KaliGman

Glad I was able to see this during a late "lunch" (spent mostly doing paperwork) and respond. To clarify, for this forum audience, I meant relatively skilled with a knife in a street crime environment. To be quite frank, very few in Aikido understand the angles of attack, the transitions from one cut to another, etc. of the short blade. The knife does not move like a sword, it is much faster and more lively, and contemporary knife methodologies are not addressed at all well by traditional Aikido techniques/skill sets. There are literally hundreds of different kali and silat systems. The best silat and kali systems address empty hand against the knife very well indeed. Stick trains kinfe, which trains empty hand. The thing to remember is that "effective" against a committed knife attach can be defined as surviving the first pass or two of the blade which will occur during a surprise assault, and being able to retreat and/or access your own defensive tools. It can also be defined as stopping the knife attack and controlling the attacker, which is much more difficult. Against a very well trained kali or silat fighter armed with a knife, no one who is going to be very happy fighting unarmed, though a person with much, much more skill than the attacker may be able to prevail. However, humans are weapon and tool users for a reason--they give us advantages not possessed by merely utilizling our "natural" weapons.