356 - Fighting in phone boxes and cars

(Videos) The downgrading of combat sports continues... plus a classic example of some fantastic BJJ / wrestling...

Copyright © 2023 by Jeth Randolph

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In case you needed any more evidence that we are living through the last days of a “civilisation” in decline. If our crippling gas and food bills are anything to go by, wouldn’t the bread and circuses seen here be more effective on Freeview?

Hold the line!

Move over “Fighting on ice” and “Combat juggling” (no, really… see notes at bottom) here’s …

Phonebox fighting

“Learn to fight in a phonebox” was an mantra of the early RBSD(1) days in the UK from one of the “New breed” authors - it had a lot of relevance at the time in response to a traditional martial arts approach that always assumed a certain distance when defending. This author’s phrase was then later lifted by a well known UK combatives instructor and still used by him.

Here, sport fights are conducted for your delight and edification in the novelty arena of a vintage red British phone box.

It actually looks bigger than an actual phonebox and doesn’t appear to have been used as a toilet, so a lot of the realism - if you were actually looking for that - is missing. Although there doesn’t seem to be a functioning phone inside or indeed, any phone at all, so at least they got that right.

CarJitsu

But wait! There’s more!!

Hot on it’s heels comes… drumroll… “Car-jitsu”!!!!

Which one is the Uber diver then? At least give these guys some weapons or friends as back up…

There was a US instructor that started mixing RBSD with BJJ (nice $$$$ move) about 15 years ago or so (?) and setting it in cars, you know.. for realism dude!

Well, it ended up looking like sport BJJ in a car as no one seemed to be hitting, spitting, biting, hair pulling, gouging each other from what I saw at the time.

It certainly looked nothing like the video I saw of the brutal murder of a taxi diver, who pleaded for his life while being repeatedly stabbed to death with a large knife after a petty row with a scumbag customer.

Getting it right

Here is an example, for me at least, of a great BJJ competition format (no rounds, just a submission and an honourable, respectful presentation). And a classic match pairing too between two of the best examples of their prospective disciplines (Catch vs BJJ):

A better trained thug.

I remember talking at a training course up north with a good friend who was a policeman for many years here in the UK. He told me how many aggressive people that he and his team dealt with were increasingly seeming to be using MMA type tactics and this was now part of the cultural landscape here and that was many years ago now.

I thought about this life imitating “art” aspect while watching these videos.

I remember seeing UFC Christmas annuals for kids at a local bookstore and wondered about the seeds they would sow.

Can’t you see it? Granny cheering on little Mikey as he chokes out his four year old sister during the queen’s speech?

It’s a message that seems to be repeated everywhere.

A friend who works in a school showed me phone videos that are being shared of 14 year olds staging bareknuckle fights in the toilets at his school, complete with KOs.

OK, I’ll concede it’s probably more positive than some of the rampant social justice programming they’re exposed to as soon as the lessons start again.

These videos show an obvious pursuit of a quick buck, just like “fighting on ice” and so on.

But it’s also interesting to see combat sports being set in direct representations of the outside world - this is not an honourable test of athletic ability, just a freakshow - lowest common denominator friendly - down grading of the audiences already low world view.

It creates an association of fighting with everyday environments rather than as a contained ritualised context like the boxing ring or the open matt space of the Metamoris BJJ event above.

It creates a possible idea that fighting is appropriate and indeed, appropriate anywhere, if you were weak minded enough to think like that.

Perhaps we can see robbing a cornershop or gang fights in the Olympics soon?

Tesco self service KO’s?

Glassing a doorman?

Police car vs Moped racing?

I’m sure the corporate sponsorship deals will be very lucrative.

I’ll get the popcorn.

Notes:

1 - RBSD - reality based self defence

2 - Sigh… “Combat juggling”