Self-Defense vs Contests

The difference between self-defense and fighting, contests, police work, or training exercises

– Mr. Gichin Funakoshi: Karate ni senti nashi

– The First Rule of Self-defense is: kesekki waza, not present where troubleis happening

– Proverbs 25:8 Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what todo in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame.

Our goal in the Dai Ichi Karate Association is to produce defenders, not attackers. In order to become a skilled defender, you need a powerful,knowledgeable, skilled, realistic, fast on the move, attacker to be your training partner. For this reason, we study attack so that we can ultimately learn to be good defenders. In karate, there is no first attack.

There is a difference between self defense situations, and any kind of training, contest, or any kind of fighting, actual or simulated. Self defense is not fighting. Fighting is where two combatants seek to overcome the other.Whether it be a real engagement, or a contest of some sort: tournament, UFC,backyard wrestling match or whatever.

In self defense, one combatant is trying to overcome the other, but the other does not want to overcome anybody, he just doesn’t want to be overcome.If he can, he will immediately escape. This distinction changes a lot in the mind set of an aggressor, and therefore the execution of an assault.

The thinking, intent, determination and commitment of the attacker is different in any kind of a simulated engagement. When the attacker knows that his prey will not be armed, or if armed, he knows exactly to what he has access, due to the agreement beforehand, he can afford to be less cautious. But if the attacker anticipates that when he knocks his prey to the floor, and not”out” that he runs the risk of being filled full of holes from the pistol he may have in his hip pocket, he is not so ready to pick on what might appear to be a vulnerable mark.

A very important concept to remember about attackers in a self defense setting is that as a general rule, the attacker wants to do his deed without it costing him anything. The intent of the attacker changes the mind set of the entire experience for both the attacker and the defender.  There is the”suicide attack”, but that is not what we are speaking of in this article.

No matter how good the training, it can only be training. No matter how realistic the contest, it is still only a contest. In military service terms,”boot camp ain’t combat”. Nevertheless, you would not want to send an un-knowledgeable and untrained soldier into combat until he had been through the simulated rigors of boot camp. There is a difference between”friendlies” shooting live machine gun bullets over your head while you are crawling through mud, and under barbed wire, as opposed to enduring aimed fire from an enemy that is trying to hit you with those bullets. As traumatic as the simulated situation may be the main difference is the intent. The friendly troops firing live rounds over your head will be sorry if anyone is hit by their firing. The enemy will be pleased.

From an individual, unarmed viewpoint, many think that because they can win consistently at free fighting, or some other contest, that those skills will translate into a successful ability to defend oneself in a real situation.There are some skills that will translate, but free fighting is not the best exercise to develop those skills. It may be a vehicle to experiment with those skills, but not the development of them. Real situations seldom initiate, or develop in any way similar to contest or training instances.

Initially, the attacker’s mind will be somewhat the same as any fight until confronted with a “self-defense” attitude of a defender. But how do we discover the “self-defense” mind, and experiment with it, and train with it, and nurture it? Before we can discover that mind, we must be able to discern where it “ain’t”, and where we can perhaps find it.

Here are some differences between any kind of contest such as tournament,UFC, dojo free fighting, karate tournament, and a real situation. The commentary is illustrated by “mostly true” stories of real incidents that have happened to me and my students through the years.

a. In tournaments

b. real situation

1.

    a. You have a choice as to whether you want to engage in the confrontation

    b. You have no choice…You can either defend yourself,or be hurt by the aggressor since escape is impossible

When I was in the Navy in Pensacola I practiced karate every day for about 3hours a day. While there I met another brown belt, 1st degree brown belt who claimed to be a student of a well respected Shotokan instructor. He had very good form and ability, but one of the worst attitudes that I have ever seen. He would wait among the lockers in the barracks, waiting for some unsuspecting seaman to come along, and step out and cole-cock him. This I learned from some of the guys who lived in mortal fear of him in his barracks.

We worked out together several times at the base gym. He and I were of about equal ability so that our free fighting resulted in both of us scoring points.After training with him for about 3 weeks, about twice a week, we were both in the same “day room” in my barracks one evening. I was sitting in ease at with a desk mounted on it (commonly found in public schools etc) writing a letter to my girl friend. He was sitting just out of reach to my right, facing me, eating two hamburgers. When he finished eating the first hamburger, he waded up the paper wrapper, and threw it, hitting me in the face. He was sitting so close it would’ve been hard for him to miss. The paper bounced off of my face and onto the floor, so I reached down and picked it up, and laid it up on his desk and went on writing my letter. When he finished eating his second hamburger, he wadded up the wrapper and threw that one in my face, and picked up the other one and threw it in my face. I retrieved one of the papers,and threw it in his face. My attitude was one of roughhouse play that goes on so much in the service…..but this is not what was on his mind. He got up out of his desk, came around and threw a punch at me…less than serious…which I blocked and countered, which he blocked, and countered….but this punch was much more serious. I blocked this one, and in an attempt to show him that if I wanted to strike him I could and so he should leave me alone, opened up on him with a combination that I had learned several years earlier. It is a four move combination and it moves pretty fast and is easy to out maneuver, but hard to block. I accidentally made very light contact on him to the groin on the third move. He backed up and said “oh, you want real action huh?” I told him that it was an accident and that I was sorry that I had hit him, but I could tell that I had better prepare to defend myself. He attacked me with yoko-tobi-geri (flying side kick). I replied with yoko-geri-kekomi (side thrust kick). He had very good form and his forearm was covering the target that I would’ve hit….the floating rib. The unusual thing was that he flew so far when I hit him. It was like hitting a baseball. He was propelled off of the end of my foot, climbing through the air until he hit a wall at about the six foot mark, he hit quite hard against the wall, slid down the wall and bounced off of the back of a couch that was sitting against the wall, bounced off of the back of the couch and landed on the seat of the couch, bounced off of the seat and landed in a heap of bones on the floor making a loud thump-a-bump-bump-bump. I was concerned that the barracks officer would come up to see what was going on so I was ready to get out of there. This fellow got right up and walked right out.

