Because the worst-case scenario can come in many forms — from multiple opponents to a weapons attack to a bigger stronger adversary — you should train in difficult self-defense scenarios. Here, Richard Ryan (left) trades blows with 6-foot-10-inch pro basketball player Mark West of the Phoenix Suns.

What constitutes a reality-based martial art? Is it a focus on street-oriented techniques and tactics? Is it diversity of training? According to Richard Ryan, founder of the art of Dynamic Combat™, it is the ability to deal with the worst-case scenario.

Ryan defines the worst-case scenario as the most dangerous person, assault or situation you might encounter. It may come in the form of a knockdown, drag out street fight against a bigger, stronger or faster adversary. It may be an armed attacker, multiple attackers or multiple attackers with weapons. In other words, it is any situation that puts you in extreme danger.

Few martial artists tread comfortably in this territory. Ryan does, because they are his stomping grounds. For decades he has focused on understanding the realities of such situations and developing techniques, and tactics to deal with them quickly and decisively.

Ryan realized early on that for a martial art to be reality-based it must first take into account the worst-case scenario. The logic is that by doing so, you not only edit unrealistic and impractical techniques from your repertoire, but you also create a system in which all lesser situations (and opponents) become much easier to deal with.

Reality Testing

The first step in understanding the worst case scenario was gaining exposure to a wide variety of fighters. In the early 80's, he formed the Gladiator Club, inviting anyone he could find to fight full contact. Like the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) of today they wore just enough protective gear to survive and fought with few rules.

" It was a crazy time," Ryan says "Some of the strangest people showed up. There were boxers, wrestlers, martial artists, drunks and guys who just plain liked to fight." All the participants signed a liability waiver and a statement explaining the limited rules. Most followed those rules; those who did not were forcibly ejected.

Some were unintentionally injured when they went too far. For those less civilized individuals, Ryan would often practice taking physical control, wrestling them to the ground and submitting them. That gave him experience in controlling a wide variety of violent people, and he would later use those skills while designing reality-based programs for law enforcement.

Reaction-Based Combat Skills

Dynamic Combat™ is ultimately a positional and situational martial art, say Richard Ryan (left). This means the techniques and tactics you deploy are the direct result of the specific positions and situations in which you find yourself.

Ryan's second order of business was to identify how people deal with fighting situations, both physically and mentally. He wanted to discover how people reacted in high stress environments and use these common neural reaction patterns as a template for developing more natural and instinctive fighting skills. Ryan says that understanding these response patterns helps to design techniques that are easy to learn and apply, and allows the student to achieve a higher degree of skill more quickly than conventional training methods. It provides a platform of reactionary skill sets based on the natural responses we all share. The advantage is that such reflex oriented techniques are fundamentally nonperishable skills and, therefore more retain-able under stress.

To produce a fighter who is adaptable, free flowing and capable of reacting in extreme situations, Ryan had to develop some new training methods. He dispensed with the standard repetitious training that occupies many martial arts workouts; in place of that he used more one-on-one reactive fighting drills and modified sparring sessions designed to promote spontaneous responses to a wide variety combative problems.

Among the most notable forms of training is "reaction training," in which students are taught how to control their vision, body position and stream of consciousness in order to react auto-kinetically (without conscious thought). With minimal instruction, a student can stand at arm's length from an attacker with his hands at his sides and learn to stop, deflect and counter a full speed assault in seconds, all without any clue to the type of attack that his opponent will deliver. This type of training more closely resembles what really happens in most street fights where the sucker punch is the norm.

Ryan believes that such training is critical because in real fights there is no time to think out your response. "You only have time to focus and react," he says. "Ultimately, Dynamic Combat™ becomes a positional and situational art form. This means the techniques and tactics you deploy are the direct result of the specific positions and situations you find yourself in."

Applying the Worst Case Scenario Concept

Unrehearsed reactive sparring plays an important role in Dynamic Combat™. To illustrate, Lance Clodfelter (left) attacks Richard Ryan with a kick, and Ryan checks the leg (1) and surges forward to deliver a jab to the chin (2). Driving into his opponent, Ryan traps his lead arm and hits his face with a vertical elbow strike (3). Ryan finishes with a series of knee thrusts (4).

