*Edits 30-09-06, Updated. New version to replace the old*
Delmar Denbans Self Protection Guide Ok, here it is. For those of you that have read my original article titled ?street fighting? I have changed the title and I have also modified and added to most of the content within. The reason behind this is because I feel that the original title give the wrong impression to what the content of the article was about. The reason that I have titled this article ?self protection? and not ?self defense? is because they are both very different concepts.
The term ?Self Defense? is in fact a negative statement. It gives the reader the wrong impression as to what this article is about. The term ?Self Defense? gives the impression that you have to wait for an attack in order to respond to it. This is the impression that the majority of people and martial artists believe is the key to protecting yourself physically. ?Self Protection? is very different. This is where awareness training plays a vital role. The idea behind this is that prevention is far more effective than cure. If you can see a potentially violent situation developing then you can get away from it or deal with it far before the situation becomes physical. If you have not been ?switched on? enough and you find yourself in a situation that you believe is about to become violent then instead you can be pre-emptive and attack first neutralizing the situation before any harm comes to you and still be acting within the law. That is self protection. I will elaborate further later in the article.
Please take the time to read through this article once and then once again afterwards for as I do refer to later parts of the article frequently. This will help you to absorb the information.
As this is such a massive subject I would appreciate anybody?s input because to be honest with you it would take a set of encyclopedias to cover every thing that there is to know. So I?m going to cover what I feel is essential and hopefully every one will chip in.
Please take you time to go through what is written here as you may well find something which will be of use.
I will not apologise for any offence caused in this article. If any body disagrees with what I?m saying then I am more than happy to discuss your views and answer any questions on the subject.
Some of the information has already been touched on in other articles I?ve written but I think it is important that it is mentioned again here in this article. Everything here is based on my opinion if you don?t agree with every thing I say then that?s fine; just take what you find useful.
Please remember that if you can avoid a violent confrontation then do so as fighting in real life is not like in the movies it is brutal and life threatening. Getting yourself into a fight can be a life changing event and can affect the lives of many people, as you can end up dead, killing your opponent, being crippled, sent to prison etc. Don?t take this article lightly. Life is fragile and killing people is easy, you only have to hit somebody and they hit their head on the floor or on an object and they die as a result. You could twist someone?s neck too far and you kill them. You can stick your fingers too far into someone?s eyes and kill them, if you hold on a choke and starve the brain of oxygen for too long you will kill them. What I?m trying to say is that you must realise that in order to defend yourself you are not just placing your life in danger but the man/ women in front of you as well. If you are going to use any thing mentioned in this article then you must understand the consequences of your actions and be able to live with them. If I defend my self and end up killing then at least I can justify to myself I either had no choice or the ******** in front of me deserved it.I will not claim responsibility for any body getting injured or killed for using anything in this article do so at your own risk. You are responsible for your own actions. Okay moving on.
Before we even start on the subject of self protection it is important that you understand where you stand within the law as far as self-defense is concerned. Most martial artists on the planet do not know where they stand within the law when it comes down to self-defense. One of the reasons this is because the police and society would rather not tell you. I know this sounds very far fetched but bear with me because once you know where you stand within the law, especially with self defense it can be easily abused when that knowledge is in the wrong hands.
Now the consequences of defending yourself in a violent confrontation can be put into two categories:
1. Involvement with the law. 2. ?Comeback? from the parties you have fought. I know where people of the UK stand as far as self defense is concerned and I?m 90% sure that the rest of the western world especially the USA has the same law. But 90% is not 100%. If you are not sure where you stand look it up rather than ask people because finding out by word of mouth can be like a game of Chinese whispers. It is better to be 100% sure than 100% sorry.
The law states that if somebody is acting aggressive towards you and you fear for your own personnel safety then you are allowed to hit them with a pre-emptive strike using reasonable force in self defense. So, what does it mean in plain English? I?ll break it down for you:
If somebody is in front of you and is in your face being very aggressive (showing threatening behavior), and you think that they are going to attack you then you are allowed to strike first in order to protect yourself. When you strike first it means that you are being pre-emptive. Reasonable force means that you use enough force to get the job done. So if I hit somebody, and as a result incapacitate them with one or two blows then that is reasonable/ minimal force. If I knock them out and then proceed to dance all over their head then that is not classed as reasonable force.
