Fighting in the 'Real' World

One of the reasons why the practising of martial arts is such a popular pastime is because it is so dynamic. Nothing is really the same. There are infinite possibilities. And the levels of personal abilities are endless.

There are millions of different named martial arts, and there are literally hundreds of millions of martial arts practitioners, and it is for this reason that there are many misconceptions about the martial arts of old and new. In this article it is my intention not to correct the wrongs or pamper the rights, but too try and give my honest opinions based on my experiences in the past as a martial artist and to help open peoples minds to some of the aspects of fighting for real and correct misconceptions that they themselves may wholeheartedly accept as right or normal.

: - So you have just spent the evening at the dojo and you've had a few good rounds with the lads in the ring. You have come off pretty well and are proud that you have gone the distance. You have not been put down. After a hot shower and a Mars bar you are on your way home, while waiting at the empty train station three rowdy lads push past you on their way to the end of the platform, you decide to say nothing just to let it go.

When the train arrives you get on and take a seat. After a few minutes the interconnecting carriage door at the end of the empty train swings open and in stumble the three lads being noisy and scribbling their names on the windows with a marker pen. But not to worry they are at the end of the carriage, and you tell yourself that if it kicks off you can handle it. You've been fighting for years in the gym and could take out these in no time.

After a few minutes of scanning them with intimidating eyes that say "don't mess with me or else" you suddenly feel a small surge of energy through your body as one of the youths catches your eye and looks up at you. You turn away, pretending to just be looking around and then look back thinking I can take these lads, If they want a piece of me bring it on. Once they see I am not afraid they change their tone.

You hear them chatting as they walk up the train towards you. The surge of energy you just felt rushing through your body was an adrenal release stronger than any in the gym, and you feel like your stomach has butterflies.Your eyes have tunnel vision.

Suddenly the lads are upon you and as you look up at the one in front they ask you what your problem is, as you come to your feet and reply 'nothing' in a stuttery voice that you cannot help, you get a push in the chest from the one doing all the talking.

As you try to move back to put some distance in between you and them you freeze, you can't move, your knees shake and out of you mouth comes 'sod off, leave me alone'. The lads laugh and start to move away to the end of the train. At this you think you have intimidated them and you say aloud, "Yeah, walk away!".

The guy doing all the talking turns around and walks back up to you. You expect more chat but instead he hits you in the face and you fall down. Surprised at this you stumble to your feet to be greeted by the lad and his mates. One of them has a knife in his hand. You instinctively take up a stance and as the lad that just hit you swings again from close range you move you arm to block it but this does not work, the strike lands and the last thing you remember is the sound of boots scuffing on the floor and extreme pain in the ribs as you lay in a ball on the ground.

It turns out that you have been severely beaten by the three lads and hospitalised. A cleaner found you at the end of the line and called 999. You have 5 broken ribs have a collapsed lung and your face will need reconstructive surgery after several hard kicks, which have broken your cheeks, your nose and your jaw in two places.

Readers, I would like to introduce you all to a real life situation that most of you only read about in the papers.

This is an extreme case, I know. But I live in East London and this sort of thing happens to people I know often, albeit not this extreme.

In fact this very story is one that my friend Alex Howard experienced for himself 7 months before writing this. He and I have discussed the events often and that has led me to write this article with his permission.

Now let me tell you about Alex. Alex stands at about 6"2 and weighs in at around 16 stone. He is in good shape, and like myself has a passion for the arts. If I have to put money on a fighter in the ring and Alex was on the cards my money would be on him. Aside from his physical abilities Alex is the nicest bloke you could wish to meet, a real character who enjoys a laugh.

When I say that like myself Alex has a love for the arts that does not necessarily mean that they are the same arts. Alex has spent 12 years practising oriental martial arts of various styles namely Karate and Kung Fu. And I don't mean just turning up at the gym once a week for two hours and going through Kata. I mean living the life four nights a week, sticking to an exercise plan that developed his body into what people would call a fighters body. Broad shoulders muscularly developed and a built up resistance to pain.

But he and I agree, that's as far as it goes for him. It stops at the gym. The street, the pub, the real world doesn't have rules. It's a different way, a way hard to understand unless you have been exposed to it for some time.

I study Historical European martial arts, namely Fiore. This art is designed for battle, the tourney, the duel (judicial or otherwise) and for other matters, including self defense. I did once have a footing in the oriental arts. I was a Shotokan Competition fighter for 5 years.

I know that we can all argue about the real origin of many oriental martial arts and that many of them were developed in the early 20 century as a money making scheme.

But nobody can argue with the origin of many historical European martial arts. Fiore, Silver, Talhoffer, Meyer and so on. These systems are meant to preserve ones life in a confrontation be it on a crowded street, duelling or on the battlefield.

