How realistic is this knife fighting? (vid)

[IronFist]

I don't know much about knife fighting other than drills where your opponent leaves his arm extended aren't realistic.

This show was kinda cool, though. For those of you who have more experience, how realistic are these? Two guys fighting each other with electrified knives. A stab is worth 2 points, a slash is worth 1 point. First to 5 wins.

This is from Ultimate Soldier Challenge on History Channel.

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKqcWD05doI&feature=youtu.be

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE5FR8U0EDk

edit - part 1 is back online but bad quality.

[Bernard]

I prefer a fencing type posture (minimize available targets) and lots of footwork and movement (moving target is harder to hit). At times these guys were too square and I don't advocate taking a shot to get a shot in. May work in empty hands but in a knife/blade fight, you may win there's a good chance of being crippled or something.

[Golden Arms]

The format looked decently realistic compared to most. I guess my first question would be: How ofter does person A have a knife, person B have a knife, they both know each other have knives, they have them out, and they both know they are fighting?

I have always preferred working to deploy the weapon while dealing with an aggressor or defend without if you cannot. It doesn't always end pretty but that is the reality of that type of scenario.

[IronFist]

The format looked decently realistic compared to most. I guess my first question would be: How ofter does person A have a knife, person B have a knife, they both know each other have knives, they have them out, and they both know they are fighting?

I have always preferred working to deploy the weapon while dealing with an aggressor or defend without if you cannot. It doesn't always end pretty but that is the reality of that type of scenario.

The people competing are soldiers (and/or or contractors) so it's likely that both would have knives.

[JamesC]

We used to do a lot of drills that involved shock knives. Look them up. The first thing you learn is that you're getting cut no matter what. Best you can do is ATTEMPT to minimize the danger.

We used to grapple with them too. That was always painful for someone lol

It's good training and it's good fun. As a side note, the last time I did this training I gave my partner 18 stitches in his eyebrow with an unintentional headbutt.

[Golden Arms]

The people competing are soldiers (and/or or contractors) so it's likely that both would have knives.

Not likely that both sides have no access to firearms and both have knives out. Also not very likely that neither you or he has friends around. Even sentry removal scenarios don't tend to be "he has a knife out and I use my knife".

[IronFist]

Not likely that both sides have no access to firearms and both have knives out. Also not very likely that neither you or he has friends around. Even sentry removal scenarios don't tend to be "he has a knife out and I use my knife".

Geez :p

Ok, assuming both people are squared off with knives drawn and there are no friends around and neither person has any other weapons, how realistic was that vid?

[GoldenBrain]

It's fairly realistic in that it demonstrates how fast knives move and how hard it is to control one, but there is a huge difference between that and a real knife fight.

I agree with JamesC that no matter what you're getting cut so if you get into a knife fight and I hope you never do then just know it's going to happen and as JamesC put it ATTEMPT to minimize the damage. Minimize the damage by protecting your vitals which would mostly be the heart/liver/lungs, carotid, brachial, radial and femoral arteries and your nards.

I noticed that these guys in the video were mostly going for center mass but I say de-vein the snake first which is to say go for the hand/wrist that is holding the knife. If you have no knife and your opponent does then make sure you control the knife hand at all costs.

I've studied quite a few styles and in my opinion the Filipinos have the best system for dealing with edged weapons. Here's a pretty cool video as one example... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmp2_WdFoPE

One more thing... If you don't want to spring for the electric knives then do what we did. We always wear black uniforms so we just chalked up the edges of our practice knives when sparring so you can see where you just got cut. Chalk is pretty cheap and uses no batteries.