RUN Forrest, RUNNNNN

One of my pet peeves is the advice I see on a thousand web sites regarding fighting someone with a knife...and that is "just run away" or the ever-cute "use Nike-fu, and run like the wind."

Well, let's start with the obvious...how do you know you're faster than the kid with the knife? There's no way of looking at people and determining who's fleetest of foot until you've run a race. Also consider the kid doing the knifing is probably a skinny drug addict and he's chosen an overweight, Rolex wearing businessman as his victim. Sorry, but I don't want to discover he's quicker by getting a knife between the shoulder blades as I huff and puff down the street.

Where exactly are you running to? In a panic you might just be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Are you running away from the well-lit public arena into a blind alley? Are you - as happened once that I know of - about to jump over what you think is a fence to discover an eighty foot drop on to railroad tracks on the other side?

Who's with you? Got a wife/girlfriend wearing six inch heels in a parking lot? "Run honey" or in other words "Every man for himself" said the elephant as he danced among the chickens. How about a couple of kids and a few bags of shopping?

Why are they doing this? Are you a security guard, cop, bouncer, soldier, body guard or a cop by chance? Guess what? They don't hire you to run. They can do that already...they want you because you're the guy that gets paid to go into harms way.

Last...running often activates the prey drive in predatory types. Just as the advice concerning dogs and wild animals is never to run for fear you'll encourage them to chase you, so it should be with predatory human beings.

Does that mean I'm advocating standing and fighting? Not at all. Fighting someone armed with a knife is a truly horrific experience and, without years of very pertinent training, your chances of winning it are slim but, I just don't want you all to walk around with your head you know where saying "someone pulls a knife on me, I'll just run." You'd better have a plan B for the exceptions that I mentioned above.

Nick

PS: Oh, and if you think carrying a gun is the answer you're dead wrong...emphasis on the word "dead." More on that tomorrow