Red Zone Measurement
And once again knives...
Sorry, dear friends, but as always, this topic is currently very actual, especially in Germany.
After various knife attacks in public, the demand for suitable solutions is of course great and wherever there is demand, there are enough expert opinions and well-intentioned training tips on what these could look like.
Unfortunately, these “expert opinions” are usually the opinions of perhaps good martial artists, but very rarely of people who have actually experienced a real knife attack or had to actively take action against a knife attacker.
If you have actually experienced this you will very quickly come to the conclusion that a certain degree of tactical/technical understanding, as well as mental preparation is essential in order to solve this problem and it must become a regular part of your training.
The purely technical execution of the “defensive measures”, on the other hand, is usually quite simple, which should not be surprising, since complicated, possibly well-rehearsed movement sequences are doomed to failure in the face of a life-threatening, stressful situation.
Therefore, today I do not want to deal with how one might respond to a knife attack, but I would first like to focus on the tactical principles that apply in such cases.
Distances
The correct distance behavior plays a crucial role in almost all martial arts, unfortunately the definition of the relevant distances is usually rather nebulous and very different.
In the event of a real attack on one's own person, in principle only two distances are relevant.
The first distance is the one at which the aggressor can attack you directly without further stepping. There are various names for this distance such as close distance, close quarter or similar.
At this distance, for example, a good punch to the face hits the target in about 0.2 seconds.
If the defender is well trained, the maximum achievable reaction time after the eye perceives the attack is 0.6 seconds as the absolute top value. In this situation, it is mathematically not possible to ward off the attack without additional aids.
Of course, the same applies to a knife attack at this distance, as the same distance and hit ratios apply to a knife as to an attack with the hand.
Because attacks at this distance cannot be repelled using purely optical sensory perceptions, I like to call this distance “the red zone”.
The second distance that is relevant therefore represents everything that happens outside of this red zone.
This means that the attacker must take at least one step towards his target in order to successfully achieve his attack.
For the defender, this means that the visual perception (of the step movement) is still sufficient in this case to initiate promising countermeasures.
If you have been able to follow me up to this point in this admittedly dry matter, you will certainly notice that not a single word has been said about the type of promising defensive measures (techniques).
And for a good reason.
In my opinion, the fundamental training goal, not only for dealing with a confrontation with a knife, but for all real, physical confrontations, is the knowledge of the so-called red zone distance and when and whether the attacker is already in this zone.
For this reason, you cannot incorporate enough exercises to actually measure these distances in your training or create them as an instructor, especially and most important, at the beginning of your training.
As long as you cannot reliably estimate the two distances described, every physical attack becomes a game of VA Banque, not because you may not have the defensive techniques to counter the attack, but because you do not have the opportunity to apply these, due to a lack of or incorrect distance assessment.
In one following article, I would like to look at what a possible (tactical) solution could look like, if a (knife) attacker is outside the red zone.
Finally, another article will look at the options if the aggressor is within the red zone.
The accompanying video today is from our latest seminar here in Bonn, which dealt with “close-quarter-combat” and of course the foundation was laid by correct measurement especially of the “red-zone”.
If you now feel the urge to train the whole thing under the guidance of VLADIMIR VASILIEV himself, here is the opportunity:
Vladimir Vasiliev in Bonn/ Germany
on September 21st/22nd. 2024
The theme is:
“Knife & Short work”
The topic fits exactly what I'm trying to explain here and is a rare opportunity that shouldn't be missed.
Registration at: www.systema-bonn.de