Any strategies for defending against multiple oppenents?

[WolverineGuy]

Exactly what has been said before. Be loud, be vicious. Attack the knees, throat...something that will end the fight quickly.

[Tal]

My strategy would to get one guy on the floor, by tripping/throwing/whatever, and then incapacitate another guy while that one is on the floor. If you get the lead attacker on the floor, that will have a big impact. While he's down, you then get very violent on the next guy. As people have said, you need to be swift. I'd go for pressure point strikes on the neck and hope for a quick knock out (or kill). Then you throw whoever is closest to you, and then knock out someone else. Throw one guy, knock out the next and reapeat until they're all down.

 

I havn't really had the chance to try this. I've fought multiple attackers before (4 of them), but I got beat down before I had the chance to do anything (they were experienced street fighters).

[Akira13]

Thanks guys/girls!

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Battling multiple opponents is not as hard as most people think. You can freely hit all of them, but they can hit only you. This is an essential part of the strategy when dealing with multiple adversaries.

 

There are paths and angles. If you allow them to surround you, then you are in trouble, and is essential that you remove yourself from the center of hostilities. What you want to do is get them to 'crowd' each other or get in each other's way. You can do this by attempting to line them up, or have their paths cross. This essentially limits the amount of targets to one at a time, mobility is the key. Stand still and they have time to move around you. One step of yours can equate to 4 or 5 of their steps, so you can undermine their efforts far quicker than they can undermine yours.

 

Now, who to attack first. The first person to attack is the person who is most likely going to attack you. When dealing with multiple adversaries that clearly intend on causing you physical injury, you 'have' to be the aggressor. Two factors decide who you must attack first. One is, the aggressiveness of your different adversaries, and the other is, proximity.

 

Do not spend too much time on any one adversary. Strike and move. Do not allow anyone to get behind you and at the first 'reasonable' opportunity, run.

 

And, of course... if there is a way to 'talk' your way out of it all... even if you have to apologize for having done nothing wrong, swallow your 'ego' and do so. Property is not worth it, ego is not worth it.

 

edit: yes... being vicious is important. Those holding to a degree of hesitation may back off. But, don't focus too hard on any one opponent with your fury, as you can get mentally locked down. Also, if possible, periodically yell "stop" and "fire" at full volume. This 'can,' surprisingly, end it. "Stop" reminding them that 'they' were the initiators, and "Fire" reminding them that people might come to your rescue, or police may be coming any minute. The mental game is just as important as the physical game.

Yep, I'd go along with this. You need to keep moving most of the time to keep them off balance and screw up an plans they have of surrounding you. Also, if one of them gets to close, you need to attempt to put that person DOWN and out of the fight with anything that will do the trick, such as a hard groin kick or vicious kick to his knee. It makes the others hesitate and think twice about getting to close to you.

 

Fighting multiple attackers can be reltively easy if you work them against each other by keeping yourself moving. Make them bump into each other by shifting your position.

[Bdaze]

Going crazy and beating the tar out of the first guy you get to isn't a bad idea. on the other hand, if the others are intent on beating the tar out of you, beeing intimidating wont help

 

in a group, attackers feed of of each other for courage. After all, they can;t just back down in front of their mates? right?

 

my advice is use people like objects. if you're big like me you can easily muscle people around and change their path of attack.

 

throw or shove one into another. hit them so they back up into their buddy who's just winding up

 

get one in a choke or arm bar and use him to fend off the others. if you're good enough the'll wind up kicking the **** out of their friend instead of you.

 

because there are many of them and they have to look out for each other, and there is just you that you have to look out for you can use their lack of mobility to your advantage

 

and most important; NEVER EVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GO TO THE GROUND!!! i dont care how good of a grappeler you are. you're going to wind up getting a boot party if take it to the ground

[equaninimus]

and most important; NEVER EVER EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GO TO THE GROUND!!! i dont care how good of a grappeler you are. you're going to wind up getting a boot party if take it to the ground

Excellent advice, but prepare for angry retorts from many of the mixed martial arts types!

[blitzcraig]

Guns...lots of guns. J/k

 

Anyways...I think it is a mental thing. If you can make one in as much pain as possible....the others might back off giving you more time to react. Now....if its in class sparring, the quickest moves you have and trips and get ready to block.

[JerryLove]

Fighting Against Multiple Opponents

 

2002 - Gerald Love

 

Fighting multiple attackers is a situation every rational martial artist fears, and with good reason. As artists we train with a few basic ideas that make this particularly terrifying. In this article I will attempt to explain, in relatively generic terms, the assumptions we must make, and methods we must use to survive the multiple-attacker scenario.