Remember, we are judged in today?s society not by what we do but
what we say in court. So if the police turn up you must and I can?t stress how important it is that you quote self-defense. For example, I would say something along the lines of:
?He was acting extremely aggressive towards me and I feared for my own personal safety, I was in honest belief that I was about to be attacked so I hit him with a pre-emptive strike using minimal force in self defense.? I may even add the icing on the cake by adding:
?I felt so concerned for his personal health that I put him in the recovery position.?
The most important thing you must state is that you
feared for your own personal safety and you used
reasonable force in self-defense. You can even say that you warned the attacker that you didn?t want trouble before you hit them.
I know that the idea of being pre-emptive does sound harsh but at the end of the day I?d rather be judged by twelve than carried by six. Basically I?d rather end up in court for knocking somebody out then being six foot under.
So that?s pretty much the law covered but what about come backs? If you hit somebody then what is going to stop both him and his mates kicking in your door at three in the morning wanting a straighter? Well, there is a saying that the samurai had which said ?always tighten you helmet straps after battle.? Basically just because you have dealt with the immediate threat doesn?t mean that there will not be repercussions. All I can say to you is always be switched on and never let your guard down. Make sure you make enough of a mess of the person you have dropped so it will leave the impression that you are not to be ******** with.
Some people might say that it can be within your best interests to lose for fear of comebacks. Unfortunately you may not be given this luxury; to lose may be to die. Or even worse if you are out with your child, girl friend/ boy friend, mates or even members of your family. What is to say that they won?t be next?
If I am in a no win situation and there is a strong possibility that I may die then I?m not going to just roll over, if I die I?m taking as many with me as I can. But at the end of the day it is your choice. Some people have trouble getting past the thought that being pre-emptive is morally wrong and that no matter what the threat is in front of them if they are first to attack then they will be viewed by society as the antagonist. Let me tell you this; hesitation is the biggest killer. When it comes to fighting on the street if you hesitate then you?re opponent will beat you to the attack and that attack could well be the end of you. If you?re are up against multiple attackers, which will more than likely be the case as nobody fights alone these days then you cannot afford to be second place. To be second could well cost you your life. I know that providing I can justify my actions to myself then I can sleep at night.
Awareness.Before I start talking about the physical side of a confrontation and ways of dealing with it I have to take a step back and talk about the most important element in self protection, that is the importance of awareness or being ?switched on?.
If you are not switched on in the first place then how can you possibly see a potentially violent situation developing in front of you and deal with it before it spirals out of your control?
There are several stages of awareness. To make things easier I?m going to use a colour coding system to describe them to you:
Code White.This is a state of awareness that we should never be in but sadly the majority of us are constantly in. Code white is when we are ?switched off? in a kind of day dream state. You are walking down the street txting on your mobile phone or looking at the floor with your hands in your pockets or maybe you are actually having a day dream in a world of your own. Now the trouble with being in this state is that not only are you going to fail to see a potentially violent confrontation developing in front of you, you are also making yourself a potential target for muggers and rapists.
Police call this ?target hardening?. It is fact that muggers and rapists do not choose random targets. They will go for an easy target through a process of selection. If they see that you are not aware of your surrounding then you have far more chance of being ?selected? as a potential victim, in essence you are an easy target. A mugger in the street will probably make a point of walking past you in order to see if you notice them. If you do not they will probably make one more pass at you before they choose to attack you. In the attack itself often they will use dialogue to disarm and distract you before they make their move.
One classic is the ?pincer? tactic. This is where you are walking down the street and somebody approaches you to ask you for the time or if you have any spare change. As you look in your pocket or at your watch a second accomplice will approach you from the side or from behind and will either attack you or threaten you aggressively. Because this comes as such a surprise your body will suffer from an adrenaline dump (see the later section ?adrenaline and it?s relation to violent confrontations?). The adrenaline dump will cause you to freeze involuntary giving the chance for the attackers to have their way with you.
There are many, many different approaches that attackers on the street will use in order to disarm and distract you before they will make their move. The key to all of this though is the fact that you were in ?code white? making you an easy target. In order to avoid this we look to the next colour code:
Code Yellow.This is a state of awareness that we should really always be in. It is when we are ?switched on? and aware of our surroundings. You are walking down the street and you are aware and alert to what is happening around you. You are not in a day dream state.
Now when most people hear me talk about this they say ?well, isn?t that being paranoid? I like to use the analogy that if you get into your car and put your seat belt on you are not being paranoid that you will crash your car but you are aware that there is a possibility that it could happen. Being in code yellow, walking down the street is exactly the same. We are not being paranoid about being attacked, we are just aware that in today?s dangerous society it could happen.
