It was going to be a great night. Motorhead was in town and Wilder and his buddy James were going to the show. Of course, nobody expects a kindergarten game of hop-scotch at a heavy metal concert, but this was going to be different. You see the club that was hosting the band opened the bar at 7:00 P.M., yet Motorhead wouldn’t take the stage until about 11:00. You do the math; that’s a lot of drinking time. Oh, and to add to it, several bars were just across the street and down the block.
By the time the band started to play, the booze-fueled crowd was ready. There was slam dancing, puking, and so many ejections from the show that Wilder lost count. A flicked cigarette landed on Lemmy’s (the bass player and singer) set list and it caught on fire, the equipment was not sounding right, and the band left the stage until everything could be fixed. As you might expect, this interruption in the middle of the show added the proverbial fuel to the fire. By the time things got going again, the crowd was in a very rowdy mood.
The bartenders handed out Ziploc baggies of ice to bruised patrons. Down front against the rail was sheer combat, as Wilder quickly found out. The guy behind him suddenly decided that Wilder had his space and was ready to fight to get it back. Wilder, in turn, was not keen on giving up the spot. Nudges turned to pushes, to shoves, to blows. Wilder was sober, heavier, and had some martial arts skills. The other guy was drunk, stupid, and felt no pain. Sort of an even match in an odd way… Ultimately, however, Wilder was able to put enough hurt on the other guy to make him back down. He didn’t crush him because he wanted to watch the show rather than go to jail, yet he did make the other guy stop trying to fight and disappear back into the crowd.
At the end of the show, Wilder was confident that the pushy guy would be back, however, most likely with friends. Moving through the crowd at the end of the show would place him at risk, since he didn’t know what the other guy’s friends looked like. He didn’t like the idea of being exposed on all sides, so Wilder turned and put his back to the stage, leaning against the rail. He now only had to sweep 180 degrees to spot any potential danger, not try to look across a full 360.
As the crowd dwindled, a young guy broke from the throng and started toward Wilder. Wilder watched him warily and adjusted his stance. The younger guy stopped, held up his hands, and said, “Thanks man, that guy was an asshole. He was hitting everybody.”
“Oh, okay,” Wilder replied, “You seen him around?”
“No I think he left,” the kid said.
Assuming that would be a good time to leave, Wilder moved deliberately and swiftly through the residual crowd, heading for the door, up the stairs, and out to the street. Two separate fights were going on when he got outside. These altercations attracted a lot of attention as the bouncers dragged combatants apart and told them to get off their sidewalk.
Moving away from the fights, Wilder placed his back against the brick building near the band’s tour bus and waited for his buddy James to show up. The bus screened him from the street while the wall protected his back. Luckily, the pushy guy never showed up. Either he’d forgotten all about the confrontation, was scared off by Wilder’s preparedness, or lost track of his intended victim. Consequently, instead of having to fight as Wilder had feared, he got to meet Phil Campbell, the band’s guitarist instead. Campbell had to take his arm down from around one of the blonde groupies in order to shake Wilder’s hand, but that’s not really the point.
The point is that nothing bad happened as a result of the altercation because Wilder protected his back. Don’t let anybody get behind you if you can help it. That’s not entirely possible in a crowd, however, so in such settings you need to keep your awareness level high.
One of the best tactics you can use during a fight is to get behind your adversary. Humans are really good at perceiving and responding to danger that is in front of them. With a bit of training, we can become pretty good at defending against attacks from either side, yet we are really lousy at dealing with dangers coming from directly behind. If you are behind the other guy or tucked a bit to the side in behind his shoulder, it’s very hard for him to reach you, yet you can strike with impunity, delivering one or two solid blows before he can reposition himself to respond effectively.
In part, this is because humans cannot see directly behind themselves without adjusting to face the threat. It’s nearly impossible to block an attack from behind you either. Dodging is often the best option. Further, there are only a limited number of counterattacks that you can launch to the rear, stuff like back kicks, and reverse elbow strikes, and reverse head butts. It’s even tougher if someone manages to tuck himself behind your shoulder where your only option is an elbow strike.
Consequently, if you’re behind the other guy you’re very well positioned to strike and/or escape. Conversely, if he’s behind you, you’re in a lot of trouble. Don’t let the other guy get behind you in a fight. It’s a losing proposition.
Fighting is Not a Democratic Process
All warfare is based on deception.
Always chase the enemy into bad footholds, obstacles at the side, and so on, using the virtues of the place to establish predominant positions from which to fight. You must research and train diligently in this.
Fighting is not a democratic process. There is no exchange of ideas here, no ‘I’m going to hit you first and then let you think about it a bit before it becomes your turn to hit me.’ Hopefully, there is no exchanging of strikes at all. Street fighting is about physically beating your opponent down as rapidly as possible and escaping the scene. No hanging out, no going back.
Modern warfare works pretty much that way too. When it comes to one-on-one aircraft dogfights, for example, they simply don’t exist in the modern world. The entangled maneuvering from World War I and II flying aces, or the tricky choreography from movies like
The modern strategy is to spot the enemy before he sees you, strike first, and kill him before he even knows you are there. It really is more of an assassination than a fight. There is no sizing each other up, maneuvering for position, and exchanging blows. In fact, it is a lot like the bad karate school in the movie
Here’s a real life example: A high school football game went badly for Wilder’s team. The game started poorly and tempers escalated throughout the competition. The officiating was poor, the coaches got mad, and the fans in the stands were irate. By the end of the game, most everyone was furious.
Humans are really good at perceiving and responding to dangers in front of them and to a lesser degree from either side. Unfortunately, we are really lousy at dealing with dangers coming from directly behind. Consequently, if the other guy gets behind you he can strike with impunity, delivering at least one or two solid blows before you can reposition yourself to respond effectively.
Players began pushing and shoving each other. Name-calling escalated the tension to the point where the two teams stopped in the parking lot on the way back to their respective locker rooms. A fight was clearly about to begin. Before we describe what happened, it’s important to point out that if you have ever played football you know that taking your helmet off on the field is a foolish thing to do. With all the pads you wear (for example, shoulder, forearm, hip, knee), exposing your head by taking off your helmet is much like asking to get hit in the face. It’s the easiest unprotected area to strike.
