The Groove Life Belt and Ring are amazing and definitely effective for DA STREETZ! Go get yours and support the channel at: groovelife.com/pages/youtube-podcasts?TH-cam&Hard2Hurt
Wearing the Groove Life belt right now and it's the worst EDC belt I've ever worn. I don't like to make negative reviews, but this thing has left me no choice.
I've wondered about the ring, I thought you has a tungsten ring, which would effectively be the opposite, as far as finger safety. Mike, keep up the humorous horse sense, self defense, without pretense, or pretending.
Here's a tip for delinquents and miscreants. If you ever try to mug an mma guy and they disarm you and choke you, tap out. They'll instinctively let go of you and find the nearest fence to climb in celebration, giving you time to escape or get your gun back.
thats actually what happened "The Brazilian wrestler Leandro Lo, one of the world's top jiu-jitsu fighters and an eight-time world champion in the martial art, died on Sunday after being shot in the head by a man he argued with at a party in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city. According to witnesses, the wrestler got into an argument for reasons still unclear with a man who was apparently drunk and whom he pinned down with a typical martial arts armlock in an attempt to calm him down. Once free, the assailant pulled out a gun and shot the world champion in the head."
I found some of this out when fighting a Red Man for riot training. Taking a single guy down is fine, but when outnumbered 100 to one you're digging your own grave by initiating a grapple. Another 'bad' habit we learn in MMA is 'noise cancellation'. In a match, you ignore everyone except your opponent and your coach. In a 'sTrEeT fIgHt', you honestly need to pay attention to every voice around you, as anybody could potentially join the fight from any angle.
Excellent point. Not just in case the attacker has an accomplice, but if a good samaritan gets involved you don't want to be taken by surprise and starting fighting them too lol
@@rastabg23 it's just a soft ring that can add some traction. Metal rings can sometimes get in the way of things, the rigidity causing issues. But honestly, not a big deal.
Just throwing something I picked up after years of wet weather: have good gripping shoes and always wipe your feet dry. You don't want to slip while hitting, or running away.
This is like, honestly surprisingly good advice. I became a bouncer half a year ago and my shitty smooth shoes had me slipping all over the place for the first week. Replacing them was something I should've done on day one - it makes a huge difference.
Additionally: Many people don't respect their feet enough to wear descent footwear :-D Many martial artist don't respect the fact that they never fought in shoes :-)
@@fredeuhrbrand3789 We train in a back yard with bags, wooden dummy and stuff, shoes are pretty much essential. One of the students is a cop who wears the same footwear as his job to get a feel for it.
Facts you should check my comment before so fitting but even in a huge slopped mission hill st. in Boston it doesn't offer much help like fighting in an inclined ice treadmill with no effing ice-skates lol stay well brother and good advice my friend
When I was a serious competitive judo player I grabbed a guy who suckered me one night and held him down with a single knee on him, working out if I was going to choke him. Anyway, he had a bunch of frienda and they smashed me from behind. I was bottled, punched and kicked. I still wonder if thinking of every encounter as a form of judo was a mistake and I should have hit him and run. I just don't know. I do know that in about 150 other confrontations later as a doorman being a damn good judo player was Hella helpful.
I think a big aspect of it is to remember what each style of fighting is gonna teach you to do. Wrestling is never going to teach you how to take a punch to the back of the head from a second guy; Kickboxing is never gonna teach you how to get out from under a guy with a table in the way. You have to take an honest look at what each sport is teaching you, and what it is NOT teaching you. Yelling for help, as mentioned by mike, is super usefull and I've never heard it before now, while "running away" and "create distance" are constantly mentioned.
In martial arts your taught to focus on your opponent and control your opponent In self defense your taught to focus on the situation and control the situation. You got tunnel vision and focused on the one attacker. All you've ever known is one attacker. Never thinking that your back was completely exposed to others. Hell even in video games people do that. They spend to much time shooting at one dude focusing on that 1 fight and forget that he has friends who've had time to realize he's in trouble. But it all goes back to situational awareness.
Strength is never a weakness controlling where the fight transpires is huge plus having the nuclear option (the part where you slam their head on some type of hard surface)
Trained Muay Thai for 5 years before ever having a street fight, which ended with two parts of my face being bitten off, eyes gouged in, and lots of hair pulled out. Nothing I had really done in the gym prepared me to defend these specific things, but nonetheless ended up beating the guy into submission. My point being, knowing Muay Thai saved me in the end, but it was close to not being enough in a real world scenario.
Well yeah because anyone can be dangerous especially a bigger guy. Unless you can keep your distance, people will always do damge until you finally out them down. I dont think any amount of training makes you nearly as cool qs you would think. Never gonna be like a film dodging attacks and battering 10 guys. Idk
A few years ago I did a very exhaustive review of every real life fight I could find online. These were actual "street" fights, not retelling of them, or people playing, doing choreography and so forth. it was instructive as to what works, but one thing I found was that every person who obviously used practiced martial arts techniques (people who are fighters, who actually practice) won. Every single time. Even if they were sports martial artist. Even if they were "Danger bros" who didn't seem to spar a lot from the look of things. The best thing you can do, given that, is practice regularly. Also, waling away or even running, worked 100% of the time against a single person or small groups. (No real pursuit at all, ever.) Running away from a mob took real skill on the part of the runner, as well as conditioning, as people did actually chase them, every time. Groin kicks are very rarely used. (three times in over six hundred fights) but ended the fight each time they were used on purpose. Eye gouges were used ONCE. It didn't stop the fight. Also, the two fighters were the one fight were I saw two obviously trained fighters going at it against each other. (Some form of Irish/Traveler traditional fighting, akin to bare knuckles boxing, with traditional grappling from the look of it.) Sorry for going on, the TLDR is that practicing anything really seems to help over practicing nothing. Running away beats almost all martial arts against realistic events and a good kick to the groin works more than some people think it will.
I think you're missing some really important things in this analysis. Fighting is a specific type of violence. It's a small aspect of a much larger concept. It's no mystery that guys who fight well in the cage, can also fight well outside of it. That's because they're both instances of social violence. But most people are unaware that there are other types of violence that each require a shift in mindset and priorities. That's why combat sports can let you down in certain situations. They only teach you how to respond to one type of violence. Think of the group dynamics found in mammals. Social violence would be when two lions compete for mates, territory, or to correct behavior and establish the hierarchy. It's characterized by lots of posturing and ritual. The damage from these engagements can be severe at times but rarely lethal. It would be an evolutionary detriment to the herd and species if individuals died every time they fought within this context. Now observe how these lions hunt. It's a matter of survival for the antelope and the lion. There is no posturing, no competition, no exchanging of blows or sparring etc. The lion does everything it can to maximize its advantage and minimize its risk. It does whatever will allow it to kill and eat the soonest. This is hunting or predatory violence. When you're in a situation where someone ambushes you, uses weapons, has friends etc, then you are no longer in the realm of social violence. When someone is intent on using lethal force you have an extremely short time frame to act effectively to mitigate serious bodily harm. The longer the encounter lasts, the more dangerous it is for you. Combat sports are extremely effective for fighting/handling people but the competitive mindset subsequent techniques are not adapted for predatory violence and navigating the broader context of self defense. It's not hat they aren't effective, it's that they aren't effective quick enough for the situation. It's also worth mentioning that while viewing footage, you are only seeing part of the picture. Since social violence is the most common, it makes sense that most footage is just fighting. You won't see much predatory violence on tape (relatively) because A) it's way less common and B) people tend to engage in that type of behavior in places where there are no physical or digital witnesses.
So many good points. Sports fighting can develop a lot of good combative skills, but the mindset is different. There are rules, weight classes, no weapons, one attacker, predictability, etc.
True. Combat sports provide a solid base for you to start from, but they don´t necessarily give you the best solutions to threats you can face in real life. It´s similar to mathematics and engineering. On it´s own, mathematics is nearly useless to an engineer, but trying to do engineering without decent mathematical knowledge is impossible.
@@donrowlett2886 That is one side of the story. The other side is that the code is only as good as the inputs entered into it. Things like FEM are either excellent or completely useless, depending on how well you can define the problem.
@@donrowlett2886 That is pretty damn stupid, but not exactly what I meant. In physics, and especially in engineering, there are a lot of problems for which there are no exact solutions. Not every input can be precisely measured, or even measured at all. That is the issue in dealing with the real world, and the reason why predictions often turn out dead wrong, even when the mathematical model itself is sound. In martial arts context, let´s use an example that I believe actually happened in Brazil. Some guy became aggressive on public transport, so a local BJJ coach tried to subdue him with an RNC. What the coach failed to consider was that the aggresor had a gun on him, so the coach ended up dead. This a perfect example of an excellent technique (the mathematical model) failing to take into account the possible problems of the real world.
most of those I agree with, except for the whole one attacker point I’m not saying that sports martial arts do not have one attacker because they usually do but this is the thing you’re most likely not going to survive into multiple doctors in the first place in a straight situation unless of course you can find a way to get out of the situation soon as possible and there are people who say getting them into a line works or helps at least little. Do you realize how hard that would actually be to do
I'll never try to do a high kick in a street fight. No matter how well trained I am in doing them. Too much risk and kicking the knee or leg is better. But the rest I agree with.
I know you've done a video on this topic, but its worth mentioning again because it's an important dynamic to be aware of for self defense. Much like training in street clothes you should be training in different environments outside of a gym with a padded floor. I know it's not the safest way to train, but it's better to find out how much it sucks during training rather than when it actually counts.
Public parks are **interesting** places to train esp. given the uneven terrain, unleashed dogs running into your sparring space, psychotic homeless peeps meandering aimlessly about, and the unhinged frisbee that almost cuts your head off.....etc.
You get me every time with those intro's and i'm like "What the hell is Mike talking about this time". Then one minute later i'm like " Oh yeah i agree with that".
Good video! I will also say you need a system that also deals with, •Multiple attackers •Defending against weapons •If legal in your country, learn how to use weapons •Scenario training •De-escalation skills •Awareness training •The pre and post fight •Have some understanding about your country's self defense law, just incase you have to justify your actions in court.
@@mvndials have friends. Don't go into a dangerous situation where you have a high chance to get attacked by multiple people by yourself. Knowing where the exits are and how to getaway... Etc lots you can do.
@@dmfaccount1272 you're right but those are all preventative defenses. I mean if for some reason you couldn't do all that I don't think any martial art makes you effective against getting jumped especially if you don't spar that situation
Agreed. All combat sports have rule sets, humans wanting to win will develop strategies to win matches, and human nature is to exploit or maximize the rules to their advantage. But world champion skills at a particular martial art also means you probably built in a bunch of things that are sport specific but detrimental in the street.
Yeah combat sports skills and experience are a good benefit but relying on combat sports rules on a street fight is not a good idea because there’s no disqualifications or rounds in real world self defense
A mate of mine, a 1st Dan in trad ju-jitsu once found himself in a bit of a brawl. Saw the perfect opening for his punch and threw it bang on target. Only problem was he was so used to puling punches he did that in the real fight. He came out of it OK but it shows how ingrained training can become.
Great video Mike - love your work dude. I'd also suggest the psychology of going to training (to prepare) is dramatically different to the psychology of actually fighting for your life (what you were preparing for in training). Even hard sparring or whatever - totally different animal to life Vs death for real. Really hard to simulate this cognitive difference, as well, in training. You always know, hours in advance, that you're going to training. You put on the clothes, get in the car, shoot the breeze with your friends at training, your instructor runs you through a routine, you know when it's going to end. Fighting for your life just happens, randomly and (often) without warning. Full OODA-loop delay... Once again thanks for another great report.