As a result of being in code yellow you are far less likely to be selected as a target. Thus the name ?target hardening?, you have just made yourself a ?harder target?. A mugger or rapist is far more likely to go for an easier target. Why waste time on somebody who will give you difficulty getting what you want when there are thousands more people in every day life who make easier prey. As horrible as it sounds, that is reality.
Code Orange. This is the next stage of awareness where you have seen a potential threat. Perhaps you are in the pub and you see a group of individuals that have given you trouble in the past and are a potential threat to you. Maybe you are walking down the street and up ahead you see a group of youths who could potentially cause you trouble. Perhaps you are walking down the street and you notice that you are being followed. Code orange is about recognizing a potential threat developing around you.
Code Red.This is the final and colour coding stage. This is where it is time to take action. You have already been in code orange and seen the potential threat. It is now time to do something about it. If you in the pub and you have seen that group of individuals that could cause you trouble you have a choice; do you either leave the pub or stay and potentially end up in a physical confrontation? If you are walking down the street and you see that group of youths who are up ahead. Do you keep walking past them or do you avoid them and take a safer route to your destination? If you notice that you are being followed do you choose to ignore the threat, turn and face it or quickly move to a more public place where you will be much safer?
The point all of this is that because you are switched on and you have recognized a potential threat developing you now have the opportunity to make a choice. If you were stuck in ?code white? you would not have that chance you could quickly end up in a dangerous situation and all because you were not paying attention in the first place. Earlier on in this article I mentioned that prevention is far more effective than cure. A lot of people who find themselves in a situation such in the pub with that group of individuals staring at them would rather just stay in the pub thinking ?why should I just leave my local when I?ve already bought my pint, ******** them?. Please put some fought into this, is it really worth getting your teeth kicked in or getting 30 stitches in your face all for the cost of a pint? So many people who are proud or pig headed/ stubborn would refuse to move and as a result end up in hospital or potentially dead. Is it worth it? Testosterone fuelled males are the worst when it comes to this. If you are with your girlfriend/ boyfriend is it worth getting a severe beating over something as petty as pride? It?s worth thinking about isn?t it?
Avoidance is always a better option than fighting. You only get one life; it?s not worth throwing it away over something so small. Remember if you were not in ?code yellow? then you would not be able to move up into ?code orange? and then into ?code red?. If you are in ?code white? then you are stuck in ?code white?, you will not be able to move on to the next stages. You have to start off in ?code yellow?. Worth thinking about isn?t it?
Before I move on to the subject of dealing with the actual physical confrontation it is important to talk about and understand how your body reacts under the stimuli of violent confrontation. If you can understand yourself then you will be able to understand your opponent better and therefore take him apart that much easier.
Adrenaline and its relation to violent confrontations.One of the most important things that you must learn about when you get yourself into a violent confrontation is how your body reacts under the stresses of confrontation. And in order to learn about that you must understand what adrenaline is, how it affects the human body and how to use to it your advantage. It could mean the difference between life and death.
Adrenaline is a chemical, which is released into the body from the adrenal gland when the body feels that it is under threat. Remember that feeling of butterflies in your stomach? That feeling of being nervous when you are about to have that heavy sparring session? When you are arguing with someone? When you are going for that job interview? Or out on that hot date? When you feel that first kiss? When you are about to do that bungee jump or sky dive? That my friend is not fear you are feeling it is adrenaline.
There are many symptoms when it comes down to recognizing adrenaline. Not only will you get that feeling of butterflies in the stomach you will also feel your legs shaking, your heart beat racing faster than normal, your breathing will get heavier or faster, your voice will be shaking, you may experience hearing loss, tunnel vision and you will have that feeling that you really need to go to the toilet.
When we experience these feelings our bodies reasoning process will often mistake them for fear and as a result of this we may lose our bottle in a violent confrontation even before it starts. I?ve seen experienced martial artists get the s**t kicked out of them because they mistook the feeling of adrenaline for fear and froze up before they could even attack and as a result got slaughtered. Afterwards they end up losing all confidence in the martial art that they may have been practicing for many years. They most certainly will lose confidence in themselves. Sometimes they just end up giving up the martial arts altogether even after over a decade of training thinking that they are cowardly when the truth was that they never understood how their bodies react under the stresses of adrenaline and how to utilize that feeling to their advantage
Mike Tyson?s trainer once told him that fear is the friend of exceptional people and this is very true. Once you realise that feeling adrenaline is the most natural thing in the world and you become comfortable with this fact you have a huge advantage. It triggers a flight or fight response in the human body, you will either want to run away or fight.
