The last ten years of martial arts have seen more growth and progress than the previous fifty, because of the insurgance of the many no holds barred tournaments occuring worldwide. My respect and admiration for these warriors goes beyond words. They are among the toughest, most well conditioned athletes on the planet. We see the quality of fighters improving each year. These fighters are becoming more complete every day. Punchers and kickers are learning to grapple and grapplers are slowly learning to punch and kick. Being well roundede and multi dimensional are no longer just trendyideas, but downright necessities.
Although they may not realize it, these fighters are truly harvesting the seeds that were planted by Bruce Lee and dan inosanto in the 1970's. All one has to do is pick up The Tao Of Jeet Kune Do, and it becomes obvious that the principles and concepts the two discovered are being implemented to a T.
Unfortunately many people are confusing NHB tournaments with streetfights. When a fighter enters a NHB competition, there is an element of control over many aspects of the fight. A competitor is given several months to train and get into the best possible shape. Converseley, in the street, one is forced to confront violence with absolutely no control over where, when, how, or why the fight will ensue. Some of this confusion between tournaments and streetfights is a problem of semantics regaring the true definition of a "streetfight". For the sake of clarity, let us use the anology of a maximum security prision. Imagine the myriad possible violent encounters that could take place behind those walls (eg, mass attacks (two on one or three on one), knife fights, ambushes, makeshift weapons of every possible size and configuration, biting, eye goughing or just plain mayhem.
Complicating matters further is that many of these scenarios usually end up mutating. Now things become exponentially more difficult. By mutating, I mean changing from one scenario to another within the same fight. For example, the altercation may start of one on one standing up then go to the ground. If another individual jumps in we have a two on one fight. Then perhaps two more people enter the equation, giving us a three on two situation. At this point someone might grab a pipe, now this has turned into a weapons fight. In retaliation, someone else may grab a blade. Now the scenario has changed to a knife fight. These mutations could be potetially endless. The first thing that comes to mind when talking about being a streetfighter is that one must be highly skilled not only in stand up and ground fighting, but also with mass-attack scenarios and with all types of weapons - sticks, knives, etc. (According to law enforcement statistics, eight out of ten streetfights involve weapons!).
The next attribute in our quest to become a complete streetfighter is keeping a cool head while these mutations occur. Controling ones emotions is one of the most essential aspects of a fight. There are moments in the midst of battle where one must "turn on" his killer instinct. There are other moments when controlling the emotions means relaxing and breathing. This is when you are in the moment I like to call the fog of war. If one is not highly trained in all areas of combat (i.e, stick, knife,stand up, ground), and ascenario occurs you have never experienced, panic occurs and controlling your emotions is impossible.
Most people in martial arts are too specialized in their "way" of fighting. For example, if a persons way is stickfighting and he loses his stick, he would certainly be in trouble. If a persons way is "kickboxing" and he ends up on the ground he would also be in trouble. If a persons "way" is groundfighting and he has to fight more than one person, he also would be in trouble. This is why Bruce Lee espoused the rather esoteric axiom of using "no way as way".
Some schools out there are "electric" in that they train in many of the aforementioned areas. However, the problem is that they have a tendancy to simply compartmentalize these areas. They have a 4pm stick class, a 5pm kickboxing class, a6pm groundfighting class and so on. This sort of training does not promote flowing and adapting to the various possible mutations of a streetfight. in boxing, this would be akin to having a 4pm jab class, 5pm cross class, and a 6pm hook class. Its not in itself a bad thing but providing you follow guro Dan Inosanto methodology , have one class at your school that combines everything. Guru Dan always taught taht you will train the way you fight and fight the way you train.
Source -: Anatomy of a streetfight P.Vunak
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