Very true but someone who has trained and was in a situation where they fought in the cage will do better then an average mugger who has never trained. Totally agree with what you are saying though.
@@jayvee4165 Possibly. But the mugger *is* the prepared one in this scenario. The mugger knew hours in advance that he wanted to mug someone, got dressed, picked up his weapon, and walked around dark alleys looking for a good victim fully prepared to shank a mf and steal his wallet. The mugger in this scenario is actually more psychologically prepared in the moment.
@@LohJiaHung yes, I think a better comparison for him to make is that the mma trained/combat experienced person would very very likely do much better in responding both mentally and physically to said mugger than say, an average overweight office worker or someone who hasn't competed in sports since jr.high school
A couple years ago I was going to the gym twice a day training at powerlifting, I was pretty dang strong, I was doing Ninjutsu before my dojo closed. I could/can fight. I was still mugged at knife point. The mugger was just able to get the advantage over me by ambushing me and basically cornering me. The only place I had to go was over a ledge. My training and strength was nothing over his 14inch blade and timing.
you should check out the video he did with Rokas, because they rate ninjitsu as the absolute worst martial art to learn how to defend yourself or how to fight.
Well honestly, you still did the right thing then by giving the valuables. No money in the world is it worth to get your arms and hands sliced open, even if you could get the knife away from them. And if you tried and failed to, worse things would probably sliced than just arms and hands.
I started in the the self defense stuff and was really lucky that early on some friends told me "hey, you should right now start some more traditional basics so you'll have some structure and then the self defense thing will sort of slot into place" and they were so right. It's different but you need "Knowing how to fight" structure before you throw in the context specific drilling
Tell you what. Going from doing Martial Arts all my life to the military was a huge awakening. The level of aggression and chaos in the heat of the moment strips away all that years of training to primal instinct. Your first instinct is to YELL - but years of training Martial Arts tell you to COMPOSE. But when you're dragging battle buddy with 45 lbs of armor on while being gassed (literally) being tackled by OpFor - that'll change your perception quick for real world application of fighting. You never forget the guttural yell of someone calling out "STAND TO!"
I couldn't agree more with every point you made. It may be off topic a little, but I would add teaching various psychological tactics to avoid conflict. I assume the point here is you're already being engaged though. Side note, I'm not sure being able to kick yourself in the nuts is a great selling point for a belt, but I could be wrong.
@@hard2hurt thats a shame because its a really good thing to learn i remember the video you made about driving and just turning off and driving a different way if your getting like a road rage situation That is one that really made me think
Advice I give to my self-defense students: 1- If you live in a dangerous area where street violence is common, don't go out alone. 2- Plan for the outcome you want. How can you get out of a dangerous situation unharmed? 3- Use words. "Don't come any closer or I'll call 911" said loudly can deter someone looking for an easy victim, who may still be across the street. Obviously none of these apply to MMA training.
that third point strikes me as odd, where i live that's basically asking for a fight. people here have the "oh yeah? i'll show you bitch" attitude, not something i would recommend.
@@chupetaparamahboy That one is meant for women and some have told me it worked for them. People noticed and the guy just kept on going. Would have he tried something inappropriate? Maybe, if not clearly discouraged from the get go. I admit it may not work in all circumstances.
"ill call 911!" LOL SURE OK BUDDY might as well say "come fuck me up my g I'm totally harmless" bro... if you are defending yourself what you say should be in the same vibe of "If you come closer I'll kill you" or i'll shoot or youll get stabbed or tazed or the winner
Great article. I’ve done a few years training Krav Maga and now do boxing, kickboxing and bjj. The most common misconception I have found it that Krav teaches you to fight (not really) and that mma is superior to Krav. Both are wrong, they are different. The best part of Krav is that it taught me to have situational awareness and to run away if possible. MMA has been great teaching me to fight, defend myself well and hit hard, then get off the ground. I have found the two compliment each other really well. Cross-train! It’s awesome for learning!
I like Krav's focus on explosiveness, being intensely aggressive (even at the expense of technique), weapons and group attacks. Unfortunately, not all Krav places focus on this - they're just MMA ++ Also, KM, if taught properly, should wear you b/c you're suppose to train from a position of disadvantage, not "preparedness."
@@mxu111 yes, I like Krav's explosiveness too. I found when I started training mma that what I had learned in Krav (start from the negative) didn't help me. I have learned the best thing is not to get into the negative in the first place. Really, that's going back to first principles of Krav 1. Don't fight if you don't have to. 2. Gain the upper hand and fight explosively By training yo start from the negative, I find that I automatically reverted to the negative. That meant that people could gain (for example) full mount pretty easily. I would then try to escape it. Now, I avoid getting into that situation (hip escape, tactical get up) and then explosively re-engage. That's just my experience though.
@@martinpratchett "start from the negative" --> we called it "starting from a position of disadvantage." I'm sorry this created bad habits. I didn't have this issue. Even now, I like starting in certain disadvantaged BJJ positions. For striking, this is harder to simulate. In one exercise, we faced each other while sitting on the bench and basically only used our hands to tap each other. In another, we put one hand back like it was injured and attempted to spar that way. Since you used grappling as an example, I'm assuming your Krav place didn't really emphasize ground? Same w/ mine. That's why I had to go to other gyms to learn it. Sucks but what can ya do?
This video is awesome. When I started Boxing and Muay Thai, I was actually lucky enough that my Boxing coach showed me some street things when sparring. He'd start elbowing or trying to stomp my foot or headbutt me out of nowhere and when I first complained, his response was simple "1- the ref doesn't always see everything and 2- what would happen in the streets?" and honestly it made all the sense in the world. Also, even though I haven't been in an actual street fight, I always try out any pair of pants to see if I can kick comfortably just in case lol. Another thing which I read on a Manga I'm reading that's based around using martial arts for street fighting, it debunks the whole "BJJ is the best art for self defense in a street fight." There's a wrestler senior character who breaks it down by basically saying "if you take a street fight to the ground, you're going to do yourself more harm than good. There are no mats, the floor is concrete and gravel with rocks, keep that in mind." I thought that was pretty neat.
@@UnjustVerdictyou can doesn't mean you will, there's concrete you will get bashed into, biting, eye gauging, etc... it's a STREET FIGHT, and chances are your opponent won't be alone either.
Well perhaps taking the fight to the ground intentionally isn't wise, but if you are not given a choice then surely it would be good to have some grappling skills.
Good morning Icy Mike, I’m one of those RBSD dorks you mentioned. It’s all good sir because most of what you stated I agree with. In my opinion MMA is probably the best foundation for any RBSD practitioner. Side note I do have some limited boxing experience and it’s very helpful in self defense scenarios. I do think RBSD guys should do more training and pressure testing and include combative sports in their repertoire. I do think you slightly misrepresent the RBSD on gouging and groin shots. I wouldn’t bank on those “techniques” on saving my life, definitely have no qualms in using them if it help my goals. Again, your insight on using or having a combative sports foundation is spot on. Please, take my comments with a grain of salt I’m bit of layman and I don’t want to insult your X amount of years of training and experience. Another side note: Do you have any opinions on W.E. Fairbairn’s WWIII’s Combatives? Thanks for your time Respectfully.
I encountered this when I trained with Craig Douglas. I was comfortable with the guns and combatives but one thing I don't ever really practice even though I know it is when the line of talking to fighting has been crossed. I hadn't ever done that kind of training and even my job in customer service requires me to be good at talking, I've never thought that I'm going to have to fight good customer so when that line crossed I froze. When it went physical, I forgot that there was going to be a second person and didn't protect my gun. I was fine with the combatives, done that for years. Not great and the other stuff that goes into stuff defense. Glad that happened there and not for real. Certainly eye opening
When I just knew traditional MA, I always said I was super dangerous, to myself. I'd rely on intimidation and a few flashy high kicks to get them to back down. It wasn't until I took Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu to realize how much danger I was actually in. Short story, when I was bouncing at the end the night i wasn taking a beer away from a dude, way after lights on, so he tackles me against the bar. It was grappling that got me out from under, able to post on his head and stand up. Before he was able to get to a knee I soccer kicked his head into the base of the bar. felt his head ricochet between the bar and my foot like a speed bag. I was going for a second kick but was pulled off.
Nobody that transitions from TMA to MMA ever transitions back lol. You find out how poorly prepared you really were very quick. I'm doing a video on this subject soon.
@@hassanud-deen43 I advise Muaythai, and boxing, also try to develop a powerful straight from your dominant hand, 100% will drop an untrained Joe on the street. Every time!
Something that my old style of karate used to do was that we would do classes in your regular clothes like jeans and your shoes and be trained how to do stuff in that sort of an outfit we also occasionally did classes in the car park or on gravel so you learnt the difference of fighting outside also I live in Australia so guns aren't a thing we talk about when doing this stuff
When it comes to this topic, my opinion is rather simple. "You're not fighting for points, you're fighting for the right to continue breathing!" In other words, fight like you're crazy. Be loud as hell and fight like you're crazy.
@@hard2hurt fair point. Although I suppose what I should have said was "bloodthirsty murderer" instead of "crazy", though those seem mutually exclusive. Attitude definitely has a hand in self-defense scenarios as well. Granted, this is coming from someone who currently has had only one "I might die" fight though. So I'm nowhere near an "expert" in it.
THANK YOU MIKE! It is a very subtle but noticeable difference. Yes the groin/eyes/hair pulling/ear ripping is a thing, but there are so many other things to consider. Glad you mentioned street clothes, like jeans, there are other situational factors to consider also. Whats the ground look like? Mud/grass? Gonna be harder to be nimble on your feet and kick if you rely on being mobile during your sparring sessions. Hot asphalt and you are in a tanktop? Might wanna reconsider jju in a parking lot. Lot of people/legs around you? Same as mud/grass, you might not be as nimble/kick happy when you literally cant move. Then, as you brought up, did you even yell for help, or I've heard people say fire/r@p3 is a better thing to yell as it will get more attention. Looking where you are going and not burying your head in a phone is such a big deal most dont even realize. So many other things, and as you mentioned, stomping the head of a downed opponent is usually illegal in sport, I really dont care if my life is on the line. Lastly, how many people are actually mentally prepared to "kill" in self defense. Ive never killed anyone, sparred more times than I can count. Ive drilled scenario's for "real life" where I snap necks, gouge eyes, stomp groins :), crushed tracheas, etc, but I dont know if the time comes I would be able to "pull that trigger". If a person doesnt even train for sport, and get mentally prepared just to punch someone in the face, how will they handle potentially ending/maiming someone for life? I hope I would be able to perform, if I could not run or escape, or was not in a position where that is a possibility, but then again, I dont know. And I should be, given how many times I have practiced and drilled techniques for that very scenario. Anywho, thanks again. Great vid. As always, the truth is usually in the middle.
For me for preparing for the street means also preparing for potential multiple attackers and weapons. Yeah, if you train in gym with bad asses and real fighters that are better than you, you could destroy some street punk that wants your lunch money or smacks your wife or girl on the butt… But the streets are so unpredictable. YES, you will have an undeniable, overwhelming advantage in against a non-trained street bully or thug that does NOT train or compete. But just don’t get overconfident and respect always respect the streets…. Street punks will never fight fair and many times their power lies in the element of surprise….
