In this series of articles we have been talking about making our dojo training methods more realistic to better prepare us for the real thing. In the first article we discussed the need for different training methods and the relative failure of the traditional arts to adequately address the issues of real street self defense in the sense that traditional training methods were just too static and not alive enough to reflect the conditions of a live situation. In the second article we looked at dojo sparring and its lack of realism. We also compared real fight conditions and circumstances with those of dojo fighting and we saw the very real differences between them. At this point we have reached the conclusion that in order to train for the street we have to more accurately reflect the conditions of the street in our training.
In this final part then, we are going to look at how we can best train for the street and the different training methods we can use to do that. Let’s start by looking at distance training.
Closing The Distance
When we see two martial artists sparring, the distance between them is usually greatly exaggerated. We see a lot of circling round one another and a lot of feinting and general game play, as you would expect from two trained fighters. In the street however, things are much different. A real fight in the street does not usually start from such a distance; they usually start from close range. A fight normally begins with aggressive dialogue and sometimes a fair bit of posturing and shoving around. When things do finally kick of then they do so from a close distance, having to follow on from the aggressive lead up.
When developing sparring methods for self defense therefore, we have to keep this in mind, we have to begin our sparring from a close distance and resist the temptation to start from afar. So when sparring for the street, stand close to your partner and begin things from there. Once you actually begin to spar resist the temptation to start playing around like you would normally do in dojo sparring. No games or crafty tricks to illicit a response so you can capitalise on it.
In a real fight things happen really fast. It starts fast and it stays fast until it is over. Real fights are also highly pressurised, emotional affairs that don’t allow any room for thinking. The only thing you will be able to do is react and you must react fast. You won’t have time to consider doing the things you would normally do in dojo sparring so put them out of your mind. Concentrate only on putting down your opponent or subduing him for long enough to make good your escape. Remember that escaping the situation should be your main priority, not getting into an extended punching match or showing your opponent whose boss- hit and then run!
Developing Close Range Skills
From such a close distance your short range fighting skills have to be very good. There are drills you can do to improve them. One drill I often do is to have a partner attack you with a flurry of strikes and you then have to parry those strikes while also looking for an opening to counter them or close your partner down. If you have trapping skills then you can utilise these as well. The object is just to defend against the attack and then counter and then, guess what? Run!
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If you are having trouble keeping the required distance or your short range skills need work then there is an excellent solution to this suggested by Iain Abernethy in an article he wrote on combat sparring. He wrote that Shihan Chris Rowen would simply use a belt to tie both partners together and that would obviously prevent either one from moving away from the other.
You also have to remember that there generally is no backing of in a real fight. Both parties normally go hell for leather at one another, neither one giving the other a chance to create any distance. So constantly backing away to long range is going against the need for realism, which defeats the purpose of this type of training.
Try tying yourself to your partner and see how quickly your short range skills improve. Eventually you will find yourself flowing a lot more, you will more easily spot and exploit gaps in your opponents defense and you will find new ways to attack and defend that you may not have thought of before.
Upping The Pressure
Real fights are extremely emotional and highly pressurised situations and the more you can do to mimic these conditions in your training the more beneficial your training will be.
To start with you can bring posturing and aggressive dialogue into the mix. Most fights tend to start with heated arguing and a lot of aggressive dialogue and shoving etc., so you should do exactly the same in training. Have a partner come up to you and begin to act aggressively, shouting and cursing, really trying to intimidate you. The object here is to provoke an adrenal response from you, to get you used to the feelings so you won’t be so overwhelmed when they happen in a real situation. You will recognise the feelings of adrenaline flowing through you and you hopefully won’t mistake them for terror. You should be able to control them and still be able to act decisively.
There are two ways to approach this drill- from a purely defensive perspective or from a pre-emptive perspective. From both standpoints we use the fence initially to keep some distance between you and your opponent. Don’t let him get too close or he’ll start controlling you. So put up your fence and then allow him to attack. The second he does, react quickly and either absorb the blow with a block and then counter strike or else just strike straight away. It obviously depends on what he does and how he does it. Experiment and see how things pan out.
