Delmar_Denban
Delmar Denban's guide to street fighting
Ok, here it is. I've changed what I was going to add originally, which was going to be a lot of info on self defence because it's being covered quite a bit in other posts so I'm going to talk about many subjects regarding street fighting. 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 encyclopaedias 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 there may well be something you will find useful (I hope!) sweatdrop
As before, 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 cool just take what you find useful.
Please remember that if you can avoid a situation then do so as fighting in real life is not like in the movies it is brutal and very 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. So don't take this article lightly. Life is fragile and killing people is easy, you only have to hit somebody and they bang their head on the floor or on an object and they die. You could twist someones neck too far and you kill them. You can stick your fingers into someones eyes too far 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 your self 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 defend my self and end up killing then at least I can justify to myself I either had no choice or the b*****d 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.
Okay moving on.
Before we even start on the subject of street fighting it is important that you understand where you stand within the law as far as self defence is concerned. Most martial artists on the planet do not know where they stand within the law when it comes down to self defence. One of the reasons this is because the police 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 defence it can be easily abused.
Now the consequences of defending yourself can be put into two categories:
1. Being involved with the law.
2. Comeback from the parties you have fought.
I know where people of the UK stand as far as self defence 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% as Gank mentioned to me earlier so 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 defence.
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 behaviour, 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 force. If I knock them out and then proceed to do a 56 move kata on their heads that that is going a bit too far.
Remember, we are judged in todays 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 this is quote self defence. 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 so I hit him with a pre-emptive strike using minimal force in self defence.
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."
But the most important thing you must state is that you feared for your own personal safety and you used reasonable force in self defence . 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 would rather be judged by twelve than carried by six.
So that's pretty much the law covered but what about come back? 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 this 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. Unfortunately you may not be given this luxury, to loose 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 wont be next? If I'm 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.
One of the most important things that you must learn about when you get your self into a street fight 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, 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 when you are about to have that heavy sparring session, when you are arguing with someone, when you are going for that job interview, on that hot date, when you feel that first kiss, about to do that bungee jump or sky dive? That my fellow Gaians is not fear you are feeling it is adrenaline. There are many symptoms when it comes down to recognising adrenaline. Not only will you get that feeling of butterflies in the stomach you will also feel your legs shaking, your heat beat racing, your breathing will get heavier or faster, your voice will be shaking, you may experience hearing loss, tunnel vision and you will want to piss or/and s**t yourself.
When we experience these feelings we often mistake them for fear and bottle out of a fight even before it starts. I've seen experienced martial artists get the s**t kicked out of them because they mistook adrenaline for fear and froze up before they could even attack and in turn got slaughtered. After wards they end up losing all confidence in their art and themselves. Sometimes they just end up giving up the martial arts altogether even after over a decade of training thinking that they are cowardly.
Mike Tysons 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 then 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 at all when getting hit until after it has worn off (which can take hours) it also increases your speed and strength. Have you ever heard 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.
There are three main types of adrenaline.
1. The adrenaline build up. This is when you have that fight coming up or interview and you feel adrenaline days before and it gets worse and worse until the actual event.
2. The adrenaline rush. Happens during an event such as a fight or sky dive.
3. The adrenaline dump. This is the killer. It happens when an attack or incident just all of a sudden with no warning occurs and you get such a huge adrenaline rush the body just freezes up (like your feet are glued to the floor).
Sometimes we are unable to control our selves when adrenaline kicks in and instinct takes over and we go on automatic pilot. In a fight this is when your training if it has been good enough will take over and before you know it the jobs been done. If your training has not been good enough then you are deader than disco. The only way to come out on top is hours upon hours of endless, boring soul destroying drilling. It all pays off in the long run.
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, you go to open your mouth and your voice quivers like Elvis and your legs start shaking like ********. You may not feel fear because you know what you're feeling is adrenaline but to every body in the room you look as scared as a puppy dog and they will be on you like flies on s**t. So how do you hide the fact that you are an Elvis impersonator?
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. 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. In order to hide the shaking of the legs tap your foot like you are on the floor 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.
Once you have an understanding of the workings of adrenaline you can really mess people up. 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!!!" Splaying my arms to make me look bigger and I'll allow spit to fly from my mouth and basically look like a nut case. This will cause an adrenaline response in all of my opponents and because they do not have the knowledge that you do now 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 may retreat thinking "******** me, this guy's crazy". If not then I will have to attack anyway. I will go in to detail on this later.
