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Inside
the Ground Fight With Tony Blauer
By Anthony Caro
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Over the course of twenty years, Tony Blauer has developed
one of the most innovative approaches to teaching real
world self-defense. Dealing more with psychological
and scenario based aspects, Tony Blauer’s system
(Chu Fen Do) quickly became a favorite of law enforcement
personnel making him in high demand for police sponsored
seminar programs across the United States.
In
recent years, interest in Tony Blauer’s methods
have expanded into the MMA world such as the time when
he was asked to give a pre-tournament seminar to the
competitors at the North American Grappling Association’s
National Championships. A former commentator for the
UFC, Tony took some time out of his 200 seminar engagements
around the world, to discuss the differences between
the ground game of sportive combat and life and death
assaults. |
What is the main difference between a grappling
bout and a street ground fighting situation?
Cement
isn’t friendly. Many of the techniques that
work well on a tatami mat will not flow without penalty
on the street. Many times, tactics must be aborted
due to pain or friction caused by concrete. Also,
most grapplers are used to a gi and belt to use as
handles and levers. That may not be an option on the
street. While some may scoff at these examples, they
are legitimate factors and, if I am completely wrong,
hold your next grappling class in a parking lot and
see how long it lasts and who comes back for tomorrow’s
class. Suffice to say, taking a fight to the concrete
in a real world altercation is generally not a choice
move.
What is the most common element in street
grappling that most people overlook?
In
martial arts, in general, there is something fundamentally
wrong with how we prepare people for street altercations.
Specifically, in ground fighting, there is an important
perspective overlooked by the “experts:”
an articulate dissection of the pre-contact phases
and stages that lead to the ground fight. Instead,
people speak of self-defense effectiveness and fixate
on one physical area of sport combat.
Rather
than do that, you ask how did you end up on the ground
and what took you there? Was it a sucker punch? A
hard tackle into a wall? A kick to the groin? What
many practitioners of ‘real world’ self-defense
fail to integrate is the attrition, pain, damage and
subsequent distractions that occur during an ambush.
In other words, what went wrong in the awareness,
verbal defuse, standup phases, clinch phase and pummel
to the planet phase? Those are five distinct devolutions
that led to the fall to the ground. Just for kicks
(pun intended) have your training partner smack you
in the head, kick you in the nuts, tackle you to the
ground, and now immediately reverse the mount and
transition into an arm bar…
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Why
did the lines between street fighting and sportive
grappling become blurred?
Why?
Because the greatest source of information on the
theories, assets, applications and attributes of these
styles come from the internet, an arena typically
made up of aliases fighting with keyboards.
Now,
many who don’t know me may think I’m down
on grappling. Absolutely not! I’m a huge fan
and teach a very specific ground-fighting curriculum,
the difference is my approach lies in how and when
grappling is applied. Grappling is not treated like
a panacea. Instead, we have a specific directive applied
to ground situations so that the strategy influences
the tactics and that strategy is:get off the ground
ASAP! In a real fight it is very difficult to secure
the perimeter, or to guarantee a fair fight with no
interference from the attacker's buddies; and it is
near impossible to control improvised (or actual!)
weapons. Fighting on concrete isn't much fun, so the
less time you spend there the better all around. Tactically
then, the philosophy of our groundfighting approach
is “strike when you can, grapple when you must.”
This approach encourages striking over submission
for real fights. As my friend PDR Team member and
founder of the USMC LINE System, Ron Donvito is fond
of saying, “Grappling may be your thing, but
blunt trauma is king!” A well placed & timed
strike can end things suddenly so learn to strike
while you're in tight and you might end the fight
sooner than later.
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Now,
if there are any doubts to my methods, have a sample
group perform the concrete test I suggested and see
if the opinions differ. Some of the world’s greatest
grapplers have openly admitted the limitations of grappling
for the street due to the dangers of multiple assailants,
etc.
How
did grappling become more popular than striking for
self defense purposes with some martial artists?
