Tatwaffe Knife – life-saving first aid measures

At the end of November, the foundational seminar "Weapon Knife - Life-Saving First Aid for Stab and Cut Wounds" took place in Klagenfurt. PROTAC 360°, a local provider of professional security training for self-defense, close combat, and tactical defense, invited Mario Nowak, a trainer from the German Tactical Survival Concepts GmbH (short: TacSurv), to convey the content of the training course.

Nowak is also the author of the SPARTANAT Black Books 16 "The Knife - The Long-Standing Everyday Threat". Many of the arguments from his book were accordingly incorporated into the training.

The participants came from a wide range of professions, including employees from the healthcare sector, farmers, hunters, and police officers. What united them was the concern over the increasing readiness for violence in our society and the urgent desire not to be relegated to helpless victims in case of emergency.

In the area of self-defense and unarmed close combat, Nowak probably couldn't convey much new information to the participants, as they have been trained for years by Dominik Rab, the owner of PROTAC 360°. He has a clearly structured and practice-oriented training field to teach his clients effective and genuine self-defense.

Therefore, this seminar focused on

1. the avoidance of a possible confrontation with a knife assailant, and
2. the emergency medical first aid for stab and cut wounds, should it come to the worst.

To make the topic of "knife violence" more tangible for the trainees, Nowak confronted them with the findings of a study from the Austrian Institute for Conflict Research. This institute investigated around 750 murders and attempted murders of women between 2010 and 2020. According to the study, over 40% of the perpetrators used cutting or stabbing weapons during the commission of the crime. Knives are omnipresent in our environment and are easily accessible to perpetrators, often also in moments of upheaval.

Following his motto that self-defense begins in the mind, Nowak opened the training day with discussions on situational awareness and introduced the participants to useful tools like the risk equation and Cooper’s Color Code. Since there were also weapon carriers in the auditorium, the topic of "ballistics" was briefly addressed, and the myth of "stopping power" was debunked.

And then it got down to the nitty-gritty! After communicating the principles of tactical first aid, the remaining seminar day focused on practical (partner) exercises with an emphasis on stopping life-threatening bleeding from the extremities and neck, as well as maintaining vital warmth. Both tourniquets and emergency dressings were used, as well as improvised materials for bleeding control. Last but not least, the various applications of the rescue blanket were discussed and practiced.

At the end of the training day, the participants agreed that they had been provided with the necessary basics for bleeding control under tactical aspects, in a compressed and easily understandable manner. However, they also recognized that this day course can only be the beginning. In the future, everyone is individually challenged to consolidate the acquired knowledge and the learned procedures through constant practice and to firmly embed them in their memory.

Due to the positive feedback, PROTAC 360° and TacSurv will not only restrict the participant group to civilians in 2026 but also offer training specifically for government target groups.

Anyone wishing to book seminars on the topic of self-defense against knives: Inquiries via TacSurv.