Great video and analogy of bullets without a gun. I'd also add fitness into the conversation, though you may have spoken about it before. I've unfortunately seen a lot of the self-defense instructors that are out of shape and wouldn't be able to fight much longer than 30 seconds if needed, which is still a long time in a fight with adrenaline dump. They rely on an immediate fight ending technique and don't have any backup when Plan A doesn't work, or if they need to fight several people as they're always worried about multiple opponents. MMA, Wrestling, Boxing, MT all practice going for several minutes at a time.
The most important things you can learn for an unarmed self-defence situation are clinch fighting, takedown defence (including sprawls, and sprawl and brawl), reversals from your back, and safe get-ups.
People will say boxing is ineffective in the street. The most important thing boxing teaches you is range and distance. YOu see many situations were a victim lets an attacker get within close range. This victim is not a boxer. A good boxer will try hard to maintain that safe "out of range" position. Once the attacker forces himself into range, the boxer is in their natural element and now can go to work. I spent years as a 185 lb bouncer. I relied 100% on my boxing and a few simple joint locks. And if there are multiple attacker,s, the jab jab jab with back steps is more effective than a teep kick because you remain light and mobil
I love your recent videos covering those oft forgotten details! It’s good stuff, always makes me think a bit harder. One thing I’d add is that most schools are terrible at addressing the before and after of a (potential) physical altercation. De-escalation, or just what to do after a confrontation (and in what order) are given little to no thought. There’s a few books on the former addressed to security professionals that are worth reading, but I can’t recall ever seeing anything on the latter.
Training with a CCW is something I have been worried about. It's a small detail that seems like it could GREATLY influence how you move your core, how you grapple, and could even be a liability if you end up on the ground, and the other guy sees you have a gun when you didn't want him to. Any tips for presenting this to a Gym that doesn't necessarily advertise training for that?
This is one of the best videos for addressing this topic. MMA just needs a little tweaking with a small change in mind set in order to be street viable. How many people did my opponent bring if it's a bar brawl? How many of my friends are attentive and able to fight with me if we decide to throw down? Who has the homefield advantage? Who will the police believe when the fists are finished flying? Do I know how to communicate during an adrenaline dump? Lots of small details that go ignored.
That point about forgetting things is legit. I remember practicing some knife fighting with a friend of mine which for him was like the first time and for me it was like maybe 3rd. I discovered that when I simply check his arm with a knife by pressing it against his body (not even strongly) with my lead hand and attack with my armed hand he completely forgets about his own weapon and he gets fixed on trying not to let me cut him and ends up being cut down entirely. Training your brain I believe is the key. And it is not necessary to train it by practicing combat all the time specifically. Moreover unfortunately it is impossible for us to train realistic combat anyways. So we can do it by other means. If your brain is capable to compute under stress it is already a significant advantage. All of the physical and technical training must complement exactly that. That way I believe it's not necessary for a person to undergo through a set of different and very specific trainings in order to succeed in the real situation. Because this knowledge won't even occur to you if you'll get a brain freeze once the real situation takes place.
Even before I finish this, I totally understand. I have a world champion in my gym, but total sport. I am pretty concerned about defense for some of my students. (And myself)
One of the greatest lessons i learnt as a kid from Dad. One of the best tools for self defense, is a good pair of running shoes. Shoe reviews icy mike!!
You are wonderful and very special in your meetings with martial artists and distinguished experts in combat. I wish you progress and prosperity in your wonderful meeting
I stumbled across a martial art called Bartitsu. It's an old European hand to hand fighting style. It's interesting. I then watched how they also incorporate Savate and jujitsu as it was used during that 1800's era. Their approach is worth thinking about. There is even old black and white film so we can see the movements. You don't see them tapping gloves they are very focused. They practice in their everyday clothes, and even in suits.
Fair point, though in my experience when other people come along and 'help', the situation gets worse. Just the other day I disarmed a nutter with a bottle here in Manila. I was about to get out of there when a bunch of 'security' guards (they're everywhere here) surrounded me and prevented me from going home. The insane bottler insisted on calling the police (yes, he's an idiot) so there went the rest of my evening. The 'guards' also completely failed to prevent the idiot from continuing to try and hit me, and then had the nerve to inform me that they had it on camera (bodycam) that I had struck the latter, which I only did because they didn't restrain him. Seriously, when people help, it doesn't help.
Well, your in Manila. Its a different world there. Every time ive ever got into any kind of trouble there ive asked the cop if there was any way we could work this out like gentleman and 2000 pesos poorer I walked away. Which for those of you who dont know, aint shite in American money. Cops in the Phillipines walk around with AR's and shotguns strapped to them near malls and banks and what not. Walking Street, which is of course where I liked to go, they usually just carried a side arm. I bought my own cop there, to keep away the beggers and make sure I had my seat with the two fans blowing on it. And you can only smoke INSIDE there, which was weird, but cos i had my own cop i could smoke outside. I paid him 100 pesos every night at the bar. Well worth the cost.
I love this. Your toolset in self defense scenarios is different in every single aspect of the fight. On top of that your "win scenarios" couldn't be more different
Another problem is we don't train enough against people who are really bad at fighting . The average dude has no sense of range and terrible balance. The just lose their shit, swing as hard as they can , fall into you with their whole body weight , or try to grab your face . It's basically a monkey attack. In a ring or gym it may not be a big deal, but on a street or in a bar, you're going to trip over things or get shoved over a table. Hard to recreate that with other trained fighters.
In our krav club, our trainer sometimes shows us both the MMA and krav approaches to superficially similar situations, and then explains why we favor one over the other. It usually comes down to 'in an MMA match, the other guy's friends aren't going to bash your skull in with a baseball bat while you're looking the other way'. We do sometimes practice the MMA techniques for the fun of it, but most of the training does focus on getting yourself out of the situation alive and mostly unhurt.
@@jooot_6850 Hell, I'd be de-escalating the entire time. I'm an absolute pussy and if I can get away without fighting, I will. If I see a bunch of angry looking dudes with baseball bats, I'll happily take a very long detour to avoid them.
Lol I got into a fight at house party in 2016 and homie got angry about something tried to tackle me, I set up the guillotine but he bit the fuck out of my arm so I snapped out of that and started blasting him with grounded knees. In the moment I was thinking just tap him and calm him down but once he bit me I went full pride style knees on him until he was slept.
Spot on with everything in the video! Exactly what I’ve been thinking for years, but you’re the first person I’ve seen actually put it to words with cohesive thought. One additional thing I would add is how one would handle the adrenaline dump that would occur if the confrontation gets more serious with, as you said, a bottle to the head, a soccer kick, or your opponent’s friends coming to their rescue. It is extremely difficult to know via training alone how you’re going to react when that hits you due to the simple fact that subconsciously you know you’re training and you’re “safe”. Not so much in a real situation. Once that fight/flight/freeze instinct kicks in, unless you’ve been exposed to that before and know how to power through that tunnel vision (ie you’re a first responder and that’s part of your job), recalling your techniques might be nearly impossible for the average practitioner.
Alright! Your VDO content makes sense. A point I love to support is that dirty tactical methods can be part of the combination techniques during a street fight where one has to survive, not always to attain victory. Certainly, the headbutt tactic can apply only when we are clinching the attacker.
I will say it, the days of getting in a fight like back 45 or 50 years ago doesn't exist in today's scenario's, there is no such thing as honor or fair fighting (never was). Today all martial arts are great for conditioning and or for competitions. Today its only about surviving and protecting your family. I recently had watched a video of a retired police officer mugged by 3 men while getting gas! I asked myself how can I defend myself against that? I immediately updated my beloved knife! I was quick, really quick with it, but the movement itself would have got my arm trapped by one of those guys. Analyzing that situation and updating my killing technique I feel confident again in my abilities. It's not about fighting now it's about the ability to kill.
Mike, I have a question for you I don't think you have addressed regarding training weapons/mma at the same time: Do you think it would be beneficial to first reach a certain skill level at both things separately before training both together? I'm fairly skilled at the range, but not very good doing Muay Thai. (at least in part because i think going to the range is much more fun)
Most potential "street fights" I was in (I've had about 6 aggressive encounters in my life, 2 of them being threatened with a weapon), I was able to talk my way out of it. Being able to talk your way out of it while staying calm and not coming across as neither agressive nor insecure is an essential skill in my experience. Also: paying attention to your surroundings and knowing where the exit is at (and knowing when you might be able to escape). Besides de-escalation, sparring against multiple attackers and weapons is also important if you want to train self-defense comprehensively, even though its extremely difficult (or even near-impossible) to really pull that off in reality. Still, its important to experience what its like to spar multiple opponents or having to deal with a weapon, because it changes everything. But sparring one-on-one (boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, jujutsu) is a good foundation to build on. MMA guys could easily add scenario training to their training if they'd be interested, where they try sparring in different scenarios: fighting in small spaces or places with a lot of furniture, fighting in an area with little lighting, multiple attackers, weapons, fighting while having to protect your friend or girl/boyfriend etc. Love your work as always.
Those "too deadly to spar" dorks remind me of a certain Facebook martial arts group that claims to deal with bullshit in martial arts, but the majority of the admins are US Gravy Seals. ;)
I think it's also worth noting that there's a lot of other considerations on 'the streets' other than the usual neckbeard arguments or what's covered here: -You don't know anything about the guy who is attacking you - there's usually some info available for fighting someone in the octagon, if not full on footage that you can watch and analyse -You don't know what the guy attacking you can do - again you can often set up your game for the octagon based on what the opponent does / trains -You don't have gamesmanship of the same kind - this is the distinction for 'there's no rules in a street fight' because the rules aren't the problem, the gaming of them is (case in point, the football kick to a downed opponent, or think about Jon Jones' crawling toward opponents at the start of a match so he can't be kicked, or a BJJ player pulling guard and just waiting) -The floor isn't a mat - as you yourself found out on street beefs, it SUCKS to have your bare back grinding against a rough floor surface, let alone hit your head on concrete from trying to pull guard on someone -You aren't necessarily only fighting one guy - look at that footage of the MMA fighter who got into a fight at a gas station, then because of his tunnel vision he got blindsided by a 2x4 -You don't even necessarily know if you're in a fight or what kind of fight - Could be a dude is just going to push you - do you then kill him? There's the 'judged by 12' crowd but it's definitely a consideration -You won't have had time to prepare and warm up and get into a fighting stance and all that -The guys fighting in the octagon for money are at the absolute top of their game and level of athleticism, which is not representative of the average guy who trains some martial arts, whatever kind - the higher you get in a sport the narrower the focus becomes and it becomes a game of doing the most efficient movements with the highest chances where milimeters and miliseconds decide the winner, usually driven by a lifestyle of nothing but training and experience, whereas the more amateur you go in sports the more varied actions you see. Translate this to 'the streets' and while yes some kung fu or whatever thing would never work in a million years on a UFC fighter, it might actually work perfectly well on an average hobbyist fighter, or random untrained guy. -There are no weight classes - if you train to fight a certain way in your weight class, it could work against you because you're being attacked by a dude who is so much bigger than you that your favoured tactics no longer work and in fact put you at more risk -Aggression plays a bigger part - whereas you might want to try to maintain your gas tank in mma / boxing or whatever to last 3-12 rounds, in a real situation sheer aggression often happens, so accessing everything you have in a short time frame becomes much more useful. This isn't to say at all that TMA or the martial arts redditors are BETTER. Chances are they would fare WORSE than an MMA fighter due to lacking core fighting skills as Mike talks about. It's just that what works in the octagon isn't the only thing to think about, and you need to supplement with some of the concepts that those other martial arts might focus more on.
