Choosing The Best Fighting Techniques for You

A single day does not pass here at the FightFast headquarters whereas we do not receive a question from an eager and passionate client that is seeking to build their personal arsenal of fighting techniques in an effort to take responsibility for their safety. We applaud and support such an effort in everything we do. Truth told, being capable and equipped with fighting techniques, self defense and survival knowledge is simply a primal need that is hard-wired into our DNA. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending upon how you look at it… our civilized society has marginalized such knowledge and activities on numerous social levels.

As a society, we have become conditioned to depend upon military, police, parents, spouses and local authorities to provide our protection and safety. While we both champion and support these fine men and women who fulfill these roles for our society, on a personal level… choosing NOT to develop and maintain an arsenal of personal fighting techniques… or ignoring this primal need entirely, is a choice that can render you a helpless victim. While any of us can become a victim at any time, choosing to become a “helpless victim” is the result of not arming yourself for the task.

Knowledge and Awareness: Cerebral Fighting Techniques

Before we jump to the obvious, and likely expected, physical tactics and techniques lets first examine what knowledge and awareness can do to assist in providing security and safety. When possible, choose where you live and protect your home. The neighborhood isn’t always a choice, but there are numerous ways to provide protection within and around your home. Simple wooden dowels in the windows, good lighting around the outside perimeter, cut back your shrubs and don’t allow places where predators can hide and/or “peep”. You can drill and place a “stopper” behind your doors to prevent forcible entry.

When you travel to grocery store, the bank, or the drugstore, be aware of your surroundings. Know what and who is/are around you at all times. You don’t have to be paranoid, just be aware. Carry your weapon of choice. Pepper spray, a knife, a gun… carried legally, they are all good options provided that you don’t simply buy the weapon and make the assumption that you know how to employ that weapon because you watched an episode of a TV cop show or have seen the entire Bourne series.

The choice to carry a weapon requires a second step of responsible action, which is training. Amplify your investment by both training and practicing the practical and effective use of the weapon. The choice to carry any weapon responsibly, requires you to also have the knowledge and abilities to use it safely and effectively. Too often, people simply “buy a gun or a knife”. Securing your life, the life of those you love around you, requires a greater investment than the $ price of the item. You also have to invest that most precious of all the resources we have, your time.

How do you feel about luck? I ask this question because, for me personally, should I be faced with a life threatening scenario like what recently took place in San Bernadino, CA or Paris, France (may God be with these unfortunate victims) there will without question be a measure of luck involved, but that will be outside of my control. I’d prefer to be prepared and capable. My statement here is not an op-ed that anyone at those locations weren’t. It is simply to say, should it happen to me, or my clients, I’d like to know my options of escape and/or defending myself and others in such a situation.

The Roman philosopher Seneca wrote eloquently, “luck is when opportunity and preparedness meet”.

That’s where we at Fight Fast come into play to assist you. We provide the instruction, the knowledge. I feel compelled to express however, that you can’t simply buy the DVD or the weapon and assume you have your security matters covered. It takes a modest investment of time on your part. What we do, is cut through all the mumbo-jumbo of useless arguments involving styles, traditions and grading… and simply offer you pragmatic fighting techniques that can work reliably in the chaotic mess of real world altercations.

I hate to burst your fantasy bubble, but fights and real world violence look nothing like those carefully choreographed fight scenes that entertain us all in movies. I love these movies myself. My current favorite is The Equalizer with Denzel Washington. But I understand that the story, the film, the action portrayed… is entertainment. Entertainment for a civil society whose people are rarely, if ever in their entire lifetime, in an altercation involving physical uninvited violence.

Fighting Techniques for You Personally to Consider

At the risk of beating a dead horse here, the easiest way to win a fight is to avoid one altogether. This is why awareness should be the foundation of your efforts. The military and police use words like reconnaissance and intelligence to describe efforts to gather information which allows them to prepare a plan and a strategy. These are cerebral fighting techniques.

Even Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo character famously stated, “… I always thought the greatest weapon was the mind.” Agreed. Ask yourself this… “what computer is controlling the gun, the knife, the pepper spray… or governing your choices”? It’s your mind.

Invest in yourself on multiple levels, not just the physical.

Think Targets: Not Techniques

To begin with physical selection of pragmatic and effective fighting techniques, we need to alter what I believe is the most prevalent and misguided approach to learning how to fight and defend ourselves. The typical routine is to sign up at the local martial art dojo and begin an education into a style of training whereby they teach you stances, falling techniques, some stretching and, of course, the beginning levels of their techniques for punches, kicks, takedowns etc. This describes a rather common experience.

