Demonstration of a Shoulder Throw, Axlakast, in response to a downward stab with a dagger. The one-armed shoulder throw, often also recognized by the Japanese name Ippon Seoi Nage, is a powerful technique when opponents leave open space between their arm and ribs.
The ice pick stab is one of the 3 most common knife attacks, and most common when the blade is held in a reverse grip (blade down).
This technique operates in two steps:
A Roof block is applied by framing at the wrist/forearm underneath the blade. This creates a physical barrier between the trajectory of the weapon and your head/collarbones, and is a common historical way to initially defend against dagger attacks while unarmed. It is also a common startle reflex.
A Shoulder Throw is executed, turning the roof block into a wrist grip and using the attacker’s forward momentum against him. There are several steps to making the rest of the throw work:
Your feet plant shoulder-width apart with your hips underneath your attacker’s hips.
Your arm punches up past his armpit, driving upwards, locking his arm between his shoulder and your wrist grips.
You lift up your hips and move your hands in the motion of swinging a sword, while torquing your body, to throw him over your shoulder.
Executed correctly, the throw should feel effortless, as if your opponent weighs nothing.
Keeping the grip on his arm at the end is particularly important as it is holding his weapon, the primary threat. This weapon can then be stripped, with additional follow-ups discussed in the Swinging Hip Throw article:
After slamming your opponent, keeping their arm pulled up keeps them off balance, giving you a few options to finish them:
You can stomp their head while pulling up.
You can execute an arm-breaking technique.
You can conduct a pin, such as with your knee on their belly.
If armed, you can draw your weapon.
Since he is trying to kill you, an additional option is to give a fast strike as a “parting gift”, such as a kick/stomp to the head or a blow against his elbow joint to break his arm, then sprint away as fast as possible and/or draw your own weapon. Especially if he has friends - who must now help him, and are thinking twice after seeing how fast you crippled him.
From start to finish, the fight is over in 5 seconds.
