Aggression’s Role in a Fight
It is easier to see than it is to describe. We instinctively know it when we see it.
That person who is aggressive is just scary!
But why?
Aggression overwhelms your reaction time. It breaks your OODA loops. It is difficult to keep a cool head when someone is rushing in aggressively.
But just pure aggression isn’t good enough. Aggression without control can be dangerous for both fighters.
Focused vs Unfocused Aggression
Unfocused aggression is wild and out of control.
It looks like 2 guys standing toe-to-toe swinging at each other with all that they have.
It looks like a guy just rushing in full speed with a tackle, carelessly and unskillfully throwing his body into danger.
Focused aggression on the other hand looks like a young Mike Tyson weaving under punches and firing bombs on his opponent.
It looks like Rickson Gracie wrapping someone’s body up and not giving them an inch of wiggle room on the ground.
It is going in with purpose.
Story From My Early Days in Martial Arts
Many years (decades) ago when I was still early in my martial arts journey I had the privilege of training with a very well known and accomplished martial arts instructor. He was a competitor and champion fighter in several types of martial arts from full-contact Karate, to boxing, kickboxing, and submission grappling.
He ran a well-known gym that had a lot of pro and amateur fighters in it.
And since the gym had a reputation it attracted people who wanted to test themselves.
That meant some pretty rough and tumble training partners sometimes… and sometimes that would lead to some real fights breaking out.
The Russian Giant
One day a very large man, I think he was Russian, joined the gym. He supposedly didn’t speak English – or not well.
He was around 7′ 1″ tall and jacked.
This guy had a tendency to to train too rough with other students and our coach warned him on several occasions to tone it down.
Well on one occasion he slammed a female into the ground way too hard.
So our coach put on the boxing gloves and told the giant to spar with him.
Our coach started teeing off on him. LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT.
Unfortunately our coach couldn’t reach his head.
You see he was maybe 5′ 7″ and with the 7’+ man leaning back he couldn’t reach his head. So our coach fired off a bomb into the large man’s solar plexus and dropped him to his hands and knees.
But it didn’t stop there…
Coach continued to fire alternating left and right uppercuts to the man’s head as the man backpedaled on all fours.
When they finally got to the wall of the gym coach landed a hard uppercut that made the giant’s head ricochet off the wall and right back into a final big uppercut that knocked the large man out.
Overkill? Perhaps…
But our coach was protecting his students and teaching the big man a lesson that he can’t come in and rough people up without consequences.
After some smelling salts and a good talking to the giant mellowed out how he trained.
Lesson About Aggression
So a 5′ 7″ man absolutely smashed a 7’+ man. Most people would say that isn’t possible.
Well, yes… Size does matter. And so does skill. AND so does aggression.
If you watched our coach you wouldn’t see anything that looked especially skilled. He literally just threw a left punch then a right punch one after the other the whole time.
How is that any different than any street thug?
Because our coach never lost his balance, he never lost his stance, he was accurate, and he stayed focused on his attack.
THAT is focused aggression!
And that takes years of training. That is the difference between unfocused and focused aggression.
The Road to Focused Aggression
Lots of untrained people can have aggression. Remember though that their aggression will be unfocused and unskilled.
They will drop their hands, lose their balance, miss their target.
Whereas the skilled fighter will keep their guard, balance, and will be accurate.
The path to becoming skilled at using aggression looks something like this.
What you will often find is that as you attempt to be aggressive you don’t quite know how to put your skill together with it and you lose your skill and tactics.
Don’t lose heart. This just means you are ready to up your game to the next level by figuring out how to keep your footwork, stance, guard, and accuracy while being in an aggressive mindset.
It also means you have to learn what aggression is. Aggression does not mean rushing in or being out of control.
It means being determined and relentless in your attack.
Sometimes that might even be backing up and counter attacking and other times it means pressing forward into your opponent.
Summary
Aggression is a determined focus that overwhelms your opponent. It is best if it is focused aggression where you maintain your skill and tactics.
It takes years to refine these abilities.
Enjoy the journey.
If you aren’t training then I encourage you to start now.
Until next time,
Brian
