football players wide driving stance, bam and its right up on you.

The offhand is up in your face, which is to obscure vision and distract, another method is to slam your forearm up under his chin and force his head back for the same effect, you are blasting into the guy, pushing his waist, jerking on his body, that sort of thing, but its all about the charge and stabbing low under his field of vision.

Get a white-t shirt and a marker and go paly around with it.

[ewallace]

How effective would this manuver be when not used as the initial attack (when surprise is lost) ?

[Black Jack]

By suprise I mean he is suprised at the direct ballisitc nature of the attack itself. If he does not see the knife than that is just an extra added bonus, but in practice you will know the knife is there and even with that knowledge it still is the same ***** to deal with, its the direct aspect of the attack, coupled with relentless stabbing that makes it so tough.

Try defending it with a obstacle to your back or forced into a corner and it is even worse, which is IMHO the prime place to have someone if you are using this method, but it works either way, just make the attack sudden, direct and with aggression. Once you have your partners head back or dealing with your clawed offhand it is very easy to do whatever you want with the blade at that point. The point here is to stab wild.

Standup grappling and knife work is crazy, try it with a headlock, clinch and grab your partner in a headlock, from there go low and thrust away wild, the big part is that the grappling makes him deal with another element, thus giving you more uncontested freedom with the knife.

Hope this helped.

[ewallace]

Yeah that helped. So how would you defend against it?

[Black Jack]

My 2 yen,

Forget intricate joint locks right off the bat, forget fancy manipulations, strips and other stuff.

Disarm him through pain, you have to stop his barage and break up the forward pressure he is inflicting on you, give him something else to think about besides just stabbing you to death, put up some meat between you and the blade, the back of your forearm is good, and hit him and keep hitting, intell you can be free to move or have dropped him, if you can grab and secure the blade arm that is great, but this guy is going to be stabbing fast and wild which makes that pretty unrealistic, these methods have worked well for me in practice but it is still a very hard place to be, because once he is there you are pretty close to screwed, the trick is to hit the attacker before he can overwhelm you completely.

Here is a drill that might help, to practice get a partner and put your back to a wall, do not move from the wall area, have the attacker start giving you quater speed thrust and cuts, to start to get you hardwired, play around, just start practicing your forearm deflections and work on your observation skills, after a bit of that add in your strikes, i.e. you deflect a thrust to the stomach, you lash out with a tiger claw to the eyes or a sidekick to the shin, you see an opeing you take it, start to add in simple/freethought combinations into the mix if you have the chance, i.e. tiger claw/shin kick or open hand blow/kick to the ankle, just go with it and be direct on your counterattack.

After that increase the speed of his attack, have him mix it up, and just keep increasing, after awhile try it with a full on bulldog.

Hope that helps.