In a real situation if someone is being that aggressive towards to you then you can pretty much assume that they are going to attack you at some point, so why wait for it? Despite the fact that the law says you must behave defensively (in other wards wait for the attack and then defend) in reality it is very unwise to wait for an opponent to attack, simply because it is very difficult, if not impossible, to block an oncoming attack.
In general, the first to attack has the advantage so that means if you wait for an opponent to attack they will have the advantage and they will most likely defeat you. So if you sense an attack coming be pre-emptive and put in a good first strike, preferably a hard punch to your opponents jaw, something that will stop them in their tracks and give you enough time to run. Practice that also while drilling this type of confrontation.
Incidentally, if you want to find out more about this type of adrenaline-inducing training then I can highly recommend that you read Geoff Thompson’s book, Animal Day: Pressure Testing the Martial Arts
. In it Geoff explains the concept of Animal Day and its usefulness for pressure testing your skills and testing your reactions under extreme duress. I must warn you though that the type of training Geoff is advocating is pretty hardcore and not for the feint of heart. That being said, real fighting is just the same and if you want to be able to fully handle it then such training is necessary.
Surprise Attacks
It often happens in the street that people are taken by surprise and attacked when they least expect it. Very rarely are we ready for such violent confrontations, even when we can sense them coming. You don’t even realise what is happening until your lying on the ground half unconscious.
Now the nature of surprise attacks means you can’t see them coming so you obviously can’t train for that, but we can train ourselves to react better when they do happen by incorporating surprise attacks into our training.
The following training method was devised by Iain Abernethy (thanks Iain!) and is an excellent way of testing how you react to surprise attacks. Basically, during your training session, whoever is leading the training will shout the word, “Fight!” any time they choose and everyone in the dojo has to begin sparring with the person nearest them. Everyone in the class has to be wearing protective gear from the beginning of the session and the session will proceed as normal with everyone doing whatever it is they normally do, be it drilling techniques, pad work or whatever. Whoever is leading the training can shout the command to fight at any time, even after everyone thinks the training is over. It’s a really good way to introduce the element of surprise into your training and get you used to reacting immediately when maybe you weren’t ready to do so.
Surprise training in this way will really test your reaction times and it will also reveal any weaknesses you might have in your defense since you won’t have time to think about what is happening. I suggest you try it, since it is very beneficial to your street defense training.
It’s All About The Confidence
Those are just a few methods of training that you can use to better prepare yourself for confrontations on the street. I’m sure if you use your imagination you can devise other training methods that do just as well, but the ones mentioned are tried and tested and as such should be practiced first before moving on to anything else.
Whatever the method of training, the main thing is that the conditions are kept as realistic as possible and as much pressure is piled on as possible. There is no sense in kidding yourself that just because you react well under a small amount of pressure that you will therefore be able to react just as well under the crushing pressure of real violence. You won’t. The more hardship you endure in training the less hardship (and hopefully pain) you will have to endure on the street if anything ever happens.
You also have to approach your training with a high level of confidence. You have to believe that you can handle whatever is thrown at you. Don’t let yourself get too easily overwhelmed by the circumstances, both in and out of training. Keep your inner opponent under control and keep thinking positive. Don’t give anyone (especially your inner opponent) the satisfaction of seeing you hurt or humiliated. Approach your training with full confidence and always give it 100%. At least that way, if you are attacked on the street, you will carry over the same attitude and won’t be so easily subdued or defeated.
That’s it for this particular series of articles. I hope you have found the techniques and training methods described useful and I hope you implement them into your own training. Also let me know if you do or if you are already practicing similar training methods. I’m always open to more knowledge and better understanding, so leave your thoughts in the usual place below.
Further Resources
Animal Day: Pressure Testing the Martial Arts
