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Self Defense Street Fighting – Why Bouncers Make the Best Self Defense Teachers

by admin on Sep.25, 2009, under Christopher "Bob" Roberts (Articles)

Go into a martial arts school and you will see pictures of the master meditating, stretching, doing forms and winning medals. However, should you one day leave the school and be attacked, the only thing in the world important to you will be your ability to fight like a street fighter. Being a good street fighter is what it takes to survive street attacks.

So, who is really qualified to teach you to fight like a street fighter? A martial artist who has never been in a fight in his life or someone who has gone out of his way to get a job that basically consists of him getting involved in fights that other people start?

I would say that the best instructors are either bouncers, some police or some military guys, but the most qualified to teach self defense to civilians are the bouncers. Here’s why:

1. Bouncers have the same (lack of) equipment as civilians–Attack a cop or soldier with a knife or gun and he will do his best to shoot you. Attack a bouncer with a weapon and he will be in exactly the same situation you would be in on the street. Some bouncers carry lead gloves, retractable batons or pepper spray, but most don’t and even those weapons are things that any civilian could obtain and carry. What a bouncer does when faced with armed and / or multiple attackers will also work for you because the circumstances are the same.

2. Bouncers are constantly fighting–Street fights and attacks are over so fast that, if someone is attacked and another person calls the police immediately, they can’t possibly arrive before the fight is over. Bouncers are there from beginning to end. True, some bouncers work for years in a high-class disco and never have to do anything to get their hands dirty. A good trainer would have experience in a place like I work in. Last week I was in three serious fights in one night. Ask your strip-mall karate master if he was in three fights in his entire life.

3. Bouncers have to rely on themselves–There are no SWAT teams or quick reaction forces for bouncers to call when they are outnumbered or in trouble. A bouncer can never back down from a fight. If he gets hurt, he has to ignore the pain and do the best he can. There is no referee to stop the match if he cannot defend himself. Exactly the same situation as you will be in if someone would try to mug or rape you in the real world.

4. Bouncers haven’t been there and seen that, they’ve been everywhere and seen everything–Most bouncers have martial arts or sport fighting training. Most bouncers don’t train in sports or arts anymore. The best ones have taken what they have learned in the gym, tested it on the street and combined it with the rough and tumble street fighting techniques that they have seen work, time and time again. This is the proving ground that has produced my concepts of street fighting based self defense.

5. Bouncers are masters of the mental aspects of self defense–Situational awareness, fear management, killer instinct, pain tolerance. The mental aspects of self defense are the most important by far and exactly these aspects are missing from the repertoire of 99.9 % of the strip mall martial arts masters or self-proclaimed self defense instructors out there, whereas 99.9 % of the real bouncers out there have mastered all of these areas. Some bouncers are fat, others skinny, many smoke, but they are still capable of constantly surviving every violent encounter they might face. How can that be? Well, without the mental edge, a bouncer has a very short career.

Christopher “Bob” Roberts is an ex-soldier who relocated to Europe and now earns his living as a tactics and close-combat instructor for military, police and private security companies.

For more information about armed and unarmed self-protection, subscribe to his free newsletters at http://www.extreme-measures-institute.com and receive access to an exclusive video interview series where he explains the fundamentals of truly effective self defense.

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The Most Destructive And Easiest-To-Execute Street Fighting Technique Ever – The Head Butt

by admin on Jul.23, 2009, under Christopher "Bob" Roberts (Interviews)

How can a small, frail young girl, knock out cold, a much larger, more muscular, more powerful and “experienced” professional bouncer? I’ll tell you how – the head butt!

Watch this incredible clip of one of the most effective head butts ever caught on tape. With the head-butt, it doesn’t matter how young or how old you think you are. If you can head butt, you can destroy any aggressor!

The clip is a real surveillance video and is therefore a little grainy, but notice the white arrow of the thumbnail photo which points to the foot of the head butting girl.

An Interview with Christopher “Bob” Roberts on The Head Butt!

Charles Prosper - In this article, Christopher “Bob” Roberts, expert reality-based combat instructor, ex-soldier, bouncer, body guard and police trainer is going to give us insights on one of his favorite techniques that he has used in real street fighting combat – the head butt. So, Bob, help us out. Give us 3 reasons why the head butt is so effective in a real street fight.