I hung out with a dude in my teens and early 20s. Byron was about 195lbs and he had a steel chin and I saw him wipe out guys 50lbs heavier a couple times. Wearing 501 jeans! He trained some Kenpo, but was kicked out for beating up all the black belts in his dojo. I asked him what his approach to fighting was and he just said "Ya just gotta be fearless, try to get in the first shot and then just "go ape-shit" on the dude." Tank Abbott's style reminded me of Byron..just a whirlwind of punches until the other guy was out or quitting. Byron broke down self-defense to two moves...hit first...then go ape-shit. Maybe his good chin was a factor in being able to pull it off.
A big fan of most of your videos including this one. A few points you didn't touch on that are important from a Self Defense perspective is: De Escalation, Distance Control, Situational Awareness. Please consider doing a video that incorporates these.
Totally agree, this has always been the case, but people never have the right argument or think it's a huge thing that's not the actual point. I know a cop that lost his partner because some perp got him from behind with a rear naked choke and just didn't let go after he was out, his partner who was a bjj Gracie academy black belt tapped the entire time until he died because he just never tries escaping rear naked in training. I think some things from combat sports, especially restrictive rulesets and the tap have to be handled in a specific manner for a self defense training, that's a very important point that gets left out of the conversation a lot imo, just like the fact that falling on your head on the pavement if you get knocked out has a much higher chance of killing you than getting beat up. It's like you said, the mindset for the situation has a bigger impact than people like to admit and mistakes have a much bigger cost.
At the beginning of the internet there was this music number called The Big Poo Generator that had a song "I'm gonna kick myself in the balls". Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Mike.
This is why I like you icy mike, some solid points. Lmao I'm having fun imagining people yelling during training. Kind of reminds me of the 123 marine corps bullshit during boot camp Lmfao I imagine hiptossing someone and mounting them yelling HELP!!! (Although on the other hand we did yell contact left right, "stack on me" room clear back blast all clear, yelling adracs and that's exactly what I did during combat)
Training injury - you are correct. I was injured in training. Never knew who injured me and it took a few days for the situation to get really bad. I check into the hospital when I can no longer walk. Then, the screaming pain and the surgery late at night and being on morphine drip for 3 or 4 days. That was from grappling and I stopped.
A judoka host spoke with a competitive judoka who found himself in a street fight. He started and ended the fight with a punch. He said it was an instinctive move. Batman would be proud of that belt.
I think it's more of a mindset & an understanding that typically in the "street" you're not fighting for points or pride; you're fighting to incapacitate your aggressor &/or disengage your aggressor in order to get out of the violent situation asap. Plus, a lot of sport fighting is more about glory & money & less about not getting killed. Fighting in the street requires a much better awareness of your surroundings & more survival focused. In my opinion & experience, of course. Thanks for the video, man! Keep'em comin.
Personally and this is a very unpopular opinion and many think im crazy but I feel like martial arts should just 100% drop the idea of self-defense from their curriculums and marketing. Instead just focus on sports, fitness, and history/philosophy. It's distracting and honestly I feel it is one of the biggest problems we have in the martial arts community is the need to validate ourselves as self-defense systems
I'm flirting with the idea of agreeing with you. The follow up video to this touches on it... there's just one problem. (It's the thing that's always the problem).
Had my feet in both camps. Trained Boxing, Muay Thai and BJJ and also trained at a quality Krav Maga school (they may be rare, but they do exist believe it or not). There the foundation level beginners trained in Pre-Fight Tactics which includes the “Get back(!)” defensive push drill. The aim of the defensive push while shouting get back are to: - draw attention to the situation to create witnesses in the event the situation leads to assault charges against the perp or yourself, and to increase the chances a witness will take the initiative to call 911. - to create space between you and the attacker and in a low level situation to show aggression that could lead to a backdown by the perpetrator. - in the event the attacker doesn’t back down you’ve created the space to read their movement which gives you time to see their attack and respond, or to pre-empt the attacker using long range strikes, aka push kicks to the lower abdomen/ groin. Other Pre-Fight Tactics training includes: - Threat identification - Threat assessment - Avoidance tactics (use of surroundings) - Distance control - De-escalation - Pre- fight interview (how a threat uses conversation to close distance and either disguise their intentions or make clear their intentions verbally). - Reading pre- attack indicators (body language) - Understanding a violent situation - Managing adrenal stress response - Disengagement and escape. - The legal limits of self- defence. This was the first month of Krav Maga training along side protecting your head. It’s come in useful more times than knowing how to armbar from guard or bow and arrow choke for me working in private security.
One of the most interesting fights I've seen happened at school when I was probably around 14/15. Two guys squaring up against each other. Neither had any training that I'm aware of. But one clearly had a good fight IQ. One pushed the other, but that was only to grab the scarf of the other. Using scarf he spun the lad around sending him to the floor. Not a single punch was thrown and the fight didn't even carry on on the floor. That's not something you'll find in MMA
Mind set is what is crucial - 1. NO referee 2. NO prior information about the assailant 3. NO1 to 1 fight (there could many) 4. NO rules apply . Yes we train in regular clothes , regular footwear and consider various environment and we also train in deploying the EDC. I got a call from a Muay Thai national champ who was beaten by a bunch of hooligans coz he never trained for the streets.
I have a question, because even though I've trained in Classical Chinese martial arts for over 30 years, I've never been in a street fight. When you say street fight, do you mean consensual like for example an argument turned physical or do you mean when someone jumps you while walking to your car? For me, those are 2 totally different things. I never trained in combat sports, I learned a LOT today. Thank you Icy Mike!
Love the video, but I must say that the Groove buckle can be dislodged with rolling/wrestling. Mine has been unclamped several times wrestling with my kids. I do love the belt, but think I may buy some “slider” buckles to put on my two groove belts.
This is a serious question. Injured hands are common in mma from punching, even with wraps and gloves, how are you going to properly operate your concealed weapon system with injured hands? You experienced a broken hand in one of your street fights, how well would you be able to handle your firearm if you had to use it the same night for home protection?
Ha! Now who's crazy for saving all those discount coupons for the Chuck Norris pants in the back of black belt magazine. Everyone gets wheel kick on the streets.
two or three years ago I got an otherwise unremarkable pair of jeans for Christmas that somehow allowed me to retain enough flexibility to still kick people in the head and it was oddly exciting
I’ve been doing martial arts in one form or another since 1979. The guys that do “sports” martial arts (jiujitsu, judo, boxing, wrestling, mma, Muay Thai, kick boxing) on average would completely wreck “self defense” stylists (aikido, wing chun, Krav Maga, systema, hapkido) in any environment. Training against actively resisting opponents, developing athleticism and conditioning, being in a “shark tank” training environment, there is no substitute. I hate the “there is no rulz on the streetz” argument. If you cannot prevail on the mats or in the ring you are delusional to think that you are going to beat that person on the street because guess what, there are no rules for them out there either. It’s usually just an excuse to not challenge themselves, to stay in their comfort zone and protect their egos.
Thanks you bro. A lot of people do not train their students within this video. Instructors do not teach their student the difference between self-defense and Street application.
The clothing part is so underrated and important. I am one of the cleaners at my gym and mostly clean on Sundays, I generally spend the day at the gym training while I clean and come with gym clothes. But one time I had to go somewhere before my shift so I came to the gym with jeans, I started drilling what I normally do in my spare time (kicks mostly) and ended up spraining my ankle because I rolled on it. I threw a switch kick and the tightness of the jean made me miss step and rolled on it. It was a pretty bad sprain too. If you’re gonna kick on a street fight with jeans on, go for low kicks, the elasticity of the jeans will have less effects.
The Groove Life Belt and Ring are amazing and definitely effective for DA STREETZ! Go get yours and support the channel at: groovelife.com/pages/youtube-podcasts?TH-cam&Hard2Hurt
For comfort, I agree Groove rings are the best, but durability was poor and having to pay for shipping on warranty replacements got old.
Wearing the Groove Life belt right now and it's the worst EDC belt I've ever worn. I don't like to make negative reviews, but this thing has left me no choice.
I've wondered about the ring, I thought you has a tungsten ring, which would effectively be the opposite, as far as finger safety. Mike, keep up the humorous horse sense, self defense, without pretense, or pretending.
I switched to suspenders for medical reasons and now I wouldn't even want to go back to belts
Me in BJj he's Biting me fu lol good video tho 👌lol
Here's a tip for delinquents and miscreants.
If you ever try to mug an mma guy and they disarm you and choke you, tap out.
They'll instinctively let go of you and find the nearest fence to climb in celebration, giving you time to escape or get your gun back.
Lol
Game bug
Lol!!!!
100% true lmao!
thats actually what happened "The Brazilian wrestler Leandro Lo, one of the world's top jiu-jitsu fighters and an eight-time world champion in the martial art, died on Sunday after being shot in the head by a man he argued with at a party in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city.
According to witnesses, the wrestler got into an argument for reasons still unclear with a man who was apparently drunk and whom he pinned down with a typical martial arts armlock in an attempt to calm him down.
Once free, the assailant pulled out a gun and shot the world champion in the head."
I found some of this out when fighting a Red Man for riot training. Taking a single guy down is fine, but when outnumbered 100 to one you're digging your own grave by initiating a grapple. Another 'bad' habit we learn in MMA is 'noise cancellation'. In a match, you ignore everyone except your opponent and your coach. In a 'sTrEeT fIgHt', you honestly need to pay attention to every voice around you, as anybody could potentially join the fight from any angle.
Excellent point. Not just in case the attacker has an accomplice, but if a good samaritan gets involved you don't want to be taken by surprise and starting fighting them too lol
can you do me a favor and explain what the ring is he is wearing ? what in the world is it, he didn't explain anything, what is it for ?
@@rastabg23 it's just a soft ring that can add some traction. Metal rings can sometimes get in the way of things, the rigidity causing issues. But honestly, not a big deal.
@@overlorddante Oh I see. Thanks bro.
@@overlorddante hes not a good samaraitan if hes doing that.. and hes asking for problems.
Just throwing something I picked up after years of wet weather: have good gripping shoes and always wipe your feet dry. You don't want to slip while hitting, or running away.
This is like, honestly surprisingly good advice. I became a bouncer half a year ago and my shitty smooth shoes had me slipping all over the place for the first week. Replacing them was something I should've done on day one - it makes a huge difference.
Additionally: Many people don't respect their feet enough to wear descent footwear :-D
Many martial artist don't respect the fact that they never fought in shoes :-)
@@fredeuhrbrand3789 We train in a back yard with bags, wooden dummy and stuff, shoes are pretty much essential. One of the students is a cop who wears the same footwear as his job to get a feel for it.
@@blockmasterscott that's great. Of course you can find 1000 of people who does :-)
But fx a lot of karateka aren't aware.
Facts you should check my comment before so fitting but even in a huge slopped mission hill st. in Boston it doesn't offer much help like fighting in an inclined ice treadmill with no effing ice-skates lol stay well brother and good advice my friend
Oh boy…
Comment section is getting vibe checked
When I was a serious competitive judo player I grabbed a guy who suckered me one night and held him down with a single knee on him, working out if I was going to choke him. Anyway, he had a bunch of frienda and they smashed me from behind. I was bottled, punched and kicked. I still wonder if thinking of every encounter as a form of judo was a mistake and I should have hit him and run. I just don't know. I do know that in about 150 other confrontations later as a doorman being a damn good judo player was Hella helpful.