 

Assumptions

 

Let's start with the assumptions made in general of martial situations and the ones we need to make in regards to this situation. The first assumption is in regards to the opponent's skill and ability. There is an old axiom in fighting to never assume that your opponent is inferior to yourself in fighting ability. This is typically a very good perspective, as it prevents you from acting from a position of overconfidence. The problem appears when you attempt to apply this logic to a multiple-attacker situation. As the old "could you defeat two of yourself" argument goes, the chance of prevailing against two or more opponents under that assumption is so low that many martial arts have chose to ignore that line of training all-together.

 

That said, let's make some new paradigms. We don't know how good our opponent or opponents are; we shall assume from a tactic standpoint that they are as good or better as we are; this encourages us to only fight in situations where we would fight even if we knew we were going to loose. Since I think this is a good acid test for "should I fight or run", this works well. Though we have decided to train with that mentality, we recognize none-the-less that we, as martial artists, have devoted our time and sweat to becoming better fighters, and the reality is that our opponents on the street are likely to be less-capable fighters than we are. Therefore, it is quite possible to win the multiple-opponent situation. Further, since the fight has been forced, we have no real option but to try to win, so let's move on.

 

The Setup

 

So how do we accomplish it? Well, all situations and artists are unique. Let's get the obvious out of the way. Don't be there. That is, attempt escape or de-escalation from the moment you realize the danger. Start trying to position yourself near the exit, near the wall, near the bouncer, whatever from the beginning, even as you are trying to end the situation. I'll start with the assumption that this has failed and combat has started with you surrounded; if you start already at the outside, then you will have accomplished the first few steps anyway.

 

Rule one of all fights, especially multiple-attacker fights, is "keep moving". Be in motion before the fight starts and don't stand still. When you stand still, that allows your opponents to choose to hit you on their terms and all at once, you will go down and you will loose.

 

Rule two, you want to be able to see all of them. This means that you don't want to be in the "middle of the circle". You want to move to the outside of your opponents so that all of your opponents are in the smallest arc in-front of you that you can manage (a 360 degree circle is bad, all lined up in a 5 degree arc is good). How you will move from the inside to the outside will vary based on your art and situation. The first, easiest, way, is if there is an opening in their group that you can run through. If there is a wall (or better, an exit) there wonderful. A wall makes sure that they cannot get behind you again. Be wary, however of corners for they are mixed blessings, you limit your opponents to a 90 degree arc, but you are also immobile. (remember rule one)

 

The Fight

 

If there is not a hole already there for you, you are going to have to make one. There are a couple ways to do so, and your training will determine which you can use. Our first choice is available on video (tape 1s24), you may be able to charge through someone close, or grapple and reverse position; the details of how any individual should best accomplish this is beyond the scope of this article.

 

Once you have some sort of tenable position the fighting begins. You usually want to fight the most aggressive opponent; one good reason for this is he will be the closest to you (being the most aggressive) and therefore the most convenient target. It's important to keep moving (rule 1) and to make sure they don't get behind you again. I find that baiting attacks is useful for this; offer a target and withdraw it in order to lure your closest opponent into committing to an attack at your prompting.

 

If someone gets in real close, beat them around and use them as a shield against the others; but if they manage to make a good-effort escape or someone gets past them, let go and move to the next guy; you don't want to let yourself get tied up with one person when another has moved into position (remember you need to remain mobile).

 

Keep looking for that escape position, while you may exhaust all of your opponents, that's unlikely enough that you should be really using this as a tactic to escape. If that's really not possible, look to clutter the battlefield as much as possible, make them work to get to you, so you can have less to deal with at a single time.

 

If there is no way to maneuver to escape, then you should look at relatively quick methods of removing opponents from the fight. What that is will vary based on available weapons and your skills and tactics. Mechanical disables (hyperextensions of knees and ankles), rendering unconscious or dead, and virtual disables (blinding) are all effective methods of removing someone from pursuit and effectively fighting you. If you disable one attacker then move, you are fighting that many less; disable enough and the fight is over.

[WolverineGuy]

Hey, even I wouldn't advocate going to the ground with multiple opponents, that's just plain silly. However, grappling ability is PARAMOUNT in case you do end up there, and its more likely to happen with multiple attackers. It takes a degree of comfort and talent not to panic down there. Now, I'm not suggesting that you fight and try to stay there, but the fact of the matter is, someone well versed in grappling will have a hell of a lot better chance in getting back up and escaping than someone who doesn't normally fight down there.