Unpopular Opinion

Disagree, a larger opponent can teep kick you to keep you at range or knock you out as you try and close the distance. But with knife fights no one wins and you very well might do enough damage to send them to hospital but if its knife v knife you're cooked.

The loser of a knife fight dies in the street.
The winner in the hospital.

Fencing is an outmoded form of combat. You will never defend yourself with a rapier, against an assailant with a rapier. It’s completely irrelevant to a discussion about self-defense.

Knives are bad weapons for self-defense. Particularly for a smaller or weaker person. To use one, you first have to get within reach of your opponent. Pulling a knife can escalate a robbery or rape attempt into a murder attempt. Many fatal wounds are not immediately incapacitating, or particularly painful. Pepper spray, running away, or a gun, are far more effective.

You should not carry a knife for self-defense. They’re great to have for general utility, and if you find yourself already grappling with someone that you know is attempting to kill you, a knife could be useful as a weapon. But only then, as a last resort. Don’t make the mistake in believing a knife will protect you from a robber or a rapist. It will not.

As someone else who is short and skinny, this is a very dangerous assumption. I've trained in judo, karate, and wrestling, and gotten in a couple actual fights, so have some experience here. In a real fight for your life being shorter is a disadvantage, even more so if you have average length arms for your height. It's possible to overcome that disadvantage if you are more skilled than the opponent, but assuming equal skill you are likely to lose.

In an actual fight, going for a gut stab with a knife is one of the worst options you have. It means you are absolutely within grapple range, have done almost nothing to hinder their mobility, and even if it is eventually fatal, it often takes a very long time to die from a gut wound. You would be much better either going for a hit that would instantly kill them, or aiming for somewhere that would hinder their mobility enough for you to escape.

Also, in the real world it doesn't work like fencing, no one is going to break the fight up as soon as you score a hit. If you want to actually prepare for a fight you should try out a sport that doesn't break on point scoring. In general boxing, MMA, or wrestling would be a better option to prepare for a real fight that doesn't get broken up.

I disagree with your opinion. I think being the shorter person in a fight is generally a disadvantage.

All else equal, the person who is taller will likely have more mass, and thus have more muscle to utilize against you. They’ll also have a bigger wingspan, so their zone of threat is bigger.

When I used to study martial arts, my instructors always used to say “don’t bring anything to a street fight that you don’t want taken away and used against you”. Unless you have the element of surprise, and are using a knife that’s attached to your body, welding a knife against someone bigger may backfire. Being a master of de-escalation tends to have a better mortality rate ;)

Okay OP. Okay. I'm sure you'll absolutely devastate someone by trying to slash at their jacket. Lol.

Are you the same person as BeReady77? Are you a tall man or a short woman?

You clearly enjoy writing and reading about this topic, but your approach seems disingenuous.

I'd almost recommend getting in an actual fight so you can learn how different it is from your imagination.

Take a real self-defense class. In reality, your size is not enough advantage to make up for an opponent's added strength and reach. Training and speed, however can bridge that gap somewhat, assuming your opponent is not on an equal footing, so to speak.

Why is all you have posted just variations of this thread?

Counterpoint: ow oof my belly ouch

Why do you keep reposting this what’s wrong with you

That's interesting. Do you manage to land those hits consistently once the element of surprise is gone? I also practice historical fencing (but I mostly do arming sword and langes messer, though I've occasionally dabbled with rapier), and my experience has been that taller people usually have the reach advantage.

Ducking and thrusting straight ahead of you makes basic geometry work in your favour for compensating the reach disadvantage (your arm has a 90° angle giving you maximum range), but it also massively exposes your head of your first hit doesn't land, and prevents you from using footwork for a few seconds. Once your opponent's has figured out your strategy it would seem like he would just have to stay a bit out of reach and counter-attack/riposte while you recover from your ducking

I'm not going to tell you you're wrong about having a type of advantage due to size, but I will say in actual fights, unless you're against someone the size of Halfþor Bjornsson, it won't matter enough to protect you.

And when it comes to knife fights, one person dies on the spot, the other gets to die on the way to the hospital.

Someone once said "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth"

Keep attending self-defense classes and learn to kick assailant ass the proper way!

Asymmetry

Steel enters the fight,

One leaves in an ambulance,

The other; bodybag.

a haiku of approximately normal length, written by Zozano

I was reading this post and like 1/3 way through I thought you were gonna say something like" I am at the perfect height to just slice off their balls, the ultimate vulnerability."

You might get in an attack, but while they bleed out, you’re gonna be stomped on like the mushrooms on a dewy morning walk to the bus stop.

Since you impaled a tall guys unprotected belly. Prison when?/s Just kidding 🤡