Along time ago, I wrote down a back of a cigarette packet list of “principles” on fighting that I worked out in a coffee shop one morning after a training session. I came across them again in an email I sent to a friend. I might re-word or emphasize things a bit differently but this is how they originally stood:

1. Disrupt then damage, then destroy or disengage. Disruption can be as simple as attacking an assailants balance.

2. The nearest weapon should attack the nearest softest target (eyes, throat or groin). Use attacks, which bypass an attackers “pain management” system e.g. bite, slap, eye rake etc. Use strikes, which give you the most “bang for your buck” and are the easiest to pull off.

3. Lay down as much continuous firepower in the shortest possible time i.e. “assault” the attacker. Don’t allow gaps/spaces between your strikes and attacks as this gives the opportunity for your attacker to fight back.

4. Change from “prey” to “predator” in the shortest possible time – defense and attack should be as close together as possible or attacks should be pre-emptive.

5. Switch between attacking high and low targets. Don’t focus on or become blind to just one target.

6. All techniques should utilize maximum body weight. This involves striking with forward movement.

7. Keep your head over your hips (don’t lean forward and don’t overextend) and your hips facing your attacker/target.

8. “Scan” to check your environment (don’t give in to tunnel vision) and to “de-stress”; always assume there are third parties in the environment who can comes to assist your assailants aid.

9. Avoid staying in the “transition zone” either be close to your attacker or far away from them.

10. Move around your assailant, changing the angle of your attacks. Avoid being in a position where your assailants hips are facing/square to you (this is where they are strong). By changing the angle of an attackers assault you force them to “reset” their attacks creating time and space for yourself.

I thought I’d take the next few blog posts to work through the list, explaining my ideas at the time and how these might have developed and changed due to different training/real-life experiences….

Principle 1 – Disrupt, Damage, Destroy, Disengage

The first person to act within a violent situation is the assailant (if you choose to pre-emptively attack, this will be you). Whoever acts first has the advantage i.e. the other person is obviously forced to react. There are two ways to force a disruption of their attack: 1) before they make it and 2) by responding to it.
It is possible to disrupt an assault before it is even made. This is one of the aims of using a de-escalation/interview stance. By bringing the hands up to guard the body and limit any attacks that can be made directly from the front (Jabs, crosses, overhand rights etc), an assailant is forced to make circular strikes, such as large swinging haymakers etc. By controlling range and forcing an assailant to move and commit their weight, in a particular direction, when making an assault is also a disruption of their attack. This is one of the skills that starts to develop during: sparring, randori and “free fighting”. Learning how to position yourself in order to disrupt an attack before it’s made is something that is essential when sparring…otherwise you get hit with the full power of the strike and at the same time are unable to counter and/or launch your own assault. Simply moving will often be enough to disrupt an assault.

It is possible to cause disruption in response to an assault, attack or threat. Simply taking a person’s balance will cause their desire to be stable to over-ride any other natural responses they may have. We have seen this in the knife threat controls we are studying this semester; how by taking balance we override a person’s natural grab reflex. It is this disruption, which allows us to control the arm and then perform a successful disarm. Pain is another way in which an attack can be disrupted e.g. this is the basis of the simultaneous block and punch which is a defining Krav Maga movement.

Disruption is essential in order to stop an attack getting into a rythmn. 99 % of assailants will attack with what they believe is their most successful technique – on the street this may be an overhand right, or a giant haymaker. Often these techniques are simple enough to deal with…on their own. However, once several haymakers are strung together they become another proposition and the swinging arms become like the blades in a food processor. Disrupting the first attack becomes an important objective in light of this,

A fight is a fight the time for walking away and being the nice guy has evaporated. I always tell people to forget the individual and see the assailant (something which is especially true in sexual assaults where the rapist is known by their victim). Your job is not to explain to your assailant why they shouldn’t be attacking you but to stop them. This requires inflicting serious pain. People may not like the idea of this however it is necessary. Assailant’s stop assaulting because of the pain inflicted upon them either because it discourages them or because it mechanically stops them: you break someone’s arm and they’re unable to hit you, you throw an elbow into their face and they want to give up etc.

Somebody once asked me if when I gouge somebody’s eyes, that I do it “just enough”. I never do anything “just enough”, I do what I do, till it stops the other person doing what they’re doing to me. Then I continue doing it till I’m sure they’re not able to do it again. This is what I mean by destroy. I want to reach this point as quickly as possible. There are never any benefits to continuing a street fight longer than necessary. It is safer for you to work this way, and in fact means you punish the person you are dealing with less i.e. hit them with everything you’ve got in a condensed time frame is less likely to impart serious and permanent injury than a lesser level of violence meted out over a longer time-span.

At some point you have to disengage. It’s why standing and lying around applying joint-locks and chokes in a controlled manner can eat up your disengagement time. This is where combat sports that train in a controlled manner such as Judo, BJJ and MMA etc. can cultivate the wrong mindset for the street. At some point the fight has to be over i.e. the person assaulting you has taken themselves out of the fight, either through physical injury or lack of desire. If you can safely disengage before this, do. No points are given for staying at the scene of a fight, only for surviving it.