Fight Larger Opponents- “It dunt work like that”

“How do you deal with larger, heavier opponents?”look its like this… we are physical beings with limitations, nobody would bother to sit around pontificating about whether a chihuahua could battle it out with a rottweiler would they?

but could the chihuahua survive?

sure if it bolted out through the cat flap that the rotty couldnt fit through!

I listen to some of Bob’s stories about his time in the SAS… you know if a small special forces patrol is engaged against a larger opponent.
I thought it would be like Bravo Two Zero where they 8 men would kill 180 (allegedly)
but its not
they basically make like the knights in the holy grail and RUN AWAY!!!

ok its very tactical “running away” (whilst dishing out damage), but the only damage dished is just enought to achieve that primary objective of: running away

Now

you have said that you feel insecure… so do I so odes everyone reading this, you are amongst friends
I imagine that you think, “God if only I knew how to deal with that big bastard I would feel confident in myself”
Well, like the man in the advert says “It dunt work like that”

here are some SP /martial art favourite topics, go to any website and you will see the following categories:

-knife defence
-gun disarming
-larger opponents
-multiple attackers

What do these have in common? they are the stuff of nightmares, quite literally for some people

But the way in which we address these problems locks us into the limitations of the solution

Ok, say I do a “fighting a larger opponent” DVD

You buy it

You put it on

before reading any further wirte down what your expectations are

what would you expect to see? what would you expect me to talk about?

Ok

You have me in a room with my friend who is much bigger than me… it is a spacious room or a gym

what shall we do?

How to palm strike the head of a taller opponent

strikes to the body

head controls for taller opponent

kicks to the legs maybe?

anti grappling against a heavier person perhaps?

improvised weapons?

all in this one to one, spacious clean perhaps even matted environment

Can you see how much this limits us??? It has totally limited our thinking!!
Our job is to come up with solutions that allow us to move towars our objectives

WHAT IS YOUR OBJECTIVE?

If you fantasise playing out a jean claude van damme/seagal/bruce lee barroom scene beating up the local thugs I cant help you

I cant guarnatee you will look cool or that you will feel good during or after or that you will be safe or that you will come away uninjured or that you wont get some kind of ptsd effect afterwards or that you wont get in trouble with the police or a gang afterwards

Its a fight… its a bloody big shovy, sweary, clothing rippy, glass breaking, furniture spilling, girlfreind screaming mess

Can you think of a situation where you absolutely have to fight a larger opponent unarmed? face to face? in a square go?

I tell you what, I love to write and I have a very active imagination and it stretches me mate, it really does!
Its like trying to think about the circumstances where I would be foreced to face a handy slashing knifeman on my own with no weapons, face to face in a square go…. when and HOW has this happened?

Its just not very likely at all- but not impossible so yes, sure prepare for it…. but lets keep a balance
Why dont RBSD/SP/STREET FIGHT practitoners spend a long time doing the traditional martial art thing of working defences against mawashi geri kicks and reverse hand karate stepping in straight arm body shots?

thats a genuine question… now I dont know your level of skill/experience and I have been accused several times recently of taking too much for granted and presuming that people know more than they do, so if Im going to slow here I apologise I dont mean to patronise you- this is also for the benfit of other people reading

WE (meaning SP practitoners-for want of a better term) dont spebd hours working defences against those types of traditonal martial art attacks because….

“It dunt work like that”

Its pointless! Nobody is going to present a problem to solve like that and a TMA defence (downward block or whatever) wouldnt be the best solution to the problem even if we were asked that type of “question”!!!

We get locked in with our own paradigms which form the limitations of the solutions we offer

Use your imgaignation

and remember we have all been socially hypnotised by films and tv shows
from buffy to kung fu to dark angel to beleive in crispy neat solutions

how do we work against that effect? well use the same context (films) but differnt content… I dont expect to stand in the middle of the group kicking people one at a time in the face like bruce lee in the big boss…. I expect to beat the fuck out of the prick (swearing done consciously -its good NLP telling neurology to gear up!) like joe pesci in good fellas or the pen scene in casino!

Im creating an expectation in my mind (my mental map of the world) that more closely fits the reality of what the experience will be (the territory)

The map is not the territory- THE TERRITORY IS THE MAP!

Ive been around a lot of violent incidents and Ive never,
never been set upon one on one by a realy big guy- they tend to be more placid (read:secure in themselves) than overcompensating short arses like me (read:little man syndrome) ANYWAY

Ive had to restrain them, choke them (from the back and with help- Im Not stupid!), Ive banged guys bigger and heavier than me inthe face and had them shrug the punches off (they both got lumpy faces after but no KO) so whilst I am “game as foook” I am not stupid

On the other thread the reason why I mentioned the rock troll scen in LOTR is because I really think its helpful to expand and exagerrate the problem and come at it afresh without all the nonsensical presuppositions and assumptions that have been culutrally fostered:

“fight like a man” or “duke it out” Im not John Wayne and I dont have a stuntman to get filled in for me so pardon my french but F$%K THAT FOR A GAME OF SOLDIERS!!!

Your bigger than me and your starting on me? You cheating bastard

(Size and strength are weapons that give an unfair advantage thats why combat sports have weight divisions)

Right you have just given me carte blanche to do beat the shite out of your skull BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!

You want techniques for doing it? Nah, I dont think we should play that game… lets ramp up our state (into full code red sociopathic berserker blood lust) and just see what happens

You want to know how to deal with any unfair scenario?
larger opponents, multiples, weapons, ex grilfreiends, rock trolls (see exgirlfreind)
go and study a few Loki articles and get into that midset, go back and rewatch No Doubt No Fear

but dont…do NOT… please! think for one minute that anybody has a mgical solution to this problem, no system or style will be able to give you a better solution than when all else… ALL ELSE (you must try and avoid the fight) FAILS… get stuck in, egage with rage,hit with hate and have the samurai attitude of :
You cut my skin
I smash your bones
You smash my bones
I take your life

use reasonable force obviously

and remember thermopylae

This entry was posted on 21/07/2007 at 01:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorised. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.