It has come to my attention recently looking through the internet and doing research as I normally do that we have a big problem in our field today. It's not so much a new problem as it is a problem that has gotten progressively worse over time and is now at an all time high. I feel that we have too many people trying to put around peg in a square hole. The problem I am speaking of is people trying to pass off MMA training alone as self defense, defensive tactics, or even combatives. Before I get started I want you to understand that I'm not saying that MMA is bad or doesn't work on the street. The people that do this stuff are very talented and very tough. I trained in it for 3 years myself. So it's not that it's bad it's just that it's different. MMA and street fighting have alot in common for sure. Alot of the techniques are the same and we can learn alot from each other, but it's the differences that define what they are and which one is appropriate for what your trying to accomplish. So here are a few breakdowns
1. The Myth of the Duel
This one is huge! This may be the single biggest problem I see in martial arts training everywhere. You see it in every dojo. Two guys walk to the center and bow then have some kind of sparring session under controlled conditions. The problem is that it is highly unrealistic and fights don't really happen that way. In the street it goes far beyond physical. Their were probably a hundred things that led to that first blow being thrown and none of them are being covered by this training. Real fights could happen anywhere at any time with no warning. You could be arguing with someone and they just swing no matter if your ready or not. You don't get to watch film of their other attacks before yours happens and get to build a strategy. You don't get to know that the area is gonna be well lit and that you can always see the guy. You don't get coaches that you've paid thousands of dollars to yell advice. You don't get a guarantee that his friends won't jump in. You don't get a guarantee that he doesn't have a knife or a gun. You don't get sponsors to pay for your training so you can use 3 to 6 months to train for the attack and be in the best shape of your life, and maybe biggest of all you don't get rules so if your dying you can just tap and make it all go away. Having this awareness changes the way you think about situations because it has to and it should affect your training. In our field it's important to
have training for interview positions, surprise attacks, attacks from a sitting position, and other odd positions you could be attacked from. Sure I've been to parties where two guys decided to step outside and go at it over something. So yes you need training for that too but you need training for alot more as well.
2. Groundfighting
Oh good god! I see the stuff that's out there and I just cringe. I'll bypass the technical flaws I see and just talk about the situation itself. I think everyone should know some ground fighting and some grappling it's very important for your arsenal I myself have a 5th dan in Japanese jujitsu. In my years I've also gotten to train with Royce Gracie, Renzo Gracie, and Helio Soneca among others. I was even a heavyweight champion for the state of alabama in 1999 in submission grappling(btw...Roll Tide!). I don't say this to brag I just want the reader to know I'm not speaking from a position of ignorance. There's alot of good things to learn in ground fighting. I teach a sweet de la riva sweep for if you get knocked down and the guy is standing. However there's alot of bad things out there too that may be great for the octagon but bad for the street. Yes it's true that roughly 80 percent of all fights go to the ground, but they don't lay there 30 minutes looking for an armbar. If you find yourself on your back during a streetfight get up as quick as possible. Since we are talking about statistics it should be noted that 40 percent of all fights involve multiple attackers and 50 percent of that has weapons. This also applies to the guys that think it's a good idea to shoot in on a guy and do some good old ground and pound once they get him on the ground for awhile. So if your on top or bottom regardless you need to realize that there's probably at least a 20 percent chance you'll be killed if you stay there for any prolonged amount of time whatsoever and at least a 40 percent shot you'll be maimed in some
way. Plus if the police get there and find out you held someone on their back defenseless while you beat the crap out of them there's probably a 100 percent chance your going to jail. The reason being is that it isn't a sport, it's different. If you find yourself on the ground top or bottom do what you gotta do to get up. If it's grabbing nuts, ripping ears, poking eyes, so be it and if you spend a couple nights in the county jail I bet it'll still be better than being maimed or dying. Sport ground techniques could get you killed or seriously hurt I can't stress that enough. I'm not gonna name names but I will tell this to illustrate my point. A couple years ago I was having dinner with a couple big name BJJ guys(no they aren't the ones I mentioned above). One of them was talking about how they don't feel comfortable in their own self defense aspects. He told this story
about how he and another guy went into a bar in brazil and got into an argument with two drag queens. These two queens started throwing bottles and beat the living hell outta them. I was really shocked since both these guys were world champions. But they got beat up by two guys in a dress. Sports are sports and the street is the street. This isn't saying all ground fighters and wrestlers aren't tough street fighters I wouldn't want to run into Randy Couture or BJ Penn in a dark alley any time soon.
