xuzen

Realistic is when your training partner is holding a live blade slashing at you wildly, and you attempt to do a technique. Can you do that routinely in an dojo without getting wounded? I can't...

In dojo practice, I see very often my dojo mates "Forget" to employ atemi when executing a response. I see a very dramatic change in uke's response when he was hit/surprised with an atemi vis-a-vis without. It is so much easier to execute an aikido technique when uke is inconvenient with an atemi. I know, I was uke for both the scenarios.

Go on try it, atemi first.

Back to being realistic: Should one is confronted with a knife wielding assailant(s), and assuming you have tried
i) Escaping
ii) Shouting for help
iii) To Look for a weapon to even the odds
iv) You are not LEO or in security work
and failed, then try your very best and pray that said assailants are not Kali/Sayoc experts.

Boon.