The advantages of adrenaline are that it dulls your pain receptors so that you will not feel any pain or hardly any at all when getting hit until much later when the effects have worn off (which can take many hours) it also increases your speed and strength.
Have you ever heard cases about the mother that held on to a boiling pot of water to stop it falling on a child? Or even the elderly person who lifted up a car after it had dropped on a man after the jack collapsed? That?s all related to adrenaline. The human body is capable of incredible things.
These are the main types of adrenaline that you will experience.
1. The adrenaline build up. This is when you have an event coming up in the near future. It could be that fight you have been training for, that interview or that hot date. You will feel small secretions of adrenaline going throughout your body for days or even weeks. That feeling will get stronger and stronger as the event gets closer until the actual event occurs.
2. The adrenaline rush. Most of us will have felt this feeling. It happens during an event such as a fight, sky dive car race etc. This is when the body thinks that it is in danger because it is in an extreme circumstance and gives you that extra boost of adrenaline to help you out. Many of us become addicted to that feeling, and the feel good factor we get afterwards which is a chemical called endorphins which is released in the brain as a by product of adrenaline. A common feeling that you?ll get from endorphins is that feel good factor of being laid after great sex.
3. The adrenaline dump, other wise known as the WOW or ?Oh s**t? factor. This is the killer. It happens when an attack or incident occurs suddenly with no warning. You get such a huge adrenaline rush the body just freezes up. Some times you might feel like your feet are glued to the floor. This usually happens during ambush attacks and or when something happens that takes you completely by surprise.
4. Secondary adrenaline.This is by far one of the worst types of adrenaline that you can experience and has been the downfall of many experienced fighters. This is when you have dealt with an incident (such as a fight/ violent confrontation) and as a result we get that feel good factor from the chemical release of endorphins. You are on a high and in a celebration state. As a result ?you switch off?. All of a sudden, and without warning the threat of another violent confrontation occurs. Because you get that secondary feeling of adrenaline it takes you completely by surprise, you freeze just like when you experience the adrenaline dump. Many experienced fighters have dealt with a situation, switched off and then when a second situation happens they lose their bottle. In truth they haven?t lost their bottle they were simply taken surprise by that secondary dose of adrenaline. As I mentioned earlier, always tighten your helmet straps after battle. Don?t switch off after a confrontation until you know that you are safe and secure.
Controlling your adrenaline.Ok, so you are in a fight situation and somebody is in front of you is about to kick off. You have been training like a demon for this very day (or perhaps not at all), you go to open your mouth to say something and your voice quivers like Elvis and your legs start shaking like ********. You may not be bothered about feeling fear because you know that what you?re feeling is adrenaline but to every body in the room you look as scared as a puppy dog, if they do see this then they will mistake this as weakness, as a result they will be on you like flies on s**t. So how do you hide the physical effects of adrenaline?
It is a technique called the ?duck syndrome?. Have you ever seen a duck swim on water? Looks graceful doesn?t he? Well in fact while on the surface the duck looks calm, under the surface he is paddling like hell! You must adopt the same principle in order to disguise the fact that the adrenaline is affecting you.
We can do this by taking deep slow controlled breaths; this will help to control the flow of adrenaline within the body and harness it. In order to make it look like you are not hyperventilating you can take the occasional deep breath while breathing normally and disguise it as a pissed off sigh. You know, like when you are getting lectured by you teacher or parent for the one thousandth time. If you smoke then take a deep drag from your cigarette as this will also help you take in more air to control the flow of adrenaline while disguising what you are trying to do.
In order to hide the shaking of the legs you can tap your foot like you are doing so to the rhythm of music. As for the quivering of the voice that does take practice in order to control it but the deep breaths will help. Also when you speak take your time so you don?t end up saying anything stupid in a panic.
Before I talk about the different types of physical confrontation that you may come across I am briefly going to talk about why you will not see me talking about blocking techniques at any point of this article. This is because I truly believe that they do not work in a real fight, and I will explain my reasons behind this (please note blocking and trapping are two very different things).
