this saturday here at the National HaganaH Headquarters I ran a knife on the throat drill. Students had to identify , under stress , the threat being either on the inside or on the outside with a knife. If the student would mistake the threat they would actually help the attacker execute them by guiding the attacker’s hand to slice their throat. While it took the students a few minutes to get into the mode of the drill one of the participants almost overlapped the technique into the gun threat under the chin scenario and reached for the knife as he would do to go into the gun disarm….Ooooch! Luckely he grabbed aluminum training knife and not a sharp blade!!!!

This brings out the point of sensitivity training versus target aquicition which relies on  seeing the weapon coming at you or being pointed at you…students have to experience the difference between the pressure of a barrel of a gun pressing on their throat and the pressure of a dull blade pressing on their throat so when confronted with this threat who doesn’t allow you to “see” the weapon , the student will be able to make the tactical decision of going into a knife defense or a gun disarm when it counts the most : Under Pressure!

Next time I run this drill it will have 3 options of attacks : 1) Knife on the throat on the inside 2) Knife on the throat on the outside 3) Gun Threat Under The Chin