These are belief systems that people are emotionally attached to because they’ve spent the last 20 years training a certain way. When you bring it to their attention that their method is even slightly flawed, they take it as a vicious attack on them personally.

But let’s tell it like it is. There’s a problem with modern martial arts. The model they use is flawed. The current model is that we will face an opponent that fires individual strikes that will be perceived and then countered. This is highly unlikely. At times this will happen. Given the rage of most attackers, it’s going to be a mess.

In the a new model, you train to fight a Tasmanian devil. Instead of individual attacks that can be perceived, see it as a huge ball of attacks coming from all angles. So the model is that instead of training against individual attackers, strikes and weapons see it more as a ball of energy. This ball of energy can hurt you or your loved ones and it must be dealt with. You had better have a strategy that involves redirecting or stopping this energy, weather it has decided to stop or not. For example a hip throw works well on a drunk who feels no pain. A wristlock works if he decides to stop from his broken wrist.

Another example is that a knife will never come at you with a set angle unless you’re lucky. It will be an unpredictable mass of stabs and slashes that must be addressed without focusing on individual knife attacks.

How come most schools train to disarm knife wielding attackers that wind up and slash in a wide, slow arch?

I understand that breaking a technique down in slow motion is one of the fastest ways to learn. Still, real life attacks bare no resemblance to what we learn in our martial arts schools.

How should we move in a fight? Sparring doesn’t come close. Reaction attack drills are close. Three on one reaction attack drills with the possibility of weapons about covers how you should move in a fight. So how do we prepare? Attribute training, concept training, repetition and drills. Combat concepts and drills will build up certain body movements that act as tools in the time of need.

You won’t guarantee success in a street fight with this strategy (or any other); you will increase your odds of survival.

Now you do need a way to break each attack down for training. Granted if you can’t beat one punch, you can’t beat five at once. If you can’t beat one opponent, you can’t beat five at once. That isn’t the point. The point is we need to take another look at the way we train.

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