This statement will no doubt have the traditional martial artists up in arms arguing that blocking does work. Please allow me to explain. First of all you have got to realise that real fights do not happen like they do in the movies. In the dojo you work at a distance of usually 1 metre from each other (otherwise known as Dojo distance). The attacks and counters are usually rehearsed so you know what's coming and if you don't then you'll have a fair idea, the attacks will follow certain parameters (everything is pre-supposed).
Also take into account that your training partner will not want hurt you, let alone kill you. Your techniques will work great in the Dojo at Dojo distance but on the street you will be killed. In real life you have to remember that you don't have the comfort of the 1 metre dojo gap you will have 16-20 inches (hand shake distance).
Remember if you don?t know when attack is coming, what the attack will be and not to mention the complete lack of distance you will actually have from your opponent as well as the fact you will be out numbered and trying to think where every one else is all at the same time, you will be playing devils advocate and get a severe beating (if you?re lucky) trying to block.
Strike first ask questions later, if in doubt bang them out.
Remember action is faster than reaction!
Now I?m going to categorise the three main types of physical confrontation which you are going to come across. Remember if you find yourself in this situation it is more than likely because you?ve failed to see the situation develop and you were not ?switched on?. The most important part of self protection is using your awareness to avoid a situation such as this. However sometimes no matter how we try we can still end up in a violent confrontation, we are all human and open to errors after all. I will also give my advice and/or opinions on each class of confrontation before I talk about dealing with it:
Type 1. The match fight (one on one) This never really happens any more. It did in the days of our fathers where two blokes had a square one on one fight and then afterwards go and buy each other a pint down the pub and become the best of mates. If you get your self into one of these try to end it as quickly as possible before your opponent?s mates jump in and rip you up. Use any dirty tactic in the book to win. Spit, bite, gouge, or even use a weapon if you want to. Remember it is your survival at stake so use what ever it takes. You can risk grappling as it is the preferred range for a one on one situation but make damn sure that:
1. You know what you are doing.
2. You end it quickly.
3. Make damned sure that he is not carrying an edged weapon like a knife.
4. There isn?t any one who will jump in unless they are on your side.
Type 2. The three-second fight (the three D?s) This is the most common type of all violent confrontations that you will find yourself in. You could find yourself in a potentially violent situation anywhere. It could be in a club, pub, wedding reception, outside your house, in the mall, outside your local kebab shop. All of these usually start from conversation range (hand shake distance) and then end up as in your face violence.
I will give you an example of a situation you may find yourself in:
You are standing in a bar, minding your own business and you see a very attractive girl/boy and you make eye contact and maybe smile. The next thing you know their boy/girlfriend is in your face saying, ?Are you ******** looking at my girl/man?? You reply by saying ?I?m sorry I didn?t realise.? The next thing you know is that you have been punched or glassed and you are on the floor bleeding while your attacker and maybe his mates are sticking in the boot in.
As you can see it all starts from dialogue and then closes straight down to violence.
I?ll give another example before I give a solution:
You are walking down the street and you are approached by a man and he says ?excuse me mate have you got the time?? You reply by saying ?yeah sure.? You look down to your watch and the next thing you know you have been attacked and are on the floor bleeding and the guy screams ?give me your ******** phone/ wallet.? Because of the sudden attack you have a massive adrenaline dump and freeze up and as a result hand the guy the wallet or phone.
Right, so how do we prevent these things from, happening to us? There are three things that you must learn and perfect:
1. Awareness, staying switched on.
2. Distance control
3. The three D?s (Deception, Distraction, and Destruction)
I won?t bother talking about awareness because it has already been talked about earlier in the article. I?m going to cover the three D?s and distance control.
Distance control is when you control the distance between yourself and the opponent but you keep them just inside striking range. Another term for the distance control method is the ?fence?.
A quick analogy that?ll I?ll use to explain what the fence is, is that if you imagine that you are a house and your potential attacker who is standing in front of you is a burglar. The burglar wants to get into the house and you need to use something to deter the burglar from entering your house. So what we are going to do is put a great big ******** off fence in between you and your opponent to deter him from entering your house. That is in essence what the fence is. Veteran Doormen are masters of this technique.
What I want you to do right now is to place both hands out in front of you and keep them straight.
That is your striking range, the length of your arms.
Never, ever let anyone inside that range even if you are s**t hot at close range fighting. The reason behind this is that if some body gets inside that range then you are going to be grabbed and end up on the floor which is the last place that you want to be even if you are an expert grappler as there is nothing to stop your opponents friends from kicking your head in while you are on the floor.