I have learnt systems such as Fiore not as pretty arts where I can go through Kata and perform technique wonderfully, although this is one aspect of the training. However, I have also learnt these systems to fight with them. I don't mean to go out into the street and beat people up, no! I mean that I have learnt the system as it was meant to be learnt for real life application, as a system where I can fight a fight using the principles and methods hidden in the techniques on the pages.

And at present that is the way that The Exiles as a group learn Fiore, and not just techniques but also the whole systematic approach with the basic knowledge that Fiore didn't show, the possibilities that were too unimportant to show in manuscripts of his very best techniques, perhaps because of the costs of putting them in or maybe due to the assumption that his target audience would have already known this information. The fact that Fiores teachings were to people who already should know the basics or simply that fact that to describe everything his pictures show would have taken a lot longer to explain.

So what's my point? Well my point is that I have been exposed to systems that if you look at closely can enable you to have a much better idea of fighting for real as well as the experience you get from my background. These realistic ways are not at first obvious, one has to look at them with a trained eye.

Alex fights to rules, even with my background in ring and rules fighting with a loss rate of only about 10% I could not stand up to Alex in the ring and expect to win without a good brawl. But take Alex out of the ring, take away the rules and now your money should be on me.

Alex and I have conferred and I have decided to put down some of the major similarities and differences between ring and street.

Initial Engagements

When getting into a hostile or violent situation be it for real of for a spar in your dojo you must be clear in your mind about what you want to accomplish.

Are you fighting for your life or are you fighting for points, do you really want to fight and do you have a choice.

First of all, have you exhausted all the possible means to avert a fight?

Think of the consequences of your actions before you make a decision, don't just steam in with all guns blazing, you may be lucky once but you could be unlucky another time.

Many books and articles do say that you never think of consequences, as this will make you fear and doubt yourself. These publishing's are more for bouncers, people interested in fighting psychology and biographies of fighters of old such as Roy Shaw and the late, great Lenny McLean.

These publishing's however are more to deal with fighting as a way of life or as a necessity. In Geoff Thompson's book 'Watch my back' in which the life story of a hard and experienced bouncer is told, he writes of how he does think of his fears and consequences and he faces them. I take his view on this matter, I think that one must think and consider the repercussions of their actions. Think of your fears and the consequences of your actions but do not let them get to you too much.

If you are at the point of thinking of your fears then you will most likely be awaiting a fight. Whether someone has said that they're going to do you or you have had a clash with someone and you think a fight is inevitable. If you are awaiting a fight then you will be experiencing the worst type of adrenal release.

Adrenalin is a chemical released from the adrenal gland when a human being is scared or worried, adrenaline can also be triggered artificially by moments of excitement and joy. Adrenalin is a chemical response that has been present in humans forever. It is true to say that of the animal kingdom the Neanderthal (human) species has no natural defences at all. I also take this to be true. We don't have large teeth, a sting on our tail or poison on our skin. All we have is a large complex brain and adrenalin.

In the times when man was not so sophisticated and we had to live amongst bigger more powerful animals, we needed some sort of edge to improve our strange bi-pedal way of running as well as our ways of fighting for our lives. This is called fight or flight, and it is for this reason that adrenaline exists. At it's strongest adrenaline increases the heart and breathing rate of humans it increases strength, stamina and deadens the nerves that feel pain.

When the body detects this release of adrenaline it prepares for either running or fighting. The blood in your body is routed to major muscles, your senses heightened, a person will have better hearing, awareness of surroundings and vision, although it will be tunnel vision and the only thing you focus on is the aggressor or where you are planning on or indeed are running to.

Adrenaline has been described by many to the stir the most powerful feelings in the human body. However it does more physiologically than physically, it makes you doubt and fear, trying to make you run instead of fight, many fighters have learnt to recognise the feelings of adrenaline and except them to be normal. They have also learnt to use these fears to with physical ability to their advantage.

When you're expecting a fight you are having a slow release of adrenaline into your blood. This is the worst type of release; it makes you fear, you will question yourself and your abilities beyond measure, you may have along time before the engagement to think and question yourself. You have to face these feelings; they will never go away no matter how many fights you have had you will always fear before a major engagement. You have to tell yourself not to doubt.

Boxers have a slow realise of adrenalin days sometimes before a fight this can make them fear, doubt they can win, this can be dangerous.

Alex has adrenal releases long before a scheduled fight in the ring. In the training before hand he is thinking about his opponent. In the few hours before the actual fight he begins to doubt himself, he feels like he isn't prepared, he hasn't worked hard enough, he thinks about the embarrassment of a loss and the hard work the will have been wasted.

