The
Ultimate Guide
To Fighting and Winning
By Dr. Russ Horine, President, Fight-Fast Direct, Inc.
Part 11
“God grants liberty to those who love it,
and are always ready to guard and defend it.”
– Daniel Webster
Dear Friend:
This is Part Four of my Fight Guide. I’ve put
over 18-years of research into this 5-part guide, so
don’t skip ahead to the year twelve here. Check out
Parts 1-3 first – it’ll be one of the smartest moves
you’ve ever made. You can get your hands on Part I, Part II, and Part III
HERE.
Like I said -- read them all first, then come
back here.
But if you’ve already read Part 1-3 congratulations.
You’re well on your way to understanding how to fight
and WIN.
Next I want to discuss some specific tactics
that really work
on the street.
“Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.”
– Sun Tzu
The
“Four Ds” Of Personal Combat:
Now we’re getting into some advanced stuff
here. This “Four D’s” was one of my own biggest “ah-ha”
experiences because it explains why some guys -- even
little guys
(who may look like they’d have trouble winning a fight
at a quilter’s convention), consistently WON real-world
street fights against larger more aggressive opponents.
It boiled down to this. These guys were consistently
good in four specific skills – namely: 1) Deception… 2) Distraction… 3) Disruption… and 4) Destruction. This is exciting “meat
and potatoes” stuff about actually winning a streetfight.
The best part is that – unlike “sport fighting” – these
skills have very little to do with size, strength, and
physical skill. Let’s
take a look:
1.
Deception: Nothing but a fancy word for
“lying” (although I’ll admit deception
does sound much nicer).
If
you think you’ll have trouble lying to a guy who wants
to hurt you or your family, then you’ll have trouble
with this. But for the rest of us, this is an important
element to winning.
Because deception is not some wishy-washy theory – it actually WORKS
in the real world. In fact, ask any military
man who understands strategy. He’ll tell you that deception
is KEY -- allowing a much smaller force to take on and
defeat a larger, better equipped enemy.
For
example, General Eisenhower used “deception” (gasp)
against the Nazis just before the D-Day Invasion. You
see, Hitler knew an Allied
invasion was coming – and that the Allies would have
to cross the English Channel
and land on the coast of France.
He just didn’t know where
that force would land. The most obvious landing area
was a place called Calais
– which was the shortest distance across the English
Channel – and Hitler reckoned that this
was where to concentrate the German forces to repel
the D-Day invasion.
Now
ol’ Eisenhower was pretty smart. He understood the power
of deception and wanted
Hitler to think he’d land in Calais.
So he placed a huge force of trucks, tanks and airplanes
directly across the Channel from Calais
so the German scout planes could easily spot them. A
simple deception.
Hitler
was convinced 100% that the Allies really would land
their forces in Calais.
What
Hitler didn’t know was that this formidable force of
airplanes were made out of balsa wood and canvas – the
trucks and tanks merely inflated “floats” that could
have been in the Macy’s Day Parade.
But
it was such an effective deception that, when the real
Allied invasion hit at Normandy,
Hitler insisted that it was nothing more than a diversion
and had his Nazi reserve forces waiting in vain for
the attack at Calais.
So,
deception is KEY in most military confrontations – AND
in personal combat as well.
Okay…
you may be rolling your eyes and asking what does all
this military stuff have to do with protecting yourself.
Well just this. Deception plays on simple human psychology
– whether we’re talking about two guys duking
it out in a back alley or two hundred thousand troops
clashing on the battlefield. The idea is to trick your
adversary into thinking one thing, then
suddenly turn the tables on him. The result is confusion,
hesitation, and panic.
Okay…
back to personal combat. Here are a few classic deceptions
that really work.
a.
Verbal Deception: The idea is to deceive
your opponent by verbally expressing the exact OPPOSITE
of your real intentions. A LOT
of guys commit the mistake of announcing their real
intentions. Wrong. Do NOT tell someone you’re about
to “kick their ass” and make threatening movements if
that’s what you’re really planning to do.
A better plan is to tell
him that you’re “not looking for a fight”… or “don’t
want trouble”… or even that you’re “I’m injured and
can’t fight”. Say anything that’ll lull him into the
comfortable belief that he is indeed master
of the universe. The more he has settled into this mindset,
the greater will be his surprise and panic when HE is
suddenly under attack. So here are a couple of methods
of verbal deception:
Begging: “Please, don’t hurt me…”. Like I said,
the more you can get him to believe he’s the guy in
control, the more effective this deception stuff is.
