Bouncers are expected to deal with knife armed people while being unarmed? Sounds incredibly stupid and saying 'nothing you can't handle' seems to greatly overestimate anyone's ability to fight unarmed versus a knife.
We are talking about stupid angry drunk people with knives, not ninjas.
This. Should have pointed that out. My bad.
And you're never supposed to be alone. Always work in teams of two. Not to mention that me and most I know work with stab vest and lead-filled gloves. Those vest are actually pretty cheap to get when used and those gloves? Well, you can't cut or stab them. Simply can't. So combine the training and the equipment, knives still pose a significant threat, of course they do, but you can handle them.
And we are talking about bouncers who got a few hours of 'knife defense' training, not ninjas. Stupid angry drunk with a knife versus a bouncer equipped with 'knife defense', I wouldn't bet my life on the bouncer. He shouldn't bet his life either.
And as I pointed out, I would expect every bouncer to have proper training and that means way more than just a few hours of knife-counters. I know very few who carry a telescope bat for those purposes but they aren't legal. And pepper spray is problematic cuz that stuff tends to get to you as well and not just the guy it's aimed at. I never carried that stuff, seemed to dangerous to get caught in it myself.
And maybe I should mention that just holding the guy at bay with talking to him, keeping him busy and occupied till the cops arrive is just fine too. Ofc self-preservation is important. It's not like you rush head on in the guy.
I pratice/practiced few martial arts, mainly Chinese Boxing tho. Since I was lucky with my trainer/school, we don't do strictly classic arts but combine stuff. I enjoy Canne de Combat/Savate (French are not that white-flag waving after all
) a lot and especially Escrima is fun and helpful when dealing with knives