I didn’t see him for three weeks. When I did see him he was in his dress uniform, carrying his sea bag, on his way off the base permanently. I asked him where he had been. He said that he had been in the infirmary. That I had broken his ribs and he had spent a couple of weeks in the infirmary.

Actually, when he threw the yoko-tobi-geri, his good form had brought his arm alongside of his ribs the way it is supposed to be. It was his arm that my side kick had hit, driving his arm into his ribs and breaking them. He told me that he had gotten turned down on his security clearance and was on his way to another duty station.

One other note on the confrontation. There was no “planning” or such when the action came. It was like someone had lit a firecracker and thrown it down, and I came along and had my right foot on it when the action started.Then at just the right moment, the firecracker went off, blowing my foot up and out at a high speed in a side kick motion to meet the target just right. I can’t say that my super skill and abilities were what helped me to prevail….it was that firecracker! Of course, there was no firecracker. It was kata training that made everything come out just right.

2.

    a. you know who your opponent is

    b. you don’t always know

While I was teaching at Amarillo College my assistant instructor had a nephew who came to karate classes for about three weeks, and then dropped out.He said that it was too much work, and besides, he was a pretty good wrestler in his high school program. He was a junior in high school. Him and his girlfriend had had a spat, and broke off their relationship. She was invited to a party out in north Amarillo, in the Rolling Hills community and had gone to this party. He had gotten word that she was at this party, and had gone just to check on her. In the process of mingling with the “guests” he bumped into another fellow who started a fight with him. Being skilled in wrestling,he immediately threw the aggressor to the floor and pinned him. Somebody stepped in behind him, however, and cut his throat, closely missing his carotid artery and jugular vein. The ambulance was able to get him to the hospital to save his life. He was unable to identify the “cutter” and the police could never find the guy that fought with him. The friend that he arrived with did not even see the scuffle happen. No one else saw anything. He is fortunate to be alive. He should’ve stayed in karate. The party occurred on a night we were having class.

3.

    a. you usually know what he’s trained in, boxing,wrestling, tae kwon do, muay thai, jiu-jitsu

    b. you seldom know what his training is

4.

    a. you know how many opponents you face

    b. you may not know exactly how many will be after you

Years ago I talked to a man who had in times past been a member of a motorcycle gang. I asked him if he had ever been attacked with a knife, and what did he do. He relayed the following story:

I was sitting on a bar stool next to a guy who had angered me. I had my left arm laying on the bar. I was just about to cole-cock him with it, when I felt apain in my wrist, and I couldn’t move my arm. I looked down at my arm, and there was an ice pick that the bar maid had driven through my wrist, pinning itto the bar. She was they guy’s girl friend. That was the first knife fight I was ever in..

5.

    a. you know what he is armed with (if anything…you agreed to face him under those conditions)

    b. you probably don’t know the extent of his weaponry

Several years ago one of my students, Mr. M. Miller was a police liaison officer for a public high school. There was Mexican boy that he was trying to convince to stay out of trouble, that he talked with regularly. One Monday, the boy came to school with a large bandage on his ear. When he was asked what happened he told Mr. Miller that him and a friend had found out about a party on Saturday night. They decided to crash the party which was on the second floor of an apartment building. Just after they got into the apartment, he was standing with his back to the door, when he felt a knock at the door. He opened the door, and there stood an old man, trying to talk to him, but the music from within was so loud, that he couldn’t understand what the old man was saying, so he stepped out on the balcony that ran along the front of the apartments, and shut the door behind him. The old man was ranting and raving about how the music was too loud, and that they had better turn it down. He tried to explain to the old man that he was a party crasher, and that he had no say about the music. As they stood there, exchanging words, the little old man gave him a slight push on the shoulder with his hand. He said he also heard a “pop,pop” sound, but didn’t think anything about it. The old man stomped off mad, and the boy stepped back into the apartment, and shutting the door, stood again with his back to the door. In a moment his friend approached, and asked”what happened to you?”. What do you mean, he asked? “Your shirt is covered in blood”. He looked down, and the whole front of his shirt was covered in blood.

