523 - Things you learn from being punched in the face
Defining counter-offensive body skills and a correct strategy for learning - VIDEO / (DTASC)
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I went to a sports bar in London on a Friday night with some guys, not friends but acquaintances, I had worked with. The bar was one of those tedious backpacker type places where South African jocks go to get shit faced and watch rugby. This wasn’t my choice of venue at all (0 - see notes)) but the guys I was with were adamant that this place was a good starting point for the evening despite how shit it looked, so in we went.
Ground space is a premium in the centre of the city and this bar inhabited a somewhat vertical format to make use of an upstairs area so as you went through the door from the street, there was a winding staircase surrounded by mirrors that led to the pounding music and noise above. I remember about two flights of stairs with a hand rail, separated by a landing - how apt that term is as I was about to find out.
As I started up the second flight I could see doormen either side of the entrance into the bar itself and a group of guys coming out, shouting and starting down the stairs towards me. With my right hand on the hand rail, I had to lean out and over the bannister to the right as they barged past my left side. I glanced down to check my step and went to look up just in time to see a left punch coming which hit me square in the upper jaw and cheek and as I’d abortively tried to let go of the handrail to try and block it in some way as my left hand was blocked, it sent me over backwards, past the legs of customers behind me and down the stairs towards the aforementioned “landing”.
By the time I was back upright, the assholes were already out of the door. Rather than chase them out on the street to, no doubt, receive a group beating single handed as my hardly-dependable acquaintances were already in the bar and missed the whole thing, I rubbed my face and went up the stairs while gesturing “What the fuck?!” at the door staff who simply looked at me impassively.
“You coming in or not mate?” Said the monotone suited immensity, impatiently.
I paused, shrugged my shoulders and with a sigh said “Yeah alright.”
What does this fond recollection from Olde London Towne have to do with body movement training and a moment of personal enlightenment? Read on!
Counter-offensive “body skills”?
Body skills or athletic potential in tandem with trained ability depends on what subject you are learning, here our interest is in skills which aid the learning and practice of survival fighting. Not only are the skills different from say, football, they are also different in some ways from some parts of combat sports too in that emphasis needs to be placed on possible solutions to problems that don’t exist in that context - for example the mixing of weapons as well as striking and grappling.
Simply put you are developing certain movements that will aid specific tactics or techniques when fighting.
Some of these movements can be intuitive, others less so. The ability for skill development will also vary wildly from person to person dependant on a range of individual factors. A young person with an athletic background will have a far greater potential for skill development than a much older one or indeed, someone with a physically limiting factor, for example dyspraxia (2).
Before I look at the training approach that I use with students, I need to explain that the general movements of fighting need to be broken down and then trained to enable an increase in performance. These movements will be subdivided into Offensive and Counter-Offensive (1 - notes) in nature as well as those that may be considered combinations of both.
Here I will be looking at certain counter-offensive ideas that enable an