Keep Your Hands to Yourself – Non Grab

When fighting multiple attackers, you need acceleration to give you sufficient momentum to generate a mass effect, which will dismantle the group’s intentions towards you. Just about every time you lose acceleration, it will be because you did not adhere to the principle of non-grab.

The theory of non-grab is pretty simple - never grab or be grabbed. It is a cornerstone of defence against multiple attackers. In practice however, it can be a lot harder to maintain. One of the hardest skills to learn is letting go of our addiction to locking onto resistance, be it mental or physical. Even when well trained, we still lock onto persuasion and aggression and resistance in a foolhardy hope of gaining something. We want to control how events will turn out. When things go wrong we want to slow the situation down to a point where we can hope to regain control of the situation.

Time wasting always allows the group to take control. The group attack comes with its own social dynamic and each member of the group will respond off a particular trigger, and it’s not necessarily the same one for each attacker. This is why you act first in front of a group, because the group will find it harder to focus on your intentions. The group will retain its advantage if they have the time to measure your progress. Your aim during a group attack cannot be directed to defeating anyone, or proving a point. You have to remain busy and free from the resistance, accelerating all your actions as if your life depended on it – which it might.

So you come face to face with multiple opponents and you immediately decide that you would like to be elsewhere and accelerate at the first attacker in your path to the exit. You have avoided being mentally grabbed by the group - chalk one up for freedom.

The following are examples of mental grabs. If a member of the group has done something such as demand something from you or insult you, or asked for a response and you hesitated in order to accommodate them then you have been mentally grabbed by the group. If you froze for a moment because you panicked, then that is a mental grab. If you take the time to assess the group then it’s a mental grab. If you are progressing through the attackers and slow down to engage one attacker for more than a moment then that is also a mental grab.

A good rule for defence against multiple attackers is ‘avoid all mental grabs’ and freedom as a philosophy can be of great benefit. Acceleration is also a key component of this as it allows you to defocus. Basically you decrease your mental grab on your opponent, by turning off your analytical thinking; this is accomplished as a by-product of the action of accelerating directly at the centre of an attacker. Also, defocusing, when it affects your opponent, is a way of dismantling their intention to get you.

Defocusing therefore works both ways, for both you in a positive way and your opponent in a negative way. As you accelerate, you become less affected by the distractions around you. The opponents in the group can be seen as just another set of distractions. If you focus on those people as a problem to be overcome you will lock onto the potential resistance, and end up fighting their resistance with your own resistance.

If you can defocus enough, you may then appreciate how resistance is only a distraction to people because they see it as a problem. The strategy for group defence really requires you to see each attacker as a safety zone, not as a source of resistance.

The physical grabs are more obvious and they are as important as the mental grabs. If an attacker grabs you or you grab them, then it could be all over and you won’t make it to the exit. You cannot maintain acceleration and hold onto an opponent at the same time. Without acceleration you cannot have energisation in which to dismantle the group’s intention. It is only when you understand the importance of time in a group attack situation that non-grab will be critical to your strategy for dealing with multiple attackers. If you lock onto any resistance, the group will be given the time to take you to ground.

The mistake that people make with dealing with multiple opponents is that they don’t give it the total commitment it requires. Ask yourself this question ‘How many attackers would it take to drive your mind into a survival response?’ At a number, be it two or five attackers, you will decide that you do not have the resources to intimidate, persuade, manipulate, dominate or eliminate the threat. Only then do you start to think differently from the two person battle.

As always with group work, train safely and under the supervision of a qualified instructor.