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| The game of trying to keep the extended knife hand away from the free arm. Not so easy! Photo A. Surowiec |
AKM has been going strong for a long time now, but nothing brings this home more than the seminars it puts on, which are well attended with skilled practioners present. Krav Maga is an Israeli martial art that Anna Surowiec was keen to discover after she realised kick boxing alone was not enough against an armed opponent. Weapon disarms, spacial awareness and strategy are core elements. The least time spent engaged the better! This night brought home exactly why.
Gathered in a
small space, complete with well cleaned (slippery) floor and a DJ Booth playing loud music, about 30
people waited for their Saturday night to begin. Dark and surrounded by booze,
usually this would be a fun environment. Fond memories of being in a mosh pit
might come to some people’s minds! But in a scene similar to the Kingsman where
Colin Firth takes on a church, half the people pulled out knives and started
slashing.
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| Another day in the office: striking. Photo A. Surowiec |
The fact I went to the toilet and had overheard what was about to happen didn’t really help me, I got ‘stabbed’
about three or four times and slashed even more. Rubber knives don’t leave wounds,
but I was annoyed by the implication I was dead. It wasn’t the fact I couldn’t grab the
knife arm, but the knife arm changed so quickly it didn’t matter. Discussing
this later, Krav Maga trainer Alan Clark explained how a knife attack will have
multiple fatal stabs. "If the attacker has a knife with intent on using it, whether its to gain something or inflict harm, when the time comes and the attacker reveals the knife you are now 4/5 steps behind of the situation. Not only that with everything else going on you more than likely won't see the knife. They say that on average once an attack has started the average amount of stabs in an incident is 14... but it only takes one to kill."
The
techniques learned in this lesson show just how difficult it is to know what to
do. With no room to kick someone, no idea if someone else is involved, Alan
left another chilling demonstration “The first time I saw one of these I
thought it must be illegal.” He started to adjust a credit card, “This is legal carry knife, doesn't mean you can walk to ASDA with it, but it is legal carry” in the dark, a triangular matte black blade was visible in
the lasers after a ten second assembly time.
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