Grappling
is visceral while striking, for many, is theoretical.
In other words, when you strike, you pull a great deal
to protect one another. In grappling, however, you get
to squeeze, go full throttle, and are actually rewarded
for your efforts through the submission. No matter what,
when a grappling match is over, everyone knows who bested
who. The conclusion is black and white whereas in striking
there is always the talk, “I almost had you,”
or “I pulled that,” or “If I was using
my kicks then…” and so on. So from an emotional
perspective, grappling provides far more rewards to
our egos and our efforts. This contributes to that blur
to which you previously alluded; but it also blurs the
instincts and intuition needed for the street because
it will likely pre-dispose one to go to the ground which
may be the last place you want to be in a real fight
where multiple assailants, improvised weapons and other
problems may spontaneously emerge. Invariably,
most fights will end with blunt trauma and, statistically,
it is in the form of power shots to the victim, and
whether the person gives up because they are not mentally
prepared or they give up because they are incapacitated
matters little. When it comes to the street, stay on
your feet where you’ve got mobility and momentum
to augment your actions.
People
put a great deal of faith in a visual image. They don’t
care as much about things they read/hear about as much
as those things they see. The UFC moved many martial
artists towards more realistic fighting. Do you agree
with the critics who say the UFC gives people a false
impression of a “real fight?”
The
UFC was the best thing to happen to the martial arts
world as far as nudging it away from the proverbial
mess, but remember, traditional and classical systems
are still infinitely more popular than eclectic self-defense
arts and the number of people that actually practice
MMA style systems is miniscule compared to all the others.
These days, I feel MMA events have matured and are getting
very polished in the production side and athletes have
certainly improved. I do, however, think the audience
still needs to be educated on what makes a great fight.
It is frustrating as a fan when I watch an interesting
chess match of a fight and beer-guzzling buffoons are
booing because there is no blood or flying haymakers.
I mean if we can get a bazillion people to understand
and appreciate golf (which I love BTW) then lets educate
fans on MMA etiquette and the skill it requires to compete
in MMA events, amateur or pro. This lack of understanding
of what a MMA entails leads to confusing drama of the
match with a ‘real’ fight. Like most anything
else, this is because there are far more spectators
than participants. |
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Could
you explain what you mean then when you say that in
NHB matches, people are “really fighting,”
but it is not a “real fight?”
Well,
aside from the fact that we don’t have Big John
McCarthy to pull us apart, or a steel cup, or a mouth
guard, or a soft landing surface, or rules that preclude
head butts, eye gouges, and multiple assailants, the
major difference is the “theory of consent.”
The “theory of consent” deals with the
crucial distinction between knowing when, where and
who you are fighting and not knowing. This theory
is an organic principle that spawns a behavioral domino
effect: we consent to a competition, we study the
rules, we prepare mentally, physically and emotionally,
we explore strategies and tactics specific to that
event, and, when possible, we even study the weaknesses
and strengths of our opponent. But, you see, in the
street, you must take the fight with no notice! Big
difference.
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Does
a well-conditioned, tough grappler need to modify his
game? A BJJ player or amateur wrestler is no slouch!
Wouldn't they be able to "out tough" an assailant
in a self defense situation?
Everyone
needs to modify his or her game. Skills don’t
readily transfer from one area to another. When Frank
Shamrock recently competed in a kickboxing event, do
you think he grappled to prepare for it? But again,
it all depends on circumstances. The scenario dictates
everything. If a good grappler were working security
and has 2 back up doormen and a fight broke out, taking
the offender to the ground would be tactically plausible
as there is perimeter security, he has backup and is
somewhat detached from an altercation, and his controlling
skills and conditioning can be applied. Now take that
same person two nights later leaving a friends house
after three beers at 1 am and three guys blind-side
him and pounce him (they were the guys thrown out the
other night)... is clinching on the cement going to
help now? Again, scenario dictates. Mano a mano, if
an assailant were to fight a Braun vs. Braun fight,
then absolutely the conditioned warrior has an edge.
