Self Defence - advice wanted in regards to knife armed attackers, page 5

The thing about violent situations is that everyone reacts differently so unless you have been in quite a few incidents it is almost impossible to know how you’ll react. Will you freeze, run, scream, fight, cry, shake, pee yourself, go nuts?

I’ve been in many situations before but never a knife incident (Sorry, I lie: when a teenager, I was confronted by a ‘street-kid’ with a knife who was angry at me for approaching him about stealing an item from a friend of mine. In perhaps my stupidity, the way I reacted was to out-psyche the guy by getting into some sort of martial arts stance and circling the guy like I was some sort of crack commando in the special forces who would easily tear him a new one. He soon backed down. I’m not recommending you do this but it was how I reacted naturally and it did indeed work perhaps simply because I had belief in myself and never doubted I would lose. The ‘attacker’ certainly believed it.).

There are different techniques about how to deal with a knife attack specifically, but there are so many variations about how a knife is used (slash, lunge, over, under, stab etc) it is nearly pointless going through any here.
-If you are being attacked try to protect your vital organs and throat though even if it means you will be cut/stabbed/slashed etc in a non vital area (eg arms crossed over at wrists to avoid lunge attack).
- Avoid the knife by keeping a good distance (as opposed to say a baseball bat where you want to get in close)
- use whatever weapon you can find deter/strike the attacker with.
- Force the attacker drop the knife (usually through a defensive/attacking maneuver)
- attack sensitive areas (eyes, throat, groin, knees), head or break offending limb/wrist using a practiced technique.
Otherwise:
- run
- alert authorities/passers by..
- out-psyche them!

As suggested carrying around some very hot pepper powder (such as cayenne) may be a good idea. There are two reasons for this. It could be used in self defense by temporarily blinding someone and messing around with their other senses.
The second reason is that cayenne pepper apparently has the ability to stop/slow bleeding quite quickly so in case you were cut/stabbed, it could be used on the wound before applying pressure. I’ve never tried it but from what I have read recently, it does work. Apparently it is also good for the circulation and for heart attack, not to mention the bowels!

If you are that worried, I would enroll in a self defense course that deals with weapons (such as jujitsu) and practice, practice, practice.

I’d still take you though…