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When in Doubt, Move
A police officer responds to a
silent burglar alarm one night
at a warehouse.
He is just moving from a
brightly lit area into the dark
recesses of the loading dock
area when he is hammered by a
series of blows.
The blows continued to rain down
on the officer and he knew that
serious injury or death was all
the awaited him if he could not
escape. His martial arts
background is in a karate style
that emphasizes circular
movement and whipping techniques
-- he resorts to his training
and begins to whip around in a
circular fashion to try and find
an avenue for escape.
As he is moving, he begins to
hit various bodies and, through
the fog, senses that there are
people around him. He draws his
baton and begins to land some
strikes as he whips around. One
backhand baton strike fells an
opponent. Another lands, and
another. He regains the
initiative and drives off the
other attackers.
It turns out there were a total
of six attackers who jumped down
on the officer from the back of
the flatbed they were loading
with stolen goods.
However, even when faced with a
situation that was (at first)
completely foreign, the officer
successfully solved the problem
by resorting to his training and
moving.
Action beats reaction – when
in doubt, move.
There is that time in any
confrontation or fight that I
call a “set” point. I’m not sure
if that terminology is
confusing, but that’s what I use
to articulate that
hard-to-explain-but-easy-to-observe
point at which one or both of
the participants move to the
critical zone in preparation of
jumping into combat.
If you’ve seen it in fights or
sparring, you know what I’m
talking about. It’s almost as if
one or both guys come up to the
line and – just for an instant –
“set” before they launch their
attack. It’s the demarcation
line where someone has to make
the decision as to how and where
they want to attack.
And, many times, it’s a sticking
point. You get up to the
critical point, set, and then
get caught flatfooted by the
opponent.
I think the reason is because
there is that moment of doubt
that seeps into your mind.
Whether the doubt is about
target selection, weapon
selection, legality of your
actions or just an unfamiliar
situation slapping you in the
face, it will make you get stuck
or hesitate for an instant.
The unfamiliar situation,
especially, seems to be a major
source for doubt. You may even
literally think to yourself –
now what am I supposed to do?
I’ve had people tell me they can
remember thinking, “I know there
is something I can do here, but
I don’t remember what it is”.
But, without knowing what to do
– they freeze.
You can also freeze or be stuck
in an emotional way too.
Consider the situation in which
I backed up an officer from
another agency. I don’t remember
too much about the original stop
in the first place, but the
subject was a very buffed
construction worker/biker type
off of his motorcycle with his
license and registration out.
The officer was dramatically
smaller than the subject and the
original stop was escalating
into some sort of confrontation
when we rolled up.
The subject is standing full
face to the officer with his
wallet, license and registration
in his hands, both arms extended
out from his sides in a
non-confrontational, but
frustrated pose. The officer has
swaggered (I use “swagger”
deliberately) up to the subject
and taken up an “interview”
stance (or what others might
call a bladed stance, usually a
pre-cursor to attack). The
officer is jutting his chin out
toward the subject.
Without remembering the details,
I do remember that the subject
was objecting to the officer’s
treatment in a firm manner, but
in my estimation not in an
especially inflammatory manner.
It was something along the lines
of “I’ve shown you all my
paperwork, it’s all in order,
now you are just hassling me for
no reason and I don’t know what
I did to deserve it.”
With this, the officer draws his
flashlight and positions it on
his shoulder in preparation for
a downward strike.
There is a big pause, a set
point. We’re all holding our
breath, wondering who is going
to kick off the action.
Without knowing all of the
background, I’m thinking at this
point that the officer’s ego has
put him into a situation in
which he is stuck. He has been
pushing forward, escalating a
situation to a point where the
officer is getting ready to use
physical force in a situation
that does not warrant it, but
his ego, apparently, cannot
allow him to deescalate.
The way to get “unstuck” is to
move.
Step off to an angle. Or move in
a circle. There is a whole
different line of discussion
about which initial movements
are “best”, but in the end
everyone has their own reasoning
about their initial movements.
The key is to move off line.
If you are standing, you have to
move your feet to move off line.
If you are on the ground, you
have to move your hips to move
off line.
Movement has tremendous
advantages. You deny the
opponent a target. You force him
to react to your movement. You
change the actual reality of the
moment.
Movement gives you the
opportunity to get you into a
more advantageous position.