I think a big aspect of it is to remember what each style of fighting is gonna teach you to do. Wrestling is never going to teach you how to take a punch to the back of the head from a second guy; Kickboxing is never gonna teach you how to get out from under a guy with a table in the way. You have to take an honest look at what each sport is teaching you, and what it is NOT teaching you. Yelling for help, as mentioned by mike, is super usefull and I've never heard it before now, while "running away" and "create distance" are constantly mentioned.
In martial arts your taught to focus on your opponent and control your opponent
In self defense your taught to focus on the situation and control the situation.
You got tunnel vision and focused on the one attacker. All you've ever known is one attacker. Never thinking that your back was completely exposed to others.
Hell even in video games people do that. They spend to much time shooting at one dude focusing on that 1 fight and forget that he has friends who've had time to realize he's in trouble.
But it all goes back to situational awareness.
Yeah its going to serve you well the majority of the time, but when it goes wrong, it goes real wrong
Strength is never a weakness controlling where the fight transpires is huge plus having the nuclear option (the part where you slam their head on some type of hard surface)
Dude I don't know in what gay club you spend your Saturday nights but they seem to like it rough.
Trained Muay Thai for 5 years before ever having a street fight, which ended with two parts of my face being bitten off, eyes gouged in, and lots of hair pulled out. Nothing I had really done in the gym prepared me to defend these specific things, but nonetheless ended up beating the guy into submission. My point being, knowing Muay Thai saved me in the end, but it was close to not being enough in a real world scenario.
Sad thing is nothing prepares you for face biting, hair pulling and eye gouging.
@@cuzz63 May also be the case. Was all instinct at that point
That guy was going chimpanzee mode
Everyone has a plan until a Piece of their face gets bitten Off.
Well yeah because anyone can be dangerous especially a bigger guy. Unless you can keep your distance, people will always do damge until you finally out them down. I dont think any amount of training makes you nearly as cool qs you would think. Never gonna be like a film dodging attacks and battering 10 guys. Idk
A few years ago I did a very exhaustive review of every real life fight I could find online. These were actual "street" fights, not retelling of them, or people playing, doing choreography and so forth.
it was instructive as to what works, but one thing I found was that every person who obviously used practiced martial arts techniques (people who are fighters, who actually practice) won. Every single time.
Even if they were sports martial artist. Even if they were "Danger bros" who didn't seem to spar a lot from the look of things. The best thing you can do, given that, is practice regularly.
Also, waling away or even running, worked 100% of the time against a single person or small groups. (No real pursuit at all, ever.) Running away from a mob took real skill on the part of the runner, as well as conditioning, as people did actually chase them, every time.
Groin kicks are very rarely used. (three times in over six hundred fights) but ended the fight each time they were used on purpose.
Eye gouges were used ONCE. It didn't stop the fight. Also, the two fighters were the one fight were I saw two obviously trained fighters going at it against each other. (Some form of Irish/Traveler traditional fighting, akin to bare knuckles boxing, with traditional grappling from the look of it.)
Sorry for going on, the TLDR is that practicing anything really seems to help over practicing nothing. Running away beats almost all martial arts against realistic events and a good kick to the groin works more than some people think it will.
Good info brother, thanks for sharing! I should watch some footage of real fights too
You should make a video about this
I think you're missing some really important things in this analysis. Fighting is a specific type of violence. It's a small aspect of a much larger concept. It's no mystery that guys who fight well in the cage, can also fight well outside of it. That's because they're both instances of social violence. But most people are unaware that there are other types of violence that each require a shift in mindset and priorities. That's why combat sports can let you down in certain situations. They only teach you how to respond to one type of violence.
Think of the group dynamics found in mammals. Social violence would be when two lions compete for mates, territory, or to correct behavior and establish the hierarchy. It's characterized by lots of posturing and ritual. The damage from these engagements can be severe at times but rarely lethal. It would be an evolutionary detriment to the herd and species if individuals died every time they fought within this context. Now observe how these lions hunt. It's a matter of survival for the antelope and the lion. There is no posturing, no competition, no exchanging of blows or sparring etc. The lion does everything it can to maximize its advantage and minimize its risk. It does whatever will allow it to kill and eat the soonest. This is hunting or predatory violence.
When you're in a situation where someone ambushes you, uses weapons, has friends etc, then you are no longer in the realm of social violence. When someone is intent on using lethal force you have an extremely short time frame to act effectively to mitigate serious bodily harm. The longer the encounter lasts, the more dangerous it is for you. Combat sports are extremely effective for fighting/handling people but the competitive mindset subsequent techniques are not adapted for predatory violence and navigating the broader context of self defense. It's not hat they aren't effective, it's that they aren't effective quick enough for the situation.
It's also worth mentioning that while viewing footage, you are only seeing part of the picture. Since social violence is the most common, it makes sense that most footage is just fighting. You won't see much predatory violence on tape (relatively) because A) it's way less common and B) people tend to engage in that type of behavior in places where there are no physical or digital witnesses.
How shit bro, you are a treasure!
You should make a documentary or something!
"Everybody underestimates the kick to the groin" - Bas Rutten
So many good points. Sports fighting can develop a lot of good combative skills, but the mindset is different. There are rules, weight classes, no weapons, one attacker, predictability, etc.
True. Combat sports provide a solid base for you to start from, but they don´t necessarily give you the best solutions to threats you can face in real life. It´s similar to mathematics and engineering. On it´s own, mathematics is nearly useless to an engineer, but trying to do engineering without decent mathematical knowledge is impossible.
@@donrowlett2886 That is one side of the story. The other side is that the code is only as good as the inputs entered into it. Things like FEM are either excellent or completely useless, depending on how well you can define the problem.
@@donrowlett2886 That is pretty damn stupid, but not exactly what I meant. In physics, and especially in engineering, there are a lot of problems for which there are no exact solutions. Not every input can be precisely measured, or even measured at all. That is the issue in dealing with the real world, and the reason why predictions often turn out dead wrong, even when the mathematical model itself is sound.
In martial arts context, let´s use an example that I believe actually happened in Brazil. Some guy became aggressive on public transport, so a local BJJ coach tried to subdue him with an RNC. What the coach failed to consider was that the aggresor had a gun on him, so the coach ended up dead. This a perfect example of an excellent technique (the mathematical model) failing to take into account the possible problems of the real world.
most of those I agree with, except for the whole one attacker point I’m not saying that sports martial arts do not have one attacker because they usually do but this is the thing you’re most likely not going to survive into multiple doctors in the first place in a straight situation unless of course you can find a way to get out of the situation soon as possible and there are people who say getting them into a line works or helps at least little. Do you realize how hard that would actually be to do
I feel like u misunderstood slmething somewhere lmao @@punlovingpacifist
I'll never try to do a high kick in a street fight. No matter how well trained I am in doing them. Too much risk and kicking the knee or leg is better. But the rest I agree with.
Hey, fuck it, if you can sneak a slick one in like wonderboy, it'll make for a crazy video, just do it bro lol
I actually did that 4 years ago and it ended the fight, so sometimes you have luck
Fully agreed.
Leg kicks for days they never see them coming abs can't take them for shit. most expect some kind of street fight boxing match lol
I've only ever kicked two guys in the head... they were both on the ground.
I know you've done a video on this topic, but its worth mentioning again because it's an important dynamic to be aware of for self defense. Much like training in street clothes you should be training in different environments outside of a gym with a padded floor. I know it's not the safest way to train, but it's better to find out how much it sucks during training rather than when it actually counts.
Big facts
Public parks are **interesting** places to train esp. given the uneven terrain, unleashed dogs running into your sparring space, psychotic homeless peeps meandering aimlessly about, and the unhinged frisbee that almost cuts your head off.....etc.
@@mxu111 😂
@@mxu111 Ninja frisbee !
Mike a blackbelt in clickbait-do and a 2nd degree blackbelt on "damn that hit home"-do. Great insights
It's like being thrown violently by a high level judoka who knows how to set you down gently, right?
You get me every time with those intro's and i'm like "What the hell is Mike talking about this time". Then one minute later i'm like " Oh yeah i agree with that".
Icy Mike is a master of semi-trollish video titles/intros.
This is the biggest compliment you could give me lol. That's exactly what I'm going for.
Good video! I will also say you need a system that also deals with,
•Multiple attackers
•Defending against weapons
•If legal in your country, learn how to use weapons
•Scenario training
•De-escalation skills
•Awareness training
•The pre and post fight
•Have some understanding about your country's self defense law, just incase you have to justify your actions in court.
How would you even deal with multiple attackers? If two dudes just jump on me I don't think there's much I could reasonably do to stop that
Multiple opponents, against weapons, using weapons, de-escalation…
Do aikido lol :p
@@mvndials have friends. Don't go into a dangerous situation where you have a high chance to get attacked by multiple people by yourself. Knowing where the exits are and how to getaway... Etc lots you can do.
@@dmfaccount1272 you're right but those are all preventative defenses. I mean if for some reason you couldn't do all that I don't think any martial art makes you effective against getting jumped especially if you don't spar that situation
@@maou3118 ouch... LOL
Agreed. All combat sports have rule sets, humans wanting to win will develop strategies to win matches, and human nature is to exploit or maximize the rules to their advantage. But world champion skills at a particular martial art also means you probably built in a bunch of things that are sport specific but detrimental in the street.
Yeah combat sports skills and experience are a good benefit but relying on combat sports rules on a street fight is not a good idea because there’s no disqualifications or rounds in real world self defense
A mate of mine, a 1st Dan in trad ju-jitsu once found himself in a bit of a brawl.
Saw the perfect opening for his punch and threw it bang on target.
Only problem was he was so used to puling punches he did that in the real fight.
He came out of it OK but it shows how ingrained training can become.
Great video Mike - love your work dude. I'd also suggest the psychology of going to training (to prepare) is dramatically different to the psychology of actually fighting for your life (what you were preparing for in training). Even hard sparring or whatever - totally different animal to life Vs death for real. Really hard to simulate this cognitive difference, as well, in training.
You always know, hours in advance, that you're going to training. You put on the clothes, get in the car, shoot the breeze with your friends at training, your instructor runs you through a routine, you know when it's going to end. Fighting for your life just happens, randomly and (often) without warning. Full OODA-loop delay...
Once again thanks for another great report.
Very true but someone who has trained and was in a situation where they fought in the cage will do better then an average mugger who has never trained. Totally agree with what you are saying though.
@@jayvee4165 Possibly. But the mugger *is* the prepared one in this scenario. The mugger knew hours in advance that he wanted to mug someone, got dressed, picked up his weapon, and walked around dark alleys looking for a good victim fully prepared to shank a mf and steal his wallet. The mugger in this scenario is actually more psychologically prepared in the moment.
@@LohJiaHung yes, I think a better comparison for him to make is that the mma trained/combat experienced person would very very likely do much better in responding both mentally and physically to said mugger than say, an average overweight office worker or someone who hasn't competed in sports since jr.high school
@@jayvee4165 false, random attacks, happen without warning.
A couple years ago I was going to the gym twice a day training at powerlifting, I was pretty dang strong, I was doing Ninjutsu before my dojo closed. I could/can fight. I was still mugged at knife point. The mugger was just able to get the advantage over me by ambushing me and basically cornering me. The only place I had to go was over a ledge. My training and strength was nothing over his 14inch blade and timing.
