How to Add Realism to Self-Defense Training – Adaptive Attackers
A little while ago, I wrote a blog post about adapting self-defense as your attacker naturally defends against or resists various strikes and takedowns you use as part of your defense. Another likely adaptation an attacker is likely to use is changing their attack. For example, if they are grabbing your wrist to drag you somewhere and you use a shin kick to distract them and loosen their grip, they might adapt by letting go completely then immediately trying to punch you. If you expect for your defense to always go according to plan, and that every part of your defense to have the exact desired effect, an adaptive attacker could catch you completely off guard.
As I said in my previous article, in a real self-defense situation, you have to be ready to adapt to changing circumstances. More experienced students can train in ways to be ready for a change in attack when they have reached a comfortable familiarity with the situations being trained. There are different levels at which this can be done.
Planned Second Attack
If you’re really new to the concept you can have your partner use a set second attack at some point in your defense. It might be off your initial distraction strike or off one of your follow-up strikes which your attacker may have successfully blocked, as you move in for a takedown, or they might not do a second attack at all, to keep you on your toes. The second attack could be a punch (right or left), a body grab, throat/head/hair grab, clothing grab, etc. At higher levels of experience, you could even add a weapon of some sort. They might try to tackle you or take you to the ground in a specific way. Whatever you choose, have your attacker stick to the same initial and follow-up attacks. Below is a video of a couple of simple examples.
Introducing Randomness
As you become more comfortable with the concept, you can have your partner randomize the type of follow-up attack they use, whether it’s a strike, a grab, a choke, a tackle, etc, but stick to the same first attack. To make things even more challenging, you can have them vary both the first and second attacks.
Another thing you can randomize is the length of the fight. Sometimes you’ll catch an attacker with your defense off the first or second attack. But then again, they might be more pain tolerant from being intoxicated, or they might just be a more experienced fighter and ready to adapt more effectively to what you throw at them. So another level of complexity you can add is dealing with multiple changes in attack until your partner decides to “take” one of your defenses. In a real fight, you don’t know whether your “money shot” will be you first strike, your third or your eighth. You have to be ready to keep going until you have the opportunity to escape.
Adding Multiple Attackers
As you’re dealing with an attacker that is adapting and throwing multiple attacks, one of their friends could decide that their help is needed and could step in to add their own attack. This is another important element to be ready for. If you’re still tangled up with the first attacker, you might position them between you and their friend, or if that’s not possible, you might throw some sort of kick to force the second attacker back to give you more time. Another option is to take the first attacker down in a way that obstructs the second attacker. The most important thing is to be aware of your surroundings so that you’re ready and able to use any of these tools.
Applying the Concept to Training Circles
Another way to increase the intensity of this type of training is to apply any of the above situations to a training circle with a variety of different sized attackers. You could also add vocalization and/or kiai as you defend yourself in the circle. This gives you the opportunity to also adapt to different attacker body types as necessary. Whichever of the training methods you’re using, don’t anticipate the additional attacks. Move in with your first defensive technique with the intention of making it work, and only adapt your defense if the situation requires it. Oftentimes when training this way students start to dismiss their first attack due anticipating the next ones. This becomes very obvious in training circles, so it’s a good opportunity to remind ourselves that our intention is still to make any defense we mount effective. When I’ve done this exercise, sometimes I’ve moved in for my first defense so quickly that my attacker doesn’t have time to adapt their attacks, so I just end it there and wait for the next attacker.
Depending on the student’s comfort level, if they fail to effectively defend against one of the attacks, the attacker could even step it up a notch and flow into a takedown, hold the defender down on the ground, add multiple strikes, etc, anything that might make sense given the situation. This serves as a reminder that you have to keep fighting even when the chips are down and your attacker has gotten the better of you.
Do you sometimes train to defend against adapting attacks in your martial arts school? If so, do you have any other drills or factors that you add into the mix? Please share them in the comments so we can all benefit. 🙂
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An adaptive attack is like a handicapped fight, this disadvantage could it be for both parts; from the almost unreal situation of the attacker fully distracted with the unprotected groin to the dramatic (but more probable) situation of facing many good fighters at the same time.
My opinion is that “general combat capacity” determine your possibilities of success in the fight.
What is new then? I believe this include all aspect of the person that can be useful in a fight, including of course technique, strength, speed, focus and some more subtle aspects like personality, prejudges , objectives (victim (survive, protect something), attacker (kill, rape, steal)), even the alterations product of taking drugs, or drinking.
How decisive this could it be? For example if I hate hitting people or I ended “paralyzed” in the attack or perhaps that I underestimate my opponent all this will reduce my chances of success even if I’m I a good physical and mental shape.
Full knowledge of yourself it will allow the fighter taking awareness of this subtle “weak spots” (I remember read something in the blog how you put in real pain to some student who wasn’t aware of the sensitiveness of solar plexus) increasing the “general capacity of combat” and increasing chances of success in a real life self defense situation.