Speculation, Fact and Fiction

This was one of the more interesting things I learned at aikido last night. On account of the collision of holidays, work shifts, an injury and a prior engagement for everyone else, there were only three of us at practise last night. Namely, 4th Dan husband, 2nd Dan Jason and 1st Dan me.

So we decided to do some close-quarters being-attacked-with-a-knife work, working through the obvious stuff, then applying some mean-and-twisted black-belt stuff and then we began experimenting. Much fun was had by all.

And the psychological aspects are fascinating. Why is it more scary to have a knife coming at you fast than it is to have one held at your throat? When the how-not-to-be-stabbed/eviscerated/throat-cut move is essentially the same, and actually, if the knife starts further away, you have more time to be ready to act. Ok, fractions of a second, but every little helps.

So in the car home, I was thinking through various ways to use all this in a story I have in mind. Because an experienced mercenary teaching a newbie how not to get killed in a knife fight will be a scene that can tell us vast amounts about each of them.

How to get a knife attacker to stab themselves in their own back really has to be demonstrated rather than described. If anyone's curious and spots me at a convention, buy me a beer and I'll oblige. Actually, two ways emerged, both of which would helpfully leave only the original attacker's prints on the weapon. Nice and clear, not smudged or anything. A puzzle for the CSI guys.

Oh, and just about the most helpful thing someone sticking a gun in your back can say is, 'Hands up!'. If you do aikido...

(less amusingly, I woke up this morning with the start of a summer cold. Hopefully it'll be one of those here today, gone tomorrow ones.)