Christopher “Bob” Roberts - Alright, well -

The 1st Reason Why The Head Butt Is So Effective Is Because The Hardness and The Weight of The Human Head Is Basically Similar To A Bowling Ball - If want to have an idea how effective a good head butt is, go home tonight, lay in your bed, and have your wife drop your bowling ball on your face.

Charles Prosper – (Laughter.)

Christopher “Bob” Roberts – And that is basically what it feels to be hit by a head butt.

Charles Prosper – Wow!

Christopher “Bob” Roberts – Okay, now -

The 2nd Thing Is Kind of Interesting in That You Don’t Need To Use Your Hands or Your Feet To Head Butt Somebody - That basically means that if we’re in a situation where you’re grabbing both my of my arms, when somebody is grabbing my arms, I can still effectively head butt.

If we’re in a situation where we’re grappling up against the wall or on the ground, I can still even though my hands are being used to hold you down or to push you away, I can still head butt you because I don’t need my arms or my legs. It’s all head.

I know a lot of people not used to the head butt will only look for the arms or the legs.

The 3rd Thing Is If You Do It Properly, You Can Launch It Without Any Preparation Whatsoever - This basically means, people will talk about preemptive strikes, you do not have to prepare yourself; you do not have to wind up.

You basically go from talking to a person – and then immediately launch into a head butt that he will not see coming because you didn’t prepare for it. You didn’t wind up. You didn’t get ready. And -

Charles Prosper – Now, Bob, I have one quick question before we wrap up because this is a confusion with a lot of people. Where is the spot on your head that you strike with? Is it the forehead, or is it the top of the head, where the forehead meets the hairline is?

Christopher “Bob” Roberts – It is right around where the hairline would be. And if you’re basically going to come too high or too low, make sure you come too high.

It’s not anywhere near the eyebrows. And it is not in the middle of your forehead. It’s basically around where the hairline is, or about a half of an inch lower than the hairline. Because other than that, if you go any lower than that, you risk the chance of cutting your own forehead, your own eyebrows and bleeding a lot into your eyes.

Charles Prosper – Okay, that is a very important bit of information, and with that we’re wrapping it up. And again, thank you so much, Bob for these insights.

Bob – Alright, thanks a lot, Charles.

What is your experience or your take on the head butt? Leave A Reply and Comment below. Thanks.

Respectively,

Charles Prosper

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Self Defense Street Fighting – The Thumb Gouge to the Eye Revisited – COMPLETE Analysis by Christopher “Bob” Roberts

by admin on Jul.21, 2009, under Christopher "Bob" Roberts (Interviews)

Done wrong, the thumb gouge to the eye is almost useless . . . but done right, it is one of the most dangerous and effective self defense techniques that street fighting or WWII combative training has to offer. Read on, to learn the five simple guidelines to the effective use of thumb gouges to the eyes:

1. Don’t “poke” the eyes, gouge past them–Regardless of whether you are trying to control someone through the use of pressure against his eyes or are actually trying to destroy the eyeball, don’t ever just poke at the eye itself like a little kid. Rather you should try to force your thumb between the eye socket and the eyeball into the skull.

This will cause more pain, more fear and continued, increasing pressure will either destroy the eyeball or pop it out of the skull.

2. Thumb the eyes from the inside–If you were to place your thumb between the eyeball and eye socket on the outside of his eye, near his temple and he were to push your hand away, that would be the end of your thumb gouge.

If you had chosen to gouge the eye between the eye and the nose, on the inside of his face and he were to force your hand to the side, he would have to rake your thumb across the entire surface of his own eyeball, causing pain and damage to himself.

3. Don’t gouge with one hand, keylock around his head or neck–I hate it when I see pictures of inexperienced trainers just grabbing a person’s head and forcing their thumbs into his eyes. If you were to do that, he could easily just push or pull your hands away.

Now imagine holding his head in a sort of headlock, keylocking your arms (a keylock is a way to cross both forearms to control a part of an opponent’s body and simultaneously combine the strength of both arms on a hold) and then thumb gouging his eye. Its hard to explain a keylock in words, but, if an aggressor were to try to push you away from him, a keylock will automatically force your thumb even more forcefully into his eye.