I have small releases of adrenaline long before a seminar or display. I show signs of this by being nervous and exited; I get butterflies and feel terribly sick usually, most of my breakfast is down the toilet 5 minutes before I go on. And as my dad will tell you I begin to doubt my abilities. Even well rehearsed techniques that I teach week in week out I want to scrap from the display because I feel like I cant do them or I will mess up.

Again what is my point? Why all this talk of adrenaline?

Well that is another difference between the ring and the street. In the street you rarely have a long slow release of adrenaline, unless you have been threatened and you know that a fight is to come. Most of the time a fight in the street or on the door comes without warning.

'Oi mate what the hell are you looking at?'

If you are suddenly threatened without warning your body will release massive amount of adrenaline this is termed by martial artists as an adrenal dump. And it has the affects stated earlier. Increased heart rate, blood sent to major muscles desensitised to pain etc.

This type of release can go two ways; you can either fight or back down. It usually depends on where you are and who your facing.

I used to know someone who was all the mouth, he was a bully. One day he pushed a kid and the kid turned around and pushed him back, the bully was shocked and as he went to hit the kid, the kids the response to adrenal dump was to kick out with arms and legs until the bully had gone down. This kid was no fighter at all, he was as placid as a Nun but things were out of his control. This is an example of fighting rather than backing down.

Another time I was getting some chips from the chip shop when in walked this bloke and pushed in front of me, he was slightly drunk and messing about with his mates I reckon he was about 22 years old. I let the fact that he pushed in go, and when he got his chips and the girl behind the counter gave him back his change he yelled at her, "I gave you a 20 love, where's the rest of my change?" An argument ensued and the girl was really upset so I intervened.

I can't remember the chitchat but he became really violent. I read the situation well and I knew he would bottle it if he raised the violence back so I went right up to his face and said 'if you want a ruck lets take this outside' I made sure that I sounded really aggressive and that I spat on his face with each word I said as if the emphasize my masculinity. At this point he went all quiet and said in a shaky voice, "What! There's no need for that mate". He had bottled it and his butt hole was chewing at his undies.

This is an example of backing down; adrenaline can affect people in very different ways. Those people who incorporate fear control into there training or who face it day to day will learn how to use adrenaline to great advantages.

Enough about that.

Distance

When I was telling of Alex's ordeal I mentioned that he tried to block the second strike but failed. This leads nicely on to my next point.

With the ring systems Alex has done he is able to block strikes that come into him. This is partly because of the controlled nature of ring system training, and partly because when you train in a certain system and you go up against someone else from that system you can recognise things such as positions to be in before and strike is made and so on. So in essence you can anticipate a strike before it is made.

When fighting out of the ring and things break down strikes can no longer be anticipated, a fight is much less predictable. So on this front I have to agree with Jamie O'Keefe in saying that blocks don't work in a real fight. But I only agree to a point.

Blocks are possible in the more realistic systems I have done such as Fiore (my primary system for unarmed) where it is entirely possible to block. Why? Well because the Posta (stances) taken up and fought from force the person to step in with strikes should the want to hit you.

Let me make this clearer, with Fiore you position yourself at more than arms length away from your opponent in a guard to fight from. When it kicks off your opponent not only has to make a strike but also now has to step in with it to hit you. This for reasons to extensive to mention (less I write a whole book) puts your opponent to disadvantage. I believe that Geoff Thompson calls this his fence, where he tries to keep his opponent at arms length to make things easier for him. Blocks are also possible when in distance but you have to be smart. A defensive fighter will always loose to an aggressive fighter unless they are smart about defence and counter strike.

Sometimes there is no room to be at more than arms length. At this point I would encourage either a pre-emptive strike or grappling.

Pre-emptive Strike

In England the law of the land states that if you are in fear for your own personal safety then you can strike at your opponent with enough force to defend yourself. I am not talking about mouthing off to someone and it turning sour so you hit them. I am talking about them bringing a confrontation to you. For example Alex could have by law struck out at his assailants before they hit him because they were intimidating and physically threatening him.

There are many ways to pre-emptively strike at an opponent these can range from an eye scratch to a full on strike but remember that it is only supposed to be reasonable enough to stop an attack. You can't jump up and down on them while there unconscious or nothing like that. And remember that what you do may have to stand up in a court of law so make sure you're in the right by not provoking the confrontation.

Grappling

Grappling is a massively underestimated part of fighting. There are many systems that show grappling but it is little understood by many. The unarmed aspects of Fiores system show grappling for matters of life and death. Grappling is very difficult to perfect as a skill because most systems do not include enough information to get things right.

With experience in systems including Fiore and real life encounters I can agree with many that grappling is very brutal indeed. Much the same way with all fights really. If you have a good understanding of grappling then you can use the advantages of being close well. Head butts, biting, scratching are all part of proper grappling when one is fighting for real.

