Search - Krav Maga: On the Edge on DVD

Defending against a knife

Seppo Vesala | Helsinki, - Finland | 09/23/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This film concentrates on defending against knife attacks. They mention that in the future they will produce more tapes on the subject, so this is only a beginning. The film starts with 9 minutes long introduction to knife attacks, that includes the most common ways your attacker will use the knife, several different ways to hold a knife, and so on. The DVD includes over a dozen techniques on defending against different knife attacks. There are two extra techniques on the DVD that are not found on VHS version of the film.

As in other films, the instruction is generally good, and it is easy to understand the techniques. To illustrate the effectiveness of the instruction, I was viewing the film for the first time, and there were several techniques that were totally new to me. The next day, I was practicing techniques in my Krav maga class, and they presented a new knife defense technique. It was one of the techniques I had seen in the film the previous night. As I was practicing the technique for the first time, it was apparent that I performed better than usual when trying a new technique for the first time. Although I had not practiced the technique while watching the film, it still improved my technique.

As of the techniques on the film: For the most part, they were OK, as is usually the case with Krav maga techniques. But this time, there were four techniques I did not like at all. All of them were kick defences against a knife attack. The main problem with these techniques is that there is no blocking of the knife attack, rather the technique is based on pre-emptive kick that is supposed to stop the attack. But if that kick fails, of the attacker tries to block your kick with his knife hand, you are in trouble.

The production of the film is at the same level as in the previous films. Everything works fine, but there is nothing fancy. This time, however, in some places they have used real slow motion (slowing down the film, as opposed to performing in slow pace that is used in other films).

Run time: 1:22"