March 2nd, 2010 
admin Even a plastic knife can be dangerous with students that don’t know what they are doing. So how do you teach them about knives???
I nearly lost my right eye when training at one school because the instructor decided to teach us knife attacks using metal butter knives. They may not have sharp spiked ends but I nearly got one poked straight in my eye by another student during a simple parry drill.
For this reason I have always had a healthy respect for the dangers of knife training.
For this drill all you need is a box of chalk sticks to hand out to the kids. Even though it’s only a chalk stick get your kids to wear head gear if they have it to help protect their eyes or you can pick up some cheap protective eyewear at the local hardware store.
Now get the kids to partner up with one holding the chalk like a knife and the other standing opposite them empty handed.
Have the victim (empty handed child) raise their hands up to protect their face and neck. Make sure they turn their hands so that their palms are facing them and their hands should only be loosely clenched. This type of fighting guard will protect them from getting cut (marked with chalk) on a main artery in the arms or throat. The forearms will also help guard the heart.
Now this is some serious stuff we are doing here but don’t go into too much detail with the young kids. We want them to understand why they protect themselves this way but we don’t want to terrify them with too many heavy details.
Now explain that the attacker (kid with the chalk) will try to put a mark on their chest and arms or legs and that they have to parry the attack away using the back of their arms.
Start them off slowly with just a single swipe and then get it up to three attacks in a row. Don’t let the attacker move quickly until you are sure that the victim has learned how to avoid the chalk properly with the minimum of risk.
When they are doing the right movements let them work at a faster pace. As the attacks get to a realistic speed you will start seeing chalk lines on the kids uniforms where they are getting hit.
Explain to them that it the chalk was a knife that they would have some serious injuries and that you hope they understand to always try and get away from the knife without any contact at all.
If they see someone coming at them with a knife, don’t wait to try and parry the strike, just turn and run as fast as they can to somewhere safe.
If you get a student that still thinks they are invincible then let the attacker keep going at them until they make some marks. It is a good lesson to learn that if you keep trying to fight someone with a knife you will eventually get cut.
Always try and get away from the attacker.
NOTE: “This post has been extracted from the Inner Circle Members Newsletter. It is important information that I wanted to share with everyone”
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Interesting tactic, if you are training the kids to be targets. Your defences will allow them to to stay alive just that much longer until the knife hits somewhere lethal. Kids and anyone else need to learn to take out the real danger here…the person holding the knife. Do not waste time with drills that do not teach them to shut down the attacker. There are many targets to strike, both lethal (trachea) and non-lethal (vagus nerve). Drill on hitting these targets
Thanks for posting this. I think the concept of using chalk to demonstrate blade slashes is a great way to show the kids where strikes could land. I agree that even grade school children need to learn all the tools available when it comes to self defense. I also agree that they should be taught how serious the situation can be when dealing with an agressive attacker with a knife. Great advice.
Thanx for the post! This is very informative drill, expressing the real dangers of facing someone with a bladed weapon. Your approach is realistic and effective and I solute you. I myself have recently encountered a situation where a knife was used and the threat of getting cut was very real. However; the technique i used was simple. I avoided the situation and called the police. They found the knife on him and he went to jail…and i went home. The moral of the story common sense before self-defence. If you try to fight someone with a knife expect to get cut! If you dont want to get cut remove yourself from the situation.
Respectfully Yours
Prof. Alan Love
Hi AJ,
Thank you for this post. If you watch the news you can see that with the bullying problem in public schools today there is a very real chance that even grade school children my have to defend against a knife attack on campus. Giving them some basic knife defense skills could save their life.
Best Regards,
Richard Hackworth
http://worldmartialartsmagazine.com
Hi Pat
Your comment just cracked me up. I know exactly what you’re talking about and It’s funny when you’re not the poor instructor trying to keep them apart.
As you’ve already said, try to keep them seperated when possible during the lesson. If you have them lining up to do drills try and get a couple of kids between them in the line… think of the kids as magnets, the further apart the better, the closer they are the stronger the attraction. If you can get them on opposite ends of the line you will get some temporary control but if you let them get close togeather then you don’t stand a chance.
The same with the games, whenever you select teams or split the class into two or more groups try and seperate them.
This is probably all stuff you are already doing and I know how hard it is to keep them at a distance. We’ve had kids that keep accidentally hitting each other during drills because they seem to float sideways into each other like magnets.
3-4yo will always be a struggle to keep focused. Everything to them is new and exciting for the first 60 seconds and then it becomes boring. try to keep your lesson plan moving quickly, changing from one activity to the next every 3-5 minutes. You can stay focused on one skill like blocking or kicking but keep changing the way you are teaching them ie. drill it in a line, then in a game, then against a pad/sheild, then with a partner, then a different game or challenge.
At the end of the day they are 3-4yo and they have a lot to learn about everything. Your’e a brave instructor for taking them on.
I hope this helps. Keep in touch and let me know how you go.
Cheers
AJ
ps. You may feel like you’re getting nowhere with them but when they are 5-6yo you will have some great young students to work with.
Saw your post on knife fighting with chalk. That will keep my guys overly excited for some time.
I have a odd question for you to think about. I have two younger students that have a puppy love crush on each other and they have no focus at all. They distract the rest of the class that is mostly all ADHD. They are 3 and 4 years old and the others are about the same age. I seperate them but they gravitate toward each other no matter what happens during a class.
When they don’t listen and start talking because they can’t help themselves, all the others get unfocused and I try to keep them on task with what we are teaching. However, when I spend time getting them focused, the rest of the group is not getting anything going on because I have to work with them too much. How would you handle that problem?
Do you have a drill that will keep the others focused, keep the love bugs on on task and keep me from losing my sanity during the little champs class?