I wish to offer you a more effective starting point in building your arsenal. Think targets.

Eyes, Ears, Nose, Throat, Groin, Knees, Ankles/Feet

Two of our Fight Fast/TRS instructors who are absolute masters at this are John Nottingham and Paul Vunak. You may want to check out their programs in more depth for detailed information on how to attack these targets effectively.

Consider the targets however.

Eyes:

The eyes are admittedly difficult to attack and disrupt because our primal and instinctual defenses protest them vigorously. However, while you might not be able to puncture, poke or gouge an attacker’s eye out, a simple flick to the eyes providing even a scratch will likely do one, or both, of two things. It will buy you time to enter and attack another disabling target and/or it will create discomfort for the attacker with a watering blurry vision that makes their ability to attack you more limited.

Ears:

When special forces and SWAT teams enter a room the employ what’s known as a “Flash Bang”. This involves an explosive device that detonates causing distraction, visual and auditory impairment for the inhabitants of the room. As I mentioned previously, Paul Vunak demonstrates an ear slap in his Street Safe program that is overlooked often due to its simplicity. However, if you have ever been the recipient of an effective ear slap, it is devastating to the senses and equilibrium of your would be attacker.

Nose:

You’re probably thinking, “why the nose?” Noses bleed easily. They also are comprised with many nerve endings which can generate significant pain. Even the toughest of gangsters would have a hard time trying to “hard-core” tolerate the pain that is generated around nose impact strikes. The bleeding is simply psychological. Attackers are interested in your blood, not theirs. Often times, generating the combination of pain and blood soaked hands may offer them to reconsider continuing their efforts towards you.

Throat:

Not an easy target to attack, but highly valuable. The throat is the airway that sustains our activity. Cut off their airway, in short order, their activity will be done! It’s as simple as that. How? There are numerous ways. You can poke it, choke it, slice it if necessary. The human instinct in conflict is to drop the chin to protect this sensitive area, so it may not be readily available to you with the employment of surprise or distraction.

Coaching Point:

No matter which target you choose, a single target will rarely, if ever, be sufficient. Hence the military phrase to overwhelm the opponent with, “speed, surprise and violence of action”. More on that shortly.

Groin:

People always point out this target. Obviously on men it contains sensitive organs that are pain rich when struck. However, this is not one of my favorites unless it is surprisingly available in the moment. If it is, of course I would go for this target. Just let me be clear that it is easily protected with a simple twist of your opponent’s hips. It’s not easy to strike from a distance. Also, if you go for this target and miss, you will invite a measure of added rage from your opponent. That’s likely irrelevant at a point of conflict anyway, but know that whatever mercy he may have had in his piss-ant worthless brain will be subsequently thrown out the window.

With that stated, let me offer you references to 3 different Fight Fast/TRS instructors who have ultra violent and effective groin striking techniques for you to review. First, James Painter’s Rock-n-Roll Prison fighting system has a combination groin strike and take down moves under the guise of “slap-grab and twist”. I think the name speaks for itself in terms of instruction. James Painter can offer you the intricate details within his DVD program.

Second is Fight Fast/TRS instructor Randy Wanner’s groin kick instruction. I’m a big proponent of his “can’t hardly miss” technique. Randy advocates that you don’t kick with the ball of your foot or heel, but rather with your shin kicking upwards between the opponent’s legs utilizing his knees and inner thighs to guide you directly to the point of impact that you are targeting, the gonads! You can check the details out on this, and a bunch more, buy getting your hands on Randy and Mad Dog Bob Taylor’s DVD package here.

Third groin shot reference, Ms. Kathy Long. Kathy is a world famous fighter, a doll of an individual and one of my favorite people I’ve worked with over the years. She has several variations of groin strike takedowns that are violent beyond belief. I’ll withhold description here and simply state that they are easy to learn and employ and worthy of your time invested in reviewing her DVD series as well. You can find it here.

Knees:

I’m on old time football player who has suffered the proverbial “football knee” injuries myself. I can tell you with acute familiarity that the knees hold up and maneuver the bodies actions and activities. Now let me state that I am a believer in God above. I love Him, and I’m thankful that He loves me so unconditionally. However, I will say that He did not have football in mind when he designed the knee joint. These 300 lb college and NFL lineman can be brought down to an immobilized whimpering pile of jelly with one targeted strike to a single knee joint.