3. The Fallout
In the cage if you beat a guy the worst thing is maybe you give them a rematch so you go back and train and have at it again it's nothing really personal. In the street everything is personal so the intensity level is higher. The worst things about fighting I've seen never actually happened during the fight they happened afterward. It's the fallout that ultimately makes it worth while to just avoid the thing all together. To illustrate this point I'll tell you another unfortunately true story from my own life. Years ago I was in a bar with some friends a little after 2 am shooting a game of pool after I'd just got done with a security job I was working for someone. The place wasn't really full yet the other bars didn't close til 2 am so people were still kinda on their way. These two guys in the middle of the bar got into it over something and one guy punched the other one and knocked him to the ground. Their bouncers grabbed him and through him out. The other guy picked himself up off the floor and went back to the bar drinking.... huge mistake. a few hours went by and the place got packed and we were sitting up at the bar. I noticed behind me that guy guy had been thrown out earlier had just got let back in. I thought that was kinda messed up that he was even allowed back in but figured there must be a reason for it maybe they called each other on cell phones afterward and worked it out, who knows. So anyway, the guy that got knocked down walks over to him behind us. My friend saw the 38 long nose but I never did I only heard the shot which was deafening right behind my head. The next thing I know all hell has broken loose and the guy's ear is laying between one of my friends and myself and I remember holding my ears stumbling trying not to step on it. Fights were breaking out everywhere and chairs were flying out the door. The guy is bleeding bad from the side of his head and runs outside where the other guy goes after him with the gun. The bartender pulls a pistol and jumps the bar and one of my friends grabs him but he doesn't get the gun. The bartender points the gun at my friends head and starts cursing. I ended up stepping between the gun and my friend to try to diffuse the homicide that was about to take place. Thank god the bartender didn't want to pull that trigger anymore than we wanted to get shot. He runs outside and pistol whips a guy and I end up having to put two of my friends on the ground to keep them from running out into the line of fire because they panicked. It was a huge mess thet never had to happen there. These people would have never been put in danger if the guy who had been knocked down earlier had just left right afterwards. The sad thing is though that when it's that
personal it probably wouldn't have been over for him anyway it just would have taken place somewhere else on another day. Cops, Security, Bodyguards, and civilians with a death wish have to deal with this all the time, but not in the octagon. Awareness is huge and can never be overstated and there's a lot to be said for good old fashioned common sense as well. In the field of defensive tactics, combatives, or other types of personal protection training we have to find answers for these problems and sport fighters don't, it's a completely different thing and really needs to be recognized as such. I wish it was just about whuppin' some butt, but it isn't.
In conclusion street violence happens quick and without warning. In America it's getting much worse than itused to be so the training has to stay above the curve. The violence on our streets doesn't look like someonetapping or holding a trophy it looks more like this:
I personally love to watch MMA on PPV and if you do that stuff I think it's great but please recognize that it's a sport because people that may be your students don't know any different they think it's all the same. If you want to be a cage fighter then that's awesome please do so because it's alot of fun but please don't tell people your teaching street fighting when you aren't. I thank everyone for reading this I hope everyone understand that this was not written to offend or pass judgment but to inform I actually think cage fighting can be a good part of training because with it you'll find out quickly what works and what doesn't so it'll be harder to fool you
with the weird mysticism stuff some people pass off as martial arts these days it's just that there needs to be more training than just whuppin ass.
1. The Myth of the Duel
This one is huge! This may be the single biggest problem I see in martial arts training everywhere. You see it in every dojo. Two guys walk to the center and bow then have some kind of sparring session under controlled conditions. The problem is that it is highly unrealistic and fights don't really happen that way. In the street it goes far beyond physical. Their were probably a hundred things that led to that first blow being thrown and none of them are being covered by this training. Real fights could happen anywhere at any time with no warning. You could be arguing with someone and they just swing no matter if your ready or not. You don't get to watch film of their other attacks before yours happens and get to build a strategy. You don't get to know that the area is gonna be well lit and that you can always see the guy. You don't get coaches that you've paid thousands of dollars to yell advice. You don't get a guarantee that his friends won't jump in. You don't get a guarantee that he doesn't have a knife or a gun. You don't get sponsors to pay for your training so you can use 3 to 6 months to train for the attack and be in the best shape of your life, and maybe biggest of all you don't get rules so if your dying you can just tap and make it all go away. Having this awareness changes the way you think about situations because it has to and it should affect your training. In our field it's important to
have training for interview positions, surprise attacks, attacks from a sitting position, and other odd positions you could be attacked from. Sure I've been to parties where two guys decided to step outside and go at it over something. So yes you need training for that too but you need training for alot more as well.
