Part 2:
Now to answer your question Shihan Shuras. I think I know what you're trying to say and hope I don't get it wrong. Written words are sometimes difficult to interpret so I will do my best here. Again back to my previous post about teaching someone to expect to get cut. I don't go there until a question such as yours comes up. First of all when facing a knife-wielding attacker and am cornered I will always present bone to them. What I mean here is outer forearm and shin. Yes there are still many bad places to get cut but at least they are minimized. As you establish some sort of shield, I get low where my lead hand elbow can close my center off by touching my lead leg knee. The idea is to keep all the vitals behind bone. Also by getting lower your opponent has fewer targets to engage. Now when I am facing my opponent and am looking at them, there can be tell tale signs about their skill with the knife they are holding. I know this can be used in deception however. In the Silat I practice there isn't the use of fakes per say everything is treated as real. Now it's up to how well your opponent understands distance. If I hold my ground, my opponent has to get a certain distance to cut me lethally. If he is outside that distance then the cut is probably going to manifest on my shielding somewhere and with the Lord's grace not my vitals. Now in the situation where I think it's coming across and my opponent diverts his trajectory midstream as I am attempting to block, I am not going to tell you that I have a way to handle that. However if I still follow principle and keep my high line and low line covered (never all your eggs in one basket), present only bone, and treat everything as real I will deal with the attack however it manifests, and with God's help survive and go home to my wife and kids. There is another thing that is practiced in our Silat classes and that is going into the danger. Going into the danger is viewed as being a safer place than outside of it where multiple potentialities exist with the least amount of sensory data at your disposal. Yes, in the danger there are still multiple potentialities that may manifest, but you are now attached and sensitive to what those may become because your in a position to take in more sensory data because you can now feel with your own body what their body may do. Now back to your scenario (one of many I realize). If my opponent starts out high and I place my block accordingly and my opponent then circles it or pulls it short and I follow that movement into the danger and I still have high and low lines covered, I can now use my body to both off balance them and feel where they want to stab or slash my ugly butt. No guarantees in chaos however. If I am off balancing them, they have no base to generate real power and their body is fighting to remain balanced and therefore distracted. Again if I keep my high and low lines covered then the lethality of the cuts I may receive may be minimized (I hope I hope I hope). This is only one of 1000's of responses to an attack such as this and I hope I answered your question. I know this was a bit long winded and I apologize for that. I am someone who is still very much a beginner and am sharing my interpretation of what I have experienced. I have been killed many times as the cammo paint has shown me. Practicing though in this way has increased my odds in the training sessions as it has with everyone. However if someone on the street pulls out a knife, I am running my asp like no tomorrow, but if cornered I will say a prayer and stick to principle and attempt to create the best chance for survival I can.
Again, sorry everyone for such a long-winded response.
Yours in training,
Sifu Tim Gagnier
