Defeating Multiple Attackers

(Black Belt Magazine Sept. 1990 V-28 No. 9)

Learning to face multiple attackers is equivalent to learning the words that make up our spoken language.  When we first learned to speak, we used primitive sentences, then graduated to more complex ones, and in the case of a college professor, to sentences that go beyond the comprehension of the average layman.

Similarly, as your skills against one opponent to improve, you extend your study to predicaments involving two attackers.  Begin with transitional maneuvers that favorably link you with them.  Learn how to make these maneuvers flow with continuity.  Experiment to discover how they convert into convenient angles of attack, defense, or escape.

When facing two opponents, examine how you can reposition yourself to limit your exposure while allowing access to targets on your attackers.  Once "contact manipulation" occurs, where your depth and range come to a standstill, began "control manipulation," in which you steer or maneuver your opponents into positions of immobility.  As you guide them into one another, you can gain access to targets and can prevent them from further retaliation.  Jam them into each other, disrupting their attacks with effective blockades.  Such strategy allows you to work effectively on one opponent at a time while you are protected from the other.

Next, look at your attackers as part of your environment, as objects that you can use like stick, rock, or table.  Aside from making them obstruct each other, make them hurt each other.  Let them destroy their base, obstruct their vision, cancel their natural weapons.  Tie them into knots.  Learn to guide them into a wall, a stanchion, a table, etc. if you can drive your opponents into various segments of your environment, can turn these segments into weapons.

Next, consider the principles of the "three points of view": yours, your opponents’, and that of a bystander.  As you watch your confrontation from these three points of view, you can learn that the third point of view, that of the bystander, is all inclusive.  It trains you to fight three-dimensionally.

You should learn to apply the principles expressed in the "gaseous state of motion."  This concept is derived from the three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas.  Water, when it is solid, seeks its shape.  As a liquid, it seeks its level.  Converted into steam (its gaseous state), it seeks its volume.  Consequently, the gaseous state of motion teaches you to strike out in several directions at once.  Like steam seeks its volume, you can strike two opponents at the same time.  However, to succeed with simultaneous strikes, you must gauge your distance properly.

Finally, your study should include the "21 basic principles of technique movement."  This will make you aware of how posture can benefit you and how altering your opponents’ posture protects you from their aggression.  Consider not only strikes, but also grabs, holds, locks and takedowns.  For example, if two opponents grab your shoulders from either side, step away from one, thus upsetting his balance and move toward the other to strike.

After familiarizing yourself with all the variables involving two opponents, apply the same logic to three opponents, then graduate to four or more attackers.  You will find that the same principles are applicable to all groups.  Study the various formations of attack your opponents can use, and create solutions for each problem.  Consider your opponents’ directions and distance from you.  Determine which one is spearheading the group.  How is he attacking - punching, kicking, shooting?  Do you move left or right?  Are you prepared to confront the opponent on your left or right?  Formulate a plan and act, applying the preceding principles.

The ultimate in proficiency is a result of simplicity and repetition.  Internalize the lessons learned when facing one opponent, and you will gradually become proficient against multiple attackers.