Street Effective

by Mike Blesch
Fortunately, debates over which style of martial art is the best
have become less and less common. Professional Mixed Martial Arts
competition has driven home the point Bruce Lee was making decades
ago; Being unwilling to adapt and integrate means the lid on the coffin
is closing. However, with the increase in popularity of Reality-based
training, the old Sport vs. Street argument is ever-present.
It would be tough to count the number of times Ive heard some
variation of the following statement:
Street Effective
That wont work on the street!
People dont fght like that.
Is this simply one of those cliches leveled by martial artists at other
systems or schools to prove why their way is superior? Or is it a valid
criticism in at least some cases?
The streets are filled with people who cover the
entire spectrum of fighting skills and proclivity
for violence. Professional boxers, BJJ black belts,
Soldiers, Policemen, Gang bangers, Drug addicts,
and Predators of all colors and stripes share the
same streets as you and I do.
Often whats meant by the above statement is
either;
1. That fine motor skills are lost, or at the very
least heavily degraded under acute stress,
and/or;
2. Theres a good chance you wont see the
attack coming.
Its certainly true that the more violent the
encounter, the less skill is usually involved.
Therefore the skilled responses that we
sometimes train against (a well executed straight
punch or crafty defensive maneuver for example)
are not realistic. Add to that the fact that most
martial arts training is conducted as if to prepare
the student for a duel; shoes removed, wearing
workout attire and squared off with a single
opponent who is likewise dressed for the gym
and unarmed.
Some very good instructors I know stress the
difference between getting into a fight and being
the victim of an attack. Fights sometimes begin
with two people facing off and ample warning;
Maybe not the ones we have to worry about as
expert martial artists (ha!), but certainly those
involving young males and alcohol, women, or
some combination of both. Attacks on the other
hand usually happen without warning. The
attacker is not looking for a fight; He wants to
acheive his objective and get away before men
with guns and badges show up. Worse yet,
there will probably be weapons and/or multiple
persons involved.
As generalizations go, the previous paragraph
is a pretty good one. It certainly helps to remind
ourselves to think beyond the dueling mindset.
There is however, one caveat: Reality is highly
unpredictable.
I taught a gentleman who works at a correctional
facility in Southern California. He related to me
that most instances of violence against the staff
involve skilled attacks. Inmates are sharing the
martial arts training they received on the outside
with one another. Officers confiscate makeshift
training equipment on a regular basis. Wrap a
pillow around a phone book, tie it to your arm
and youve got an effective Thai-style striking
pad.
Rather than generalizing or speculating about
what type of attack will be used against us
should we be attacked, or throwing around a
bunch of statistics on street fights, Ill pose what I
feel is a pertinent question thats not asked nearly
enough. Are there key principles we can focus on
in our training regardless of which art we study,
to maximize effectiveness when facing any threat,
be it a fight or an attack scenario? I believe there
are. This article is an attempt at describing and
organizing those principles, as well as providing
a few drills that youll hopefully find useful.
One of the main lessons lessons Ive learned from my teachers in the martial arts is the importance
of mindset. Most anyone can, through training, develop a combative mindset. We may not all be
warriors, but this is an area with potential for vast improvement among martial artists. Were going
to focus on two aspects, awareness and attitude.
Mindset
Acting with Intent
Having an accurate perception of our own self-worth
Having confidence in our abilities
1. Awareness
2. Attitude
Effective training gives us the confidence to know that our skills will work when the time comes to use
them. For those with low self esteem, a lot of physical training may be required to overcome it.
Proper mindset plays a huge role in dealing with what were about to discuss, which may be the most
dangerous element of any confrontation on the street.
My life and well being are worth defending, as are yours. Never hesitate to use force to defend them.
This would seem to be a no-brainer, but as any experienced martial arts instructor can tell you, its an
area where many people have issues, and often they arent aware of them.
Sloppy technique executed with emotional content
usually beats perfect technique done half-heartedly.
Put simply, emotional content equals intent. We
decide on a course of action and perform that action
with maximum effort, holding nothing back. In a
self-defense situation, when our life, or the lives and
well being of others are on the line, our intent has to
be to cause enough harm to stop the threat. Escape
and/or evasion arent possible, therefore violence
must be countered with violence.
The idea of having an attitude usually carries a
negative connotation, but when it comes to fighting its
absolutely critical. When I speak of attitude, Im talking
about three things primarily:
Needless to say, its tough to counter an attack you
dont see coming. Awareness puts you in a position to
respond, both mentally and physically. A prerequisite
to making any self defense method effective is having
knowledge about whats happening in the world
around you. Without it, nothing else matters.
One critical concept related to self-defense that often goes unmentioned is unequal initiative. The first
person I heard speak at length about it was Craig Douglas. Most of us have little desire to get involved
in any sort of conflict. We just want to go about our business. Someone who has decided to rob or
steal, driven by a chemical addiction for example, is operating on a completely different level. Even
the roudy drunk guy in the bar looking to pick a fight has probably amped himself up pretty well
prior to approaching his mark. The result is that were very suddenly going to be faced with a lot of
physical and verbal aggression with little or no chance to prepare for it.
Lets look at a few drills that I believe will help develop the aggression switch that you need to deal
with and counter those sudden bursts of violence.
Dealing with Aggression & Returning Aggression
F.O. Drill
In the late 1970s, one of Dan Inosantos students by the name of Bob Ward was working as a strength
and conditioning coach for the Dallas Cowboys. Through Mr. Ward, Guro Inosanto and a small group
of his students including Larry Hartsell, Jerry Poteet, and Tim Tackett brought functional martial arts
techniques and training methods to the National Football League. Sifu Tackett shared a drill with us in
his training group that he used with the pro football teams. The purpose was to get guys with a calmer
temperament in the mindset of hitting hard.