You did the smart thing brother. No way to escape from a knife up close especially if the attacker is ready to kill you
You got out-ninjed
you should check out the video he did with Rokas, because they rate ninjitsu as the absolute worst martial art to learn how to defend yourself or how to fight.
Well honestly, you still did the right thing then by giving the valuables. No money in the world is it worth to get your arms and hands sliced open, even if you could get the knife away from them. And if you tried and failed to, worse things would probably sliced than just arms and hands.
Dude mugged you with a machete?
I started in the the self defense stuff and was really lucky that early on some friends told me "hey, you should right now start some more traditional basics so you'll have some structure and then the self defense thing will sort of slot into place" and they were so right. It's different but you need "Knowing how to fight" structure before you throw in the context specific drilling
Yeah, there's a reason formal training has always been a part of martial arts, even back when they were primarily for self defense and war
Tell you what. Going from doing Martial Arts all my life to the military was a huge awakening. The level of aggression and chaos in the heat of the moment strips away all that years of training to primal instinct. Your first instinct is to YELL - but years of training Martial Arts tell you to COMPOSE. But when you're dragging battle buddy with 45 lbs of armor on while being gassed (literally) being tackled by OpFor - that'll change your perception quick for real world application of fighting. You never forget the guttural yell of someone calling out "STAND TO!"
im military and i 200% agree with you.
Exactly. Military life puts you under the hammer and anvil like nothing else, especially if youve been in combat.
I couldn't agree more with every point you made. It may be off topic a little, but I would add teaching various psychological tactics to avoid conflict. I assume the point here is you're already being engaged though.
Side note, I'm not sure being able to kick yourself in the nuts is a great selling point for a belt, but I could be wrong.
Hey one man's kick is another man's kink.
The big problem with teaching deescalation is nobody's signing up for that
@@CentreSwift I stand corrected.
@@hard2hurt That makes sense unfortunately.
@@hard2hurt thats a shame because its a really good thing to learn i remember the video you made about driving and just turning off and driving a different way if your getting like a road rage situation
That is one that really made me think
Advice I give to my self-defense students:
1- If you live in a dangerous area where street violence is common, don't go out alone.
2- Plan for the outcome you want. How can you get out of a dangerous situation unharmed?
3- Use words. "Don't come any closer or I'll call 911" said loudly can deter someone looking for an easy victim, who may still be across the street.
Obviously none of these apply to MMA training.
that third point strikes me as odd, where i live that's basically asking for a fight. people here have the "oh yeah? i'll show you bitch" attitude, not something i would recommend.
@@chupetaparamahboy That one is meant for women and some have told me it worked for them. People noticed and the guy just kept on going. Would have he tried something inappropriate? Maybe, if not clearly discouraged from the get go. I admit it may not work in all circumstances.
"ill call 911!" LOL SURE OK BUDDY
might as well say "come fuck me up my g I'm totally harmless"
bro... if you are defending yourself what you say should be in the same vibe of "If you come closer I'll kill you" or i'll shoot or youll get stabbed or tazed
or the winner
Great article. I’ve done a few years training Krav Maga and now do boxing, kickboxing and bjj. The most common misconception I have found it that Krav teaches you to fight (not really) and that mma is superior to Krav. Both are wrong, they are different. The best part of Krav is that it taught me to have situational awareness and to run away if possible. MMA has been great teaching me to fight, defend myself well and hit hard, then get off the ground. I have found the two compliment each other really well. Cross-train! It’s awesome for learning!
I like Krav's focus on explosiveness, being intensely aggressive (even at the expense of technique), weapons and group attacks. Unfortunately, not all Krav places focus on this - they're just MMA ++
Also, KM, if taught properly, should wear you b/c you're suppose to train from a position of disadvantage, not "preparedness."
@@mxu111 yes, I like Krav's explosiveness too. I found when I started training mma that what I had learned in Krav (start from the negative) didn't help me. I have learned the best thing is not to get into the negative in the first place. Really, that's going back to first principles of Krav
1. Don't fight if you don't have to.
2. Gain the upper hand and fight explosively
By training yo start from the negative, I find that I automatically reverted to the negative. That meant that people could gain (for example) full mount pretty easily. I would then try to escape it. Now, I avoid getting into that situation (hip escape, tactical get up) and then explosively re-engage. That's just my experience though.
@@martinpratchett "start from the negative" --> we called it "starting from a position of disadvantage." I'm sorry this created bad habits. I didn't have this issue. Even now, I like starting in certain disadvantaged BJJ positions. For striking, this is harder to simulate. In one exercise, we faced each other while sitting on the bench and basically only used our hands to tap each other. In another, we put one hand back like it was injured and attempted to spar that way.
Since you used grappling as an example, I'm assuming your Krav place didn't really emphasize ground? Same w/ mine. That's why I had to go to other gyms to learn it. Sucks but what can ya do?
This video is awesome. When I started Boxing and Muay Thai, I was actually lucky enough that my Boxing coach showed me some street things when sparring. He'd start elbowing or trying to stomp my foot or headbutt me out of nowhere and when I first complained, his response was simple "1- the ref doesn't always see everything and 2- what would happen in the streets?" and honestly it made all the sense in the world. Also, even though I haven't been in an actual street fight, I always try out any pair of pants to see if I can kick comfortably just in case lol. Another thing which I read on a Manga I'm reading that's based around using martial arts for street fighting, it debunks the whole "BJJ is the best art for self defense in a street fight." There's a wrestler senior character who breaks it down by basically saying "if you take a street fight to the ground, you're going to do yourself more harm than good. There are no mats, the floor is concrete and gravel with rocks, keep that in mind." I thought that was pretty neat.
@@UnjustVerdictyou can doesn't mean you will, there's concrete you will get bashed into, biting, eye gauging, etc... it's a STREET FIGHT, and chances are your opponent won't be alone either.
Well perhaps taking the fight to the ground intentionally isn't wise, but if you are not given a choice then surely it would be good to have some grappling skills.
@@BigDome1 It is never clear for me what ias exactly grappling skills. Is it ground like in BJJ or staying standing like in judo ?
@@user-cz7wp4jz6nany fighting where you don't hit each other
Good morning Icy Mike, I’m one of those RBSD dorks you mentioned. It’s all good sir because most of what you stated I agree with. In my opinion MMA is probably the best foundation for any RBSD practitioner. Side note I do have some limited boxing experience and it’s very helpful in self defense scenarios. I do think RBSD guys should do more training and pressure testing and include combative sports in their repertoire. I do think you slightly misrepresent the RBSD on gouging and groin shots. I wouldn’t bank on those “techniques” on saving my life, definitely have no qualms in using them if it help my goals. Again, your insight on using or having a combative sports foundation is spot on. Please, take my comments with a grain of salt I’m bit of layman and I don’t want to insult your X amount of years of training and experience.
Another side note: Do you have any opinions on W.E. Fairbairn’s WWIII’s Combatives?
Thanks for your time
Respectfully.
May I ask what RBSD is?
@@PicaPauDiablo1 reality based self defense
I encountered this when I trained with Craig Douglas. I was comfortable with the guns and combatives but one thing I don't ever really practice even though I know it is when the line of talking to fighting has been crossed. I hadn't ever done that kind of training and even my job in customer service requires me to be good at talking, I've never thought that I'm going to have to fight good customer so when that line crossed I froze. When it went physical, I forgot that there was going to be a second person and didn't protect my gun. I was fine with the combatives, done that for years. Not great and the other stuff that goes into stuff defense. Glad that happened there and not for real. Certainly eye opening
When I just knew traditional MA, I always said I was super dangerous, to myself.
I'd rely on intimidation and a few flashy high kicks to get them to back down.
It wasn't until I took Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu to realize how much danger I was actually in.
Short story, when I was bouncing at the end the night i wasn taking a beer away from a dude, way after lights on, so he tackles me against the bar. It was grappling that got me out from under, able to post on his head and stand up. Before he was able to get to a knee I soccer kicked his head into the base of the bar. felt his head ricochet between the bar and my foot like a speed bag. I was going for a second kick but was pulled off.
Nobody that transitions from TMA to MMA ever transitions back lol. You find out how poorly prepared you really were very quick. I'm doing a video on this subject soon.
@@hard2hurt I wanna see that video! Could you mention what martial art you'd recommend for a "fit beginner" who wants to be street ready?
@@hassanud-deen43 I advise Muaythai, and boxing, also try to develop a powerful straight from your dominant hand, 100% will drop an untrained Joe on the street. Every time!
Now I appreciate my FMA& Wrestling teacher even more. Street clothes, weapons, nasty, dirty tricks. Only rules; Control and no finger manipulations.
Something that my old style of karate used to do was that we would do classes in your regular clothes like jeans and your shoes and be trained how to do stuff in that sort of an outfit we also occasionally did classes in the car park or on gravel so you learnt the difference of fighting outside also I live in Australia so guns aren't a thing we talk about when doing this stuff
When it comes to this topic, my opinion is rather simple.
"You're not fighting for points, you're fighting for the right to continue breathing!" In other words, fight like you're crazy. Be loud as hell and fight like you're crazy.
Fighting like you're crazy is usually not the move. Fighting like an intelligent, rational person who is skilled in violence is preferable.
@@hard2hurt fair point. Although I suppose what I should have said was "bloodthirsty murderer" instead of "crazy", though those seem mutually exclusive. Attitude definitely has a hand in self-defense scenarios as well.
Granted, this is coming from someone who currently has had only one "I might die" fight though. So I'm nowhere near an "expert" in it.
THANK YOU MIKE! It is a very subtle but noticeable difference. Yes the groin/eyes/hair pulling/ear ripping is a thing, but there are so many other things to consider. Glad you mentioned street clothes, like jeans, there are other situational factors to consider also. Whats the ground look like?
Mud/grass? Gonna be harder to be nimble on your feet and kick if you rely on being mobile during your sparring sessions.
Hot asphalt and you are in a tanktop? Might wanna reconsider jju in a parking lot.
Lot of people/legs around you? Same as mud/grass, you might not be as nimble/kick happy when you literally cant move.
Then, as you brought up, did you even yell for help, or I've heard people say fire/r@p3 is a better thing to yell as it will get more attention. Looking where you are going and not burying your head in a phone is such a big deal most dont even realize.
So many other things, and as you mentioned, stomping the head of a downed opponent is usually illegal in sport, I really dont care if my life is on the line.
Lastly, how many people are actually mentally prepared to "kill" in self defense. Ive never killed anyone, sparred more times than I can count. Ive drilled scenario's for "real life" where I snap necks, gouge eyes, stomp groins :), crushed tracheas, etc, but I dont know if the time comes I would be able to "pull that trigger". If a person doesnt even train for sport, and get mentally prepared just to punch someone in the face, how will they handle potentially ending/maiming someone for life? I hope I would be able to perform, if I could not run or escape, or was not in a position where that is a possibility, but then again, I dont know. And I should be, given how many times I have practiced and drilled techniques for that very scenario.
Anywho, thanks again. Great vid. As always, the truth is usually in the middle.
For me for preparing for the street means also preparing for potential multiple attackers and weapons. Yeah, if you train in gym with bad asses and real fighters that are better than you, you could destroy some street punk that wants your lunch money or smacks your wife or girl on the butt… But the streets are so unpredictable. YES, you will have an undeniable, overwhelming advantage in against a non-trained street bully or thug that does NOT train or compete. But just don’t get overconfident and respect always respect the streets…. Street punks will never fight fair and many times their power lies in the element of surprise….
