A self-defence technique is born

The question you should ask yourself when training how to fight multiple opponents is ‘will my strategy work against an activated group of attackers’? A lot of self-defense strategies are born out of half-activated training, which means they have a high failure rate when the pressure from the group increases. Shielding is a good example of this.

I can remember a particular group attack training session in my days as a student of the arts. Someone figured out that they could use their opponents to change direction and cause a lot of disruption within the group at the same time. As they were going past the opponent they would hook a wrist or a forearm on someone’s neck while using their other hand to stabilise themselves, and move off in a direction that would spin that opponent into on-coming attackers. They did this in a way that still enabled them to move with a reasonable speed within the group. As onlookers, we thought it was fantastic to watch, what a great strategy, members of the group we going everywhere.

However, when the individual in question attempted their strategy against a group of seniors playing the part of the attackers, he got taken to the ground in seconds. We quickly realised it was delusional, and once again the technical solutions failed once the pressure from the group became high enough.

Basically, the attempts at manipulating people worked on the weaker group members but the seniors knew how to absorb people and they weren’t going to be manipulated by anyone; they had real determination and intent to stop the individual from escaping the group. It was a loss of face to allow the individual to get to safety.

The lesson we learned at the time was, just because something works for you once or twice, does not mean it is a good strategy. You need something that gives you the highest chance of success regardless of the situation, as you don’t know what kind of opposition you might have to face. As the opposition gets tougher, the fancier strategies will fail, as will your chances of getting safely out of the situation.

Some of the things you see put forward as a practical self-defence strategy will work to a degree, but that is mainly because a lot of fights are half-hearted affairs. However if the group truly activates, then expect it to quickly fall apart.

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