Real Street Fighting Moves

Are you studying Chinese Kung Fu, Korean Taekwondo or Japanese Shotokan Karate? Then you are studying:

•  Traditional Martial Art – the 1st of the three categories of martial arts.  Here I am in a kung fu Tiger fighting stance during my traditional kung fu study of the past.  I have long since left the traditional martial art arena.  What about you?

Are you cross-training in a combination of traditional martial arts techniques with an emphasis on Brazilian jiu jutsu to prepare yourself for a Mixed Martial Arts cage match?  Or, are you possibly sparring everyday in the dojo for an upcoming Karate tournament?  Then you are studying:

•  Sports Competition Martial Art – the 2nd of the three categories of martial arts.

Are you training with an instructor who has a background in one of the traditional martial arts, but also has worked as or has had real-world combat and street experience as a bouncer, bodyguard or special forces military personnel and your entire training takes place in as little as 2 or 3 days of an 8-hour a day intensive scenario-based fighting simulating real-world modern situations, then you are studying:

•  Reality Based Self Defense – the 3rd of the three categories of martial arts.  Reality Based Self Defense is also known as Reality Based Fighting or RBF.

This post is Part 1 of the 3 modules.  We will look at the defining characteristics of category number 1 of fighting.

Traditional Martial Arts Instruction

These are the typical types of fighting systems that have gotten stuck in a time warp of the past. The tradition of what was learned, taught or practiced 500 years ago takes precedence over the immediate practical applicability to modern 21st century urban situations.  (In traditional martial art instruction, you are still asked to dress in ancient Asian garb and walk around in bare feet.)  There is absolutely nothing wrong with this and studying a martial art with all of its countless techniques, forms, katas and history is a choice like anything else.  I am only being descriptive here.

All Art In Its Truest Since Is A Life Long Study

Traditional Martial Art focuses on perfection as does all art. The perfection of an art indeed should be a life-long study and experience – BUT – and this is a big BUT,  learning an art that involves fighting moves, should not be confused with learning real-world self-protection.  Parenthetically, I can imagine that 500 years ago, the traditional martial arts systems that we know today were reality-based, but they were the reality based on the society and the situations that happened at that time.  (I have never seen a kata to handle a carjacking.)

Traditional Martial Art Teaches You Countless Techniques And Thus Increases The Likelihood That You Will Become Confused When Faced With A Real-Life Encounter

The more techniques you learn and the multitude of things that you stuff in your head will only serve to confuse you when you are face-to-face with someone who has much more street smarts and is much more used to real street violence than you are.

You take your average martial arts black belt guy and put him to bounce at the door of a club, and most will fail miserably – because even if you have a black belt – you MUST have a reality-based mindset.

So, study your martial art for its beauty, its grace and its tradition, and not to say anything about how it will also aid you to get in better physical condition, but please, look and what you are studying and honestly evaluate if you truly believe that you are being trained to be combat ready in the real world of the 21st century – because nobody really cares what color belt you have in a real street fight.  It is all about the last man standing.

What is your take on traditional martial art?  Do you see it as highly effective and practical for the streets?

The second category of martial arts is Sports Competition Martial Arts.

Let us first take a look at  classical Karate tournament fighting.

Martial Arts Tournaments

When you go to a martial arts tournament, you sit in the audience and witness the beauty and grace of a fluid kata or form being executed with the timed and skilled movements of a ballet dancer in the finale of a dramatic opera.

In another ring of the same martial arts tournament, you can see opponents in a contest of “point sparring” where they don’t even have to make contact, they just have to be judged as having theoretically made contact through the defenses of their sparring opponents.  A punch is thrust toward the face of an opponent, and the referees throw a small flag in the air to show that a “point” was won.  How cute.  This is tantamount to “playing tag” but only with Oriental uniforms and bare feet.

Also, we must not forget the full-contact contests where face guards, helmets, chest and knee pads are donned to go “full contact” – but in a protected sense, with referees there to make sure that no one really gets hurt.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

Let’s up the anty a bit and go across the street where a knock down drag out “no holds barred” MMA match is taking place right now.  (Hmm, they still wear gloves.)

The simple thread that runs through both of the above in the Sports Competition Martial Arts category is that there are a set of clearly defined R-U-L-E-S. And certain moves are illegal:  eye gouging, finger breaking, biting, etc.

