Acts of Violence

Acts of Violence - not an act of martial art training or sport.

How many of us practice self defence in our training to a degree of realism that gets us ready for the ferocity and venom of a real attack? 

How many of us make our “reality training” realistic? 

Sure, we might train real hard and have loads of black eyes and sore limbs to show for it. We might learn how to grapple on the floor for hours on end, we might learn to box for 10 rounds, we might practice hitting real hard; we might learn loads of bunkai. 

But, do we know what type of attack we are most likely to encounter? 

Do we practice against this type of attack?

To make our self defence training as realistic as possible we MUST practice against what we are MOST likely to encounter. Has anyone EVER seen anyone throw a Yoko Geri on the street? To train realistically we must know what we are likely to face.

Below are the 10 most common attacks, male on male, taken from Police figures, witness statements etc for UK and Europe.

These acts of violence are listed in frequency order.

1. One person pushes, hands to chest and gets a response back of a strike to the head.
2. A swinging punch to the head.
3. A front clothing grab, one handed, followed by punch to the head.
4. A front clothing grab, two hands, followed by a head butt.
5. A front clothing grab, two hands, followed by a knee to the groin.
6. A bottle, glass, or ashtray to the head.
7. A lashing kick to groin/lower legs.
8. A broken bottle/glass jabbed to face.
9. A slash with knife, most commonly a 3 to 4" lock blade knife or kitchen utility knife. (Apart from muggings, sexual assaults and gang violence, the hunting/combat type knife is seldom used)
10. A grappling style head lock.

Acts of Violence

Now, compare that list to the way you train in self defence. If what you train is not on that list, I would suggest that you might want to hold back on training it for a bit!
 
 Most of our self defence training is against a swinging punch to the head. As can be seen, it occupies the top two spots. 
 
 The only difference is that the top spot is a reactive attack and the 2nd spot is a “pre-emptive” type of attack.
 
 In other words, in the first attack, you as the defender have pushed your attacker away and he simply comes straight back at you with a swinging punch to the head.

Now, as 85% of people are right handed, I would suggest you train for only a right hand attack. The defence is the same. You either go in with 100% commitment or you get out with 100% commitment. Anything in between is likely to get you hit.

Attacks 3, 4 & 5
Any type of clothing grab means trouble! For one, you have let your opponent get too close. Practice maintaining your distance. Then move onto the grab, this is because you got it wrong and did not maintain distance. Then practice the grab from different scenarios, e.g. a surprise grab, or an argument then a grab etc.

The defence against a grab is always the same, attack back hard and fast with 100% commitment. Completely ignore the grabbing arm/s. If you try to do anything with them you will be hit. 

Try it and see. 

Wear a head guard, have someone wear a boxing glove and grab you and try to K.O you. If you ignore the grabbing hand and just attack you will be o.k. not K.O!! 

If you try to block -you are doomed, from our training experience about 7 out of 10 times. In training, when trying to do something with the grabbing arm the defender loses 10 out of 10. 

By the defender ignoring the grabbing arm and the punching arm and just attacking, we have such a low figure of being hit that it is less then 2% of the time! That is not bad odds!  

Acts of Violence

 Attacks 6, 8 & 9
 
 A weapon to the head, knife, glass, bottle etc. 
 
 It is shocking that weapons now account for 3 out of top 10 attacks! 
 
 There is no realistic 100% defence against a weapon attack. 
 
 The odds of you getting hurt have just gone through the roof. 
 
 Again, we come back to commitment, you have to go in or Get Out at 100% commitment. 

Anything else will probably get you scarred for life or scarred for death!

Try utilising exactly the same attacks as 1, 2, & 3 but this time with an armed attacker.
 
Start slowly and build up. 

Let your confidence build slowly.

Attack 7

Lower level kick to leg or groin. You should see this coming a mile away! Most people can not or do not kick when in close. They usually want to punch you! When defending against this attack try not to just move backwards. REMEMBER; Your opponent can move forwards quicker than you can move backwards. Take a 45 degree angle either in or out.

Attack 10

Grappling style headlock
Practice it as a surprise grab. Practice it from a scuffle. Practice it with just the lock. Then try it against a lock and someone trying to punch you in the face as well. Then practice against someone wanting to face drop you to the pavement.

For more information or to book a self defence course or Russell's Training DVD's you may contact

Russell Stutely
www.russellstutely.co.uk