If you really are s**t hot at close range and you do fancy yourself quite a bit then only use your hands, forearms/elbow/ head butting to strike at close range. Avoid using your legs as striking tools because this will impair your balance.
Now that we know what our striking range is (the length of our arms). We can move on and talk about using them as a ?physical fence?.
Now when you use your distance control/ fence make sure that you do not make it obvious that you are controlling the distance between you and your opponent. Because if he or she thinks you are trying to set them up with a strike then they will attack. What I like to do is hold out both arms at chest height and keep them slightly bent with the left hand about 12-18 inches further in front of my right hand. The palms of both hands are facing up towards the ceiling. Now when I do this it looks like I am almost shrugging submissively but what I?m actually doing is lining up my opponent with my left hand and I?m going to hit him with my right hand. Alternatively I could hit him with a left hook off the lead hand. If any one ever moves inside my striking range when I?m performing distance control then I will hit them straight away.
In order to strike I must now use the three D?s which will setup my opponent up.
NOTE: Only worry about striking range with your hands not your legs because as I mentioned before you are taking a huge risk trying to kick as it will impair your balance and not only that you won?t have the room to kick. If you attempt to throw a knee shot you may find yourself clinching to gain power into that shot and as a result end up in grappling range with is the last place that we want to be. Ok now we are going to briefly touch on the three D?s and after that we will put it together with the distance control in a scenario followed down by a broken down explanation and hopefully it will all make sense.
The idea behind the three D?s (deception, distraction, destruction) is that we are going to fool our would be attacker in to thinking we are not a threat while controlling the distance and his adrenaline before we take him off the planet using a pre-emptive strike.
Scenario:
You are in a bar and there is a drunken man making noise and generally being abusive. For some reason he has taken a disliking to you and approaches you saying ?What the ******** do you think you are looking at?? You use your distance control to keep the man just within striking distance and say ?look mate I don?t want any trouble, can?t we talk about this?? Half a second later within saying this I hit him squarely on the chin knocking him out.
Okay now I?m going the break the above down:
I was approached by somebody who was acting aggressive towards me. I feared for my personal safety so I used distance control and at the same time said that I didn?t want trouble which has relaxed him and switched off his adrenaline as he thinks that I do not want to fight.
Note: When somebody is relaxed they are 50% easier to knock out. In the same sentence I asked him if we could talk about the situation.
Note: When you ask somebody a question that demands an answer it engages the brain and therefore makes them 80% easier to knock out. And because of the combined fact that their adrenaline is switched off and that my opponent is distracted he won?t see the attack coming providing I hit him hard and fast enough. Once I have spoken I wait half a second for the question that I have asked him to engage his brain then I will strike him on the jaw to knock him out.
Note: There is a huge myth on where you should strike somebody in order to knock them out. Some people say hit them on the temple. I really don?t recommend this because you will break your hand on his skull. It works in boxing because you are wearing padded gloves. Your hand is full of loads of tiny, fragile little bones that break very easily if you are not careful. The Where should you strike the opponent then? You really only have two options: 1. Strike him to the throat where the carotid artery is located, which will disrupt the blood flow the brain causing him to be knocked out. (I don?t recommend this too much because while it works you can kill somebody doing this, as throat attack are very dangerous). 2. Strike them along the jaw line between the upper part of the jaw (just below the ear) to the lowest part of the jaw (on the point of the chin). The reason why it is best to strike there is because unconsciousness is caused when the brain rattles against the skull and the best way to cause that shaking effect is to strike the jaw line. The lower down the jaw you strike them the easier it is to knock them out. You will not break your hands striking here because the head gives/turns with the impact of your fist. Also the jaw is very brittle and breaks fairly easy. So, to summerise the three D's:
1. Deception = I have tricked my opponent into thinking that I do not want to fight.
2. Distraction = I have asked the would-be attacker a question to engage the brain.
3. Destruction = I have been pre-emptive and hit the guy so hard that when he wakes up his clothes will be out of fashion.
I would be foolish and arrogant to think that you are going to pick up distance control just by reading this article so I have a list on where to get material where you can learn and study it. I hope this article has at least given you an introduction.
There are many different methods that you can use where distance control is concerned. If you are serious in learning how to do this and make it work in a real situation then I recommend the following media:
The Fence (book and video)
Dead or Alive: The choice is yours
The Three Second Fighter (Book & Video)
All of these titles are by the same martial artist called Geoff Thompson and you can buy the media from
http://www.geoffthompson.com they also ship world wide.
