Shinobi Martial Arts in Plaistow NH | Learn Ninjutsu Self Defense | 603-382-9456

I was quoted in one of our student’s blog posts as saying there is no such thing as a knife fight, that there is only a fight. I wanted to explain this statement because I had a number of students asking if I meant you didn’t have to worry about the knife. Let me see, how can I put this…NO!

My comment was made in response to the idea of different types of fighting for different situations. Knife fighting versus grappling on the ground versus kicking distance fighting. To me these are all dangerous ways of thinking when you are fighting for self protection and not sport.

You can’t have a different set of responses for each situation, it won’t work. Eventually you will guess wrong and you will lose, which means something much different in self protection situation then in a competition. Your system has to be ready for anything at any moment.

If you’re grappling you should know where your attacker’s hands are and if they have a weapon or not. In our art we assume they always have a weapon because that is how our art came to be. There were always weapons.

This is why I have a problem with many of the grappling ideas that are in fashion today when it comes to self protection. Guns, knifes and multiple attackers throw a big wrench into a lot of what is being taught as modern jujutsu.

Try putting a knife into one or both opponents hands and see the change it creates in their technique. Most are reduced to move faster, use more muscle and bigger stronger wins. The difference with our art is that weapons don’t change anything for us because to us there is just a fight and anything can happen.