4. Aim your thumb gouges with your palms and fingertips–If you were to try to shoot your thumb directly out into an aggressor’s eye, you would miss much more often than not. Instead, first make contact somewhere on your attacker’s body with the palm of your hand.

As soon as you have made contact with your palm, you should be able to run you hand along his body and find his head, even with your eyes close or in the dark. When your palm is on the side of his head, find his ears with the tips of your fingers, which will bring your thumbs automatically into position to gouge the eyes.

Try it on yourself right now:

Put the palm of your right hand on the right side of your face and touch your right ear with your fingertips.
Now circle your thumb around and it will automatically go between your nose and eyeball, as when using a thumb gouge to get out of a choke from behind.
Put your right palm on the left side of your face, fingertips on your left ear and your thumb automatically goes into position to gouge the eye, like a thumb gouge to someone standing in front of you.

5. Make hooks with your thumbs–As you can imagine, the optimal body weapon for causing pain to and / or damaging the eyes is a small or pointy one. Therefore, you need to be sure that you are always using the tip of your thumb and not the wide and soft pad to apply pressure.

A very simple way to make sure that you do this is to make a hook with your thumb. In other words, curl your thumb in so that contact with your opponents head is only made with your palms and the tip, not the flat pad of your finger. This holds true regardless of whether you are attacking with your thumb or the other fingers.

Christopher “Bob” Roberts is an ex-soldier who relocated to Europe and now earns his living as a tactics and close-combat instructor for military, police and private security companies. He is also a regular contributor to Real Street Fighting Moves and is one of our faculty fighting members and instructors.

What is your opinion of the thumb gouge to the eye? Leave your comment below. Thanks.

Respectfully,

Charles Prosper

Leave a Comment :Christopher "Bob" Roberts, eye gouge, eye jab, first strikes, martial arts, self defense, self protection, street fighting more...

Street Fighting Question of the Day: Do You Believe In Throwing As A Principle of Self Defense? by Christopher “Bob” Roberts

by admin on Jul.20, 2009, under Ground Fighting Moves

Combat Reality-Based Instructor Christopher “Bob” Roberts

Guys, I just wanted to ask what your opinions of throwing in self defense are. By this I don’t mean just what you teach or are taught, rather what your street fighting experience with throws is.

Okay, I’ll start:

The last time that I “threw” someone in a street fight was when I was working as a bouncer in a strip club. The only way that I saw to prevent a fight was to remove the more aggressive guest from the club. I went in from behind (he was a lot stronger than me) gained control of both of his arms and tried to drag him away, then I realized that that wasn’t going to work and I ended up “throwing him to the ground.”

Basically, I just pulled him backwards and tried to turn him and trip him. We both bumped into the bar, tripped over several bar stools and fell to the ground. I made sure to land on top of him and was able to pin him to the ground with pressure against one of his eyes.

It certainly looked a lot less than impressive, but it worked, which was very impressive, considering his size, so I was happy with the result.

I guess what I’m basically trying to say is that I treat throwing and take-downs like ground fighting–if you stumble with a guy, try to land on top, but don’t go out of your way to “throw” someone.

What are your opinions and experiences?

Train smart and watch your back,

Christopher “Bob” Roberts

http://www.extreme-measures-institute.com

2 Comments :Christopher "Bob" Roberts, grappling, ground fighting, martial arts, self defense, self protection, street fighting more...

Street Fighting Technique of the Month – Long Range Thumb Gouge to Eye by Christopher “Bob” Roberts

by admin on Jul.11, 2009, under Street Fighting Technique of the Month

This is an example of a street fighting eye gouge from boxing range.

Merely poking at the eye with an extended thumb or finger is impractical because the target is too small and, should you not hit it perfectly, your attack will have no effect and you may even hurt your own finger.

By preparing your attack by making contact with with the flat surface of your hand, finding the eye with the thumb and then launching a second attack, you can consistently hit the eye even under combat stress and low-light situations.

“Train smart and watch your back.”

Christopher “Bob” Roberts

Has your sensei or sifu ever taught you anything like this?