Is it realistic to train for multiple attackers?

[Lupin1]

The other night one of the guys in the class told us he's been in a lot of bar fights, and if five guys attack you, you should just destroy the biggest one, three of the others will run and you'll be left with only one to deal with.

[lowereastside]

"Is it realistic to train for multiple attackers?"

Yes it is - back in the day my Teacher trained us to deal with multiple attacks - later I found out that he had more than 1 encounter with multiple attackers. I have done the multiple attack thing in my class - But I don"t do enough of it - This thread makes me think maybe it's time to get back to it.

[SifuGazz]

The other night one of the guys in the class told us he's been in a lot of bar fights, and if five guys attack you, you should just destroy the biggest one, three of the others will run and you'll be left with only one to deal with.

Sometimes that can be true. But sometimes the others don't just run, they take an opportunity to get an easy and cheap shot in to protect their "leader", pack mentality can go a few different ways. Sometimes the big guy, or perceived leader isn't the "fighter" per se in the group.

Think of the group of guys like doors you have to walk through, if there is a door made of Styrofoam its most likely faster to run through for safety, if you run at the steel door it may just delay you long enough for the others to whack you down. Even if you run through the Styrofoam and still can't quite escape, well, that's one less door to walk through, and now others may have to trip over the body. Either way, maximize damage in a minimal amount of time. Scare and gore works--Rip his ear off in the midst of it and bite down on it and give them the crazy eyes, might make them think twice....or you could just get shot, everything is situationally dependent, threat assessments must be made, no single option like "take out the leader" should be relied upon.

G

[Stewie3345]

I'm only a white belt so what do I know

But really, what's wrong with it? My answer is nothing. Whenever I spar, I find it better for my fighting skill to go against 2 maybe even 3 opponents at the same time.

I feel like it helps me greatly, so in case you're going to be attacked by several guys, then you'll be glad you trained this way.

[FangPwnsAll7]

Yes because any situation is possible.

[nookslist]

Well, all this depends upon the situation. If you are a normal guy like others than facing 2 or 3 guys is difficult. On the other side, if you are trained that how to fight than those 2 or 3 guys are nothing for you because in training you learn the various ways to fight.

[CredoTe]

I realize this is an old thread, but...

Let me tell ya'll a story. I was standing in line talking to a friend and student who is a professional fighter.(amateur at the time) He was on season 8 of the Ultimate Fighter and i'm a bjj black belt. So any way, we're talking and this guy comes up standing very close to us staring. So finally he says what do you guys do about multiple attackers. (we were talking about training and wearing fight tshirts) So I said get out of there. Be a track star. He disagreed and started to compare styles and said they do this all the time. We passively engaged in this convo for a bit before I finally said, well if you are that sure, lets go outside and you can prove it by fighting the two of us. Now his tune changed. Well no cuz you guys train! Whatever.

My point is if you have any kind of physical, aggressive individuals ready to kick your head in, you are naive to think you can stand against them.

Best thing is to be aware of your surroundings. Recognize a situation as it arises and remove yourself. Right guys?

JiuJitsuNation, MAs like the one you encountered get my hackles up They give MAs like us a bad name. Guys like him let their egos and the weight of their own excrement get in the way, and it leads to prideful disrespect, such as you dealt with. They also tend to damage the art of Karate / traditional MA... See, guys like him are also mostly tournament-minded, in that they're more concerned with winning big trophies for their school than passing on good Karate and students that can defend themselves. Being tournament-minded in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as tournament / competition minded MAs realize that that's where their training is (it can be very difficult to be both a tournament competitor and self-defense minded trainer).

What I'm getting at is that it's never an issue of style-vs-style. That argument is useless, IMHO. It's about the philosophy behind one's training. What are you training for, and why? In my dojo, we have a motto to aid in training... We all know about the adage "practice makes perfect", right? Well, our motto actually modifies that; it goes something like this: "Practice makes permanent. If you practice wrong, you'll do it wrong." What it means is, in the heat / chaos of a situation, your training instincts will come out. If you practice a move ad nauseum weakly, you will perform it weakly instinctively. Likewise, if you practice a move correctly with all the right technique, power, mechanics, etc, you will perform it that way instinctively. (This is why military training is the way it is, why LOEs train to shoot center mass, etc).

What happens is guys like that A-hole MA you encountered either don't realize this, or they forget their philosophy behind their training (their ego / excrement gets in the way). Then, their egos lead them to believe their tournament training can take on anything on the street. Tournament / point fighting = who's better, faster, more aggressive at playing tag (I'm not talking K1 or other hardcore Karate / MA competition). IMHO, these guys contributed to the stigma that Karate / MA is useless vs. MMA ("Hey! Let's join these underground fight / shootfighting / MMA competitions and try to point fight / play tag with them....AAACK! Why is my finger and whole fist up my wazoo? How did this 'know nothing MMA' guy PUT IT THERE?") But... that's a topic for a different thread...lol

Yes, we train against multiple opponents. We have very intense drills and kumite geared towards this. This is one of the main things we train for, and since "practice makes permanent", we train often and hard in this... And, yes, running is always an option!

[Hawkmoon]

Run away! Run away!

What he said!

Seriously! if the chance is presented take it with both hands and run!

Its a truthful open and honest answer! Even the best answer...

.....sadly this is not always possible!

If you find you have no choice, and there are animals/morons/idiots/ that will go way WAY out of there way to make your life difficult, multiple attack training is one of the best forms of combat you can be put through!

Its hell, its unfair, its hard its difficult...this makes it perfect, amazing and exactly what the doctor ordered!

Consider what we do...and remember we do it for fun, excitement! at the end of the day right?

We all 'fight' one person, in the ring/on the mat in the dojo.

We focus on them as they focus on us and we work towards the win!

Great!

'If' out in street this is the position you find you are in, for the most part it is also just you and 'him'.......sad thing is this is not true all the time!

You need to be aware of your environment (do kata with your eyes closed, don't hit anything and practice to finish where you are supposed to (for example facing in the right direction)) but do train to fight two people, keep the more 'interested' fighter between you and his mate, end the fight!

Now his mate, who already wasn't that interested in fighting you (else he would have been the more interested fighter) watched you remove the 'barrier' (his mate) from between you both....suddenly he is not so interested in you anymore .

.... funny how that works!

This is true in the dojo as well.

Back to the street...

Remember you had no interest in fighting anyone! They came to you and made sure it was you now you have to fight! There choice not yours!

Take control fast and in that action you take the higher stance in the moment and more importantly in there mind!

Think about it you have gone from not wanting to fight to being in change in the blink of an eye..........that's not what they pictured happening...now things are starting to unravel!