Real Street Fighting Moves

I’ve been an instructor for many years now and have worked as a bouncer and in security. I’ve had my fair share of “fights” and had a few hair raising experiences. As such, I try to bring what I have learned in the real world, into the class room. Because of this, from time to time I hear and sometimes have to use the word “fight” and every time I do, it gives me the heebie-jeebies.

So What’s Wrong with the Word Fight?

First, words are not just a term that has a definition. Words are tied to experiences, culture, and invokes an image in one’s mind. You will hear the word “fight” used to describe a Boxing match, MMA, 2 guys in a parking lot circling each other exchanging blows, a sparring match, a woman fighting off a rapist. Do you start seeing the ambiguity yet?

So if I tell a student that I am teaching them how to “fight”, the image in their mind may be of themselves stepping back into a fighting stance, making a waasaa sound, and bouncing around like Bruce Lee when he fought Chuck Norris in Return of the Dragon.

For real world practical self defense, “fight” just may not fit the proper mindset. Why? Well you don’t want to get into a “fight”. Let the other guy do that. You want to end it!

Isn’t this just Semantics?

As I said, words are tied to a mental image. Those of us that have been in the martial arts for a while know how important proper visualization and mindset is. The inexact science of Psychology has had many experiments on the connection between the mind and the body. In the ones that I have read about, there is very little difference between the 2.

So here is what it comes down to. If there is very little difference with the mind and the body, then training one way, while your mindset may be in a different place, will create confusion when you need your training to help you survive a threat. This confusion can mean disaster.

What should our Mindset be?

During training and a real world threat, your mind set should be to; “Do what you need to do to end the threat quickly, no more, no less”. Don’t fight, don’t spar, don’t play around, and don’t worry about anything else! Remove the threat and get out. End it.

Anyways, I hope this article is of some use. Just as a note, this article only covers a small part of a bigger whole. I does not cover proper self defense training and visualization techniques one may use.

Guest author – Instrucor Zoran Sevic  (Chicago, Illinois)

What’s your take on this post? Leave you comment or question.

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I have just watched what is undoubtedly the ABSOLUTE worst example of a fight ever.

Okay,  so the one kid gets knocked out….big deal. One idiot knocks an even bigger idiot to the ground. Two morons doing battle, they are lucky to have fought each other, because had either if them faced someone with even a modicum of fighting ability, they would be spitting out teeth…or worse!

I will give my commentary of the mistakes I have seen in this pathetic display (for easy identification, I will call them by the color of their shirts):

1: First and foremost, too much “strutting” and trash talking. In a real situation, as soon as someone enters your space with malicious intent, you strike first and immediately to a vital target (eyes/throat/bridge of the nose). Talking trash does not win a fight or make you a “bad ass”

2: Red goes into that ridiculous kung fu stance, then….he begins to enter in on his opponent with that “walk”. His movement was so baldly telegraphed it hurt me to watch it…..and again that walk….pardon my crudeness, but was he shaking a turd down his pant leg.  If he indeed is a martial artist, why give that secret away by assuming a stance, what ever happened to the element of surprise!

3: Red , even though he seems to want to be the one moving in on black, he keeps looking back over his shoulder. NEVER take your eyes off of your opponent, it takes just a split second for a weapon to be pulled and used!

4: Black seems more concerned with tying his shoes and fixing his pants. Why wear clothing that is so over-sized and ill-fitting that you can not properly defend yourself while wearing it? Your clothing should fit so that should you need to fight, your not tripping over your own shoelaces.

5: Notice that black on a few occasions reaches behind his back. Why is red allowing this to happen? CONTROL THE SITUATION. Do not allow your opponent to reach into their pockets or behind their back. What are they reaching for? You never know. By this point the situation has gone on way too long. A fight needs to end in a matter of seconds. CONTROL IT!

6: Red and black allow themselves to be surrounded by a crowd of spectators. BAD IDEA! If either had even a mildly erudite understanding of street fighting they would never allow this to happen. Subtle positioning should be used to constantly stay to the outside of the crowd at all times. Being surrounded makes it near impossible for you to escape or move when needed.

What if the crowd will not let you out of the “circle” Your screwed! You don’t know how many friends your adversary may have in that crown who may join in and beat you to death!

7: Notice that even after all of that fancy dancing and kung fu walking, the fight degrades immediately into a wild swinging melee. Lucky punch coupled with a glass jaw!  Nothing special was done.

8: Why do they insist on going toe to toe and squaring off. Had red any REAL fight training he would know that is the worst choice you can make as far as positioning yourself in a fight on the street.

This fight went on too long, too much talking and too many potentially FATAL tactical mistakes.

If you want to learn how to fight, study this clip…then do the opposite!

Thanks for reading
As always Be Safe & KEEP IT REAL!

David D’Antonio
C.U.T.S. Critical Urban Tactical Strategies

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This is an analysis of what happened in this video by one of our fighting faculty members, Master David D’Antonio.  Here is what Master D’Antonio has to say:

The “karate man” is using a knife hand strike on an upward angle into the mandibular angle target. This causes three very distinct reactions in the person being struck:

1:  BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA TO THE SIDE OF THE HEAD IS MUCH MORE LIKEY TO CAUSE A TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY IF THE HEAD MOVES LATERALLY FROM SIDE TO SIDE AS OPPOSED TO FORWARDS AND BACKWARDS. (There is also the very real danger of one or more types of fracture to include: spiral fractures; avulsion, in transverse fractures; bending, in short oblique fractures)

2:  Immediate shut down of the carotid artery. Compression of the carotid causes a stoppage of blood flow hence a loss of consciousness. Carotid artery injuries caused by blunt trauma often cause thrombosis ( which is the formation of a blood clot  inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system) and delayed neurological deficits, and are associated with mortality rates of up to 40%

3:  A whiplash effect which causes disorientation and shock to the brain.

Notice that our karate man in the video does two very important things here which sealed the deal on the success of his technique:

1:  He struck first and without warning.

2:  He did not take any “stance” whatsoever to indicate either his intention to strike or to show he was a martial artist.

I also want to point out that our “karate man” never once takes his eyes off of his adversary, even when he is making an effort to walk away before the actual physical altercation, he looks over his shoulder keeping his eye on his opponent.

When his opponent gets in his face, our karate man uses angling to set up his strike, thus moving him out of the range of any reactionary counter from his opponent. Moving on an angle and to the OUTSIDE of his target provides him a tactical advantage.

This RBF expert definitely knew how to “keep it real”.

David D’Antonio