How to survive a knife attack

A friend of mine recently got mugged and attacked by two guys. How the whole story goes I am not sure, but he received two stiches on the head and chipped a tooth. He was lucky. It could have gone a lot worse. If they are carrying knifes, he would not be receiving just two stiches.

Let us put ourselves in a situation: you are walking in a dark alley, alone. Suddenly a young dude carrying a knife jumps you and demands all your money. As far as you know, no one is around to help you. What do you do?

Even experienced martial artist would tell you that it's not worth it to fight an armed attacker. Even if at the end you won the fight there is only a very small chance you would escape from it unhurt. Your life is much more valuable than your belongings, and to provoke an attack is the last thing you want to do when standing of against an armed attacker. Your best survival tactic is to give them whatever they want, do not look them directly against the face, and don't speak loud. In other words, be passive.

However, sometimes things can get extremely ugly. When all they want is to hurt you, when a fight is inevitable you need to know how to fight against an armed attacker. There are two important factors that makes them have tremendous advantage over you. The first is their reach, with a knife they have a longer range of attack then you. The second is the fact that they are holding a weapon. You are already at a disadvantage due to fear. To fend of attackers with knifes, you are best with a weapon of your own. This can be very ordinary objects, such as a chair. I believe it would not be easy to cut a person who is flinging a chair with just a short kitchen knife. Or anything from an ordinary plank of wood lying on the ground, to the metal cover of a trash, a jacket wrapped around your hand can be used to protect yourself.

Your best chance of survival would still be to give in. However if things get bad and you have to protect yourself, do not hesitate to do it. Use all that you can, do all that you can, and hope for the best. And when that comes, do be prepared to leave with a few scars.