Hi lee i hope you are well,
At what age do you think it is ok to introduce knife defence. Should the objective be when dealing with young people just to introduce the dangers of knife or should instructors go further. How far do you go and from what age? Does the introduction of knifes and talking about them induce a healthy or unhealthy intrest in them if the concept of knife defence is introduced at too early an age.
Respectfully
Peter

Hi Peter,

I hope you and Lee don't mind me hopping on the wagon here.

In my opinion the knife defense stuff should be thaught as early as possible as the kids are carying knives from early age on.

It seems that a schoolgoing kid has more risk in facing an armed attack at school than a grown up in the street. So just teach it. Also the teaching will hopefully make them sensible about the reality of knife-use and make them move away from carrying for so called selfdefense purposes.

Kind Regards,

Nick Engelen

yes i am with you nik but how far do we go in the teaching regarding violence the outcome of attack how to teach about knife threat without gloryfying it in the eyes of a child teenager.

Hi Peter,
a couple of trains of thought exist here. It really depends what you mean by introduced to, in a teaching sense; and what age group that your dealing with.

In terms of students in my classes I don't really teach kids in a physical sense, the minimum age requirement for my classes is 16 but I don't have any young regular students others than those that attend workshops and seminars in the UK and abroad.

With that said I have and do teach in schools, colleges and universities but not in a physical sense more from a knife awareness point of view. I would prefer to give these young people the addition of physical counter measures, ONCE they understand all of the dynamics relating to the overall problem. But the educational department prefer that I don't, infact they insist on it.

In a physical sense no one system has all the answers to the knife problem from an unarmed perspective. Material available out there, borders from practical suicidal to attempt, right through to some workable concepts. But the main counter measure comes from a full understanding of the problem.

You must first understand the consequences of the problem before you start formulating solutions and that begins with education. So yes I think any and all should be informed and where applicable they should be training progressively to support that understanding.

Of course I teach and have taught my own kids from a young age, certain personal security measures backed up with progressive hard skills as and when their ready. I think it is important to educate children of school age-through all the teen years; to the dangers and consequences of knife carry and usage.

Of course the majority of violence in Britain today is coming from young people and a huge percentage of that is coming from edged weapons as we've seen. We are as a Country, fast becoming a knife carrying culture; atleast in regards to youth violence and gang culture.

If you have anyone, young or old alike, coming to your classes to learn some realistic form of Self-Protection then they should be learning what's applicable to todays environment straight from the off. This of course relates to the context of any street attack.

What do we now about that? We know that during such an event the criminal will do all he/she or they can, to give themselves the highest probability of success and that come from weapon carry and multiple subjects. No one assaults you with Queensbury rules.

They will use ambush tactics or a ruse, the assault will happen at close quarters, it will be fast and aggressive designed to overwhelm you quickly, both physically and emotionally, chances are there's more than one individual and one or more them is probably armed.

If your training doesnt reflect that, then it's not training for today's environment period. So in answer to your question yes I think if youngsters have been accepted into a teaching environment geared towards learning self-preservation skills (not martial art for art sake) they should be educated from the earliest opportunity.

Hope that answers your question mate....
Cheers Lee

Thanks for the detailed answer.