1. Form a circle
2. Coach starts the drill by shoving the person closest to him while yelling F**k you!. The more
aggressive the better.
3. The player shoves back, then repeats the scenario by shoving the next closest person to him/her.
The coach can tell right away what kind of players hes dealing with. Its a good thing if the drill
gets out of hand.
No matter how great
our technique, physical
strength matters. Its
crucial that we learn how
to take full advantage
of what weve got using
leverage, and most of
all, be able to apply it
under pressure against
an opponent of equal or
greater strength.
The mountain goat drill is
nothing more than a head-
to-head drill, literally.
The goal is to drive your
partner backward through
sheer force and leverage
without using your hands.
Mountain Goat Drill
u Training partners going head to head
u Using angles of the head for leverage
Standing in line at a store, going to a concert, or walking through any generally busy area means
other people are going to get close to you. An attacker that knows what he or she is doing will take
advantage of those small trespasses into our personal space that we all allow out of common courtesy.
Adding to that, probably the most shocking statistic Ive found is that more people in the United
States are murdered each year during an argument with an acquaintance than in the commission of
any crime (FBI Uniform Crime Reports 2012). That means we must learn to defend ourselves from the
range in which we typically hold a conversation with people that we know.
For this drill, using whatever equipment or barriers are available, we create a space approximately the
size of a phone booth and put two people inside of it. On the trainers command, they fight all out at
close range for 5 to 15 seconds or until the trainer calls time. Its important that the students are not
allowed time or opportunity to prepare.
The point Im making here is if you cant deal with the initial burst of aggression from an attacker, you
wont survive. Knowing yourself and your own limitations is crucial.
Phone Booth
u An example of using kicking shields to create the booth
Whats not often mentioned is that while fine motor skills may go out the window during an extremely
violent confrontation, the attributes developed through skill training do not. A boxers hand speed
is not going anywhere. The MMA fighters elite strength and conditioning isnt either. Most certainly
the professional Soldier is not going to lose the combative skills and mindset aquired through years of
intense training because some knucklehead is accosting him or her outside of a bar.
As martial artists, its our job to find out at what point our techniques break down into gross
movements and train in a way that minimizes the loss of fine motor skills. One way of finding out
where exactly those skills break down is to video record ourselves sparring with varying levels of
speed and power and analyzing the results. We would typically separate each variable in to three
levels of intensity and then mix and match.
Loss of Fine Motor skills & Effectiveness of Skill Training
Speed Power # of Opponents
Low: Think light
shadowboxing
Low: Surface punching - no follow-through on
hits - light kicks
1
Medium: Quick but
relaxed
Medium: 1 inch of follow-through on punches -
drive through target with kicks
2
High: Combat speed High: 2+ inches of follow-through on punches -
full power kicks
3
For example:
High speed / Medium power / vs. 1 Opponent
Low speed / Low power / vs. 2 Opponents
After running these sparring exercises the saying speed kills really proves itself to be true. The
speed of an encounter has great effect on the loss of fine motor skills. One guy moving very fast is
harder to deal with than two guys moving slow. Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from
this is that it can be turned around on an attacker and used to completely change the dynamic of a
confrontation.
We arent all gifted with amazing physical speed, but we can all reduce the amount of
time it takes us to react. We do that simply by eliminating unnecessary options.
There are several contexts in which reaction time can be measured. The Handbook of
Perception and Action: Motor Skills defines them as:
Simple reaction time The time required to perform one predetermined action based
on a stimulus
Choice reaction time The time required to perform one of multiple possible actions
based on a stimulus
Go/No-Go reaction time Choosing whether or not to perform one of multiple
possible actions based on a stimulus
In short, the more choices there are to be made, the slower the overall reaction time.
An expert will instinctively preselect an action to be taken, making them faster than
the average person. Bruce Lee was a huge proponent of training a limited number of
responses to any given attack. In his art of Jeet Kune Do, its referred to as the principle of
daily decrease.
The idea behind daily decrease is that its ideal to own a few techniques, refined to such
a high level that your responses are automatic and happen without thought.
When there is an opportunity, I do not hit.
It hits all by itself.
Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon)
Speed & Reaction Time
To be truly street effective we need to have one
response that will cover many scenarios and can
be drilled over and over until it becomes a simple
reflex. Being able to fall back on this single technique
increases reaction speed and thereby our chances of
surviving the most dangerous part of the fight, the first few seconds. We all freeze when
faced with danger, what matters is how quickly you can recover and start doing something.
There are many options for a one-size-fits-all response taught by some great martial arts
instructors. I included a few of them in a previous article titled High Performance Sparring
(http://ProSparring.com). The one that Ive found to have the greatest effectiveness for
myself is the simultaneous high/low cover that I learned from D.m. Blue, an instructor with
the JKD Wednesday Night Group.
Simple Is Fast
Most martial arts that are any good
focus on a few things done well.
Tim Tackett
Which technique you choose isnt important, so long as it meets a few simple criteria. It needs to work
under less than ideal conditions, whether executed perfectly or not, against a blade, impact weapon,
and the empty hand. If it works well against a punch but gets you stabbed by a training partner
concealing a knife, find something else. There are many options.
In summary, cultivate awareness, develop an agression switch, know your limits, and keep it simple.
Covering both the high and
low lines (front view)
Covering both the high and
low lines (side view)
u Against a blade u u
About the Author:
Mike Blesch is a member of the JKD Wednesday Night Group and co-founder of
the Chinatown JKD Association.
For more information visit JKDWedNite.com and ChinatownJKD.org.
Photos by Angelico Tolentino AngelicoT.com.
Demonstrations by Steven Resell & Joel Brown.