May 22, 2025
Knives are easy to buy or even take straight from a kitchen drawer. They’re silent, inexpensive, easy to conceal, and devastatingly deadly—especially in the hands of a committed attacker. An average attacker can slash and stab 8–12 times in as little as two seconds.
Knife attacks can cause horrendous damage, including:
- Severe blood loss due to cut veins and arteries, leading to loss of consciousness or death.
- Immediate incapacitation of the targeted body part due to muscle or ligament damage.
When facing someone with a knife or other edged weapon, there’s no time for fancy techniques practiced in gyms or seen in movies. You don’t even have time to worry about whether the level of force you use is reasonable. Your only focus should be on surviving and avoiding becoming another knife attack statistic.
You must control and neutralize your attacker. If escape or using a barrier isn’t possible, you must change your mindset—attack the attacker with medieval-level ferocity. Anything less, and you risk becoming a human pin cushion.
At Combat Survival Tactics, we don’t teach flashy disarms or Hollywood-inspired techniques. Under pressure testing, we’ve learned that disarms rarely work in real-life scenarios. Instead, we focus on:
- Basic gross motor skills that are effective under adrenaline and high-pressure situations.
- Training as close to real-life violence levels as possible, preparing you for the threats you’re likely to face.
With the rise in knife crime and the new terrorist threat of edged weapons being used in public attacks, it’s essential to be honest about what works. If you’re an instructor teaching techniques that haven’t been pressure-tested under realistic conditions, you’re doing a disservice to your students.
Our Approach:
- We focus on practical and effective techniques, ignoring the unrealistic moves often taught in martial arts classes or shown in movies.
- We incorporate the No Lie Blade (NLB) system into our training. This revolutionary training knife was a wake-up call for me and a game-changer for our program.
- While no system is foolproof against a knife attack, mental attitude is key. Training for the reality that you might get cut, but that you’ll fight, survive, and make it home, is what saves lives.
I am an NLB and Mil-L/E Instructor and continue to train and evolve with Hank Hayes and the team. Law enforcement and military professionals also use this system, which is a testament to its effectiveness.
At Combat Survival Tactics, our system integrates:
- WWII combatives
- Wing Chun principles
- Muay Thai
- Krav Maga
This holistic approach ensures students receive the most realistic and effective training possible.
Stay Safe,
Keith Collyer – Chief Coach/Founder
Combat Survival Tactics