Personally, I prefer to get to the side or behind an opponent to employ this devastating attack as it will inflict acute debilitating pain. When sasquatch at 6’9” tall with boulder shoulders and arms like legs and legs like tree trunks is coming at you with ill intentions, it can be more than a bit intimidating. However, step to the side and crunch a knee joint and the fight leaves them pretty fast. Their mobility is all but eliminated for their ill intents and he won’t seem as tall and intimidating when he’s lying on the floor in fetal position wondering how he’s going to hold that hunk of body upright for the next few up-coming years. (Remember Sam Elliot’s character in RoadHouse. I know it’s fiction, but a good knee strike hurts, and is similar to chopping down the tallest redwood tree.)

Feet/Ankles:

Mad Dog Bob Taylor has been a friend of Fight Fast/TRS for many years. He’s not a large guy in physical stature. However, if you measured will and attitude he would score well above LeBron James on any scale. Being of modest stature, Bob assembled a popular DVD program titled Small Man’s Advantage for us here at Fight Fast.

One of Bob’s favorite targets is the top of the foot right where the leg bones come into the tongue of your shoe. The small bones of the foot elevate here and are highly susceptible to a simple foot stomp. The cool thing that makes this a reliable target to attack is that the opponent’s shin makes for a nicely placed target acquisition map to strike. Simply place the inside of your foot against their shin and STOMP as hard as you can downward. You will be guided directly to this sensitive area and with sufficient force you will easily escape your attacker or gain access to other targets if needed to stomp his attack on your person while he’s tending to his pain.

Always think about targets more than techniques. If all you had to protect yourself was a hammer, you would want to strike targets to inflict pain, hinder the oncoming attack and render the attack null and void. While the brain (computer) is always a great target to eliminate the threat, it also has a natural protective helmet (the human skull) and is, not impossible but, tough to attack without some tools and training for the purpose.

These targets I reference, (Eyes, Ears, Nose, Throat, Groin, Knees and Feet/Ankles) are relatively easy to attack and gain access.

Fighting Techniques and Your Physique

There are so many fighting techniques out there to offer from so many styles and systems, that it can truly be overwhelming. There is power in SIMPLICITY. When it comes to your personal protection and safety, employ the KIS(S) principle. Keep It Simple! My father used the second “S”. I find it derogatory, but often times fitting. I digress.

A spinning back kick to the head witnessed from outside the MMA ring to win a championship is beyond impressive. But consider the training, the flexibility and the fitness of the practitioner in that ring. He’s likely a pro. That’s ALL he does. He has these amazing attributes of a fighter, cause if he didn’t, he wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) be in the ring. Even then, with all his abilities and talents, he can only pull it off like 10% of the time. This is NOT a good technique for you to consider.

Review techniques that you like, that you believe are realistic for you to pull off given your physique and your athletic abilities or, in some cases, disabilities. Practice the ones you like. For each target, select 2 techniques you like, (3 at the most) and practice them.

I would strongly suggest that you have 2 to 3 techniques for each target that you are good at landing and executing than to have 999 techniques that you can hardly remember when someone asks you to demonstrate them. (Ah, but you have the video in your library at home! Right? Don’t You?) Remember this: Your attacker will not wait for you to review the reference prior to assaulting you.

Speed, Surprise and Violence of Action

Knowledgeable and talented fighters have been taken out with this one fighting technique, which when one considers is not really a fighting technique at all… it’s a mindset. Having the proper mindset to attack and defend is PROFOUND in terms of the quality of your expected outcome.

John Nottingham, Ben Cooley, Dale Comstock, Bob Taylor, Glen Boodry, Paul Vunak, Chris Clugston and nearly every other TRS/Fight Fast instructor will tell you, all in their own phrasing, that you must have, “a total disregard for the health and well being of your opponent and the willingness to demonstrate this to him with an overwhelming counter-assault of his person”. A forward pushing relentless assault on debilitating targets until you know, without a doubt, that you have stopped the threat and can verify your safety.

When it comes to your safety and security, the protection of your children, elderly parents and/or neighbors… leave nothing to “chance and luck”. Arm yourself with appropriate, pragmatic and easy to employ fighting techniques to make certain you remain afterwards should you ever be the unfortunate recipient of a violent attack.