The Scenario
You are invited to your friend’s birthday party at a downtown bar. You aren’t all that hip to the bar scene but it is your friend’s birthday so you decide to go, after all you are a martial artists and several of your friends will be there so nothing can go wrong. Fast forward, much to your happiness it was a peaceful evening with no dumb drunks starting fights.
But on your way to your car you see 3 men quickly approaching you from the side. One of them asks for the time, you turn and just in time manage to duck a sucker punch aimed right at your head. You quickly assess the situation and are happy that you decided to bring your extendable baton asp with you, you quickly draw it just in time to smash it into the fist of the second punch.
The next guy has watched too many UFC matches and decides to attempt a double leg takedown, you are too close to use the asp so you sprawl and catch him. You quickly knee him and smash the asp to the back of his head but just then you are tackled from behind. Your asp goes flying. You are being punched in the back of the head but your cool head kicks in and you bring your elbow and knee together and get to your back, quickly umpah your attacker, tie up his arms, roll him and then quickly take him out from his guard position.
You get back to your feet ASAP just in time to see that the first guy who got his hand smashed by the asp is moving toward your former weapon. You quickly slam a sidekick to the back of his knee dropping him and elbow his head. You now realize that all attackers are injured enough that you can get the heck out of Dodge and you are gone.
That scenario may have taken a couple of minutes to read but it only would have taken about 20 seconds to fight had it been real. A testament to the ferocity of real violent combat.
During this scenario which style of martial arts did you use? Brazilian Jujitsu? Muay Thai? Tae Kwon Do? Escrima? Wing Chun?
The correct answer of course is, “yes.” You used all of them and more. And herein lies the biggest mistake that most martial artists make, they only train in one range of combat as per their style’s range. If you train boxing you only train in boxing range. With Muay Thai you may train in kicking, boxing and clenching/trapping range but you don’t train with weapons or on the ground. With Brazilian Jujitsu there are no weapons, no kicking, boxing or trapping ranges. A weapons system such as Escrima will think that because they have a knife or club that they can easily use that in any range, and in many cases they can, but not all. Even someone who carries a concealed firearm will often think that they have all of their bases covered but in our scenario above, that individual would have been sucker punched and either knocked unconscious or knocked to the ground unable to draw their gun before being mounted and punched.
So the next logical conclusion is to train in at least one system that can have an answer for each range…
Kicking Range: Muay Thai, TKD, Karate, etc.
Punching Range: Muay Thai, boxing, Krav Maga, etc.
Trapping/Clenching Range: Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Judo, Krav, etc.
Ground: BJJ, Wrestling, Sambo, Judo, etc.
Weapons: Escrima, Kali, etc.
Firearms: … really did you think we could forget about this range? What would you do if a gun was pulled on you up close? At distance? You better find out. Krav Maga and a good firearms training course will help out here.
These are just examples and certainly not a complete list of martial arts styles that are beneficial.
But even this is not enough!
What more Brian? Well now you need to integrate all of these together free-flowing. In a real fight you move from one range to the next seamlessly. There really is no pause between kicking and boxing range or a striking and weapons fight. It just happens and it happens fast.
My students are always challenged to learn each range/style but only it’s most combative elements, tactics and techniques and then blend them all together. What we end up with is not Muay Thai, Brazilian Jujitsu, Escrima or even Mixed Martial Arts. What we end up with is simply martial arts or combat. Free of names, free of ego but certainly not free of a goal… to win!
This street-savvy is critical for a martial artist who cares about defending themselves in the street.
I feel the need to have some kind of name for this so I call what I do Jeet Kune Do concepts, as long as it is a concept I am not bound by any tradition, range, technique or style. If I find something that works better or if the climate of combat changes (like everyone starts carrying guns and wearing bullet-proof vests) then our Jeet Kune Do will change to accommodate. This was Bruce Lee’s vision, this should be your goal as well. Remember, you and specifically your life and well being are more important than any one martial art style or individual’s ego.
Until next time,
Brian
