| A question that I commonly hear is how | | | | happened and hearing my comments, they will |
| someone can get experience in fighting without | | | | learn to recognize the critical point of street |
| actually going out and getting mugged or into | | | | attacks, where the survivor was determined and |
| street fights. | | | | be aware of the mistakes that the unsuccessful |
| Well, most traditional martial artists and modern | | | | participant made which insured his failure. Because |
| sport fighters would say that you need to spar, | | | | the critical mistakes were usually either in |
| "in order to be hit and learn to hit." | | | | situational awareness or tactics, my students will |
| My problem with that is, first of all, that you | | | | automatically be better prepared to avoid them |
| shouldn't concentrate on learning to be hit, | | | | and position themselves to survive, BEFORE being |
| because, as I have often said, the first person to | | | | attacked. |
| land a strike in a real street attack tends to win | | | | Sure, the clip of the girl flooring the bouncer with |
| the fight. Either it immediately takes the person | | | | a headbut and the defensive tactics trainer |
| hit out of the fight or at least stuns him long | | | | knocking out the pimp with one blow were |
| enough to allow the attacker to follow-up with | | | | examples of how powerful techniques to fragile |
| finishing blows while the hit person cannot defend | | | | targets could allow even a "Davey" to defeat a |
| himself effectively, so training to "take punches" is | | | | "Goliath," but that's not what really won the fights. |
| akin to training for failure. | | | | The deciding factor in both clips was the fact that |
| The other problem that I have with sparring that | | | | the aggressors underestimated the person |
| I will mention now (believe me, I have plenty of | | | | standing in front of them and this lapse in |
| problems with using sport-oriented sparring in self | | | | situational awareness is what lost them fights |
| defense training, but that's a topic in itself) is that | | | | against weaker, "less-formidable" opponents. |
| it will "train" you to "practice" very bad situational | | | | Because they did not assume good, |
| awareness. That means that sparring will actually | | | | non-threatening ready postures, they were totally |
| condition you to wait and first defend yourself | | | | unprepared and unsuspecting when the |
| after some referee has made sure that both you | | | | pre-emptive strikes came, which resulted in them |
| and your opponent are ready and gives you the | | | | being unconscious before they even knew that |
| signal to fight. This is very bad, because it is | | | | they were hit. |
| usually the lack of situational awareness that | | | | Believe me, case studies and mental training are a |
| causes people, especially good sport fighters to | | | | large part of what I teach and have definitely |
| lose fights on the street. | | | | improved the ability of my students to learn to |
| For instance, I'm always sending case studies of | | | | fight to survive inside of a very short period of |
| video clips to my students to study. By watching | | | | time. |
| videos of examples of what has already | | | | |