Great video and analogy of bullets without a gun. I'd also add fitness into the conversation, though you may have spoken about it before. I've unfortunately seen a lot of the self-defense instructors that are out of shape and wouldn't be able to fight much longer than 30 seconds if needed, which is still a long time in a fight with adrenaline dump. They rely on an immediate fight ending technique and don't have any backup when Plan A doesn't work, or if they need to fight several people as they're always worried about multiple opponents. MMA, Wrestling, Boxing, MT all practice going for several minutes at a time.
Welp. I'm going out of business.
oh never mind. This is stuff I tell all my clients.
The most important things you can learn for an unarmed self-defence situation are clinch fighting, takedown defence (including sprawls, and sprawl and brawl), reversals from your back, and safe get-ups.
People will say boxing is ineffective in the street. The most important thing boxing teaches you is range and distance. YOu see many situations were a victim lets an attacker get within close range. This victim is not a boxer. A good boxer will try hard to maintain that safe "out of range" position. Once the attacker forces himself into range, the boxer is in their natural element and now can go to work. I spent years as a 185 lb bouncer. I relied 100% on my boxing and a few simple joint locks. And if there are multiple attacker,s, the jab jab jab with back steps is more effective than a teep kick because you remain light and mobil
I love your recent videos covering those oft forgotten details! It’s good stuff, always makes me think a bit harder.
One thing I’d add is that most schools are terrible at addressing the before and after of a (potential) physical altercation. De-escalation, or just what to do after a confrontation (and in what order) are given little to no thought. There’s a few books on the former addressed to security professionals that are worth reading, but I can’t recall ever seeing anything on the latter.
I saw a guy trying to tap during a street fight.....
Other guy was like "nope"
Honestly it's worth a try. BJJ guys are probably conditioned to let go of the lock when their opponent taps.
@@dmfaccount1272 lmao
Training with a CCW is something I have been worried about. It's a small detail that seems like it could GREATLY influence how you move your core, how you grapple, and could even be a liability if you end up on the ground, and the other guy sees you have a gun when you didn't want him to. Any tips for presenting this to a Gym that doesn't necessarily advertise training for that?
This is one of the best videos for addressing this topic. MMA just needs a little tweaking with a small change in mind set in order to be street viable. How many people did my opponent bring if it's a bar brawl? How many of my friends are attentive and able to fight with me if we decide to throw down? Who has the homefield advantage? Who will the police believe when the fists are finished flying? Do I know how to communicate during an adrenaline dump? Lots of small details that go ignored.
I'm glad to see you being these things up. My girlfriend and I actually train in our regular clothes with our carry rigs on.
That point about forgetting things is legit. I remember practicing some knife fighting with a friend of mine which for him was like the first time and for me it was like maybe 3rd. I discovered that when I simply check his arm with a knife by pressing it against his body (not even strongly) with my lead hand and attack with my armed hand he completely forgets about his own weapon and he gets fixed on trying not to let me cut him and ends up being cut down entirely.
Training your brain I believe is the key. And it is not necessary to train it by practicing combat all the time specifically. Moreover unfortunately it is impossible for us to train realistic combat anyways. So we can do it by other means. If your brain is capable to compute under stress it is already a significant advantage. All of the physical and technical training must complement exactly that. That way I believe it's not necessary for a person to undergo through a set of different and very specific trainings in order to succeed in the real situation. Because this knowledge won't even occur to you if you'll get a brain freeze once the real situation takes place.
Even before I finish this, I totally understand. I have a world champion in my gym, but total sport. I am pretty concerned about defense for some of my students. (And myself)
Did you just call me an MMA bro 🥺? You just made my day 😭.
One of the greatest lessons i learnt as a kid from Dad. One of the best tools for self defense, is a good pair of running shoes. Shoe reviews icy mike!!
You ruffling them feathers with facts.
You are wonderful and very special in your meetings with martial artists and distinguished experts in combat. I wish you progress and prosperity in your wonderful meeting
I stumbled across a martial art called Bartitsu. It's an old European hand to hand fighting style. It's interesting. I then watched how they also incorporate Savate and jujitsu as it was used during that 1800's era. Their approach is worth thinking about. There is even old black and white film so we can see the movements. You don't see them tapping gloves they are very focused. They practice in their everyday clothes, and even in suits.
I tried kicking myself in the groin and injured myself. MAD PROPS FOR BEING THE FIRST PERSON I'VE EVER SEEN DO IT...
I'm a pioneer
What a great discussion. Icy Mike bringing the content as always
Can’t say I’ve ever tried to kick myself in the nuts before. You really do think outside the box Icy Mike.
I was not expecting the point you made. Good thoughts man.
Fair point, though in my experience when other people come along and 'help', the situation gets worse. Just the other day I disarmed a nutter with a bottle here in Manila. I was about to get out of there when a bunch of 'security' guards (they're everywhere here) surrounded me and prevented me from going home. The insane bottler insisted on calling the police (yes, he's an idiot) so there went the rest of my evening. The 'guards' also completely failed to prevent the idiot from continuing to try and hit me, and then had the nerve to inform me that they had it on camera (bodycam) that I had struck the latter, which I only did because they didn't restrain him. Seriously, when people help, it doesn't help.
Well, your in Manila. Its a different world there. Every time ive ever got into any kind of trouble there ive asked the cop if there was any way we could work this out like gentleman and 2000 pesos poorer I walked away. Which for those of you who dont know, aint shite in American money. Cops in the Phillipines walk around with AR's and shotguns strapped to them near malls and banks and what not. Walking Street, which is of course where I liked to go, they usually just carried a side arm. I bought my own cop there, to keep away the beggers and make sure I had my seat with the two fans blowing on it. And you can only smoke INSIDE there, which was weird, but cos i had my own cop i could smoke outside. I paid him 100 pesos every night at the bar. Well worth the cost.
I love this. Your toolset in self defense scenarios is different in every single aspect of the fight. On top of that your "win scenarios" couldn't be more different
Another problem is we don't train enough against people who are really bad at fighting . The average dude has no sense of range and terrible balance. The just lose their shit, swing as hard as they can , fall into you with their whole body weight , or try to grab your face . It's basically a monkey attack. In a ring or gym it may not be a big deal, but on a street or in a bar, you're going to trip over things or get shoved over a table. Hard to recreate that with other trained fighters.
In our krav club, our trainer sometimes shows us both the MMA and krav approaches to superficially similar situations, and then explains why we favor one over the other. It usually comes down to 'in an MMA match, the other guy's friends aren't going to bash your skull in with a baseball bat while you're looking the other way'. We do sometimes practice the MMA techniques for the fun of it, but most of the training does focus on getting yourself out of the situation alive and mostly unhurt.
If the other guy’s friends have baseball bats, you start either A) de-escalating or B) praying
@@jooot_6850 Hell, I'd be de-escalating the entire time. I'm an absolute pussy and if I can get away without fighting, I will. If I see a bunch of angry looking dudes with baseball bats, I'll happily take a very long detour to avoid them.
Lol I got into a fight at house party in 2016 and homie got angry about something tried to tackle me, I set up the guillotine but he bit the fuck out of my arm so I snapped out of that and started blasting him with grounded knees. In the moment I was thinking just tap him and calm him down but once he bit me I went full pride style knees on him until he was slept.
Based
You did the right thing. Follow your heart.
Spot on with everything in the video! Exactly what I’ve been thinking for years, but you’re the first person I’ve seen actually put it to words with cohesive thought.
One additional thing I would add is how one would handle the adrenaline dump that would occur if the confrontation gets more serious with, as you said, a bottle to the head, a soccer kick, or your opponent’s friends coming to their rescue. It is extremely difficult to know via training alone how you’re going to react when that hits you due to the simple fact that subconsciously you know you’re training and you’re “safe”. Not so much in a real situation. Once that fight/flight/freeze instinct kicks in, unless you’ve been exposed to that before and know how to power through that tunnel vision (ie you’re a first responder and that’s part of your job), recalling your techniques might be nearly impossible for the average practitioner.
Alright! Your VDO content makes sense. A point I love to support is that dirty tactical methods can be part of the combination techniques during a street fight where one has to survive, not always to attain victory. Certainly, the headbutt tactic can apply only when we are clinching the attacker.
This man speaks the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts.
Luckly he is hard2hurt.
I'm a new fan. Your stuff is legit. I appreciate the value of your videos and your wisdom is displayed. Strength and Honor
I will say it, the days of getting in a fight like back 45 or 50 years ago doesn't exist in today's scenario's, there is no such thing as honor or fair fighting (never was). Today all martial arts are great for conditioning and or for competitions. Today its only about surviving and protecting your family. I recently had watched a video of a retired police officer mugged by 3 men while getting gas! I asked myself how can I defend myself against that? I immediately updated my beloved knife! I was quick, really quick with it, but the movement itself would have got my arm trapped by one of those guys. Analyzing that situation and updating my killing technique I feel confident again in my abilities. It's not about fighting now it's about the ability to kill.
Lol
While martial artists were practicing you studied the blade.
Mike, I have a question for you I don't think you have addressed regarding training weapons/mma at the same time: Do you think it would be beneficial to first reach a certain skill level at both things separately before training both together? I'm fairly skilled at the range, but not very good doing Muay Thai. (at least in part because i think going to the range is much more fun)
Most potential "street fights" I was in (I've had about 6 aggressive encounters in my life, 2 of them being threatened with a weapon), I was able to talk my way out of it. Being able to talk your way out of it while staying calm and not coming across as neither agressive nor insecure is an essential skill in my experience. Also: paying attention to your surroundings and knowing where the exit is at (and knowing when you might be able to escape). Besides de-escalation, sparring against multiple attackers and weapons is also important if you want to train self-defense comprehensively, even though its extremely difficult (or even near-impossible) to really pull that off in reality. Still, its important to experience what its like to spar multiple opponents or having to deal with a weapon, because it changes everything. But sparring one-on-one (boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, jujutsu) is a good foundation to build on. MMA guys could easily add scenario training to their training if they'd be interested, where they try sparring in different scenarios: fighting in small spaces or places with a lot of furniture, fighting in an area with little lighting, multiple attackers, weapons, fighting while having to protect your friend or girl/boyfriend etc. Love your work as always.
Those "too deadly to spar" dorks remind me of a certain Facebook martial arts group that claims to deal with bullshit in martial arts, but the majority of the admins are US Gravy Seals. ;)
I think it's also worth noting that there's a lot of other considerations on 'the streets' other than the usual neckbeard arguments or what's covered here:
-You don't know anything about the guy who is attacking you - there's usually some info available for fighting someone in the octagon, if not full on footage that you can watch and analyse
-You don't know what the guy attacking you can do - again you can often set up your game for the octagon based on what the opponent does / trains
-You don't have gamesmanship of the same kind - this is the distinction for 'there's no rules in a street fight' because the rules aren't the problem, the gaming of them is (case in point, the football kick to a downed opponent, or think about Jon Jones' crawling toward opponents at the start of a match so he can't be kicked, or a BJJ player pulling guard and just waiting)
-The floor isn't a mat - as you yourself found out on street beefs, it SUCKS to have your bare back grinding against a rough floor surface, let alone hit your head on concrete from trying to pull guard on someone
-You aren't necessarily only fighting one guy - look at that footage of the MMA fighter who got into a fight at a gas station, then because of his tunnel vision he got blindsided by a 2x4
-You don't even necessarily know if you're in a fight or what kind of fight - Could be a dude is just going to push you - do you then kill him? There's the 'judged by 12' crowd but it's definitely a consideration
-You won't have had time to prepare and warm up and get into a fighting stance and all that
-The guys fighting in the octagon for money are at the absolute top of their game and level of athleticism, which is not representative of the average guy who trains some martial arts, whatever kind - the higher you get in a sport the narrower the focus becomes and it becomes a game of doing the most efficient movements with the highest chances where milimeters and miliseconds decide the winner, usually driven by a lifestyle of nothing but training and experience, whereas the more amateur you go in sports the more varied actions you see. Translate this to 'the streets' and while yes some kung fu or whatever thing would never work in a million years on a UFC fighter, it might actually work perfectly well on an average hobbyist fighter, or random untrained guy.
