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Unless they’ve trained for it, martial artists are frequently shocked and surprised by the explosiveness of a street attack, the author says. (For illustrative purposes, Bruce Corrigan and Paul Vunak are shown.) PHOTO BY RICK HUSTEAD |
People who haven't experienced sudden violence rarely understand the realities of it. Over the years, I've attended numerous seminars and demonstrations given by martial artists and law-enforcement instructors, and I've found that within a few moments, I can usually determine whether an instructor "gets it" or not. Unfortunately, some don't seem to have a clue about how fast a real assault can be, especially up close.
Real violence, the kind that happens outside the cage, is often explosive and brutal. In many situations, you have only a split second to react before you're overwhelmed. If you're not mentally and physically prepared, you stand little chance of surviving. People who grow up on the streets quickly learn that. They also learn how to use it to their advantage.
A real fight is never a square-off, good-guy-against-bad-guy scenario like you see in the movies. You're not sparring, and there's no time to remember move No. 34 from your karate class. You have to be decisive and take action. If you can't escape, you'll have to use sudden force to stop an attacker bent on taking you out. To further your understanding of these realities, I devised the acronym STARS.
Settle all use-of-force issues ahead of time.
This concept is designed to get you to the starting line in a fight. Assuming you're a moral and law-abiding person, you have reservations about harming human beings, even in self-defense. The more macho among us may take exception to this, but normal people think twice about violence.
Criminals don't have such concerns. Sociopaths, psychopaths and those temporarily deranged because of alcohol or drug use aren't encumbered by reservations about hurting and killing. When violence happens, you'll be one step behind them unless you've resolved any use-of-force problems beforehand. In fact, most assailants are hoping your morality slows you down so they can get the jump on you.
The fight is won (or lost) in the mind.
Your mind is your greatest weapon. In truth, mind-set is more important than physical ability. The mind controls the body, and the body controls the environment. Without control over your mind, the fight is lost. Proper mental training starts with the will to win-in other words, fighting spirit. Some have it in abundance while others don't, but we all possess it. My experience has been that gradual immersion through hands-on practice in the form of reaction training, sparring and scenario drills is the best way to develop it.
Anything that works.
The only thing that matters in a violent encounter is the end result-your ability to walk away in one piece. Therefore, the only strategy, technique or tactic that matters is the one that gets the job done. You may need to step outside the boundaries of a style or system.
Murphy's Law tells us that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. The more you adhere to a limited view of possibilities, the more difficult it is to adapt when things don't turn out as expected. For example, let's say you favor kicking. You practice it all the time, and you have pinpoint control over timing and range. Your kicks are fast and powerful. In the dojo, you dominate others by keeping them in kicking range. One day, you find yourself in an argument with a man at a restaurant. The next thing you know, he's in your face, and around you are tables and chairs. It's unlikely that your kicking skills will be of much value. You need to adapt to the unpredictability of the situation.
Reaction is superior to action.
Everyone has heard the phrase "action is faster than reaction," and it's true. However, I offer an alternative for reality-based fighting: Reaction is superior to action. That's because reaction implies a real-time connection to an event. When you react, you take action based on what's occurring. Reaction is a stimulus-response loop, and that's not always true when you take action. You can't just decide to throw your favorite jab, hook or spinning backfist no matter what your opponent is doing. Blind action is never a good thing.
It reminds me of an old Bill Cosby bit in which he talks about taking karate lessons and one day finding himself in an alley with a gun to his back. He spins and gives his attacker his best "karate chop," only to find out that he's a midget. His action wasn't reaction-based.
Speed wins most encounters.
Hesitation breeds defeat. Speed of thought and action (or reaction) is perhaps the single most important attribute to cultivate. If you're operating at 100 miles per hour and your opponent is operating at 50 mph, you have a big advantage. Bruce Lee, Joe Lewis and Bill Wallace all possessed that ability, which is why they were able to move more quickly than their opponents.
In a fight, speed also means suddenness of action. It means power. It means the ability to move and act before your opponent can react. Imagine if you could see an assailant's attack before he delivered it. How much would that improve your chances of success? Speed, when combined with timing, will give you the greatest advantage in any encounter.
About the author. Richard Ryan is the founder of
the Dynamic Combat Method and co-founder of Integrated Combative
Arts Training. For more information, visit http://www.blackbeltmag.com and click on Community, then Black Belt Authors.
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