What had happened is that the little old man had pulled a small caliber pistol out of his pocket, and laying his hand on the boy’s chest, had fired it,intending to shoot him under the chin. But missing his chin, the bullet passing through his upper ear. The second bullet missed altogether. The boy said he never saw the gun, and never knew he was shot at until the doctor patched up the hole in his ear.

6.

    a. his intent is to score a point on you (or knock your head off, or choke you out…either way, you know)

    b. he may just want to steal your ice cream cone, or he may be intent on torture and killing you.

7.

    a. Ambush is not a factor

    b. Ambush is a common factor

One of the most effective, and common factors is gone in any kind of”contest”; the element of ambush. Whatever the means of attack,weaponless, or with weapons, ambush is one of the most effective strategies commonly employed. Much more important than the technique used to carry out the attack. Anytime you walk up to a line, and bow in, or enter the “combat area”, the element of ambush is not a factor.

One of my students Mr. D. Floyd relayed the following story to me: Back in the 1980’s, he worked for an engineering consulting firm. He had a meeting witha ship yard in Pascagoula, Mississippi to which he had spent all day traveling,so that by the time he arrived at the motel, just before midnight, he was extremely tired. He paid for the room, and then fetched some things out of hiscar, and took the elevator to the platform on the second floor that ran along the building, upon which you walked down to your individual motel room. Mr. Floyd said that he must have flashed a roll of money, or something, because just as the doors to the elevator opened on the second floor, and he started to lean over to pick up his brief case, a hand reached out, grabbing him by the front of the shirt. His instant reply was to use the technique out of Heian Nidan,just after the first block, he pinned the hand to his chest with one hand, and with soto uke broke the arm that had reached out to grab him at the elbow joint. As the owner of the arm came into view, he hit him with the same hand that had executed a soto uke with a back fist strike just below his ear. The knife clattered to the floor of the elevator. Mr. Floyd said that whomever it was had started to scream in pain, but that the scream was cut off by the knockout to the neck. Mr. Floyd said that he was so tired, that he proceeded straight to his room, and intently concentrating, made sure the door to his room was locked and went to bed. The next morning, there was no sign of any struggle having happened.

Conclusion:

The most frightening thing about a real aggressor is his intentions, not his technique, not his skill.

As the pilot said in a segment of the documentary “Wings Over the Gulf” on Discovery channel “I thought I would be ready for combat,but you just can’t prepare somebody to get shot at”.

I hope that the reader can understand what I’ve been trying to say by reading the following “mostly true” story.

This year I promoted some jiu-jitsu black belts. For their test, they had to do the standard demonstration of formal technique, both throwing and holds.Then the application of the holds and throws against a training partner. Then a multiple opponent exercise, then we started a phase of the testing thatinvolved the re-enactment of actual assaults. Since some of the jiu-jitsu blackbelts that were helping me to conduct the tests had much experience in confrontations of one sort and another, I called upon them to reconstruct the setting, and the assault. The testee did not hear what the circumstances would be.

There were several typical assaults taken from the police blotter that were presented. Then some assaults involving gang attacks on a National Guard troop using the two end pieces of an army cot for a weapon. But the most poignant one was from the Texas prison system.

It was simply a throat slashing using a plastic spoon handle as a razor blade glued to a short piece of rolled up magazine for a handle. In other words, a “shiv”.

The setting was that the “mark”, in this case the testee, was walking along on his way to the cafeteria, when three or four other guys including the”hit man” was passing him on their way to the library. When the hit man got close enough, he just stepped over, and with no fan fare, slashed first one side of the throat, and then the other side of the throat of the”mark”. In the real incident, he then stood over the “mark”fighting off anyone who might come to his rescue, until he could bleed out enough to expire.

No fancy technique, no posturing, no fighting stances, no cussing, no power moves, no pushing and shoving, no hissing. None of the things that we commonly see.

Was there anything in that attacker from which the “mark” could’ve taken warning? If we could just find that, then maybe we could have something to use in training.

If you will seriously consider the answer to the following question, perhaps you can duplicate that mind set to be a worthy attacker in training for the benefit of your training partner. Maintaining only enough sanity to keep from actually finishing the task.

What would be the circumstances that would be necessary for you to make an actual attack on someone?

If we can discover the mind set of an attacker in a real situation, then perhaps we can duplicate that as closely as possible in the “boot camp”of a simulated situation so that the defender will have a realistic assault, as much as possible, to study as he defends against it.

Otherwise, all we are going to have is our best free-fightn’ technique, or speed, or strength or stamina, or trash to develop. Once we get old, or injured, or are standing on a slippery surface, or outnumbered we will not have the attributes of our youth to call upon. Those that require speed, strength and stamina to perform. Those are the necessities of fighting, and being a powerful attacker.

Self defense is going to require us to think differently. It will require our friend, our training partner, to think differently when he is called on to be a worthy attacker for the benefit of the defender.