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I think it's REAL important to pay attention to how any art handles a surprise knife.
If they have a plan at all, that's a plus.
The best have a primary defense that falls into one of two camps: "defang the snake" as the FMA guys call it, go in and directly control the weapon, or "get the hell out of the way and THEN counter" which is old-school Japanese and others. BOTH use off-line movements in response to the attack with an "initial dodge" effect. If the counter-attack doesn't work, at least the initial dodge bought you time. Anything like that will be noticeably linked to at least a past in sword-length arms.
The Israelis seem to have a different idea, one I'd not seen before: slam the hell out of the blade hand or arm AND attacker at the same time, while not going for strict control over the opponent weapon. But they're NOT coming from a sword-length edged weapons past; the only bladework in their genealogy is knives (and still very much present).
I suspect that's where the difference lies. I'm not qualified to comment on which is really better; the Israeli system looked OK where knives are concerned, machete or longer...no so much, esp. if somebody knew what the point was for, Mr. Krav-guy would be royally screwed (or skewered).
To me, if the core of the system doesn't know what to do about a surprise knife, it's of no interest except as a source for one or two tricks - like the Boxer's punch or Muay Thai's knee stuff.
What else...some of these "sport origin" arts have a BIG weakness: no elbow stuff. It would be too brutal for sport use. There is SO much carnage to be had out of elbows...
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Jim March
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