I saw some discussion in the NHB posts about fighting multiple opponents. Since this is a FMA forum I will start by discussing what I have seen from those arts. I saw one Arnis/Silat teacher who was very good as far as teaching his students how to fend off multiple attackers with weapons. He always emphasized that if you get jumped on the street you should always assume that you will face multiple opponents and that they will be armed...I agree. I do know that many styles of FMA were created out of the chaos in the Phillipines during Spanish and American occupation and are therefore very combat oriented. My friend who is an Arnis instructor teaches nerve and pressure point striking and ripping techniques which are very good for fending off multiple opponents. In fact his style is specifically geared to fight multiple opponents. The style he teaches was created by his great uncle who had to fight mutliple opponents in combat in the Phillipines. I believe that many of the styles that come from this region have techniques that are very good because they actually had to be applied and applied quite often in combat.
Fighting off multiple opponents unarmed or armed can be a daunting task, but it can be done. You increase your odds when you are armed. As far as fighting multiple opponents unarmed, this has been my experience. When I got out of college, my first job was working at a mental hospital with very dangerous people. I was an assistant to one of the the mental health administrators. People who are mentally ill or on certain drugs can become quite enraged and very strong. I have seen crazed individuals unarmed take on five people, fend them off and beat them down. Workers at the mental hospital had limitations as to what they could do to patients who got out of control. Basically they were taught to use locks and holds and if things got out of control, they would sometimes apply sleeper holds. Even if they could have applied strikes to the throat, eyes etc...I think they still would have had a hard time with the crazed individuals. I have seen women weighing 120 pounds who are mentally ill or laced on PCP give three or four grown men a lot of trouble. Crazed people often don't feel pain as their body is in overdrive and they have a lot of adrenaline. This is one reason why they are hard to pin down. Also their bodies can become very loose and when they strike, their looseness helps them strike with their full body mass. Their looseness also helps them to absorb strikes and they go limp when you try and apply control holds. People who are drunk or are sleeping in the car usually survive a car wreck better than those those people who are awake and sober. The reason being is that drunk and sleeping people are relaxed and loose. A loose and relaxed body will help you abosrb impacts. People who are awake in car wrecks tense up and become rigid. People who have rigid bodies and tensed muscles do not absorb impacts that well. I believe that people can adopt the principle of being relaxed and loose to fighting multiple opponents.
A Greek policeman that I know has a philosophy about fighting multiple opponents. He calls it blending and fending or the Blend and Fend. It involves blending with your opponents attacks and then fending them off. You can blend and fend, you can get to the outside of your opponents and into a position to escape or counter. The main principles here are relaxation, balance, slipping and rolling with punches, sidestepping, throwing straight strikes (i.e. hand spears, palm strikes etc), foot stomping/shin kicking and having a little imagination. Having good balance and knowing when you are unbalanced are key. Slipping and rolling punches allow you to dodge a blow without commiting yourself to blocking. Sliping, bobbing, ducking is faster than blocking or parrying. Sidestepping combined with slipping will alow you to move to the outside of your opponents, counter and escape. Straight strikes, like jabs, hand spears and palm heels can be used to fend off your attacker. They basically act as stingers to keep your opponents off you. Aim hand spears at the eyes and throat. A foot stomp is very effective. Foot stomping followed by a shin kick can slow down attackers. And then there is your imagination. The Greek policeman recommends that you imagine that your opponents have a disease and that if they barley touch you, you may die from that disease. Or you can imagine that their skin is very hot and if they touch you, you will get burned. I have had training in mental visualization and it can be very effective. Everyone has an involuntary motor skill that when they place their skin near something hot, your body will automatically remove itself from the heat source. This involuntary skill is fast. Your nervous system does not know the difference between imagination and reality. You can program your nervous system through your imagination to react to hostile situations. For more information you can read my post on visualization in the Common Sense Self-Defense forum. You will probably move faster if you imagine that your opponent has hot skin if he touches you...and if he does you get burned. You can activate that involuntary motor skill that makes you move so fast when you are near a heat source and evade opponents. So the basics to the Blend and Fend are that you blend with the attackers by slipping their attacks, sidestepping them and use fast straight strikes and foot stomps/shin kicks to keep your opponents off you.
