opponent who just won’t quit. Once you have removed yourself from the danger and are absolutely certain that you are no longer under threat you can safely begin to relax your guard.
It’s very hard to stop someone who is fully committed to combat. You must either knock him unconscious or cause enough physiological damage that he can no longer continue. Most folks, however, give up long before it gets to that point. No matter how much you are tempted to do so, don’t quit. Pain alone should not stop you. Remember Sgt. Young’s confrontation with Neal Beckman? His courage graphically demonstrated that if it hurts you are still alive. Deal with it and press on.
The best way to avoid getting beaten down is not to fight in the first place. If you cannot escape violence, however, you must fight with all your worth. Your goal does not necessarily need to be to win, but it must at least be to not lose. In other words, you don’t need to beat the other guy to a pulp but you do need to escape successfully. That is not going to happen if you give up the struggle. If you stop, there’s no guarantee that he will too.
If you cannot escape or avoid violence, you must be prepared to fight with all your worth. Your goal does not necessarily need to be to win, but it must at least be not to lose. You cannot afford to give up. Never forget that if it hurts, you are still alive. If you stop, however, there’s no guarantee that he will too. You cannot count on honor, ethics, or mercy from an adversary. Keep fighting until you can safely get away.
Six Techniques You Can Use in a Fight
If in training soldiers commands are habitually enforced, the army will be well disciplined; if not, its discipline will be bad.
In single combat, we can confuse the enemy by attacking with varied techniques when the chance arises. Feint a thrust or cut, or make the enemy think you are going to close with him, and when he is confused you can easily win. This is the essence of fighting, and you must research it deeply.
If you are thinking “fight” and the other guy is thinking “combat” you are in for a world of hurt.
You don’t need to be a master martial artist, professional boxer, or seasoned combat veteran to survive a street fight. It helps, of course, but it’s not a requirement. You do, however, need to have a few solid techniques you can draw upon, stuff you can pull off when you’re surging with adrenaline, scared witless, and really need to stop or deflect the other guy so that you can escape to safety. So, how do you know what’s going to work and what’s going to fail in a real-life violent conflict? Well, you can never know for sure, since much depends upon your adversary. There are three important, yet very simple rules when it comes to self-defense that you can use as a guideline:[26]
1. Don’t get hit
2. Stop him from continuing to attack you
3. Always have a Plan B
The first rule we’ve already described to you. “Don’t get hit” is always sound advice. Previously we’ve discussed this rule from the context of awareness, avoidance, and de-escalation, but it’s true for fighting techniques as well. If whatever you do doesn’t keep you from getting hit, the rest simply doesn’t matter all that much. Once you’ve been hurt by the other guy, it gets progressively tougher and tougher to fight back. Consequently, you need to block, deflect, or evade his attack before you can do anything else. Sometimes that’s done by preemptively striking him first, though more often than not it’s by some sort of defensive movement. Not ideal, just reality…
The second rule, “Stop him from continuing to attack,” is just as important. You can block, deflect, or evade all you like but that won’t end the fight. You need to perform a technique or combination of movements that incapacitate the other guy outright, persuade him to leave you alone and break off his attack, and/or facilitate your escape. The goal is to ensure that he can no longer hurt you. The faster you can do that the better; conversely, the longer the fight the more likely you are to get hurt.
A solid blow or two to a vital area, a part of the body that will break relatively easily, can end a fight very quickly whereas blows to non-vital areas will have minimal effect. Consequently, it’s important to know where to aim. Appendix D lists the vital areas that you may want to target during a fight. Some may be struck (for example, punch or kick) while other targets must be manipulated (for example, joint lock).
Winston Churchill wrote, “No matter how enmeshed a commander becomes in his plans, it is occasionally necessary to take the enemy into consideration.” In other words, no matter how crafty you are, whatever you try is not necessarily going to work. The other guy is trying his damnedest to pound your face in, pulling out every dirty trick he can think of in an effort to mess you up. It’s prudent to have a Plan B, some alternative you can move to without missing a beat when things go awry. Whatever you attempt may knock him on his ass straight away, of course, but oftentimes it just doesn’t work out that way. When things go wrong, there’s no time to stop and think in the heat of battle.
It’s intuitively obvious that if you can pummel the other guy into submission that you will win the fight, but that’s not your only option in a battle. If the other guy can’t get close enough to reach you in the first place, he will not be able to strike. Consequently controlling distance is important. It’s very tough to fight if he can’t see, so the eyes may be a viable target, at least in life-or-death encounters. If he is on the ground when you’re still standing, you have a much better chance of getting away. Of course, you can always hit him… a lot. To this end, we suggest six things that you may wish to try in a fight.
• Don’t let him get close enough to touch you.
• Throw debris to distract or injure him.
• Attack his eyes.
• Use neck cranks or chokes to put him down.
• Throw him to the ground with force.
• Strike with impetus.
You’ve probably noticed that, with the exception of controlling distance, these are offensive techniques rather than defensive ones. While it’s important to be able to block or deflect the other guy’s attack, it’s even more important to take him out of the fight as quickly as possible. Our goal here is not to turn you into the ultimate street fighter, but rather to give you a few options that you might be able to pull off without a whole lot of practice. If you really want to get good at the physical aspects of fighting, however, you are going to need to find a martial arts school and sign up for hands-on instruction.
Don’t let him get close enough to touch you
Distance is crucial in a fight. If you are too far away, he can’t strike you. If you are too close, the range limits the available weapons your attacker and you can use to fight each other with. Distance plays out this way: Combat begins at about ten or more feet from you. Positioning is initiated, openings are looked for, reactions, and responses are judged. This entire process may take as little as 1/10,000 of a second, as that is how long it takes for the brain to process information. Or it could take the better part of an evening as you see with the prolonged interview process.
Letting somebody get close to you is an invitation for a fight. Think of it this way: The two of you have had a
