Sudden Violence
In a coincidence, just days after Mark Rippetoe and Nick Delgadillo discussed Learning How to Fight on the STARTING STRENGTH podcast, I headed off this past weekend for a combatives seminar. It was physically quite brutal, a boxing and Muay Thai fueled study of speed, chaos, and panic - which are the hallmarks of violence. We did not hang around practicing technique in static drills or discussing hypotheticals. The aim was to experience both the disorientation and quick adaptation that result from actual fighting.
As far as strength is concerned, mine was certainly helpful in handling the abuse. Despite not being a CrossFitter or a five or six runs-and-swims-a-week kind of guy anymore, I held my own (in metabolic output) through fights that had athletes of all types - and guys far younger than I, gasping. The greater lesson, however, is that if strength training is based on a few simple truths, the same is true for fighting.
The term ‘combatives’ refers mainly, or originally, to military hand to hand techniques, the quick and dirty battlefield moves that presumably finish a fight in a matter of seconds. This is really ‘in’ nowadays, often referred to as ‘reality based self defense,’ a term meant to draw a distinction from martial arts, which are considered to have a great deal of carrying on with no practical purpose.
My interest in combatives grew from my background in Judo and studying its history, particularly the role it’s played in military training, often in systems that had to be drawn up very quickly in times of war. This involved quite the cast of characters, most notably William Fairbairn, who learned his trade as a policeman on the mean streets of Shanghai a century ago and became an expert on fighting, be it with one’s hands, a knife, or pistol. He went on to introduce the concepts of the ‘kill house,’ stun grenades, and the rapid, coordinated assaults used so often by militaries and SWAT teams today.
This past weekend’s seminar was run by a similar trailblazer, a former Special Operations Marine who trains everyone from civilians and mixed martial arts competitors to government security details and even top government and corporate officials. He’s done it - whatever you can imagine - in the ring or a foreign country.
His central lesson is that violence is unmitigated fury and confusion that has to be experienced to be understood. What happens in combat in the desert or jungle is the same as what happens in a boxing ring: panic sets in, bringing tunnel vision, loss of hearing, and difficulty in breathing and judgment. The only way to understand this is to get in the ring with someone who’s trying to punch your face in - while your only recourse is to do the same to them. Abject failure to function, whether it’s when the bullets fly or the gloves start swinging, is par for the course for everybody the first time around.
I got my ass kicked numerous times over the two days of training. As souvenirs, I’m sporting a nice shiner over my left eye as well as a deep thigh bruise that’ll be with me for a few days. I got a few shots in as well - but really, I was was scoring in the 30 to 40 percent success range.
It was humiliating - not that any of the other guys cared; many were going through the same thing. It was humiliating to face myself with an ugly truth: I’m not anywhere near as prepared for trouble as I thought I was. Beyond that was my self image. I go through everyday life as a pretty competent guy, so such failure was disturbing, unfamiliar territory. The mental component to this class is tougher than the physical.
The good news is that the learning curve is steep, the instructor told us, and this was true. After one bout in which you’ve screwed up and feel like an idiot, you punch like a champion in the next, realizing what’s really demanded. With time, the logic goes, you develop presence of mind under duress. Being ‘cool under fire’ means you understand the physics of it, but you have to keep fighting to do so.
We covered a great many skills, of course, but these are repetitions that will have to be done over the long term, things like punching combinations and knowing how to take an angle in the ring. We studied clinching, head control, and leg kicks by way of Muay Thai, along with the the little plyometric hop necessary to make a knee drive truly powerful. Violence came in a lot of forms and not just fisticuffs from standing in the ring. We faced tackles, takedowns, headlocks, chokes, and kicks. On the ground, we covered a number of essential principles, including one I especially loved. If you’ve managed a takedown, and you’re climbing around to take control, an important part is delivering a good forearm blast to the guy’s cheekbone. Then you keep it there and drive it in with your weight. Two things happen: it’s a nice shot to lay on, but then, pinning the side of a guy’s face to the ground means he can’t move his head relative to his shoulders. This is an old Judo concept I recognized. The guy loses all of his upper body strength.
The instructor had to stop here and laugh. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu guys are absolutely undone by this, he said. They tend to swagger in like a bunch of superheroes, ready to take control of any situation. They’ll pull folks down into their guard, their signature move, and find themselves clouted across the face - which their rules do not allow. This is often their moment of personal discovery.
Yes, being strong made me harder to kill than I would have been 10 years ago as a wiry CrossFitter. One guy, who was plenty tough as a fighter but the size I was back then, had to do lots of stretching and mobility styled recovery during breaks. At one point, he needed a blast from the massage gun. Aside of a 285 pound wrestler, who was an assistant instructor, I was the strongest guy there. However, in all the wild thrashes, on our feet or on the ground, I could never bring max force to bear - though when that 285 pounder tackled me at one point, I did have the opportunity. Strangely, nothing happened.
This past Monday’s heavy squats and Romanians didn’t happen either. Epic Mondays depend on pretty restful Sundays, so I knew I wouldn’t have the juice for sets of 8. I hit 3’s just to make sure neurologically I was at the right bandwidth, and also I didn’t want this bruised thigh to lock up, a decision that definitely didn’t do the pain and swelling much good right away, but the worst of it was over in 48 hours. Recuperative German NA beer was also administered.
I did hit 277.5 for a triple in the bench Tuesday, which I think is a record, so the week was not a total loss.
More important than pure strength in a fight is scrappiness, which I’d label as sheer hustle, an ability to move fast and find targets.
Just as focused strength training produces the greatest physical adaptations in the human body, actual fighting best teaches how to trade in violence. Be wary of the ‘experts’ you’re following online.
