A good friend of the Wednesday Night Group is Hock Hochheim. Hock has talked to us about what he calls “the myth of the duel”. What he means is that most people in martial arts train as if were still living in the age of dueling. The age of dueling was a time when two gentlemen would meet at a certain time and settle their differences with either a gun or sword. The closest thing to that we have today is the Boxing or MMA match, where two fighters would meet at a certain time with rules and a referee. When I was in high school in the 1950’s it was still common for two guys to meet at a park after school and have a fight. They would square off like two boxers and the fight was on. When one gave up the fight was over, and they shook hands and usually became friends. Sadly those days are long gone.
Today most street type fights occur in a bar or nightclub and there is usually some one to break it up. In the street it is a different story. Sometimes it’s a robber with a gun that wants your wallet. While the best thing to do may be to throw your wallet one way and run the other, some of the time we resist and then have a good chance of not making it home to our family. What to do against an armed assailant is beyond the scope of this article. However, what to do against an unarmed opponent who confronts you in a public situation is not.
The worst thing you can do in a street confrontation is jump into a stance as soon the person says something like, “What the hell are you looking at?”.
This will not scare them and gives them way too much information. When someone comes up to you in the street, it may be only to find out how to get somewhere or what time it is. They may be totally innocent or be a thug seeing how you react to their approaching you. The point is that you have no idea what is going on. What you must be sure to do in any case is to remain calm and make sure that the distance between you and the person is far enough away that to attack you they must step forward. Bruce Lee called that “the fighting measure”.
You must also learn to always stand in a natural stance with your strong leg forward and your hands in a relaxed position.
Below we see the natural stance talking to someone in the street at the proper distance.
If the person you are talking to tries to step toward you raise both hands as a barrier and tell him in a strong voice not to take another step.
If he continues to come forward you can use a double finger thrust to the eyes.
Or you could use a different response based on your level of skill and training.
The important thing is to keep your response simple and direct. After you have stopped the attack you can decide to retreat or finish him. In most cases it might be best to just get the hell out of there.
The important thing is that whenever you go out of the house you need to make sure that you are able to come home in one piece.
