Fight Everyone

 Fight Everyone
By Brian Brock
 
Among martial arts and self defense schools, there seems to be a problem with communication.  You might notice that when two martial artists discusss fighting, they often disagree about how fights work and what fighters need to do to survive them.  This happened to me at the mall when I passed a kiosk where a Taekwondo instructor was passing out fliers for his classes.  Being the martial arts junkie that I am, I stopped to talk to him about what he did and how he did it.  Eventually, as these conversations always do, our discussion turned to what I did, and how I did it differently than he did.  Naturally, we began to disagree.  You see, Taekwondo is a Korean striking art.  This instructor had 20 years of Taekwondo experience, and he frequently used this fact to counter my questions about what he would do in this or that situation.  When I asked him what he might do against a grappler, he responded that he would kick him.  When I asked what he would do if the fight started on the ground, he responded that he had 20 years of experience in Taekwondo, and he was good enough to not let it happen.  When I asked what he would do if he were caught unawares and the fight simply began on the ground, he answered very matter-of-factly that he would stand up, and then kick him.  Very clearly, he and I were not talking about the same thing.  What I saw as a major problem fo rhim, he saw as an improbability or a minor problem with a simple answer.  Why couldn't he see it my way?  In fact, why can't martial artists seem to agree on anything about fighting?  The answer is surprisingly simple:  they don't all realize that they're all fighting different people.
 
That may sound a little obvious.  Of course martial artists fight different people than each other over the course of their training, but many of them train to fight a single kind of opponent.  When I asked the Taekwondo instructor what he would do if this or that happened, I was describing an opponent who did what 99% of all people do in a fight--that is, exchange punches and try to force their victim to the floor where they can continue to strike them from a superior position, like the mount.  The Taekwondo instructor, however, was describing a fight with a completely different person in mind.  In his own mind, he was fighting someone in a dojang who does not use kicks and does not have any intentions to gain or stay in the mount.  Of course, against such an opponent, his 20 years of striking experience and athleticism would give him an advantage.  But what about against the opponent I was imagining, which in my opinion he was more likely to encounter outside of his dojang?  It was clear from our conversation that while he was prepared to fight some people, he wasn't prepared to fight everyone.
 
This is a common problem in martial arts.  Most martial arts systems assume that everything will be just right for their fight tactics to work.  Their opponents will be in just the right position and their techniques will land in just the right way to cause a knock-out.  Tis is what I call the Goldilocks complex.  The Taekwondo instructor assumed he would be fighting someone who was just the right distance away from him for kicks.  Many self defense instructors advocate bash-and-dash techniques, like striking the groin or eyes and making a run for it.  They assume that the person they're fighting isn't blocking the exit, or that there isn't some reason to stay, like to arrest the person if you're a cop.  Women's self defense instructors often assume their students will only be fighting rapists.  Some martial artists train to fight someone else with the same martial arts training, while some train to fight people with no martial arts experience.  Some train to fight people that aren't intoxicated or physically stronger than they are.  MMA fighters train to fight against other unarmed fighters in an open space with no hazards.  The Goldilocks complex limits many martial artists to training to fight people within a very specific category or only a few of them.  Since we seldom get to pick who we fight in the real world, the safest be is simply to train to fight everyone.
 
But how can you fight everyone?  In order to do so, you need to understand what violence is and the many ways people use it.  Learn about assault, rape, bullying, robbery, murder, drunken rage, and more.  Know the difference between fighting a terrorist and fighting your drunk friend.  Also, you need to build a fighting instinct that can help you make decisions based on your specific fight situation.  With a good fighting instinct, you will know what to do whether you're fighting indoors or outdoors, against armed or unarmed opponents, against one or a few opponents, against someone you want to run from, arrest, or disable.  Fighting instinct is your natural understanding of fighting that will guide you from one step to the next, and the next, and the next without needing to think about it.  That fighting instinct needs to be nurtured and tested from the very first day that you decide to begin your training, and you need to continue cultivating it forever, whether you have 20 days or 20 years of experience.
 
How do you build that instinct?  How do you build that instinct?  Start before you get too caught up in one way of fighting.  Many martial artists make the mistake of specializing in a single type of fighting before they've mastered the basic fighting instinct.  As a result, their fight strategies are usually only helpful in a few situations, and they lack the preparation and the know-how to deal with what they're most likely to encounter in a fight.  Feel free to specialize after you've mastered the basics, since basic fighting skills make advanced martial arts techniques successful.  If you haven't figured out the basic straight punch, you can probably be sure that your spinning backfist won't work that well, either.
 
In order to build your fight instinct, start by learning how to move your feet while standing, and how to respond to grappling and ground positions.  This ability to move regardless of your situation will be critical in a real fight, since position dictates so much of the advantage between two fighters.  Next, master the use of three kinds of basic strikes, two chokes, a submission, and one or two basic responses to weapons.  Learn to use these techniques by using them over and over in live sparring drills or specific exercises that force you to use these moves against someone who's resisting you.  From there you need to practice, practice, practice.  If you train for an hour twice a week, you're more likely to retain what you've learned from previous training sessions than if you only train once a week or less.  Really, there's no substitution for sparring time.  The more hours you spend on developing your fighting instinct, the better.  It's not something that comes over the weekend.
 
Developing the fighting instinct is difficult, unglamorous work, but once you do, they'll work in about any real fighting situation.  Once you have it, learn all the techniques you like, and find out how they fit into your basic fighting strategy.  Even if you want to specialize in one kind of fighting, a good fighting instinct and basic techniques will help through the unexpected fights.