Defense Against a Knife — The Three Lines
Stab from above, stab from below, slash across. Three lines of attack, three families of defense, one underlying principle.
Knife defense is the most-debated part of every self-defense system, including Krav Maga. The honest baseline is this: against a committed, trained attacker with a sharp knife, the defender will probably get cut. The goal of knife defense isn't to come out clean — it's to not die.
The three attack lines
Krav Maga organizes knife defenses around three attack angles:
- Overhead stab ("ice pick"): downward thrust from above.
- Straight stab: linear thrust from chest height.
- Slash ("hook"): circular cut, typically aimed at the head or neck.
The common defense architecture
Every Krav Maga knife defense follows the same four-part structure:
- Redirect the knife arm with a forearm intercept on the line of attack.
- Control the knife arm with the other hand — typically gripping the wrist or sleeve.
- Counter-attack aggressively to the attacker's head, throat, or groin — usually multiple strikes.
- Disarm or disengage — preferably both. The disarm comes only after the counter-strikes have neutralized the attacker's ability to fight.
What civilians should remember
The first rule of knife defense is to not be there. If you can run, run. If you can throw a chair, throw a chair. Empty-handed knife defense is a last resort — Krav Maga teaches it because last resorts exist, not because they should be a first response.