Not only can you initiate an adrenaline response in some one 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 his 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 hit's the ground I can use the tactic mentioned above and initiate an adrenaline response in them before I attack. Now if I'm going to scream at them like "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 make my point) then you really have got to mean it because if you don't they will see that you don't mean it and you are going to be in a world of hurt. But I will talk about this in more detail later.
Before I talk about the different types of street fights I have to talk to you about why blocks will not work in a real fight. 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. 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. 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 again 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 distance you will actually have from your opponant 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 lose 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 street fights which you are going to come across (well, the ones I can think of anyway). I'll will also try and give my advice and/or opinions:
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 go and then bought each other a pint and were the best of mates. If you get your self into one of these try to end it as quickly as possible before your opponents 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 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 a weapon like a knife.
4. There really 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 of all street fighting situations that you will find yourself in. You could find yourself in a street fighting situation anywhere. It could be in a club, pub, wedding reception, outside your house, in the mall, outside your local kebab store. 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 are on the floor 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 you must learn and perfect:
1. Awareness, stay switched on.
2. Distance control
3. The three D's (Deception, Distraction, Destruction)
I wont bother talking about awareness because it has already been talked about in a previous post instead 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. 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 and then while doing that place your palms together.
That is your striking range.
Never, ever let anyone inside that range even if you are s**t hot at close range fighting because if some body gets inside that range then you are going to be grabbed and end up on the floor (the last place you want to be). 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/ headbutting to strike at close range. Once you know what your striking range is we can move on.
Now when you use your distance control 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 in order to make this work you must only use your hands!
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, cant we talk about this?" Half a second later within saying this I hit him squarely on the chin knocking him out. If the first shot doesn't do the job i'll continue striking until the threat is neutrailised.
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 is switched off and distracted he wont see the attack coming providing I hit him hard and fast enough.
Once I have spoken I wait half a second for him to absorb what I've said so that I can 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 bones that break very easily if you are not careful. The question is 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 to much because while it works you can kill somebody doing this).
2. Strike them along the jaw line between the upper part (just below the ear) to the lower part of the jaw (on 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 affect is to strike the jaw line. The lower down the jaw you strike them the easier it is to spark them out. You will not break your hands striking them here because the head gives/turns with the impact of your fist.
So to summerise the three D's:
1. Desception = I have tricked my opponant 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 give 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 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 and drill them every day on a heavy punch bag or get a training partner that you trust to hold focus mits. It will take hundreds of hours before you'll be able to call the techniques your own but once you have drilled them enough you'll have them for the rest of your life. Once you have choosen 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 purley 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 with the immediate attacker you wil have to deal with his mates.
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 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 neutrilised. The less strikes thrown at each opponant 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. I will give some examples on how to avoid amush 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 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. The muggers never pick people at random they always look for potential targets and the way they do this is watch for people who are looking down at the floor or in a day dream, not really paying attention to what they are doing. They may be looking at you for signs of being timid/ shy or unconfident. They may even pass you several times in the street to see if you have noticed them to check your awareness. Muggers always choose easy targets (why bother taking on somebody who looks like they will put up a fight. The police call the avoidance to these situations 'target hardening'. This is where members of the public are aware of the potential threat so when they walk down the street they make in known that they are aware of their surroundings. You can do this simply by walking around holding your head straight looking around making it obvious that you are alert and as a result a 'harder target'.
3. Ambush points. This is something I'm always trying to drill into my girlfriend. 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 defence 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 safe and get any weapons you are carrying ready. This may sound paranoid but treat it like this; if you are in a car you always fasten your seat belt. Not because you are paranoid but because you are aware that there is always a possibility that a crash could occur. Treat watching your back in the same manner.
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 back 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 wepaon, it will increase your chances of survival. Also if see an opportunaty try to initiate an adrenaline response in the attackers. 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.
Okay, I think i'm about done for this article, sorry about the wait guys but i've bee trying to write the article in such a manner that every one (i hope) will be able to under stand most of what i've written.
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 was asked earlier in the thread 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 (espicailly 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 on the stand up then i will use low round houses in order to bring down the hands down before i move in for the kill with my hands. Yes i do still train in the traditional arts and i practice the attacks and defences that would be classed as impractical but i do so because i enjoy my martial arts training and i will always continue to do so. But i the bulk of my training goes on what really works.
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 opponant 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-emtive 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 neatrilise a threat. Some of you are probably wondering if i ever get scared. 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 inly way to survive then i will not hesitate.
One of the next articles i'm going to work on is about pre-emptive srikes and maybe one on improvisational weapons.
Any way hope you enjoyed reading the article (even though it was a long read) sweatdrop
I look forward to your feed back and questions!
