The
Ultimate Guide
To Fighting and Winning
By Dr. Russ Horine, President, Fight-Fast Direct, Inc.
Part 26
Fighting
Tools – Think of this like a carpenter – to get
the job done he uses three basic tools – a table saw,
a planer, and a nail gun. Yes there are a ton of other
tools he’ll want at his disposal, but without these
essentials he won’t even be able to get started. So
in general, there are 3 groups of hand-to-hand Fighting
Tools available to you – and within each group there
are a bunch of options available to you. They are:
- Strikes: These are offensive moves
that include kicking, punching, head butts, elbows
and knees. With all the variations available there
are literally thousands of such moves to choose from
– which can get confusing. But no worries, I’ve done
all the work of sorting through this material for
you. I’d recommend the following DVD packages:
- Glenn
Boodry’s “Real World”
Advanced Package…
- Bruce
Drago’s “Hardcore Street
Scenerios” package…
- Dale
Comstock’s “American Combat Karate package…
- Blocks/Checks: Essentially these
are defensive moves. Once again, there are simply
so many parrying, redirection, and stopping maneuvers
available that I couldn’t possibly cover them all
here. So again, one of the big problems for guys like
you is sifting through tons of dirt and sand to discover
those valuable golden nuggets.
But don’t fret, there’s no need for any heavy
digging – I’ve done all that for you. Here are some
packages specifically designed to demonstrated advanced
(but simple to learn) blocks and checks:
- Ray
Ellingson’s “Untouchables”
package…
- Larry
Wick’s “Tactical Street Survival” package…
- Gabe Garcia’s “Mean Streets” package…
Okay… understanding
defensive moves is important, but it’s more
important to remember that if you’re blocking, you’re
not attacking. That’s not the position you want to be
in. Your odds of winning are greatly increased if you
are on the offensive and forcing your opponent to defend
himself. All these packages deal with using defensive
moves as a method to turn the tables and take the attack
to your opponent.
- Manipulations: This includes offensive
throws, joint locks, breaks, choke holds and escapes.
There is plenty for
you to choose from here, including:
- Tony
Walker’s “Street Survival”…
- Mike
Gillette’s “Cop Fighting Skills”…
- Mark
Parra’s “Brutal Headbustin
Secrets”…
A lot of
manipulation techniques boil down to pain compliance
and “control and contain” tactics. This is extremely
popular among anyone who makes their living in law enforcement
and security as their goal is to control people and
not necessarily “end the threat”. I would recommend
learning these techniques for the kind of “altercations”
I talked about earlier – where you need to control someone
without causing too much damage.
Remember, there’s no need to get
confused about which package you should get. You can
either customize and build your own personal combat
system from scratch or simply trust me on this and choose
from my
1.
Silver Pak…
2.
Gold Pak…
3.
Platinum Pak.
Now I touched on this earlier, but
what the heck, I’ll bring it up again. You want to have
as many “tools” available to you as possible. Yes, I’m
sure you heard certain “experts” claim that having multiple
fighting tools will “overwhelm” you in a fight. Nonsense.
The more fighting tools and skill sets you have available
to you, the more target opportunities you’ll have at
your disposal and the sooner they will appear.
Think of it like working on a car.
You’ll want more than an adjustable wrench and a hammer
with you (although I DID once replace a water pump like that… which I don’t recommend). The more
tools you’ve got, the more options you’ll have to get
the job done. It’s that simple.
Because
as I’ve already mentioned, the typical untrained street
fighter really has just two effective tools -- a right
haymaker to the head and a left haymaker to the head.
(Wow… what a cornucopia of moves).
So when it comes
to target awareness and fighting ranges this guy is
left asking “is
my opponents head open now? Am I in range for a haymaker?”
That’s a rather limited menu of options. Whoever is
suggesting that this is a good thing doesn’t understand
the nature real-world fighting. You want
options. Having more options does not mean more
decisions, just more opportunities.
Now I want to talk
a little about the “dialogue” in your head for choosing
your target and the appropriate tool. This has more
to do with “knowing” and less about carrying on a well-structured
conversation in your head. It leans heavily on intuition,
feelings, flashing words, and images. Your brain should
work in a kind of short hand with decisions made in
fractions of a second.
Anyway…
when it comes down to it there are 3 Fighting Skill Sets you’ll need:
- Initiating Skills – Extremely important
to practice since your best chance at winning means
initiating a pre-emptive or counter attack. As we’ve
discussed at length there are definite skills and
triggers you’ll need to know and you can discover
more in Jesse Lechuga’s
“Hwa Rang Sul”.
- Control of Space Skills – this includes
knowledge about fighting ranges, what kind of stance
you’ll need, how to use concealment and cover (useful
if your adversary is armed), and a variety of fluid
movement techniques as demonstrated in such packages
as demonstrated in “John
Nottingham’s Viper”.
- Entering Skills – Entering Skills
refer to techniques and skills that allow you to close
into your attacker without getting hit. This is an
important skill since many of the most devastating
tools in street fight are in Close
Range.
You’ll need to know a variety of dirty tricks, distractions,
and feint strategies like that demonstrated in “Bob
Taylor’s Small Man’s Advantage”.
Again… it’s important to remember
that a fight is a fluid state – a constant state of
flux -- that does not translate well into broken-down
and overanalyzed components (hmm…
let’s see, he’s 15 inches away at this moment -- which
means he’s in trapping range… which means I think I
can use an ear slap… oh wait… darn it… he’s moved).
No way. A fight is more of a wham…
bam… bam… bam-bam… and it over. Everything’s got
to be automatic. I’ve
seen too many “book taught” fighters get lulled into
a false sense of security because they compartmentalize
fighting – thinking about it in separate and individuals
components. When a real fight hits their shocked at
how fast and fluid it is.
So I’ve set up some tips that’ll
help. Use them as a guide to combine real-world fighting
tools from all 4 ranges.
- Make
sure you have learned multiple options in each of
the Fighting Skill Sets.
- Choose
fighting tools that are effective (high probability
of success), that feel natural (based on natural body
movements), rely on gross motor skills (which means
they won’t deteriorate under stress), and are easy
to maintain.
- The
more tools you are willing to learn and master for
each range, the more options you’ll have in crunch
time.
- Learn
at least 6 to 12 fighting tools for each fighting
range. If you are in a profession that deals continually
with violent confrontations you’ll want to expand
that fighting tool repertoire.
- For
the striking range it’s a good idea to learn at least
2 to 4 techniques from each of the three categories
of fighting tools (strikes, blocks, and manipulations).
Always put more emphasis on strikes rather than on
blocks or manipulations, unless you are in a professional
law enforcement or security occupation.
- Read
this book several times and commit it to memory –
it’ll give you the structure and the foundation to
build your own Personal Combat system.
- When
studying our training DVD’s, add the techniques and
tactics that fit you best. Every person is built differently,
so you don’t want to use anything that seems unnatural
or clumsy for you. All the techniques taught by our
team of instructors pass our rigorous standards of
high effectiveness and consistency. This is stuff
that actually works – which means that building your
own combat system becomes
a matter of choosing what works best for you. If it
seems to “fit” you, it will usually be easier to learn.
- Apply
the 80/20 rule. I’ve explained all about this concept
below.
Til next time…
Dr. Russ Horine
Prez, Fight-Fast.com
“A warrior may choose pacifism.
Others are condemned to it.”
– unknown
|
