Knife-RAT (K-RAT): Edged-Weapon Fighting

Knife-RAT takes the close-range fighting of F-RAT into the most dangerous encounter you can face: an attacker with a blade. A knife is an extension of the empty hand, but it changes everything about time, angle, and distance. One mistake costs blood. K-RAT teaches the realities of real knife attacks, not choreographed knife duels. You learn to recognize and survive them, to control the weapon arm, to end the fight, and to access and retain your own blade. It follows the 90% solution: a small set of high-percentage responses to the attacks that make up most real-world knife assaults.

What You’ll Learn

• Knife realities: how real attacks happen, why most victims never see the blade, and what that means for your defense.
• Weapon ranges: long, medium, and close, and when to create distance versus when to close it.
• Spatial control: closing and creating distance, angling off the line of attack, and using terrain and obstacles.
• Timing and counter-timing: intercepting the attack before it lands.
• Defanging, intercepting, evading, and disrupting: controlling the knife arm and taking away the attacker’s ability to cut.
• The most common attacks: straight stab, grab and stab, overhead stab, and forward and backward slashes, with a simple, high-percentage response to each.
• Access and retention: getting to your own blade under pressure and keeping it.

Who Should Attend

Graduates of F-RAT who want to prepare for edged-weapon encounters. That includes civilians, law enforcement officers, corrections officers, and security professionals. This is not a sport or a martial art. It is about surviving a knife attack and getting home safely.

What to Bring

Comfortable everyday clothes you can move in, athletic shoes, eye protection, a mouthguard, and groin protection. Bring water. Training knives and protective equipment are provided.