Hey. Ando here from senseiando.com. Boy,
am I a lucky guy. Today, I'm with Mr. Nick Drossos.
If you haven't seen his
self-defense channels, I'm going to put
those links below. Definitely check it
out. He's got a mountain of good material
there. It turns out he's a pretty nice
guy, too.
Unless he's hiding some evil streak. We'll find out right now. Oh, there it is!
Today, I wanted
to bring you something about weapons.
I haven't done any videos yet about
weapons and Mr. Drossos has spent a
lot of time working weapons, seen
things in real life, he's done a lot of
random person attacks in the park. If
you haven't seen those videos, they're
fantastic. So, I thought I would turn it
over to him today and you could help us
figure out the big do's and don'ts
about knife. Just give us the Basics 101.
<You know, okay. First of all I want to share a little
bit of my experience. I worked in clubs.
I actually saw people get stabbed. And the first thing
when people got stabbed is nobody
knew who had the knife. Nobody saw the
knife. All we knew was somebody got
stabbed or somebody pulled out a knife.
Because that's the reality of how fast
an attack happens. <Sure. <And a lot of
people focus on knife defense when the
knife is out, or most of the videos look
like this. So, come at me. <Right.
<All right. And then it's like, all right,
come at me really fast. Okay.
What I hate about this stuff is that it gives a
false belief to people and it's going to
get them killed. <Yes, sir. < Anytime you
you have this type of training, and when
you see a video like this, you've got to
tell yourself this is not real. That shit
doesn't happen like that. Number one, if
somebody's going to attack you with a
knife, what does he have to do? He has to
come into your range.
Chances are the knife is going to be
concealed here, here, here,
either rolled in a paper, could be in a bag.
So, that's the first thing. He's got to
come in your range. So, he's got to come at
least 5, 7 feet, pull out the knife, and
then start attacking. Attacks are going
to last, the guy's not going to sit there
for a minute and do a sparring drill
with a knife. He's going to spend maybe
four, 10 seconds, and he's out. So, your
reaction time has to be super fast.
Now, what a lot of people are missing in
order to defend yourself against the
knife. First of all, it's all about being
proactive. Being able to be aware. To see,
okay, I see the guy approaching and he's
talking to me here and I can't see his
hands. I could only assume he has a knife. 
I don't care if he's holding his phone, I'm
not going to take a chance. I don't know
you. You're in my space. You're moving
around as I'm just, concealed, and I see
this, my hands are going to come up. One
hand is going to come a little bit lower
because I want to be able to trap or jam
that knife. Now, it's not going to be a
perfect trap. I'm not literally fixing to
grab it. If I do, great. If not, I'm still
going to try to pin it. <Right. <Now, the
reality is that every time I make a move,
he makes a move. There's action/ reaction.
So, it's not going to look like 1, 2, 3.
No. Once I trap the knife, he's going to
start pulling. So, start, give me resistance. He's going to come here. He's
going to try to cut. I'm going to
come right over here. The knife just
switched hands, right? If I'm here, what
would I do?
I'd, sorry. You okay? <Yeah, sure. < I'd bring it here, I'd head butt, I'd knee, I'd try to trap.
If he continued going, keep going. So, he's trying to pull me down. Try to grab. 
He's coming around.
Don't let him get that knife. Again, I'd be striking, but look...
I'm pinning the knife. Now, here's the thing--
people tell me against the knife we
should run, yes. But I need to be this
many feet in an open area. Now, I did this
test where, because we get a lot of
comments, people telling me you're an
idiot, you're going to get people killed.
<Sorry about that. <Yeah. And I get
this comment, and what I did, and I test
it out full out, where we had one guy, the
attacker here, I was here, the door was
there. By the time I run to the door, I got
stabbed. So, the idea that you're going to
run is not always possible.
Your environment is going to play a big role
with what you can do. If I'm in an
elevator-- start attacking like this-- I
can't
parry in an elevator. I need to trap
because I'm in a confined space.
Start again. If I'm here, I could do
this, then, yes, I can run. If he's grabbed
me and he's here--now, you see? Now, he's grabbed me here, I didn't know-- great example.
I said to grab me. Some people do this,
some people grab here, he went for here,
which is even more dangerous because
he's controlling the neck. What happens
is it becomes hard. So, he starts pumping. So, I got to start, I got a trap as
quickly as possible. So, running is not
always an option. So, what are the best
options against knife defense? Number one-- awareness. I have the distance, I see him with
a knife. Here, I'm out. Two, an improvised
weapon. I'm in the restaurant, a bar,
there's weapons everywhere. I'll throw
the glass, throw a plate, pick up
the chair, pick up the barstool, and get
out. If I'm in open space, I can--
attack. I could parry and use
my legs and try to move. If I'm in a
closed, confined space, I don't have a
choice but to trap a knife, to trap it.
Once I trap it, Ieither pin it to my body
or to his body, depending on where he moves.
And I got to strike as quickly as
possible. If he grabs me here, this is a
pump and grab, as I call it, this is very
dangerous because what happens a lot of
times, people forget about the arm and
they focus here. But unless I move the
arm I'm going to keep getting stabbed. So, there's no black and white. There's no
foolproof system. And again, the basic to
all this is when you're faced with an
attacker is you're looking at his hands.
So, conceal the weapon. I'll open my eyes.
If I'm here and I'm talking to him, and
I see this, I'm ready to move in and make
sure I trap the knife as quickly as possible.
Right? If he's got the knife
here and I'm talking to him, my hand is
going to come a little bit low to come
in and jam it and strike at the same
time. So, really focus on that. So, my
best tip to you is when you're faced
with an attacker, the first thing you do,
as I'm talking to him, my hands come up.
When I used to be a doorman, I used to talk to 
people like this. I was always like this.
Here, here, here. My hands are always up. 
I always looked at their hands. If I
couldn't see their hands, I was ready to
strike and go pre-emptive. So, at the end,
it's your life. You got to decide
what you're going to do when you're
facing that situation. <Yes, sir. Wow. A lot of
truth bombs in there. A lot of stuff for
people to think about. Especially when
the knife comes out in training, emotions
seem to run a little bit higher and
your sense of mortality is really right
there the whole time. So, even if knife is
not your thing, in a world like the one
we live in, I think it's really valuable
that everyone finds a little bit of time
in their training to bring out a knife
and just, even just to put it down and
look at it and think about it for a
second, and then to have someone actually
standing across from you with that knife,
even if we're just moving around a
little bit, and just talking and theory, you
can just feel if you have, your emotions
are starting to change, that tells you
something. You really need to take
another look at this weapon and make
peace with it. You want to make peace
with it, hopefully then you can actually
take control of it. So, thank you very
much. This is an awesome quick tutorial.
I'm going to keep the knife.
Again, I'm going to put the links below.
Please go check out Nick Drossos'
YouTube channels. I'll put the links below.
He's got two really great ones, so check
them both out. And until next time, let's
keep building bridges with one another.
Let's all keep learning from each other.
All martial artists, we should hang
together or we surely hang separately.
Until next time, keep fighting for a
happy life. <Wow. Very well said.
