Budoshin Ju-Jitsu
The Gentle Art of Self-Defense

Te Nage [Hand Throw]

or

Mae Heji Maki [Forward Elbow Roll Takedown]

For a rear forearm choke attack and a knife coming up at your throat. Who thought of this attack? Charles Choi wanted my input on what to do for such an attack. 
 
Just a bit of theory: Even though the knife poses the greatest threat, the rear forearm choke will prevent you from effectively defending yourself against the knife. Therefore you have ot get out of the choke. To make it a bit more realistic have your “attacker” arch you back a bit — it changes your balance. I showed this combination attack from a standing position. [No, my feet weren’t in any particular position & I wasn’t concerned about his foot position either.] 
 
Thanks to Roy Gutierrez for being my uke and Robert Farmer for taking the pictures.
#1 Attacker sets right forearm chole. Your right arm automatically comes up & rests on his elbow.
#2 Attacker brings knife up to you with his left hand. Your left hand immediately comes up to block you. You don’t know if it’s to stab you or threaten you. However, it’s life-threatening & must be dealt with.
#3 Block his knife hand at the base of his arm with your left forearm, with your hand open.
#4 Trap his knife hand with your left hand & keep the knife away from you. You must keep hold of his arm, at the wrist & keep it bent, so he can’t straighten out & develop more power for secondary thrusts. Keep hold of his wrist at ALL costs [to avoid being stabbed].
#5 Push his knife hand away as you pivot your right foot back so you can move your body to his right side. Raise his right elbow up as you turn your head to your left to get out of the headlock. Even though the knife poses a more serious threat, the headlock is preventing you from effectively defending against the knife. You could use a foot stomp or other distracting technique prior to this move.
#6 Notice how head slips out of rear forearm choke. Normally a person cannot concentrate on two things at once. Getting out of the rear forearm choke is possible because the attacker is concentrating on his left hand.
#7 Step your left foot back as you get out of the rear forearm choke.  Keep hold of his left wrist, bringing his knife hand across his body.
#8 Your right hand grabs hold of his wrist, with your left thumb on the back of his hand, to set him up for a Te Nage [Hand Throw]. Keep hold of his wrist with your left hand at this point.
#9 Switch your left hand to apply additional pressure to the back of attacker’s left hand, so that you can bend his wrist, locking his wrist for a hand throw.
#10 This picture shows the above grip from another angle. Note thumb placement.
#11 From this point you will execute a standard Te Nage [Hand Throw] by pivoting your right foot to your right and back in a circle as you continue to apply pressure to the back of his hand with both of your thumbs. Do not turn his hand. Hold your arms in the same position relative to your body as you turn your to your right to execute the throw. 
#12 Executution of throw as a attacker is about to flip over. Note that his left arm is tight across the front of his body. Be careful in executing the Te Nage. If done properly it may break the attacker’s wrist if not executed slowly enough so that you can roll out of it in practice.
#13 Once the attacker is down you may want to execute a heel strike to his face as a distraction. If his wrist is broken at this point no further steps are necessary. I’m moving on because ji-jitsu people never “assume” anything will work.
#14 Once the attacker is drop down & execute a wrist press at this point to force the attacker to release the knife.  If the wrist press is executed quickly the wrist will break. If his wrist is already broken from the Te Nage you won’t be able to do this. There are also several other submissions that could be done from this point.
#15 Alternate (Mae Heji Maki – Starting At Picture #6 My original plan was to follow the above defense to the point shown in this picture and then deal exclusively with the attacker’s right elbow, using a Mae Heji Maki [Forward Elbow-roll Takedown], as shown below. However, the technique shown above, using the Te Nage, was my initial response when actually confronted with the attack & I still feel it’s a better response because the knife hand is under greater control. On the other hand, the technique that follows could also be one of many other effective techniques, especially if a distraction strike, nerve attack, etc., is used somewhere in the inital moves following blocking the knife, so that you can move quickly into the rear forearm choke release.
#16 Once you are behind the attacker your left hand grabs his right wrist. Continue to apply pressure to the underside of his elbow so he can’t turn towards you & attack with his knife hand.
#17 Close up showing grip on his right wrist and placement of your right hand on his elbow. It’s in a Sara [cupped position] so it can rotate and apply continious pressure to the attacker’s elbow from the underside or back of the elbow. Keep the sara on the underside of his elbow for the most effective leverage.
#18 Roll his elbow forward, keeping his arm slightly bent, to bring the attacker forward…
#19 …to the ground.
#20 Once the attacker is down, squat down & set your left knee on his back, moving his right arm into an armlock position against your left hip, resting on your left thigh. Command attacker to turn his head away from you. You may shift your weight onto his right shoulder to encourage his action at this point. It will actually be more comfortable for the attacker/uke if he turns his head away as his right shoulder will be flat on the ground. On the other hand, if he attempts to resist from this position, it will be far more painful as you will have significantly more leverage.
#21 Remove the knife from the attacker’s left hand if he still has it. Once his right arm is locked in this position, you don’t need to hold onto it. It’s very important that you stay on your right foot & not go down onto your right knee. If you do, most of your weight will be on your right knee and not on the attacker. By staying on your right foot you can shift as much of your weight as necessary to secure compliance by the attacker. If you execute this submission quickly you can easily cause quite severe injury to uke’s/attacker’s shoulder, so be careful.