How to Win a Fight (Against a Single/Lone Opponent)... By Idai Makaya Most people who are well-known practitioners of the martial arts are often asked, especially by younger people, what is the best way to win a fight. The New Age Self Defense approach is quite strict in its view of this subject. Firstly – the rule is to avoid becoming trapped in confrontational situations as the mandatory course of action. However, despite our best efforts, there can be times when we are thrust into dangerous, physically threatening situations - without much choice in the matter. This is much rarer than most people think, but it is not outside the realms of possibility. This is why the practice of eternal vigilance is so important. You must constantly assess every environment you enter so that you have a plan for how to react in the rare situation of a sudden threat being imposed – or an attack. For instance, you may be queuing to pay for your fuel at a garage forecourt when an armed and violent robber strikes the establishment. Such threats are often unforeseeable and can be extremely serious because of the amount of tension being experienced by both the aggressor and the innocent victims who happen to either work there or be customers there. Having fore-planned your reactions to such nasty surprises puts you in a much better position for surviving them. Likewise, an intruder may decide to enter your home, despite you having taken all the reasonable deterrent precautions. If such an intruder is startled and becomes hostile - or if the intruder has planned specifically to break in and harm you - a violent physical confrontation (as a defensive reaction) is almost always a must. This is why the practice of self defense should cover the concept of how to prevail under physical attack (i.e. fighting). However, some self defense specialists are overly preoccupied with the ‘fighting’ aspects of self defense - often neglecting the crucial avoidance aspects (which you are likely to use much more regularly than physical violence). Note that the New Age Self Defense rules to be covered here relate to defensive situations only – they only apply to people who are protecting themselves (or others). Despite the huge emphasis on avoidance, there is a place for fighting in real self defense and you need to know how this is done if you are to ‘cover all your bases’ and be able to claim ‘competence’ in self defense. New Age Self Defense aims to make you ‘virtually invincible/unassailable’ and being able to triumph in a physical personal assault is part of that. This is something almost everyone can hope to be able to do - regardless of whether or not they undergo any specific martial arts or self defense training. I will explain how, shortly. I am not alone in my philosophy when I say that the best way to ensure defensive success is to strike first – and to do so without prior warning.
If you remember nothing else about prevailing in a physical conflict (i.e. winning a fight), remember this rule. There are many good reasons for this rule, among them: If you wait for an aggressor to strike you first - before you defend yourself - you cannot guarantee that you will survive (or recover) from their first strike. You must not assume you will be able to deflect an initial strike - or even defend against it. No fighter on earth can survive very long against a reasonable opponent by just blocking and evading. Blocking in combat is not nearly as effective as complete evasion (or as an attacking defense). The best form of defense is offence. You have no guarantees on the level to which your opponent is armed. If the first strike is a gunshot or a knife slash – believe it or not, some such attacks cannot be defended against using just the unarmed human body. Anyone who tells you otherwise is being less than honest. If you are attacked by an opponent wielding a Samurai sword, unless your opponent is totally hopeless, you will not be able to repel the attack using just the unarmed human body alone. You have no idea of your opponents fighting skills. Some fighters are far superior to others and will almost always win a ‘fair’ fight. For this reason, the average housewife would not consider taking on the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion in a boxing match – but she has every right to believe that it’s worth trying to defend herself against him (should he illegally attack her, of course!) – and this can only be done through an effective pre-emptive strike. Note emphasis on “effective.” The best way to make self defense success more likely is to avoid the conditions of a fair fight. Bear in mind the fact that a personal attack is never a fair fight, attackers usually won’t gamble and need to be confident of success before they attack. They will have planned their attacks on you before they even saw you. Often, all that happens before they attack you is a basic ‘profiling exercise.’ If you fit the ‘profile’ of the victim for whom they have planned an attack, they are more likely to go for you (that’s why pre-emptive planning - and being and looking alert -are so important. You must aim to de-select yourself from their profile to lower both their interest and their confidence). Not only should you avoid a fair fight when you defend yourself - if you are to make success more likely, you must also turn the tables completely in your favour by ensuring an unfair fight (that favours you instead). The pre-emptive strike (when carried out effectively) is an ideal way of surprising an attacker and disorganising their game-plan.
