© Street Combatives 2022
Lack of Realistic Training in today’s
Defensive Knife Courses
by: Ron Lauinger, Combative Instructor.
www.LMIInc.com
Defensive knife tactics are an underrated necessary
skill. In today’s world where the criminal is better
trained and more determined than ever before, one
must be skilled both physical and mentally to face
these new challenges and go home at the end of each
day. In order for someone to acquire these skills, one
must seek out and train with instructors which teach
effective, real world defensive techniques.
Today’s defensive community is plagued with
unrealistic training techniques as well as unproven
training techniques. Many instructors teach
techniques which are ineffective in real life street
fights. These techniques are praised upon by the
instructors, yet students have no way of determining if
these techniques are really effective. This is extremely
dangerous as the student may depend on these skills
one day to save their life, the life of a friend or partner.
Techniques that look ‘devastating’ in a dojo, training
video or on TV most often do not work on the streets.
Real Attackers are fast, furious, and they are
determined to either hurt you, or kill you.
Most trainers pair up students, each knowing when
and how to attack. Then, both students move slowly so
that each student has time to move and react. This is
great for basic training when understanding the
fundamentals is essential; however, to train for‘real
life survival’, training MUST escalate to unknown, full
speed attacks.
Most techniques seen today depend mostly on either
fine motor skills, which are seriously depleted when
your heart starts racing, or the student must practice
the technique for years to acquire the proficiencies
required to perform the technique correctly.
Students must understand that when faced with a Real
Attacker, one that actually wants to hurt you, that you
must act fast, without remorse, and the techniques you
use must immediately stop the attack.
Your heart will be racing, your blood pressure will
increase dramatically, and your body will go through
many changes. Some of these changes include; a
reduction in your vision, loss of hearing, and most
importantly, your ability to think and manipulate your
extremities. Techniques must be simple, and must be
ingrained through repetitive practice, both physically
and mentally, so if ever attacked, you will instinctively
react, stopping the attack.
Proving that techniques are effective is especially true
when learning techniques against edged weapons.
Edged weapons are extremely dangerous and applying
techniques that don’t work is a tactical liability, and
can get you and others killed.
Several years ago I started substituting training knifes
for large Crayola Markers. These markers would leave
a mark on the attacked if the defensive technique
wasn’t applied correctly. This was a great way of
training, however, the markers were constantly
breaking, and wasn’t professional looking, or effective
as a reality based training tool, as markers do not feel
or act the same way as a blade. Only the tip of the
marker would leave a mark, where a blade has an edge
as well as a point, letting it cut in many directions. I
also tried using chalk on the edge of training knifes,
which worked similar to using markers, but the mark
was hard to see and needed to be re-applied to the
blades constantly.
Then I read an article about Hank Hayes and No Lie
Blades, a company which manufactures training knifes
and provides tactical combat training to Military, Law
Enforcement and civilians.
There training knives use ink or paint on their felt
lined knifes that leaves marks, much like what I was
use to. I went to there website at nolieblades.com, I
found it very informative and quite different from
many other websites. Their training knifes looked
professional, and the marks that were seen in the
article left no doubt that the knife made contact and a
defensive technique in fact failed. I called No Lie
Blades and reached Hank Hayes the CEO and ordered
two of their ‘Standard Series, Double Edged Knife
kits’.
I received the No Lie Blades several days later, along
with two instructional knife defense DVD’s and several
tubes of lipstick. That same week I held a Defensive
Knife Course. Before class started, I prepped the
knives as stated in the directions. I was extremely
impressed with both the quality of the No Lie Blade
training knives as well as the incredible deep red
(blood like) mark that these training blades left. There
was no doubt when the blade made contact. It was also
possible to clean the felt and use them as regular
training knifes without them leaving their mark on the
defender.
During class I noticed an immediate change in the
student’s attitude as they were amazed with the
product as well, and they simply hated getting marked
by them. Several of the students have had defensive
knife instruction before, from another instructor, and
realized that they had a lot more to learn than they
had previously thought. This made the student try
much harder ‘Not’ to get marked. The students moved
faster, and they took training more seriously. The
students seemed to learn the techniques much faster
than with previous training blades.
The No Lie Blades training knives greatly enhanced
my combat skills and helped provide the immediate
proof that the students needed. I have purchased
several more of these training knives from No Lie
Blades and use them religiously in my training
curriculum. These are high quality training knifes,
easy to use, feels great in the hands and there mark
leaves no doubt that they made contact, these blades
DO NOT LIE.
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Street Combatives
Specializing in Close Quarter and Knife Combatives