2. Groundfighting
Oh good god! I see the stuff that's out there and I just cringe. I'll bypass the technical flaws I see and just talk about the situation itself. I think everyone should know some ground fighting and some grappling it's very important for your arsenal I myself have a 5th dan in Japanese jujitsu. In my years I've also gotten to train with Royce Gracie, Renzo Gracie, and Helio Soneca among others. I was even a heavyweight champion for the state of alabama in 1999 in submission grappling(btw...Roll Tide!). I don't say this to brag I just want the reader to know I'm not speaking from a position of ignorance. There's alot of good things to learn in ground fighting. I teach a sweet de la riva sweep for if you get knocked down and the guy is standing. However there's alot of bad things out there too that may be great for the octagon but bad for the street. Yes it's true that roughly 80 percent of all fights go to the ground, but they don't lay there 30 minutes looking for an armbar. If you find yourself on your back during a streetfight get up as quick as possible. Since we are talking about statistics it should be noted that 40 percent of all fights involve multiple attackers and 50 percent of that has weapons. This also applies to the guys that think it's a good idea to shoot in on a guy and do some good old ground and pound once they get him on the ground for awhile. So if your on top or bottom regardless you need to realize that there's probably at least a 20 percent chance you'll be killed if you stay there for any prolonged amount of time whatsoever and at least a 40 percent shot you'll be maimed in some
way. Plus if the police get there and find out you held someone on their back defenseless while you beat the crap out of them there's probably a 100 percent chance your going to jail. The reason being is that it isn't a sport, it's different. If you find yourself on the ground top or bottom do what you gotta do to get up. If it's grabbing nuts, ripping ears, poking eyes, so be it and if you spend a couple nights in the county jail I bet it'll still be better than being maimed or dying. Sport ground techniques could get you killed or seriously hurt I can't stress that enough. I'm not gonna name names but I will tell this to illustrate my point. A couple years ago I was having dinner with a couple big name BJJ guys(no they aren't the ones I mentioned above). One of them was talking about how they don't feel comfortable in their own self defense aspects. He told this story
about how he and another guy went into a bar in brazil and got into an argument with two drag queens. These two queens started throwing bottles and beat the living hell outta them. I was really shocked since both these guys were world champions. But they got beat up by two guys in a dress. Sports are sports and the street is the street. This isn't saying all ground fighters and wrestlers aren't tough street fighters I wouldn't want to run into Randy Couture or BJ Penn in a dark alley any time soon.
3. The Fallout
In the cage if you beat a guy the worst thing is maybe you give them a rematch so you go back and train and have at it again it's nothing really personal. In the street everything is personal so the intensity level is higher. The worst things about fighting I've seen never actually happened during the fight they happened afterward. It's the fallout that ultimately makes it worth while to just avoid the thing all together. To illustrate this point I'll tell you another unfortunately true story from my own life. Years ago I was in a bar with some friends a little after 2 am shooting a game of pool after I'd just got done with a security job I was working for someone. The place wasn't really full yet the other bars didn't close til 2 am so people were still kinda on their way. These two guys in the middle of the bar got into it over something and one guy punched the other one and knocked him to the ground. Their bouncers grabbed him and through him out. The other guy picked himself up off the floor and went back to the bar drinking.... huge mistake. a few hours went by and the place got packed and we were sitting up at the bar. I noticed behind me that guy guy had been thrown out earlier had just got let back in. I thought that was kinda messed up that he was even allowed back in but figured there must be a reason for it maybe they called each other on cell phones afterward and worked it out, who knows. So anyway, the guy that got knocked down walks over to him behind us. My friend saw the 38 long nose but I never did I only heard the shot which was deafening right behind my head. The next thing I know all hell has broken loose and the guy's ear is laying between one of my friends and myself and I remember holding my ears stumbling trying not to step on it. Fights were breaking out everywhere and chairs were flying out the door. The guy is bleeding bad from the side of his head and runs outside where the other guy goes after him with the gun. The bartender pulls a pistol and jumps the bar and one of my friends grabs him but he doesn't get the gun. The bartender points the gun at my friends head and starts cursing. I ended up stepping between the gun and my friend to try to diffuse the homicide that was about to take place. Thank god the bartender didn't want to pull that trigger anymore than we wanted to get shot. He runs outside and pistol whips a guy and I end up having to put two of my friends on the ground to keep them from running out into the line of fire because they panicked. It was a huge mess thet never had to happen there. These people would have never been put in danger if the guy who had been knocked down earlier had just left right afterwards. The sad thing is though that when it's that
personal it probably wouldn't have been over for him anyway it just would have taken place somewhere else on another day. Cops, Security, Bodyguards, and civilians with a death wish have to deal with this all the time, but not in the octagon. Awareness is huge and can never be overstated and there's a lot to be said for good old fashioned common sense as well. In the field of defensive tactics, combatives, or other types of personal protection training we have to find answers for these problems and sport fighters don't, it's a completely different thing and really needs to be recognized as such. I wish it was just about whuppin' some butt, but it isn't.
In conclusion street violence happens quick and without warning. In America it's getting much worse than itused to be so the training has to stay above the curve. The violence on our streets doesn't look like someonetapping or holding a trophy it looks more like this:
I personally love to watch MMA on PPV and if you do that stuff I think it's great but please recognize that it's a sport because people that may be your students don't know any different they think it's all the same. If you want to be a cage fighter then that's awesome please do so because it's alot of fun but please don't tell people your teaching street fighting when you aren't. I thank everyone for reading this I hope everyone understand that this was not written to offend or pass judgment but to inform I actually think cage fighting can be a good part of training because with it you'll find out quickly what works and what doesn't so it'll be harder to fool you
with the weird mysticism stuff some people pass off as martial arts these days it's just that there needs to be more training than just whuppin ass.
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