"The terrain is to be assessed in terms of distance, difficulty or ease of travel, dimension, and safety."
-Sun Tzu, Art Of War
"It does not bother the wolf how many sheep there may be."
-Virgil
I've been mulling this topic over for the last couple of days. This may become a multiple part series.
At some point as a martial artist you will eventually have to fight more than one person at a time. I hope this will be in the training hall, but it is always possible it can occur on the street.
I was first introduced to learning how to fight multiple people, and it really does take a different kind of strategy to do so, when I was about fourteen or fifteen. Until then it had never crossed my mind. And that's a scary thing; a lot of people who train never think about fighting multiple people until thrown into the situation.
There are benefits however; learning how to fight more than one, can vastly increase your ability to fight a single person at a time. That being said; if you are able to fight multiple people adequately and fight someone else who can, chances are good it will be as though you are fighting multiple people at the same time, at least in terms of its difficulty.
My philosophy for fighting multiple people boils down to avoidance; evasion where possible. But we all practice martial arts, at least concerning self-defense, because this is not always possible. There may come a time we cannot run, we can only fight. And then we have only two choices left out of the three of fight, flight, and freeze. And if we want to live, only the foremost of the three is tenable.
There are basic principles that are common no matter how many you may fight, whether it be two or five, which is the most I have had to face, and that occurred last year outside of a training studio.
But the most difficult situation I honestly had to face was when fifteen and fought four black belts who were quite superior fighters. I got my ass handed to me.
In fact, here's the video of the first time I truly got to experience 'the grind' as I think of it ten years ago when fifteen (I know, I know, I've shared this video a lot- But unfortunately I do not have any other videos demonstrating any kind of experience with the subject matter);
To put it another way, almost everything you have seen in movies about fighting multiple peoples is incredibly wrong.
For example, I am sure most of you have noted in movies that usually the hero fights only one enemy at a time, even when fifty are surrounding them. In all honesty this is more dangerous for the person defending themselves from the multiple assaults because it turns the fight into an endurance match and one on one after one on one and more similar to the kyokushin kumite than anything else.
I may be able to take three or four people on and feel able to handle myself, but even I do not think I would stand a chance reaching the fifty person mark in a kumite.
It is more to your benefit if multiple people rush you at the same time because if trained how to handle the situation you will know you have to move. In fact, if multiple people are gunning to knock you down, if you don't move you may as well be dead.
As you move, to get at you the other fighters will have to be maneuvered in ways that will interfere with each other's chances to get to you. You put one in front of the other. When you block a technique you do so in such a way the limb becomes an obstacle for the others. You maneuver them in such a way that sometimes they hit each other by accident.
Chances are if its on the street here are a few things I have noticed in my one encounter. If you take out the leader chances are the others will either run or become ineffective. The movie Jack Reacher illustrated that greatly. I recall punching the air when I saw the bar fight scene because it was the first truly realistic fight scene I had seen in all my years of watching t.v. and movies at least in terms of multiple fighting and the psychology involved in it.
When finding yourself in a fight or flight situation as I did against those who are untrained it is exceedingly easy to get them to clash with each other more than they will with you. Additionally the psychology behind the alpha-betta-gamma chain of command falls apart entirely when they rush you en-masse, as occurred with me. Granted neither myself nor any of them were hurt in the encounter, but it was first-hand experience in what happens when five people try to grab or restrain you for any reason.
The trick to escaping that encounter was to move around constantly, and keep track of as many of them as possible. I had to predict what they would do the instant before they did. Adrenaline helps a lot in terms of that because it tricks one into experiencing time as slower than it is.
But I digress from pointers on what to do when faced in such a situation. What I went through is surely not what you will.
When they have weapons, as was not the case in my encounter, trying to grab one of them is probably going to get you killed. This is where the fight or flight reflex should go to the latter, and your goal should be to endure long enough to escape. No need to think life is like the movies, frankly because that kind of thinking is liable to land you either in jail or dead when these kinds of encounters happen.
And that old phrase, better to be judged by twelve than carried by six sucks no matter which situation you land up in.
Utilize what you have with you to defend yourself. This is a tenet of Arnis, utilizing everyday artifacts and objects around you to make do. It reminds me a lot of one lesson I had where we brought in coins and were told to figure out how to defend ourselves, and then how to hurt others with just those. How to turn a magazine into a makeshift baton, and so on. Are you wearing a jacket and removable upper wear such as a sweater? Take it off and roll them around your arms.
Chances are good when it comes to multiple fighting you will have some kind of fore sense it is coming. This can be based on many different inputs from senses. For me it is usually either visual (watching them approach) spatial awareness, and intuition. It may be different for you. In that small time between when you sense you will be attacked and are, make the best of it however you can. That is the time to run most, and if untenable to protect yourself with your clothing. It is better than nothing when it comes to stabbing implements.
Leaving the street and returning to the dojo or training hall;
A good trick to learn is the ability to widen your pupils so that you are no longer focusing on one single point. When you focus on one limb when literally fifteen other or more are coming at you and imperatively must be kept track of, you will be unable to. By widening the pupil and your center of focus utilizes the entire eye equally, you will find yourself much better able to keep track of multiple limbs than otherwise. This is known as 'Eagle Vision' in Baguazhang as it was taught to me, and is something I have been told Air Force pilots do as well, though I am not sure if it is true.
If you can throw or 'unseat' a person without having to grapple, such as tripping, you have something very beneficial for fighting multiple people if your martial art allows this. Being able to get back up onto your feet quickly is a skill set often ignored in training, and can be essential to doing well. Krav Maga has a nice saying that all fights may end up on the ground, but there's no reason they need stay there.
Clinching is also excellent in fighting multiple people, because it gives control over a person attacking you. Allowing you to tear them apart with knees, and to utilize them as a shield from those other attackers, and even attack those others with their body.
Slipping is also your best friend in a multiple fight. Being able to weave and get away even when boxed in is essential. If you slip fast enough you will be able to reposition yourself between the person you are attacking among those others attacking you.
Combining this with kicks that ward opponents off, such as a front kick with the ball or heel of the foot is excellent. This will greatly keep people from being able to reach you, which is perhaps the surest way to keep yourself safe - by never letting them touch you.
Remember that chances are they will exert more energy trying to get to you, than you will trying to get away from them. This isn't always the case; but it is a rule of thumb that if you hit someone in the stomach enough times they will not be able to breath, and will exhaust themselves.
So those warding kicks, the clinch and knee, can be phenomenal with enabling that exhaustion.
And perhaps my last tip, at least for this blog entry; switch targets the instant you can. If you have done a move or technique that has forced the person back, it is not the time to chase them down and 'finish the job' this will waste energy. Punch, move to next. Kick, move to next. Eventually having knocked or forced them back enough you will potentially have bought yourself the space to leave the situation. Doing this strategy will interrupt their attacks, and repeatedly doing so once again clears a space of potential breathing room for you.
Of course, your very, very best friend in all of this is having endurance. So keep in mind that without the ability to breathe and replenish the energy exerted, you will have a much more difficult time.
I almost want to quote this man's entire article, but for an even more in-depth read on multiple's fighting read this;
http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=160 (Part 2) and http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=159 (Part 1).
http://filipinofightingsecretslive.com/2013/01/05/learn-to-fight-by-fighting-back/
http://www.progressivecombatsystems.com/articles/martial-arts-rant-doom/
"The cardinal principle in any group confrontation or attack is spirit and believing you can win."
-Christopher Caile
“The height of strategy, is to attack your opponent’s strategy.” – Sun Tzu
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