Once again, the idea is to set him up for the “big surprise”.
Then, put him on the defense, and “back on his heels”
– don’t let up after that.
Comply: At the very least
you should act like you’re complying with his wishes.
For example, if some guy asks you to “step outside”,
you already know what’s up – so I ask you, is it really
necessary to “step outside” and “put up your dukes”?
No. A better strategy would be to act
like you’re going along with it, then launch into
an attack or simply escape.
Sound unfair? Good… because that’s what
you’re trying for. Like we talked about earlier, you
are not living in a boxing ring or a Hollywood
movie. You should be striving for as much advantage
as you can get. There’s no such thing as “too much of
an advantage”. This is your life – use whatever dirty
tricks you can muster to end this thing, before
you end up in the hospital or the morgue. The concept
of “total commitment” means you are NOT fighting fair.
Okay… there’s another useful tip for you that
will actually force your opponent to make his intentions
known. Here it is -- simply hold up your hands. No…
not straight up like a train robbery… but in front of
you, palms toward your opponent, while saying nice things
like “hey man, I’m just trying work things out here”
or some such thing. There are a couple reasons this
works.
i.
Even though it looks like a “surrender” position, it’s
actually a “fight ready” position. Hands are up and
ready for action…
ii.
Your hands become a “forward boundary” (which is better
than your face) and gives you time and space. If he
touches or crosses that forward boundary consider it
a “trigger” to action. You must act immediately. Alright,
let’s move onto another of the “Four D’s”…
2.)
Distraction: This is the second of the
“Four Ds” and hinges on
another quirk of the human brain -- its inability
to completely focus on more than one thing at a time.
It’s one reason why so many husbands find themselves
in hot water during the football season, (“hmmm… what…
the kitchen is on fire? Okay honey… great… get to that
in a minute”).
The good news is that you
can take advantage of this human limitation by redirecting…
or “distracting”… your opponent’s attention away from
you so you can act with a reasonable chance at catching
him off-guard. The bad news is that distractions are
often only effective for a split second or so… which
means that unless you have an immediate follow-up plan,
the distraction is futile.
Here are some highly effective PROVEN distractions
that’ll give you an opening to launch your attack…
a.
Cigarette.
This is the one time in your life when smoking may actually
benefit your health. Tell your doctor about
it. Because flicking a lit cigarette into your adversary’s
face will definitely distract him for a moment. The
key phrase here is for a moment.
If you flick the
cigarette into your opponent’s face, then use the time
to enjoy a good snicker while watching him dance around
brushing off the sparks, well… your sense of humor will
get the better of you. Deception and distraction tricks
are to be used only as simple mechanisms to give you
one or (at most) two seconds to launch your attack or
escape. But when a typical fight only lasts up to 8
seconds, a second or two is a huge amount of time.
b.
Glasses.
Reach up with both hands and pretend to adjust your
glasses – then throw them in his face. Don’t do this
if you’re blind as a bat – you may just end up attacking
a nearby tree.
c.
Throw loose change
on the ground. Believe it or not, reaction to the
sound of coins hitting the ground is practically hardwired
into the brain and creates a major distraction. I expect
the more of a tight-wad your opponent is, the better
this works. Now this is mainly an audible
distraction -- so unless you’re fighting a stripper
-- tossing dollar bills (even twenties) won’t work.
Oh… and don’t expect to see that 73 cents again. Consider
it money well spent.
d.
Spill or throw
your drink. This is one Hollywood
trick that actually works. First, there’s the shock
of ice cubes and cold liquid hitting the face… and second,
there’s the instant (and temporary) blinding effect.
This can be the most effective method in giving you
a couple seconds to do what you gotta do.
Okay… these are just some suggestions – I’m sure
you can probably think of a dozen more simple distractions
off the top of your head. But you’ll need to keep an
open mind and use what’s available to you at the time.
Focus your attention on
creating a simple distraction along with “target acquisition”
(which we covered earlier), and you’ll minimize the
“internal dialogue” that causes deadly hesitation and
“brain freeze”. But one thing to keep in mind, creating
the distraction means “total commitment” to what you’re
about to do – whether it’s escaping or attacking. Now,
let’s move onto the third “D” of personal combat – “Disruption”.
The
next 2 D's of personal combat next time. Until then…
Regards,
Dr. Russ Horine
Fight-Fast, Inc.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
– Sun Tzu
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