The
Ultimate Guide
To Fighting and Winning
By Dr. Russ Horine, President, Fight-Fast Direct, Inc.
Part 5
Dear Friend:
Here's some more fight statistics that I know you'll find
facinating. Once again, I am simply setting up the "foundation"
-- the groundwork -- so that you understand exactly
what you're up against in a fight. Because poor information
is the biggest reason for screw-ups -- so I'm giving
you nothing but the best.
I left off at fight stat #3, here's #4...
4.)
One, Two, Three
You’re Out. The average fight is just 3 to 8 seconds
long. I know I already mentioned, but I just want to
continue to impress you with this.
I personally was shocked to discover this
as – after watching many John Wayne movies in my youth
-- I was convinced most fist fights raged on for hours.
Nope… it’s more like, wham… bam… boom…fight over. Once you realize how fast it’ll be over,
you’ll be far less likely to politely allow your adversary
to “hit first” – which is a bad strategy my friend.
5.)
Ground Fighting.
I want to further clarify of one of my previous “fight
myths” which states that most fights do
not go to the ground. While it is indeed true --
most street fights do NOT go to the ground – that’s
only true for fights lasting less
than 12 seconds. And most fights last only 3-8 seconds (remember wham… bam… boom?). So my research shows that at second number 13 there’s
a high probability the fight will end up on ground.
What does this means for you? Well…
it couldn’t hurt to have a few ground fighting tricks
up your sleeve.
6.)
Getting Hurt.
The longer the fight, the higher the chances of serious
injury or death. Yep, the longer it takes you to end
it, the better chance of you getting really hurt or
killed.
Unfortunately many martial artists make the
mistake of “displaying” their skills. I mean… sure…
they paid good money to learn those fancy moves. They’ve
even got a pretty belt to prove it. So please, could
everyone form a little circle to watch some cool reverse
roundhouse kicking skills.
Meanwhile, his adversary moves in and lands
a couple simple well placed shots and suddenly this
“martial artist” is on the ground unconscious. His opponent’s
technique may not have required a lot of skill, and
were not very “pretty”, but that doesn’t matter. At
this point he can only hope that his adversary and his
buddies don’t decide to start stomping on his head.
Because lying on the ground unconscious does not necessarily
mean your opponent is done with you.
So get this idea in your skull – end the
fight as quickly
as possible for your own good.
7.)
The Melon Shot.
Most of the time your adversary will be a “head hunter”
– meaning that he will almost exclusively be targeting
your head. Now I’m not suggesting that the head is not
a good target, but for Pete’s sake it isn’t the only target.
What’s more is that the head is often the
best defended target, which means you should look for
numerous other targets around the body (target awareness).
The smart fighter will typically attack open “high value”
targets, like the groin, inside knee, neck, outside
thigh, etc. I’ll cover some more targets later on, but
my point is that your opponent will most likely be head-hunting
and that you should consider many other targets.
8.)
The Classic Shove.
Important to know this. A shove is typically an initiation for an attack
This is extremely common for the “Emotionally Hijacked”
or the “Bully” and its purpose is to build up his confidence
and ego to just before striking.
It’s rare that a “Predator” will use this,
as he’s very careful not to announce his intentions
(“hello… I’m going to rob you… but I’ll start it out
with this little shove.”). No. A predator’s main strategy
is surprise.
Anyway, if an adversary shoves you, look out! Statistics show that it is highly probable his next move will be a
strike -- and typically that strike happens within a
second or two after the shove.
Now a common question that I receive is:
“so what should I do if someone shoves me?” Okay… let
me be clear about this. You’ve
got some solid info on your side – namely that you’re
probably about a second or two away from getting hit.
You don’t have to be a seasoned cage fighter to figure
out that standing there and doing nothing is not your best course of action – unless
of course getting hit upside the head with a haymaker
is your idea of a viable strategy. You’ve got other
options -- and believe it or not, simply running
is one of those options.
Regardless of the option you choose, you
must use the shove as a “trigger” to prompt immediate
and decisive action.
9.)
Admiring Your
Work. Here’s another stunning fight fact. MOST rookie
fighters will suddenly stop their attack to “assess”
the damage – especially if they are winning the fight.
Bad move.
It’s a big-time rookie mistake and it often
plays out something like this: an Emotionally Hijacked
person shoves you. You wisely recognize that you’re
about to be hit, so you strike first with a forearm
shot to the side of the neck (nice choice) – then you stand back and wait for this bum to
crumble into a heap -- calling you “master” and begging
for mercy.
Don’t
count on it!... more
Hollywood baloney!
Stats prove
that, given the chance, an opponent will often quickly
recover from his initial shock and dismay -- then start
to return fire. That’s bad news for you because by stopping
and “accessing” the damage,
you’ve literally given
away a couple of your most important tools for winning
this fight – surprise and continual pressure.