-There are no weight classes - if you train to fight a certain way in your weight class, it could work against you because you're being attacked by a dude who is so much bigger than you that your favoured tactics no longer work and in fact put you at more risk
-Aggression plays a bigger part - whereas you might want to try to maintain your gas tank in mma / boxing or whatever to last 3-12 rounds, in a real situation sheer aggression often happens, so accessing everything you have in a short time frame becomes much more useful.
This isn't to say at all that TMA or the martial arts redditors are BETTER. Chances are they would fare WORSE than an MMA fighter due to lacking core fighting skills as Mike talks about. It's just that what works in the octagon isn't the only thing to think about, and you need to supplement with some of the concepts that those other martial arts might focus more on.
This is a very nice analysis,it should be continued.
Have you done any force on force training with sims and such?
I hung out with a dude in my teens and early 20s. Byron was about 195lbs and he had a steel chin and I saw him wipe out guys 50lbs heavier a couple times. Wearing 501 jeans! He trained some Kenpo, but was kicked out for beating up all the black belts in his dojo. I asked him what his approach to fighting was and he just said "Ya just gotta be fearless, try to get in the first shot and then just "go ape-shit" on the dude." Tank Abbott's style reminded me of Byron..just a whirlwind of punches until the other guy was out or quitting. Byron broke down self-defense to two moves...hit first...then go ape-shit. Maybe his good chin was a factor in being able to pull it off.
As Ramsey Dewey says, self defence is for escaping the danger, whereas combat sports teach you to be the danger
... until weapons or multiple attackers are involved.
@@CT-bc6jh Yeah, if I'm against an armed dude or multiple dudes, I want to escape that danger XD
I am the danger skyler
A big fan of most of your videos including this one. A few points you didn't touch on that are important from a Self Defense perspective is: De Escalation, Distance Control, Situational Awareness. Please consider doing a video that incorporates these.
I think it can be assumed that De-escalation and those other things didn't work and you are forced to Fight.
Totally agree, this has always been the case, but people never have the right argument or think it's a huge thing that's not the actual point.
I know a cop that lost his partner because some perp got him from behind with a rear naked choke and just didn't let go after he was out, his partner who was a bjj Gracie academy black belt tapped the entire time until he died because he just never tries escaping rear naked in training. I think some things from combat sports, especially restrictive rulesets and the tap have to be handled in a specific manner for a self defense training, that's a very important point that gets left out of the conversation a lot imo, just like the fact that falling on your head on the pavement if you get knocked out has a much higher chance of killing you than getting beat up. It's like you said, the mindset for the situation has a bigger impact than people like to admit and mistakes have a much bigger cost.
So... sorry if the part about someone dying is real, but that story about how is bullshit.
Another fake story. None of this happened. Try again but don't make it so 'perfect' with a Gracie BB, and tapping and getting 'killed'.
At the beginning of the internet there was this music number called The Big Poo Generator that had a song "I'm gonna kick myself in the balls".
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Mike.
This is why I like you icy mike, some solid points. Lmao I'm having fun imagining people yelling during training. Kind of reminds me of the 123 marine corps bullshit during boot camp
Lmfao I imagine hiptossing someone and mounting them yelling HELP!!!
(Although on the other hand we did yell contact left right, "stack on me" room clear back blast all clear, yelling adracs and that's exactly what I did during combat)
I love the depth and completeness of your thought process. Highly enjoyable, reality based channel. Ossu!
So what you're saying is, I need to learn to fight? That sounds pretty far fetched bro, I would just go blank and bodies would drop dawg
🤣👍🏽
Training injury - you are correct.
I was injured in training. Never knew who injured me and it took a few days for the situation to get really bad. I check into the hospital when I can no longer walk. Then, the screaming pain and the surgery late at night and being on morphine drip for 3 or 4 days. That was from grappling and I stopped.
A judoka host spoke with a competitive judoka who found himself in a street fight. He started and ended the fight with a punch. He said it was an instinctive move.
Batman would be proud of that belt.
I think it's more of a mindset & an understanding that typically in the "street" you're not fighting for points or pride; you're fighting to incapacitate your aggressor &/or disengage your aggressor in order to get out of the violent situation asap. Plus, a lot of sport fighting is more about glory & money & less about not getting killed. Fighting in the street requires a much better awareness of your surroundings & more survival focused. In my opinion & experience, of course.
Thanks for the video, man! Keep'em comin.
Personally and this is a very unpopular opinion and many think im crazy but I feel like martial arts should just 100% drop the idea of self-defense from their curriculums and marketing. Instead just focus on sports, fitness, and history/philosophy. It's distracting and honestly I feel it is one of the biggest problems we have in the martial arts community is the need to validate ourselves as self-defense systems
I'm flirting with the idea of agreeing with you. The follow up video to this touches on it... there's just one problem. (It's the thing that's always the problem).
Had my feet in both camps. Trained Boxing, Muay Thai and BJJ and also trained at a quality Krav Maga school (they may be rare, but they do exist believe it or not).
There the foundation level beginners trained in Pre-Fight Tactics which includes the “Get back(!)” defensive push drill. The aim of the defensive push while shouting get back are to:
- draw attention to the situation to create witnesses in the event the situation leads to assault charges against the perp or yourself, and to increase the chances a witness will take the initiative to call 911.
- to create space between you and the attacker and in a low level situation to show aggression that could lead to a backdown by the perpetrator.
- in the event the attacker doesn’t back down you’ve created the space to read their movement which gives you time to see their attack and respond, or to pre-empt the attacker using long range strikes, aka push kicks to the lower abdomen/ groin.
Other Pre-Fight Tactics training includes:
- Threat identification
- Threat assessment
- Avoidance tactics (use of surroundings)
- Distance control
- De-escalation
- Pre- fight interview (how a threat uses conversation to close distance and either disguise their intentions or make clear their intentions verbally).
- Reading pre- attack indicators (body language)
- Understanding a violent situation
- Managing adrenal stress response
- Disengagement and escape.
- The legal limits of self- defence.
This was the first month of Krav Maga training along side protecting your head.
It’s come in useful more times than knowing how to armbar from guard or bow and arrow choke for me working in private security.
Love these videos & the community! 💯 The content is important info to actually take into account of real world. Its unpredictable & chaotic
One of the most interesting fights I've seen happened at school when I was probably around 14/15. Two guys squaring up against each other. Neither had any training that I'm aware of. But one clearly had a good fight IQ. One pushed the other, but that was only to grab the scarf of the other. Using scarf he spun the lad around sending him to the floor. Not a single punch was thrown and the fight didn't even carry on on the floor. That's not something you'll find in MMA
First time I hear about silicon rings for weight lifting or kettlebell training...What's that for ?
Title: Combat Sports training is BAD for self defense!!!
Actual Video: but can u throw kicks in ur jeans tho?
One of the best videos ever, your knowledge and common sense is refreshing, the country could use a lot more of it. Icy Mike 2024.
It all deals with mind set and the way you respond to different situations.
Mind set is what is crucial - 1. NO referee 2. NO prior information about the assailant 3. NO1 to 1 fight (there could many) 4. NO rules apply . Yes we train in regular clothes , regular footwear and consider various environment and we also train in deploying the EDC. I got a call from a Muay Thai national champ who was beaten by a bunch of hooligans coz he never trained for the streets.
@@UnjustVerdict ofcourse yes my friend
"Fat guy with Pony tail" lmao🤣🤣🤣
9:02 Nice technique mike!
When will we get a video about self kicking in the nuts? Sounds pretty difficult to me but you did it so easily.
LOL 3:38 that segway was perfect. The way you said it with the exact same tone xD
I have a question, because even though I've trained in Classical Chinese martial arts for over 30 years, I've never been in a street fight. When you say street fight, do you mean consensual like for example an argument turned physical or do you mean when someone jumps you while walking to your car?
For me, those are 2 totally different things.
I never trained in combat sports, I learned a LOT today. Thank you Icy Mike!
You just did you trained in Chinese martial arts certainly you learned some shit to protect yourself.... I hope or get your money back bro!
I think he means non consensual violence, like being jumped or picking a fight with you in a bar.
Love the video, but I must say that the Groove buckle can be dislodged with rolling/wrestling. Mine has been unclamped several times wrestling with my kids. I do love the belt, but think I may buy some “slider” buckles to put on my two groove belts.
This is a serious question.
Injured hands are common in mma from punching, even with wraps and gloves, how are you going to properly operate your concealed weapon system with injured hands?
You experienced a broken hand in one of your street fights, how well would you be able to handle your firearm if you had to use it the same night for home protection?
Body cams a great example of this point. I wear one every day at work. I still forget to turn it on from time to time
💯 I clench my jaw when I start to fight. I never yell unless it’s unbearable pain. That was a really good point. We need to think about being vocal.
Biting. I always remind myself and others that nutbags/jerks/a--h---s will bite you.
Ha! Now who's crazy for saving all those discount coupons for the Chuck Norris pants in the back of black belt magazine. Everyone gets wheel kick on the streets.
I think if Chuck norris rereleased them with an updated design they would sell
two or three years ago I got an otherwise unremarkable pair of jeans for Christmas that somehow allowed me to retain enough flexibility to still kick people in the head and it was oddly exciting
I’ve been doing martial arts in one form or another since 1979. The guys that do “sports” martial arts (jiujitsu, judo, boxing, wrestling, mma, Muay Thai, kick boxing) on average would completely wreck “self defense” stylists (aikido, wing chun, Krav Maga, systema, hapkido) in any environment. Training against actively resisting opponents, developing athleticism and conditioning, being in a “shark tank” training environment, there is no substitute. I hate the “there is no rulz on the streetz” argument. If you cannot prevail on the mats or in the ring you are delusional to think that you are going to beat that person on the street because guess what, there are no rules for them out there either. It’s usually just an excuse to not challenge themselves, to stay in their comfort zone and protect their egos.
Thanks you bro. A lot of people do not train their students within this video. Instructors do not teach their student the difference between self-defense and Street application.
The clothing part is so underrated and important. I am one of the cleaners at my gym and mostly clean on Sundays, I generally spend the day at the gym training while I clean and come with gym clothes. But one time I had to go somewhere before my shift so I came to the gym with jeans, I started drilling what I normally do in my spare time (kicks mostly) and ended up spraining my ankle because I rolled on it. I threw a switch kick and the tightness of the jean made me miss step and rolled on it. It was a pretty bad sprain too. If you’re gonna kick on a street fight with jeans on, go for low kicks, the elasticity of the jeans will have less effects.
I instantly thought of how we yelled "STOP RESISTING " while practicing takedowns in the academy