When you’re discussing the street people look
at fights often as macho bravado testosterone matches
when in fact people do get seriously hurt in some of
these altercations. And understand my philosophy is
very critical as it should be, because as a professional
that is where my head is.
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Do
you feel that students of martial arts do not understand
what 'self defense' truly is? Most seem to see it
as a challenge fight between martial artists or tough
guys, but do not see self-defense as surviving a mugging,
assault or rape.
That
is an excellent observation, but it is not that they
don’t see the difference; to a degree, they
do. The danger and problem lies in the fact they see
training for these two very dissimilar confrontations
as one in the same. The skills are not easily transferable.
While street fights and ring fights share common dilemmas
and common fixes, they are still worlds apart. Most
don’t empirically grasp this important difference
and it is not really their fault. The fault is that
of the instructor. The students mirror the master,
so to speak. Of course, most of us in the arts value
competition over compassion. Consider how often we
in the martial community hear comments like, “My
system is better because...,” “or so and
so would kick so & so’s butt.” Silly
isn’t it? This perpetuates an ego-elitist paradigm
where the emphasis stressed by the instructor was
not on really empowering the student, but rather placed
on selling a seminar, a style, or a product.
Many
self defense books written by law enforcement people
and self defense experts advocate biting and eye gouging
etc as a means of defense. Is this good advice? In
any grappling situation, one would truly need the
ability to move the hips fluidly or bridge out with
explosive power to escape a bad situation (flat on
back/pinned down). Do these 'foul tactics' offer false
security?
There’s
only a false sense of security if your total ability
lies in that one tactic. Biting
and gouging are excellent tactics for the street.
Everything has its place; the problem with all methodologies
is that they look to the tactics for the result as
opposed to the ‘behavior’ of their opponent
for the result. In other words, a bite could make
someone pass out, or scream, or bleed or get really,
really pissed. The problem is the paradigm shift required
to see the fight outside of a tactic, because, you,
the ‘biter’ doesn’t decide if the
tactic worked, it’s the ‘bitee’
that does. He reacts to the technique!
In
other worlds, your opponent controls the fight in
so far as they dictate your next action based on their
reaction to your last effort. This esoteric, strategic
truth has been the staple of my system since 1982
when I started the first Panic Attack force-on-force
simulation.
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What
do you think about police officers being denied the
right to use carotid restraints or chokes? Do you
feel that it is ignorance and bureaucracy that denies
officers the ability to use these techniques? What
about the criticism of people who have been seriously
injured by officers using chokeholds?
I
think officers need to be taught in a more realistic
way to apply restraints. I think the danger occurs
when those restraints are used at the wrong time,
against the wrong opponent. In reality, all grappling
moves require far more coordination and relaxation
than most striking tactics. Grappling competence requires
coordinated, complex motor skills. So to have the
notion to use a grappling in an extremely violent
situation actually opposes modern research on stress
and arousal.As
for accidental deaths, while statistically we can
say that there has never been a death at the Kodokan
resulting from carotid restraints and therefore the
officers are being taught wrong. But at the same time
we must acknowledge that grapplers aren’t in
death matches and grapplers don’t grapple with
locked and loaded guns on their waists, a grab away
from possible death knell. In a situation like this,
the adrenalin, the movement, the fear and the intangibles
all add up to incredible sensory overload and things
have the possibility to go tragically wrong.
What
are some tips that a sportive grappler (or instructor)
could use to modify their training to make it more
closely resemble a street situation?
That’s
too long to answer and a few paragraphs would not
do it justice. If anyone is seriously interested in
the answer, please contact my office and request information
on our PERSONAL DEFENSE READINESS Instructor Development
program; this is a course I’ve put together
for conscientious instructors looking to make a real
difference in their schools and communities.
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Tony
Blauer has been innovating and influencing modern self-defense
since 1982. To find out more about Tony Blauer’s
systems, visit him online at www.tonyblauer.com
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