Center-Line Knife Carry

Here's another important video from the Personal Defense Network. I wanna take a quick look at using center-line carry as a means for storing a personal defensive tool. Specifically, I wanna take a look at knives first. If you carry a knife, whether it's a folder or a fixed blade and you intend to be able to use it for personal defense. One of the things that you might think about is, when you're gonna use a knife for personal offense, you're going to be in close quarters.

Of course you're gonna need to be able to be in close quarters to use it, for anything but psychological effect. And it's certainly possible. In fact, it's very probable that you're going to already be in contact, when you know that you need to defend yourself. If nothing else, it's certainly within that realm of plausibility, that is worth thinking about. If I have my knife in my center-line, I can reach down with my strong hand or of course come up and then reach back down with my strong hand.

Maybe I'm fighting here and I'm able to get my strong hand free, come down, access the knife, deploy it and be able to use it for personal defense. Be able to use it as a tool to defend myself. To hurt the person who's trying to hurt me. To disable them. To distract them from actually hurting me and worrying about protecting themselves, that I can get away.

But of course, if this hand is trapped, if it's been pinned up here, if it's pinned down here, or if it's, maybe this is the only thing keeping another weapon from being used against me in some type of attack, then I may need to access my defensive tool with my weak hand. In this case, because it's in my center-line, I can access that tool and deploy it. In this case, it's the same type of grip that I would use or I could train to open this knife and deploy it with a reverse grip, opening it up, maybe with a flick, coming into a position where I could defend myself again, from the center-line. Now, if we take a real quick look at what would happen if I carry this knife where, I of course traditionally have carried a knife and many people do, strong side pocket. It's gonna be much harder for me in the case of this arm being compromised in some way, to reach across my body and access it.

Now it's not a problem for me to reach it. Some people may have, because of their body mechanics, their size, they may not be able to reach it as well. Just because I can reach it, doesn't mean I can deploy it. I may be able to come from the center-line very subtly and quickly and efficiently and get that knife out and use it. When I reach across my body, that's not a natural action, especially in a fight.

Reaching across the body, of course means it could be trapped. As I come out and actually deploy the knife, maybe I'm in a position where I could strike. I could use it to defend myself. But because my arm is across my body, this arm was trapped. It'd be very easy for this arm to get trapped also, meaning that the knife is not useful to me as a tool at this point.

On the other hand, maybe it's just the mere awkward action of reaching across my body for that tool, that makes someone think, gee that's odd. And focuses their attention on my arm. Thus taking away my ability to access the tool and use the tool for my own personal defense. So while this is great for deployment from the strong hand. That center-line is gonna be a much better option.

Now you notice that deploying the folder with the weak hand, may be something you have to train for. Maybe something that takes more dexterity, takes more space. And this is one of the reasons that a fixed blade can be a great option for personal defense, especially if you're considering center-line carry. Now I can take this knife, place it here on my center-line. Of course I'd be wearing something on top.

Maybe a shirt just like this. I could have this shirt untucked. Now I'm concealed, going about my daily business. As I move around, if I get into a fight, if I get attacked, this hand gets compromised, this hand gets trapped. It's very, very easy for me to come up under the shirt, take this knife out and now use it for personal defense, in very close quarters.

Now, getting the knife out from the center-line with my strong hand, of course, would be just as easy. I could be in a situation where I reach down. access that knife, access that tool, for close quarters self-defense, with a reverse grip. Or if I prefer it, I could obviously take that knife and go into a strong grip. That's just gonna be a matter of setting up your clip.

Setting up the knife so that it comes out the way you intend for it to come out. The other thing that we wanna think about is, we could also do this with a firearm. Appendix carry, as it's called inside. Inside the waistband carry. In the front, can also allow us to access a firearm, whether it's a revolver, a sub-compact or a full-size firearm, with both hands, in an extreme emergency.

Center-line carry may work with a kubaton. Can work with any tool that you may wanna use to defend yourself. And you need to access it with both hands. Of course, being able to access it with both hands, means that you should train with both hands, in order to use it for your personal defense. Check out more videos just like this one, at the Personal Defense Network.