The sole reason that I am choosing this instructor is because no body else teaches distance control in books and video and does it in such a style that you can pick up the idea and develop your own style of distance control to make it work for you. I recommend that you buy the videos because they are far better to learn from. Obviously if you can find an instructor who will teach these things then great. But they are rare to come by. One of my instructors is an expert when it comes to distance control and street fighting but as I said you'll have trouble finding one.
As you have gathered by now you have to be able to hit somebody once and take them out and this takes a great deal of training. My advice to you would be find three hand techniques/ types of punches and drill them every day on a heavy punch bag or get a training partner that you trust to hold focus mitts. It takes hundreds upon hundreds of repetitions to become good at a technique but at least ten thousand before you can call that technique yours, once you have drilled them enough the techniques will become part of you and you?ll have them for the rest of your life.
Once you have chosen your strikes you can then implement them into your own distance control methods. The above media will show you many different methods of distance control and drills to perfect them. I'm not going to describe different methods of distance control because it is next to impossible to explain purely in text. Because every one is different every one will have their own unique methods in distance control.
The reason why you have to be able to take someone out with one blow is because once you have dealt with the immediate attacker you will have to deal with his mates.
If you are dealing more than one opponent in front of you within a ?three second fight situation? then you will have to make a decision as to who to strike first by using a system of prioritizing targets. I like to call this ?red letter day?. An analogy I will use is that you are at home and you have a pile of bills sitting in front of you, which bill should you pay first? The answer to that is the bill from the company that is the biggest threat to cutting you off.
In a three second fight situation you must hit the guy that is closest to you and then initiate an adrenaline response in the others (Talked about later on in the article) or lay into the remanding targets taking out the next closest target. If they are all the same distance from you, and for arguments sakes there are three of them then do not hit the one in the middle as you now have attackers coming in at both sides. Instead hit the one to the left or right of you and then as you attack the next closest opponent try to maneuver yourself so that the third opponent is blocked by the person you are attacking.
Type 3. Ambush fighting. This is the kind of street fighting where you usually have no warning what so ever you could be walking down a dark street and be approached from more than one angle and before you know it your attackers are all over you. There is no time for dialogue and no time for distance control. You have to hit every thing that moves and hope for the best, and don't stop until either you are dead or the threat has been neutralized. The less strikes thrown at each opponent the better; you don't get paid for over time! You can train for ambush situations. But when it boils down to it you are going to get hit several times at least and your chances of survival are not good. If your training has been good then you will have an edge but technique usually goes out of the window here.
The key to avoiding ambush attacks are awareness. If you are not switched on you will never see it coming. You really do need to be switched on at all times (?code yellow?). I will give some examples on how to avoid ambush attacks but it is really a case of common sense more than any thing else.
1. You might see a gang of people who look suspicious further on down the street from you. Walk on the other side of the road or take a different route. It may take longer but you?ll be safer.
2. Somebody may approach you in the street (this happens to us every day) and ask you for the time or for loose change. Usually it could be quite innocent but don?t take the chance. These are prime scenarios for muggings. While you are concentrating on the man/women in front of you their accomplice/s could approach you away from your field of vision and before you know it you have either been attacked or surrounded.
3. Ambush points. An ambush point is a place where somebody can hide and potentially ambush you from. These are every where and it is essential that you learn these and how to minimise the risk of getting caught out. Examples of ambush points could be behind cars, around corners, down alley ways, a big row of bushes, etc. All kinds of steps can be taken in order to avoid these but again you must be alert and switched on at all times. When walking down the street or down paths always plan ahead. If there is a corner that you can?t see around or an entrance to an alley way, give it a wide-birth. If there is a row of cars then look through the glass to the other side and check if any one is hiding behind them and give them a wide birth or take another route.
4. If you are walking home either during home or at night never take that short cut through that dark field or alley way, you are asking for trouble. I know a girl who took a self defense class and told me that she now felt confident to walk through that a short cut to her house at night (which was a over grown field), I told her that if she had been taught properly she would be no longer taking that shortcut.
5. When walking down the street always look in reflections from shop windows and mirrors to check behind you or even watch your back at regular intervals just to be sure that you are not being followed. If you are then get to an open public place that has CCTV where you will be safer.
6. If you have recently had a fight or confrontation than the chances are you'll be expecting some form of come back from the parties involved. A common situation you'll come across is when you go to a party and there is always a chance that you will be confronted and attacked by a large number of people that are some how involved with the person you gave a kicking to. In truth come backs could happen anywhere, even in your own home. So be prepared and be switched on.