I'm not saying that the Blend and Fend is the best system to use, I think that it has its merits and thought it would be worth sharing.
Fighting off multiple opponents unarmed or armed can be a daunting task, but it can be done. You increase your odds when you are armed. As far as fighting multiple opponents unarmed, this has been my experience. When I got out of college, my first job was working at a mental hospital with very dangerous people. I was an assistant to one of the the mental health administrators. People who are mentally ill or on certain drugs can become quite enraged and very strong. I have seen crazed individuals unarmed take on five people, fend them off and beat them down. Workers at the mental hospital had limitations as to what they could do to patients who got out of control. Basically they were taught to use locks and holds and if things got out of control, they would sometimes apply sleeper holds. Even if they could have applied strikes to the throat, eyes etc...I think they still would have had a hard time with the crazed individuals. I have seen women weighing 120 pounds who are mentally ill or laced on PCP give three or four grown men a lot of trouble. Crazed people often don't feel pain as their body is in overdrive and they have a lot of adrenaline. This is one reason why they are hard to pin down. Also their bodies can become very loose and when they strike, their looseness helps them strike with their full body mass. Their looseness also helps them to absorb strikes and they go limp when you try and apply control holds. People who are drunk or are sleeping in the car usually survive a car wreck better than those those people who are awake and sober. The reason being is that drunk and sleeping people are relaxed and loose. A loose and relaxed body will help you abosrb impacts. People who are awake in car wrecks tense up and become rigid. People who have rigid bodies and tensed muscles do not absorb impacts that well. I believe that people can adopt the principle of being relaxed and loose to fighting multiple opponents.
A Greek policeman that I know has a philosophy about fighting multiple opponents. He calls it blending and fending or the Blend and Fend. It involves blending with your opponents attacks and then fending them off. You can blend and fend, you can get to the outside of your opponents and into a position to escape or counter. The main principles here are relaxation, balance, slipping and rolling with punches, sidestepping, throwing straight strikes (i.e. hand spears, palm strikes etc), foot stomping/shin kicking and having a little imagination. Having good balance and knowing when you are unbalanced are key. Slipping and rolling punches allow you to dodge a blow without commiting yourself to blocking. Sliping, bobbing, ducking is faster than blocking or parrying. Sidestepping combined with slipping will alow you to move to the outside of your opponents, counter and escape. Straight strikes, like jabs, hand spears and palm heels can be used to fend off your attacker. They basically act as stingers to keep your opponents off you. Aim hand spears at the eyes and throat. A foot stomp is very effective. Foot stomping followed by a shin kick can slow down attackers. And then there is your imagination. The Greek policeman recommends that you imagine that your opponents have a disease and that if they barley touch you, you may die from that disease. Or you can imagine that their skin is very hot and if they touch you, you will get burned. I have had training in mental visualization and it can be very effective. Everyone has an involuntary motor skill that when they place their skin near something hot, your body will automatically remove itself from the heat source. This involuntary skill is fast. Your nervous system does not know the difference between imagination and reality. You can program your nervous system through your imagination to react to hostile situations. For more information you can read my post on visualization in the Common Sense Self-Defense forum. You will probably move faster if you imagine that your opponent has hot skin if he touches you...and if he does you get burned. You can activate that involuntary motor skill that makes you move so fast when you are near a heat source and evade opponents. So the basics to the Blend and Fend are that you blend with the attackers by slipping their attacks, sidestepping them and use fast straight strikes and foot stomps/shin kicks to keep your opponents off you.
I'm not saying that the Blend and Fend is the best system to use, I think that it has its merits and thought it would be worth sharing.