Learning to apply the concept of worst case scenarios is easy. Just take a situation, technique or opponent and think about the worst things that can happen. For instance, if you are dealing with a specific person or method of attack, think about the most dangerous manifestation of that individual. Always assume that your attacker is stronger, faster and more technically skilled than you are. Expect him to be both cunning and deceptive. How will this change your approach to dealing with him? If you are analyzing a situation, begin to think in terms of Murphy's law. What can go wrong? What is within the realm of possibilities?

For example, when applying the worst-case scenario concept to ground fighting, you would immediately assume that your opponent is stronger and possesses superior grappling ability. You assume he has a weapon involvement, that your environment will work against you and that multiple attackers may participate.

" If you knew these things to be true, how would it change your approach to grappling?" Ryan asks, "With this worst-case scenario in mind would you still opt to go to the ground?" When you begin to think in terms of the worst-case scenario your perspective dramatically changes. The first thing to go is techniques that automatically place you in a vulnerable condition.

This type of critical thinking that has made Dynamic Combat™ one of the world's most realistic and practical martial arts. "All I care about is the truth-whatever it may be," he says. "Something either works or doesn't; it's that simple. Styles and systems are only relevant if they help you find the truth. But regardless of what you study, you'd better seek out and find solutions to worst-case scenarios and these techniques should form the basis for your skills. If not, you're fooling yourself and someone somewhere is going to blow right through you in a real fight."

Your Opponent's Worst Case Scenario

Speed is the single most important factor in combat, Ryan says. "Speed of thought and action is the greatest attribute a fighter may possess. If you are thinking and moving at a 100 miles an hour and your opponent is only operating at 50, he stands little chance of dealing with you."

That's why Ryan's spends a great deal of time cultivating the "warrior mind set" that is necessary to create a sudden, explosive response to violence. "Dynamic Combat™ strives to become the opponent's worst case scenario," he says. " We try to avoid violence in every possible way by deploying methods of confrontation management, but when the fight is on, we finish it with brutal force. We have what's called 'the nine second rule.' If the fight lasts longer than nine seconds from beginning to end, you're doing something very wrong."

The Escalating Swarm

One unique aspect of Dynamic Combat™ is that its techniques are taught in two distinctly different versions: economy and power. Students first learn how to deliver economical attacks designed to overwhelm an attacker with an explosive rapid-fire assault. They then learn the mechanics of delivering those very same attacks with maximum destructive force. The idea is to create what Ryan calls "the escalating swarm."

In application, economy blows are rained on an opponent until they are stunned, knocked off balance or put out of position. The practitioner then rapidly escalates to full power strikes or other techniques designed to finish off the opponent. Ryan notes that this concept is in harmony with a fundamental rule of the street: He who hits first, fastest and the most almost always wins.

"Learning how to strike with your full potential is first and foremost, a matter of understanding mechanics" he says, "There are numerous methods of execution for any action, but there is always one best way-one way that creates the synergy between speed, power and accuracy. Those are the techniques I have tried to develop over the years."

Ryan believes that the first requirement in a successful search for true skill is an open and inquisitive mind. "Martial artists should never take anything for face value," he says "Instead, you should approach them as any scientist would, investigating and experimenting with all possibilities until you arrive at the undeniable truth."

Ryan's Rules for Winning

Expect the worst. Remember that people and situations are fundamentally unpredictable. When confronted with the threat of violence expect an immediate and sudden, overwhelming attack and assume you will always need more time and more distance than you think. Adjust your tactics accordingly.

Expect the unexpected. Combative situations are dynamic in nature and always in a state of flux. You may think one thing will happen and the exact opposite occurs. Always expect the situation to change without warning and always assume an opponent will use deception and surprise. If the opponent is unarmed, expected him to access a weapon. If he is by himself, expect others join the fray. More fights are lost to the element of surprise than any other factor.

Expect maximum resistance. Always assume that an opponent will do everything in his power to stop everything you try to do the moment you try to do it. Never underestimate the amount of resistance you will encounter and always assume that any potentially hostile situation can escalate to a fight for your life without warning. Enter into all encounters with the idea that you may have to use deadly force to survive.

Go to Black Belt Magazine

Return to News Index

^ TOP