I was confronted on a busy
downtown street once by someone
who turned out to be completely
delusional, but they started to
attack me when I had my back to
a busy street. While teetering
on the edge of the curb, I
remember thinking that I hate to
fight with my right side forward
(which was mildly disconcerting
to be distracted like this
immediately before having to go
fist city with this guy). As he
got to the critical zone and I
knew that we would actually be
engaging physically in the next
second, I moved off to one side
allowing me to get away from the
street and away from the traffic
– I was afraid that our initial
clash might result in me being
pushed back into the street. My
decisive movement did two
things, I got away from the
traffic and it also forced the
guy to turn off his original
line of attack and turn toward
me. He stopped his attack, I
think, because he saw that I had
taken away his initial
advantage.
Movement gives you the impetus
to break the emotional deadlock
you might have with someone.
I once found myself having a bit
of a wrestling match of egos
with a driver who I pulled over
for speeding. I was suspicious
of the driver because he had a
notion about running from me
when I turned on my lights, then
he started to pull over, then he
started to run again before
finally pulling over.
I was very wary and suspicious
of this kind of behavior – the
indecision as to whether they
will stop or not. Plus I was a
little mad, this guy was not
pulling over despite being lit
up. The driver turned out to be
a normal guy with his wife out
to pick up relatives. His story
was that he didn’t know I was
trying to pull him over, he
thought I was after someone
else. Okay, not entirely
implausible. But then he wanted
to argue that he was not
speeding, only driving fast. I
felt myself being drawn into an
unnecessary argument with this
knucklehead. Maybe I had low
blood sugar at the time. By
moving back to my car to look at
his license and registration, I
broke the engagement. I unstuck
myself from the conflict.
The cop locked into the
confrontation with the
motorcyclist could have gotten
out of his jam by moving to a
different position.
You could find yourself in a
similar situation – and many
people do – when the original
conflict begins to escalate into
a confrontation and you and the
other guy find yourself doing
the old, “oh, yeah, what are you
going to do about it?” argument.
Your ego and the other guy’s ego
drive both of you towards of
point at which the confrontation
turns into a fight.
Marc MacYoung likens this kind
of behavior to that of
inexperienced poker players
continuing to raise each others’
bet simply because they have too
much invested in the pot and not
necessarily because they have a
good hand.
Movement is an initial starting
point to begin solving problems.
Remaining frozen in place
because of indecision or lack of
training allows the opponent to
gain a huge advantage. Think of
a fight akin to a chess match.
In a chess match, one person
makes a move. Then the opponent
makes a move and so forth. If
you played chess against someone
and allowed them to make two,
three, four moves without making
a move of your own, the match
would be over pretty darned
quick.
The same holds true for a fight.
If you allow your opponent to
make a series of moves without
answering or countering any of
them, you will be obliterated in
short order.
So the secret is to move. Your
movement will at least negate
his first move.
Your first move? Step back.
Better yet, step back at an
angle.
Unfortunately, we seem to be
hard-wired in retreating from a
threat in a direct line
backwards. It’s better than
nothing, but an attacker can
gain ground faster than you can
give ground in a straight line.
Better to step back at an angle.
Often, it’s even better to step
off at a right angle.
Imagine you are standing in the
middle of a clock facing 12
o’clock. At the very least, you
should step back to the 6
o’clock mark. Better is to step
to the 5 or 4 o’clock angle.
Best, perhaps, is to step off to
the 3 o’clock angle.
This method of movement works
for physical confrontations as
well as emotional, ego-driven
ones as well. By physically
stepping off at an angle, you
can break the emotional
connection you have with the
other person. It gives you a
tactical advantage as well.
On the ground, you need to
embrace the same principle. If
you are stuck, you need to move.
Here you will need to move your
hips instead of your feet. If
you just lay there, the opponent
will maneuver into a more
advantageous position.
Get off your back by turning up
onto your side, preferably
facing the opponent. Scoot your
hips away from the opponent to
give you room to move.
Generally in a grappling
situation, the person on the
bottom wants to move to increase
his space and the person on the
top wants to inhibit that
movement to decrease the space
between them.
In the grand scheme of personal
combat, there are different
types of movement, e.g. linear,
circular, vertical, etc. And all
of those can’t be addressed
here. But the point of the
article is to recognize the
sticking points of
confrontations and “unstick” the
situation by moving.
Be cognizant of its power and
focus on it during your next
training session.
Brad Parker
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