Not every encounter or engagement is going to be a static target 25 yards away. Most attacks happen within what’s called the combatives bubble. If you were to draw a circle around yourself that was seven yards from your centerline, that is your combatives bubble. Anything that happens within this seven yards will more likely than not happen too quickly for you to present your primary weapon (your pistol). In this case you need to have a backup plan and that plan typically is a blade.

Now that we have determined that your secondary weapon is a blade, we could go down a rat hole for hours about what type of blade, type of steel, the design, and carry options. I recently wrote up an article about a Navy SEAL who ended up dispatching a pirate using his blade. In that article I discuss the reasoning behind a fixed blade over a folding knife.

When seconds count you want a fixed blade. Folding knives are great to have for everyday carry stuff, but when it comes to a secondary weapon for defense I want a fixed blade that I can easily deploy and not have to worry about opening the knife (If it’s a folder) or the lock failing under stress. There are several companies in the industry that make concealable fixed blade knives for this purpose.

Take a look at the following video to see Kyle Defoor discuss using a blade in a close quarters combatives scenario.

(featured Image courtesy of fauerzaesp.org)