So here’s a piece of advice. Once the fight
is on, do NOT
stop until the threat is removed -- whether that
threat is removed because you’ve escaped… because your
adversary is on the ground writhing in pain… or because
he’s unconscious. No matter, you’ll want to get out
of there as quickly as possible. Do Not wait for him
to recover… do NOT wait for his buddies to show up…
and do NOT wait for emotionally “pumped up” bystanders
to attack you. Do what you gotta do, then leave the area as quickly as possible.
Fighters who “strike and assess” can (and
do) end up hurt or dead.
10.)
Beginner’s Can’t
Hurt You. As I’ve already suggested, most adversaries
you’ll face will NOT be well-trained fighters. This
is good news, because it means that having some fundamental
fight knowledge (like you’re learning here), will put
you one or two steps ahead of your opponent. And the
over 70 DVD training courses I’ve got available will
really secure
your position.
Of course this doesn’t
mean you can’t be hurt by an untrained fighter.
One “Fight-Fast” instructor
-- Mark Hatmaker (also known
as the “Professor Of Grappling”) -- points out that
he’s witnessed complete rookies (with no fight experience
at all), worm their way out of “impossible” Brazilian ground fighting holds.
“The Professor” suggests
that even highly experienced fighters should always avoid trouble if they can – even against an inexperienced fighter
– as there is simply no guarantee of the final outcome.
Understand that ALL personal combat is a desperate life-and-death
struggle where anything can happen.
So you have to assume
that your opponent will fight for his life, just as
YOU should fight for yours. There is no such thing as
a “casual” ass-kicking. It’s an all out fight or nothing -- and the end result can mean
serious permanent injury or death.
11.)
The Stomp.
One of the latest dancing crazes is called the “head-stomp”.
As you’ve probably guessed, it’s a dance on your head.
Because research shows that if you get knocked down
to the ground -- especially against multiple attackers
-- your head is likely to be viewed as a rugby ball
in open field.
Experienced street
fighters know to stay off the ground and on their feet
– or else!
Of course ground fighting can and does happen, which means here at Fight-Fast
Inc. we’ve created instructional material to deal with
it. One of the most effective packages is “Street Safe
III”. It focuses on a number of ugly techniques designed
to get an opponent off of you quickly so that you can
get back onto your feet.
In
fact, since being on the ground is so serious, (it often
means getting kicked unconscious in a matter of seconds),
the techniques demonstrated in “Street Safe III” are
some of the most vicious
and brutal you’ll learn anywhere. As a result, I
won’t release “Street Safe III” without a signed “waiver”.
Yeah… it’s that
nasty!
12.)
The Block-head. If you’re busy blocking incoming blows, you’re in a bad
position. Because that’s the exact opposite position
you want to be in. You want your opponent to be attempting to block – not yourself.
Having a mindset of blocking punches and
kicks means that you
are on the defensive… reacting rather than acting… pedaling
backwards… off balance… and not able to effectively
counter attack.
Now with all due respect, I’ve seen a LOT
of martial artists
endlessly practicing parries (which is the redirection
of incoming shots), and blocks. That’s all well and
good… but it’s kinda like
a NASCAR driver concentrating his valuable training
on building an extra-durable roll cage. As he careens
180 mph out of control off that first turn, it suddenly
dawns on him that maybe he should have practiced driving.
It’s the same with fighting. Experienced
street fighters rarely concentrate their efforts on
“blocks and parries” but instead defend their soft targets
with space or the proper execution of an offensive
attack.
Now, I’m not suggesting you
make no effort to block, because there IS value in it.
But, you won’t win a fight with blocking and parrying
alone, and, if you find yourself doing this, it usually
indicates you’re in big trouble.
13.)
You Will Get
Cut. Almost any street fighter worth his salt will
advise you to run like hell in the face of a knife (with
a gun you sometimes want to actually close
the distance).
Understandably, there are times when you
can’t simply run away. You’ve got your
family, or girlfriend, or other loved ones with you.
But
know this: If you’re forced to fight a man armed
with a blade, you WILL be cut. It’s that simple.
“Street Safe I” instructor Paul Vunak, (a world expert on knife disarming), proved this
point by wiping red paint on a training knife blade.
Even with his astonishing disarming skills, he was rarely
able to disarm a determined fighter without getting
red paint on himself.
His
advice is this: Don’t waste your time trying to
avoid getting cut but rather use it to concentrate on
eliminating the threat. And the threat
is NOT the knife but the person holding it.
Okay, that's it for the fight stats. You
should be a LOT more informed now -- more so that most
guys on the streets today. But there's a lot more information
to come, so keep your eyes peeled.
Til next time...
Dr. Russ Horine
Prez, Fight-Fast
“Don’t hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never
hit soft.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
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