History Main / NeverBringAKnifeToAFistfight

Knives are scary. A single glimmer from its profile has been known to launch a thousand screams of horror. They're eminently deadly and dangerously easy to use. In RealLife, if your opponent pulls one out in a fistfight, you should either start running or, if you are impeded from running, get an object with a long reach.

** The page image is someone practicing the martial art known as UsefulNotes/KravMaga. It is a system developed from the street-fighting experience of its creator, Imi Lichtenfeld, and ne division of its techniques is empty-handed defense against someone wielding a knife.
** Many techniques found in UsefulNotes/{{Aikido}} are artifacts of old jujutsu styles whose user often needed to impede an opponent from unsheathing his katana or striking with it at very close quarters. Techniques against knifes are also present, and some made their way into UsefulNotes/{{Judo}} katas.

[[caption-width-right:300:Lesson learned: don't pull a knife on [[IKnowKarate someone who knows]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krav_Maga Krav Maga]].]]

* Subverted in ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'', when Ric Chee and Bobby Jacks fight with GoodOldFisticuffs. When Bobby realises that, conversely to his expectations, he is getting beaten down mercilessly (by a guy with no combat expertise whatsoever) he pulls out a knife (well, scalpel) and [[spoiler: immediately fatally stabs Ric.]]

* Averted in the ''[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick Order of the Stick]]'' prequel "On The Origin Of [=PCs=]" where [[spoiler: we first meet Belkar as he sits in jail charged with fatally stabbing several people in a bar brawl. He argues that they shouldn't have brought fists to a knifefight]].
--> [[spoiler:'''Warden:''' "It wasn't a knife fight until you started stabbing people!"]]
--> [[spoiler:'''Belkar:''' "Exactly!"]]

* Most fighting was historically done with weapons, and accordingly, several martial arts still contain techniques meant to disarm an opponent armed with a knife or dagger. It is incidentally a controversial topic in modern martial arts practice, however, as disarming is generally considered a high effort, low profit field -- it is relatively for even an untrained attacker to hurt even the most trained defender with a bladed weapon, which means that trying to disarm him should be only attempted as absolute last resort, when keeping distance with him or just running away is not possible. Even in this case, acquiring another weapon to use against his, preferently with a longer reach (like a stick, an umbrella or a chair), is also much more recommendable than trying to disarm him while empty-handed.

Knives are scary. A single glimmer from its profile has been known to launch a thousand screams of horror. They're eminently deadly and dangerously easy to use. In RealLife, if your opponent pulls one out in a fistfight, you should either get an object with a long reach or start running.

* The page image is someone practicing the martial art known as Krav Maga. It is a system developed from the street-fighting experience of its creator, Imi Lichtenfeld. One division of its techniques is empty-handed defense against someone wielding a knife. In fact, many self-defense and martial arts schools teach empty-handed techniques for disarming a knife or gun.

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[-[[caption-width-right:300:[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krav_Maga Source]]]]-]

'''Dally:''' Well, you've got to learn how to use one anyway, unless you want every flash-blade in town picking on you. You can't take them all on bare-handed… \\

'''Dally:''' …then again, maybe you can.

* ''Film/Batman1989''. When he fights the Joker's goons, there's a dramatic fight with one using two Samurai swords. Because he's, well, Batman, he manages to outmaneuver him and then punch him into submission. (Of course, in this continuity, his costume is at least partially armored.)

* An example of this trope happens early in ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple''. A minor Ragnarok thug assaults Kenichi with a knife and he freaks out because bladed weapons are naturally intimidating. To help him overcome his fear, the masters have [[LadyOfWar Shigure]] train him in armed combat... that is to say, she spends the whole day assaulting him with everything from rolled-up newspapers and spoons to actual weapons. Later Kenichi encounters the same thug, who draws the knife again... but Kenichi just laughs creepily and asks "What's that puny thing" and blames the thug for putting him through today's TrainingFromHell. Cue beatdown. That all said, the series does tend to treat a person carrying a bladed weapon as more dangerous than one who is not, and only martial artists of superior skill are able to take on an armed enemy while unarmed themselves.

* Creator/TerryPratchett regularly notes that a weapon you don't know how to use well is worse than no weapon at all, either because you're going to hurt yourself with it, or your opponent is going to take it from you, ''then'' [[IncrediblyLamePun hurt your self with it]].

[[quoteright:300:[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krav_Maga https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/krav_maga3_6437.jpg]]]]