Listen, and listen well, by the fact that there are rules does not make the Sports Competition Martial Arts category, be it karate tournament fighting or MMA caged matches, a viable choice for learning real world self protection.  In the street – there ARE no rules!

The Secret To Learning Real-World Self Defense And Self Protection

The secret to learning real world defense is to leave Sports Competition Martial Arts in the tournament ring, and to leave MMA fighting in the octagon, for in the streets you MUST have access and be able to use every illegal move that tournament fighting and MMA fighting prohibit.  For real-world self defense, you need Reality-Based Self Defense. Period. And you must become a “dirty” fighter to survive.

In the streets, if and whenever necessary, you must also be able to eye gouge, bite whatever is available and break however many  fingers you can get a hold of.  To survive, you must be able to do whatever it takes – and use every last one of those illegal moves that Traditional Martial Arts sports tournaments and  Mixed Martial Arts sports competition prohibit.

What’s your take?  Do you feel that Sports Martial Arts is equivalent to real street fighting readiness?

Charles Prosper aka “The Street Fighting Sifu”

Norm Bettencourt shows what a setting of a Reality-Based Fighting lesson.

Reality-Based Self Defense, also know as Reality-Based Fighting or RBF has a certain irony surrounding it. Most people do not have a clear distinction of it as one of 3 major categories of fighting, yet most people when they enroll in a martial arts class or strip mall dojo (as I fondly call a McDojo) believe that they will learn Reality-Based Street Fighting.

The same goes for those, who are duly impressed after watching a MMA fighting match with all of the intense “grounding and pounding” with emphasis on locks, throws and grappling, also go out and sign up with a school emphasizing MMA techniques – believing – that they too are about to learn things that are extremely applicable in the streets.

Traditional Martial Arts and Mixed Martial Arts, even put together, do not equate Reality-Based Self Defense. Sorry. I know this breaks the hearts of some of you, but it is a fact. The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.

Some Reality-Based Fighting Principles CAN Find Their Way Into Traditional Martial Arts Systems

Let me say that some reality-based fighting principles can find their way into the curriculum of some traditional martial arts schools. For example, I have seen eye gouges demonstrated in some Kung Fu schools, and this is fine. But the problem is that over time, perfectly good, simple and easy-to-learn street fighting techniques like this one get lost in a plethora of countless other competing techniques taught, some effective, and some not so effective, that soon distract the student from knowing which one to choose and what really works best in most common situations.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Does Not Emphasize “Street Smarts” – Because It Is A Sport!

I do not want to imply by any stretch of the imagination that a MMA guy is someone you should go around picking a fight with or that he is a pushover. This kind of thinking can get you a good “ass-whipping”. But let’s face it, a great deal of MMA guys are grapplers. What in the hell are you doing grappling on the ground in the streets! This is insane! The ground is NOT your friend!

On the ground, you lose peripheral vision, and you can’t see if and when your opponent has buddies coming to the left or right of you ready to stomp your head into the ground – until you are dead. And falling onto the hard and unforgiving asphalt concrete with a 200 lb guy on top of you is not the same as falling on a soft padded mat with the watchful eye of the referee ready to let you “tap out” when things get too tough.

A “sports mindset” is not the best preparation for a life and death struggle for survival. Let MMA for the octagon, and just watch it on TV.

What Characterizes Reality-Based Self Defense

• It Doesn’t Take A Long Time To Master – Where studying a martial art (as it should) may take you years and years to master and to a lesser degree so does sports and competitive fighting, Reality-Based Self Defense can take as little as 1 or 2 days of intensive scenario-based training where you are placed in simulated environments with your instructor. You would find yourself in a mock-alley ways, close-quarter rooms with plenty of furniture, or you may go outside to train on the streets – on the gravel, on leaves, on grass, on concrete or on snow.

• You Train For How And Where You Will Have To Fight – The idea is to go out of the usual temperature-controlled dojos and out into to realistic modern-day fighting environments. You train in your everyday clothes and in your shoes. You practice countering surprise attacks administered and directed by your instructor whose purpose is to induce within you the adrenaline rush that you will experience in a real street confrontation – and thus be comfortable with it.

One emotionally-charged weekend of good fight response experience with a good RBF instructor can change you so positively that your self-confidence and ability to respond will shoot through the roof, and this confidence will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Would you like to learn Reality-Based Fighting from a real RBF instructor?  Let me know, and I will see that you get the training that you need.  Thanks.

Charles Prosper aka “The Street Fighting Sifu”