Which hand to hold a knife in?

I was thinking about this the other day, if involved in a single knife on single knife fight, which hand (lead or rear) would you hold your blade in?

Would you keep your weapon to the front to create more space, or would you keep your knife in the rear hand?

Also, if you had a blade and your opponent didn't, would you hold it lead or rear? Lead would give greater reach, but rear would allow you to use your lead hand to trap and protect your weapon?

Just curious to your opinions, as I've read about systems which emphasis both.

 

any. shouldn't be so picky. you'll never know which hand you'll find the knife in (or in which kind of grip) when you need it.

 

ditto

hi,
just like shootodog said, you should be able to use any hand in any grip in a fight.
double stick sinawali practice should develop this ability naturally.
Of course, there will be other opinions.

 

Armed against unarmed, I tend to favour the weapon in the rear hand.

Armed against armed, I tend to favour the lead hand.

As everybody has already said, you need to be able to use any. If there is more than one opponent you can't g'tee that you'll be able to stay in your fav lead, and even one on one, changing leads is a good way to control distance & mess with the other guys game plan.

 

i prefer lead hand

I think it all comes down to preference as to which you feel most confident in, me personally I would rather have my weapon in my lead hand no matter what side left or right. Because as soon as my enemy attacks I dont want to be wasting time thinking which hand I should be using, as NIKE says "just do it"!!!!!

 

As a rule of thumb, I think this is a great breakdown.

- Matt

 

That was my thinking too, as weapon vs weapon, it may disuade your opponent a bit. For weapon vs non, you can use your lead hand to be a 'breaching tool' to set up better shots for the blade (and also protect the weapon from disarms).

 

For me i would always prefer the blade in the lead hand. It allows me to strike their attacking tools without putting more of me into the firing line.

I had never considered the difference in senario that El Hig sets out, going to have to go experiment with it. I guess i haven't considered it that way, as i view the chances of me having to fight for real with a blade against a trained weaponless opponent to be slim.

 

Grip, Hand. Who cares....


If you have a knife and your opponents does not then your on a winner, mind you you will also win the big prize. A holiday at Courtosy of the beloved Queen Elizabeth .

And if your opponent has a knife, then who cares... It is all a matter of who sticks who first (excuse the pun) and yet again you will win that life time Holiday yet again .

But really, if push comes to shove. grab your knife, fight and if you come out with just a few cuts then your on a winner regardless of which hand it is in.

The one bit of advice I can give is this. The more you train with a knife, the more you realise just how easy it is to kill or get killed.

Best regards

Pat

 

corresponding hand

the hand you have the knife in should correspond to the same hand as your attacker ideally so if they hold in the right hand you should too and vice versa.

I could explain this area in great depth but it would expose too much..so just take my word for it...people in the know will know.. .

 

for drills i'd agree. but not in a fight.

so if your opponent is right handed and you're a lefty, you'd shift the knife? you just let your opponent dictate on you on how you fight. psychologically, he's won.

 

There's a ton of truth buried in that one little sentence!!!!

Also, if you wanna see how many cuts you get, play knife fight with markers and white t-shirts....scary. Definatley taught me to run from a knife.





To the question...

lead hand, mostly.

We get taught our block-"check"-counters with the weapons....which I guess translates to cut-control-stab.

Block-"trap"-counter, however, I would want the lead hand empty and the knife ready to be used to shear.

And if its in your lead hand, its easier to cut their hands as they hold out a weapon or when they "put up their dukes".

 

Um... So people in the know already know. So you haven't told them anything useful. And you're not "exposing too much" to people who don't know. So you're not telling them anything either.

That's not terribly helpful dude.

In any event, I'm subscribing to the "all of the above" theory. Lead/rear, langit/lupa, all of it will be changing as needs be.


Stuart

 

Traditionally we drill both arms in equal measure so weilding in either hand should not be a disavantage. Having a favourite hand is not advisable
for example, if I was soley a lefty (not the case) and got cut on my left hand I'd be in trouble.

In essence no one can guarantee that their lead hand will not be disabled or too tired to operate in combat so an arnisador needs to be equally proficient with both hands.

What happens if an arnisador was right handed and I cut his/her right bicep or if my right arm was too tired to attack/defend.

Having your knife hand opposite to your opponent's knife hand is just down to distance, but again this requires great depth to explain and i am just too tumud...when I am next in Phil maybe I will explain better

 

The knife could be held in either hand. Just remember to put the sharp end in the other guy.

 

aye aye sir!

stickfan,

i train with either hand. i have no preference.

 

I knew I was doing something wrong

Gets notebook out: Stab the OTHER guy.

 

For that matter why should there even be a rear or lead hand? You can even hold up both hands in front and still mount an effective defense.

 

lol! so is tossing you wallet and celphone in the other direction and running.

 

Perfectly said, Pat!