If you are out numbered and you get the chance use a weapon, it will increase your chances of survival. Also if see an opportunity, try to initiate an adrenaline response in the attackers (I will talk about this in a moment). Hopefully it will cause a flight response in some of them. If it doesn't work then you had a fight on your hands anyway.
Using your opponent?s adrenaline against them.Once you have an understanding of the workings of adrenaline you can really mess people up and use their own adrenaline against them. If I?m about to kick off I will some times initiate an adrenaline response in the person or people in front of me. If I am being approached by a bunch of people who would like to kick my head in, with out warning I will scream; ?Who wants to ******** go then!!!? As I say this I will splay my arms out wide to make me look bigger than I actually am. I?ll allow spit to fly from my mouth and basically look like a nut case. This will trigger an adrenaline response in all of my opponents, a fear on an instinctive level where I will appear to be the bigger, more vicious animal. Because they do not have the knowledge that I do about how the body reacts under the stresses of confrontation they will mistake the feeling for fear and this will give me an edge.
As I scream what ever it is I?m screaming I will approach them and then launch into an attack and hit every thing that moves. Now if every thing has gone to plan they might retreat thinking ?******** me, this guy?s crazy?. If not, I had to attack anyway as I was about to be attacked myself.
Not only can you initiate an adrenaline response in someone you can also take it away. If some one is in my face calling me all of the arseholes under the sun I will play scared and say ?look mate I don?t want any trouble, can?t we talk about this?? This will drop my opponents guard as he will think that I am longer a threat and as a result he will feel more relaxed and his adrenaline will go down.
As far he is concerned I have bottled out and he is already celebrating with his mates. Now I?m happy to make him think that because as soon as I see him relaxed I?m going to hit him with every thing I?ve got. As soon as he hits the ground I can use the tactic mentioned above and initiate an adrenaline response in them before I attack. Now I?m going to scream at them with something along the lines of ?WHO WANTS TO ******** GO THEN!!!? or ?YOU COME ANY CLOSER AND I?LL RIP YOUR ******** HEAD OFF!!!? (Stamping on the guy I?ve dropped to illustrate my point). If you do use this tactic then you must really mean it because if you don?t they will see that you don?t and you are going to be in a world of hurt, they will attack you without hesitation.
No doubt you guys will have questions and feed back about this article so I?ll do my best to get around to every body as and when I can.
A question that I have been asked was what techniques do I use in a real situation? The answer to that is very little. I tend to use some of strikes from boxing such as crosses, hooks and upper cuts for close range (especially from distance control). Other close range techniques I use are head butts, biting, gouging and some strikes from Muay Thai. The only time I?m going to kick some body is when they are on the floor or on their way down. If I do kick some body while they are standing up then I will use thai kicks into the thigh area in order to bring down my opponents hands down before I move in for the kill with my hands. The bulk of my training goes into what I find to be most practical in a ?live? situation.
The sad reality is that in your traditional martial art training over 95% of the techniques that you will learn will not be practical in a street situation so it will be up to you to experiment and use what you feel works.
Every strike I train for in a reality situation I drill constantly to make sure that when I throw it, it will finish off my opponent in one blow. If one strike does not do it then the next two or three I follow up with will.
One more thing I?ll add is that being pre-emptive is not an easy thing to do. It takes a lot of bottle just to strike somebody with out warning, but it is the only thing that will work in real life. It is scary and brutal but it's the only way to effectively neutralize a threat. I have heard people say that striking first is dishonorable and that we as martial artists should wait for the attack to come first. My answer to that is simple. The opponents that we are facing out on the street are far from honorable and will use dialogue whether it is dismissive or aggressive to distract and disarm us before they attack. All we are doing is using the exact same tactic against them. If you think that you can block an attack that is coming without warning from a distance of 18 inches away from you by somebody who is intent on putting you in hospital then you are deluding yourself.
Some of you have asked if I ever get scared when it comes to violent confrontation. Well my answer to that is yes; every single time I get into a situation it scares the s**t out of me. I hate having to hurt people but if it is the only way to survive then I will not hesitate.
One of the next articles I?m going to work on is about pre-emptive strikes and maybe one on improvisational weapons.
Any way hope you enjoyed reading the article (even though it was a long read)
I look forward to your feed back and questions!
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