The inexperienced will then ask how they can actually be confident that they are doing the right thing and that they are even effective in delivering this so-called pre-emptive strike. That’s a good question. The best advice is as follows: If you are not particularly strong and you have little or no fighting and combat training/experience, try to use a meaningful weapon to strike. Any solid object within reach will suffice (hence the reason for pre-emptive assessments of every environment you enter in order to help you plan such responses – you need to be aware of if and where these potential weapons are, in advance). If you have no access to weapons in a dangerous situation and you have to strike unarmed, use your legs to strike whenever possible. Even the legs of a small person are quite strong because they can support the individual’s bodyweight. Always aim to deliver a pre-emptive strike to a vital area – an area likely to hurt or unsettle the opponent (such as the eyes, groin and throat). Because of this necessity to strike vitally, ensure you are in a genuine attack situation and that there is no alternative exit - other than violence. Violence has severe consequences. Do not engage in violence frivolously - or you could regret it. Don’t be confused by the singularity of the term ‘strike’ – you need to plan a sequence of blows which will be adequate to stop or unsettle the opponent. Don’t strike and then await a reaction (to see whether your strike has been successful) - blitz opponents with a series of maximum force strikes, because if the initial strike fails and the opponent gets a chance to regain his/her composure and bearings, the fight becomes more balanced again. In such cases, if the attacker is a better fighter than you (something you will only find out retrospectively, when it’s too late) they are likely to overpower you and ‘make you pay.’ Get it right first time – usually you’ll only get one chance. If you are unsure of how to defend yourself it is well worth learning more, through reading and, more usefully, through a certified self protection course. These courses are commonly available if you look for them and they do not take long to complete. Many people will have no idea how to deliver any kind of strike – or of how effective their capabilities to strike actually are. It’s useful to learn where you stand so that you don’t over- or under-estimate your capabilities. When you do strike, ensure you do so with faith and with conviction in the action you’ve chosen to take. Don’t do it half-heartedly. You may need to learn your capabilities first, or learn how to strike. This is easier than many people think because self defense strikes need to be kept very simple. Any able-bodied person will be able to learn how to deliver some sort of basic (and effective) strikes. It’s not really about fighting; it’s about attacking without a response from the opponent. In your pre-emptive risk assessments and planning scenarios (which you should be modelling whenever you enter any environment) you must determine what you think is a viable and reasonable personal space boundary. This boundary should determine the lines which individuals must not cross. If someone insists on entering such a personal space boundary you can safely say they have attacked you – before they even make any physical contact. Determine the extent of your personal space boundary based on your assessment of your ability to react. If you allow an attacker to get too close there comes a point where you cannot guarantee you’ll be able to react fast enough to an attack. This distance determines your personal space boundary and should be instinctively determined. It also needs to be determined for each individual set of circumstances (if you are in a packed train this boundary is different to if you are in an open field, for example). The boundary should also be determined fairly. It’s not fair to attack someone for what you claim is drawing too near - if it is within the bounds of social norms for them to get that close to you. The personal space boundary should also be used to determine when to flee, not just when to strike. If you need more space than is advisable under normal social norms you are then compelled to issue a warning in advance – which then allows you to justify a strike, once the lines have been drawn. Still, such declarations need to be justifiable as being ‘fair.’ You don’t have to be the best fighter to defend yourself successfully because the aim of successful pre-emptive striking is to avoid a fight in the first place. Violent confrontations are not fights - they are exhibitions. You don’t aim to fight attackers – you aim to vanquish them totally, without them responding (pretty much what they will have planned to do to you).
Lastly, always adhere to the use of proportionate force if ever you are forced to strike. This is not easy to do, especially in the initial stages of a strike. But as soon as it’s obvious that the threat has been ‘neutralised’ you must back off and take the next step. In many cases the strike is only delivered to give you room to escape. However, sometimes you are in a position where you are either able to (or forced to) negate the threat totally. For instance, when attacked in your own home, you may need to neutralise the threat completely because there is nowhere to escape. Regardless of circumstances, when the threat is no longer present from the attacker you must act to move to a place of safety, to alert others to the situation and/or to restrain the threat securely. This is both honourable and a legal necessity. Remember that the maintenance of your liberty should always be a self defense priority. Issuing excessive force will often threaten your liberty, from a legal perspective. That’s the background information on pre-emptive striking. You win fights by fighting unfairly – that’s the only reliable method known and it is fitting for handling situations of personal attack. |