How many times have you stood on the mat in your dojo and waited for your training partner to grab your wrist?
Whether you knew it or not, you were devleloping a habit that could cost you your life. Not only does training to wait teach your brain and body that it's OK to allow people to enter your personal space, but it also contradicts rule No. 1 of street fighting, which dictates that if you don't take action before your assailant strikes, it's probably too late.
One of the reasons the wait-until-he-hits-first strategy doesn't work has to do with the nature of criminal attacks. The types of aggression martial artists often view as their trigger to launch a full-fledged counter-attack - the wrist grab, the collar seizure and so on - are merely preludes to the actual assault. That assault is likely to be a knockout punch, a vicious head butt or a pick-you-up-and-slam-you-to-the-pavement combination. In between, you might have to deal with a virtually unstoppable barrage of hand strikes or an attempt to stab or grab you. No matter how the aggression unfolds, if you've trained to wait for the attack and focus on countering the initial grab or hold, the fight is over. And you're dead.
The remarkable thing about martial artists is, most of you are already aware of that. You just haven't thought about it in the context of reality-based fighting. When you spar or engage in randori you're very cognizant of distance. You know that if you let your opponent get too close, you'll get thrown. So why change what you already know when you're practising self-defence?
To transform your martial arts training into a more effective form of defence, you need only to combine the techniques and tactics you've always practiced with the following five elements:
Make your reaction to an attack convulsive, immediate and instinctive. If you have to think about it for even a second, it's too late.
Ensure that your techniques cause maximum damage to your attacker while causing minimal injury to yourself. You should also strive to reduce the degree to which your movements even expose you to attack.
Be aware of position and distance. Where your assailant is in relation to you is the only thing that should influence your defensive options.
Always assume that your assailant is armed, intends to kill you and has friends.
Source -: Blackbelt magazine
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