With the Exiles I teach grappling and never deviate too far from the fact that it is very brutal and messy. Grappling is the best way to fight if you have no space to fist fight. But try to avoid the floor because you don't know what's there or how many friends your opponent has.

Grappling is not like what people see on T.V with programs like WWF, where acrobatics take the place of realism. I can promise you that even with the expertise of the choreographed fighters of organisations like WWF and WCW are absolutely no match for a practitioner of real grappling. The confrontation would last seconds. It is much different to the ideas of many. And a far cry away from the likes of Jackie Chan, where arms are used to hurl people 10 feet across a room and so on. In most grappling you are trying to break and dislocate arms and legs, wrench necks, break collar bones and throw your opponent to the ground in such a way that ideally they wont get back up.

I once sparred with a man who practices Russian military martial arts he did some basic grappling and moved like has was in slow motion, big tall man he was. His technique was fantastic and he had me in a right mess. The only trouble was he neglected the striking aspect of fighting and had we not been wearing gloves he agrees he would have though twice about coming in close like he did.

In the Exiles and with private training I know a man called Steve. Steve approaches grappling like I do, just more effectively. Steve's fight is very animalistic to the untrained eye. He makes as many strikes as possible with any part of the body, a knee then a punch to the head then a bit closer to the head butt and after the butt the bite while more strikes come in, then on to grappling with the body itself perhaps, if the opponent has not gone down. These sound easy; anyone can make 5 strikes while closing in? Well, no they can't actually, not unless they want to get hit themselves. Steve's strikes are carefully executed with an objective and are not just random strikes.

Me, I like to get in and work close, but whether I choose to close or not would depend on my opponent. I like to tie people up and put in strikes to vulnerable places. But I also, like to strike and pre- emptivly attack aswell. Here is a short list of possible opponents I can think of (a bit far out but you get the point) and most likely what I would do given their abilities and their build what would you do? These are very general.

Situational Awareness and Attitude

I don't want to turn this into a lecture about self-defence, but it is really important to be smart about the situations you put yourself in. So far I have talked about actually fighting but what about actually not fighting? What about walking away, stopping the bravado, swallowing pride, saving face, who cares? You only have one life.

Walking away is possible if you are smart about your well-being. Don't put yourself into situations where you can't walk away unless you can't help it i.e. you are mugged.

Most of what you will learn about in self-defence should really be situational awareness. Most of it is commonsense; don't walk alone through an alley full of crack heads, don't walk around counting the money in your wallet and so on.

What about the things you don't realise? Maybe your like me and walk around with your head down through tiredness because of a long day of work. People can sometimes take this for weakness and I have had many an opportunistic show-off try to start with me because of this. Or perhaps you walk around with a frown all of the time as that is just the way your face is shaped?

One day a friend asked me why I look at people with such hatred and I was shocked, I realised that I have this way of looking at people sometimes with a look of pure anger. This is by no means intentional I can assure you. What I am trying to say is that perhaps you have the same problem or others you do not realise.

You can sometimes come across people that want to pick a fight with you no matter what. They see you as a target and are coming at you with both barrels. It seems nowadays there are more and more violent people around, people who will give a dirty stare to anyone for a reaction. I hate these people, and if your one of them come and see Mark Berryman at Abbey Sports Centre in Barking between 10 and 12 on Saturdays and I'll show you where being an intimidating bullying mind gets you.

Seriously though there are a lot of aggressive people out there and to me it seems that it is on the increase. So be smart about your situation, location and attitude and you should be better off.

Most of the people reading this will be martial artists, probably historical European martial artists but that's of no consequence. I will say that just because you have done martial arts it doesn't make one invincible. With my exposure to a lot of martial artists one thing strikes my more than any other. The fact that most of them are cocky and full of themselves, I would just like to say that the smarter people out here can see right through you. Forgive me if you please for sounding aggressive but I firmly believe that the world needs no more egos causing trouble.

Particularly from those who in theory are capable of much more than those who choose not to dedicate their lives to the arts. By all means be proud of your status as a martial artist who may have spent years of dedication to an art or arts. Everyone who matters can see that you know your stuff without you having an ego trip. You're probably much nicer without it. And for the people who know little but pretend to know lots I say this; the proof is in the pudding.

The last piece of advice I have to offer is one that myself and Alex agree on more than anything else and its being realistic. Alex thought he was safer than most because of his experience in the gym. But that got him nowhere. It's different world in reality, and I can assure you that martial arts can only take things so far, and while you may think you have a firm idea about how to look after yourself on the street you probably don't. And it is as simple as that. To gain a better appreciation of real fighting I would suggest the following authors and titles:

Biographies of the above and the following: