The scenario occurs in The Boned Zone, that place where you are in physical, psychological and legal jeopardy, with some subhuman attacking you unannounced. This occurs either because you suffer from what noted Urban Philosopher T. Spoone Slickens termed Stupid White People Syndrome, and are speaking with this knucklehead, or, because you were unaware and he just walked up on you.
In survival situations, where a weapon is assumed and warnings will be as slim as the attacker can manage, I prefer using a stick-fighting model. The knife is too specific and the stick does generalize to the knife. Boxing is too ritualistic. You want the tools and techniques of the boxer and the knife fighter. But you want to move like a stick fighter.
In boxing and knife fighting one uses generally short steps to access the opponent’s weak side. The knifer wants to jam the blade into the heart of his unarmed target while he avoids the strong hand. The boxer usually prefers not to move into his opponent’s rear right hand and thus walk into a power punch.
In stick fighting—and also in blade dueling—it is a common and sound strategy to move to your left and his right, ideally as his weapon passes, so that you are behind his forehand striking arc and away from the pesky empty hand that just might grab your stick or trap your knife hand.
Dealing with knife, club, rock, bottle, and fist wielding aggressors is more like dealing with a moderately skilled stick-fighter than a boxer or knife duelist.
The vast majority of your potential attackers break down like so:
1. The Bum-rusher who will shove you, often to knock you down so that others might stomp you. These tend to push off with the rear right foot.
2. The Goon who grabs you with his left hand and beat you with their right
3. The Runt who might shoot in for the waist-tackle, straight away or after a chest shove
4. The Sucker Puncher who will wing away with the right, most likely while you are not focused on them—so the punch is already hitting or missing when you first perceive it
5. The Sucker Clubber behaves identically to the sucker puncher
6. The Knifer, the most dangerous and common of which holds the knife back in a rear right hand and pitches the point into your torso as he uses his left hand to check or grab you depending on his need.
All of these aggressors bring their energy from the right. Therefore you want to go right as that will put you outside of his wheel house, his pocket. In weapon fighting we call that a pass. You want to pass his weapon so that you can come in behind it, or keep going.
Against a bum-rusher or waist-tackler stepping offline either way is good. So you might as well step right because the two nastiest guys, the goon and the knifer, want to grab you with their left hand and then murder you with their right. Deny them the first part of their attack and make them reach out with the rear hand.
The sucker puncher and the sucker clubber are sneak attackers and have probably already hit you or missed you through no skill of yours. Again, the instinct to move left after being hit from the left gets you out of his power arc and behind his weapon. Even among stick fighters that have trained for years most do not have a backhand that stops you. Blunt striking attacks tend to be forehand. If he has a backhand it sucks, and coming back after you with it is like giving you his arm or weapon.
If his backhand doesn’t suck, congrats, you are either being mugged by a tennis pro or a world class stick fighter. Good luck.
The leftward step is a step and drag.
If you have a weapon in hand you slash or chop with it from right to left as you move from right to left, harnessing your motion for the stroke.
Having stepped left, if the situation calls for flight you stride forward with the right leg and run past him, not off to the side. Make him turn around to pursue.
If the situation calls for combat you now have both of your hands against his one hand, and go from there.
In all of your stick, knife and boxing training I suggest developing the MMA shield habit with the left hand. The right side of your head and face is the target for almost everything coming your way in hand to hand combat. If bringing that palm up to your temple is an ingrained habit, it could save your life and enhance this leftward stepping pass.
Get out of The Boned Zone ASAP.
