mriehle

It's possible I'm a bit biased by the fact that I know one guy who's used Aikido to defend against a knife attack and it was flawlessly effective, know of one other person who defended against a knife attack using Aikido and it worked (unfortunately, I can't call that one flawless) and I've met others over the years who at least claim to have defended against knife attacks using Aikido. That latter group are of mixed credibility, but there's enough of them that I believe that it's hard for me to conclude that Aikido is ineffective against knife attacks.

That being said, Chuck Clark's comments are salient. The two cases where I know what happened the Aikidoist was fairly well trained and the guy with the knife (probably) wasn't. The other cases where I believe them, the Aikidoists were either cops or highly-ranked Aikidoists and the knife wielders were punks with a blade, often under the influence of some mind-altering substance.

I believe Aikido works, but it doesn't make you Superman.