“What do you think about this video and his techniques?”

“Specifically the leg checks and hand fighting which he shows against untrained people seem to be pretty effective.”

-Sean

Before I view the film, Sean, leg checks in knife fights work good against skilled knife fighters as well. However, if you get carried away with them you get skewered or cleaved. I’m interested in what kind of applications we see here.

I really like this Nick's style, and I highly recommend fighting like this for people with kicking skills that are learning boxing. Bur primarily against unarmed aggressors.

There is a huge problem with this experiment in that he states that their goal is to mark his shirt, and he is not wearing any eye protection. Now, when I was a teenager, if he had done this with me, he would be missing an eye. I have used this empty hand style successfully for short periods against slower men. Tall quick guys like him have much more success with it. The problem is these people are approaching it like a contest, like a duel, because that is how he is pitching it. He does not go to a prison, wait for guys to get released, give them a marker, but a set of goggles on, and say okay, kill me, no time limit. I did not see him approach any basketball players in this video did I? The height has a lot to do with his success and all his opponents are shorter. Also, a blade would have hacked his hands up, unlike the marker that only touches with the tip.

People that pick up a knife and decide to kill you, usually approach with a hidden knife and an extended empty hand and then stab, and as soon as it is seen that the defender is actually fighting back, they are punished with a face slash, then the stabbing continues. By suggesting that he slash at them, and telling them to go for his shirt instead of saying, "Hey, you can mark my face up too and I'm okay with losing an eye," he has hopelessly skewed the experiment.

That said, I really like his leg checks and open hand work. A guy his height has more reach with his finger tips than the shorter men have with the knife.

This is a good example of technique, but is equaled by the showmanship and stage managing that misrepresents shank work [this is not knife work but shank work] in a knife dueling context. People who pick up items that just have a point attack psychotically, not in a sparring fashion. His leg checking was impressive as much for its control as anything.

As with most knife demos, this does not address what the untrained but ruthless predatory aggressor will do with a knife, but what the overmatched untrained guy who would not normally come after you with a knife would do if he caught you threatening his mother. And again, keep in mind that a marker does not—cannot—represent a knife of longer than a half inch. If the marker is your blade surface than the blade being simulated is only a half or quarter inch long. Again, this represents a shank, and no shank behavior was shown with the exception of the black-haired guy and he got close to doing our man in. People do not hold shanks in the lead very often. Also, shank attacks go the longest, up to a minute, and typically inflict 5-40 stab wounds.

Despite my criticism about the experiment Nick is an excellent fighter and I would really like to see guys that I coach on boxing practice those kind of open hand checks and strikes in case you have to use your boxing to defend yourself, as this protects your hands and hopefully keeps you out of jail. His right hand slap to the face was real nice and is the one he put power behind, as stepping in under the jab could have gotten him stabbed. The thing I would have him try to improve on is fighting south paw as that puts him farther from the blade and takes his heart off line. If he had been going against a 5 inch blade he would have been stabbed in the heart with some of those shots he checked. It was vey cool that he got his neck slashed and gave up some money to some of these guys.

In the end, unarmed against the knife doesn't get any better than this. Nick did really, as much as anyone would do against a person trying to put steel on him, and even though the experiment was somewhat skewed, he still took a few hits. If he had a hand umbrella, or a rolled up magazine, he'd have a really tight defense against edged weapon attacks. And those items are legal in any outdoor setting, and in most courthouses even.

The technical breakdown at the end was good. In my opinion, this is about as good as it gets in empty hand versus edged weapons attacks. The grappling commitment up front—which he is against—is just too much of a crap shoot for it to be doctrine. His open hand kick boxing is giving him the option of either running, closing, or poking out eyes. Note that it would be a mistake in most cases for him to elevate his foot to the groin. Take it from experience. It is easy to stab a dude while he's kicking your balls in. Keep the kicks low where he had them.

Over all, Nick's style is very similar to a friend of mine named Charlie Wallace, who has taught in the Baltimore area for about 20 years.