Self Defense for a Street Fight
The true test of any martial art is how well it holds up in a brutal gutter fight. Any martial art can look cool in martial arts school, but few styles have what it takes to make a difference in real combat.
Most martial arts schools teach sport martial arts which is fine if they are honest and up front about what they are teaching. The problem is there are more than a few dishonest individuals who are more then willing to take advantage of their students rather than be a leader. They say they offer self defense training, but what they teach is useless in a street fight or other real world situations. It’s bad enough that the majority of people have no idea how to protect themselves, but you don’t find out how unprepared you are until it’s too late. Real self defense training is no game and is made for real combat.
No matter how brutal a sport may be the objective is to win not hurt or kill your opponent. When was the last time you went to a sporting event and someone died? The writer and adventurer Earnest Hemingway once wrote the four manliest sports were bull fighting, boxing, mountain climbing and auto racing because there was a real risk of death. Unfortunately most people only receive a good fitness workout at most martial arts schools.
Now there are plenty of martial arts that won’t work in a real street fight, but what will work? One method of self defense that has been proven to work in close combat situations is World War II combatives. The style is made up of simple hand strikes, kicks, and throws that will take down an enemy hard – and are all easy to learn. They were taught to the first special forces troops and spies, but they were also taught to civilians for self defense against invaders. The style is a mix of many martial arts, and was tested on the streets for years before it was used successfully on the battlefield.
Those who developed WWII combatives understood what it was like to fight in real world conditions. Colonel William Fairbairn used the city of Shanghai in the early 20th century as his proving grounds for his martial arts. He fought in literally hundreds of street fights and learned all kinds of moves and dirty tricks to help him and his officers survive. He studied many martial arts and stripped away all the unnecessary moves. Fairbairn wasn’t too proud to pick up a broken bottle or grab an attacker by his testicles to win a fight.
Colonel Rex Applegate, one of Fairbairn’s American students, took to the training well and when he began to teach close quarter combat he told recruits to forget everything they learned from boxing – because real world combat has no restrictions. Marine Corp hero Anthony J. Biddle was an avid boxer before joining the Marines, but once in the military he changed his techniques in order to better prepare the Marines for real combat. Both men understood sports had their limit. Sure many sports like boxing were great for combat conditioning, but they were not combat training. Many martial arts teachers have yet to realize that fact.
Combat sports are great, and they teach you a lot of things, but they don’t teach you how to survive. Sports don’t provide you with the skills to survive a tough battle in the streets. Whether you’re a soldier, police officer, or the average citizen you need to be able to protect yourself even if it’s only long enough to escape. Anything can be a weapon and awareness is your best ally – soif you can avoid a fight all together even better. Practice whatever martial art you like and have fun, but remember unless your martial art is like WWII combatives you won’t be ready for a fight.
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Great post. Keep up the good work and know that I am a big fan!
better yet… The Nazis. give me at least 5 deadly moves that the ww2 combat experts used to put hitlers men down like the dogs that they were.
OK. lets say you are walking down the street and some steriod induced bully comes at you, armed, 6 foot 6 and on PCP. (if you busted every bone in his body he would not feel it for hours.) he has a knife in his right hand, and a gun in his left. you dont have a weapon, what do you do?
I always enjoy reading articles like this one. Unfortunately we are often only preaching to the already commited. The acceptance of ruthless action is founded in the personal belief that this methodology of fighting is absoluutely necessary. Unless one has already accepted this mindset they will usually be in some form of denial, such as these barbaric are over-kill, defensive actions will deter an aggressor, one can control an aggressor with skill while not really hurting them; this list goes on. One day we instructors will discover the way to convince the unconvinceable and the world will become a better place to live, and safer place to bring up our kids.