Traditional Martial Arts versus the Four Ranges
By
This is so
funny. It is now the year 2005. I originally wrote this paper in 1970, and just
recently, wrestling, ground work, and the “ranges of combat” concepts has become
the “new” and “up-and-coming thing” in the martial arts. Here is what I wrote
over 30 years ago:
The average
traditional karate people are usually lost in a pack of 5,000-year-old dances
that had little validity even 5,000 years ago (when people wore wooden armor
and fought with swords). These people simply don't KNOW what to do in a real
modern street combat situation (especially where the LAW is concerned.
"The fight isn’t over until the gavel hits the bench!"). What little
these people DO know is generally unproved by experience, since the average
black-belt has usually only been in one REAL fight in his life, and he lost
that one on the parking lot of the high school, which is why he took up the
martial arts in the first place.
Don't get me
wrong, I love karate. I have a black belt in it, myself, and I know several
black belt holders who are quite competent. In fact, I know of some really
fine, and enlightened Karate teachers (personal friends of mine), but these
people are rare. Tournament champions (such as Muai-Thai Kick Boxers) will be
quite formidable and will wipe the street with the average "Joe Blow"
who happens along. But, it takes YEARS of dedicated practice to get that good,
and if you don't keep practicing, you loose it.
Also, most karate
people usually don't do so well on a dark street, in tight blue jeans, wearing
boots, and standing on loose gravel and broken glass. They are more accustomed
to performing in nice loose pajama-like uniforms, with plenty of lighting,
barefooted, on a nice smooth gymnasium floor, after a good series of warm-up
and stretching exercises, against an opponent who is playing by the rules.
"Playing by the rules" means that he can't throw dirt in your face,
bite you, pull your hair, shoot you, stab you, hold a knife to your wife's
throat, or run over you with his car while your back is turned. And, we are not
talking about the average guy as your opponent. We are talking about
street-hardened criminals who usually mug people by running up behind them and
knocking them over the head with a pipe wrench, then grabbing their wallet and
running away before the victim even knows what hit him. This strategy leaves
even the most formidable martial arts expert practically helpless to defend him
or herself. What can you do when without warning, the lights go out?
Plus, the
simple fact is that you can theoretically go all the way from a beginner white
belt to "expert" black belt in karate without ever having actually
hit anybody or having been hit. To me, that is simply NOT the definition of an
experienced fighter. At least in a judo class you actually learn how to and
practice grabbing and slamming real people to the ground against their
will. If I had to choose between a Judo
Black Belt and a Karate Black Belt to back me up in a real fight, I’m going
with the Judo person ANY day of the week.
Don’t get me
wrong, though. I am not advocating any particular style over another. In a
fight it is often difficult to recognize which technique you should be using at
any given moment. There are so many arts to choose from that, in the excitement
of the fight, you can easily become confused. Especially, since you will
probably be scared out of your mind anyway. This phenomenon especially plagues
beginners. And, what is worse, the fight moves so fast that by the time you do
recognize an opening in your opponent's defense, and decide on a technique to
use, the opponent has changed position and the "window of
opportunity" has passed. It is now simply too late to do what you planned.
Although you may not be able to recognize which technique to use in any
specific point in a fight, one thing you will always know immediately is what
range you happen to be in relation to your opponent.
There are
four major ranges of unarmed combat: the wrestling range, throwing range,
boxing range, and kicking range. To become an effective hand-to-hand combat
fighter, you must become proficient in each of these ranges of combat. You do
not have to become the "world's most deadly expert" in each of these
ranges. All you must do is learn to, at least, "hold your own" and
survive at each of these ranges. It would be nice if you could become really
great in one or two of these ranges, but at least learn what the "dumb
mistakes" are for each of these ranges and learn to avoid doing them. An
added advantage is that this approach is really in keeping with the philosophy
of legal self-defense. The philosophy that "the best defense is a strong
offense" could land your butt behind bars. Remember that a successful
offense demands that you defeat your opponent, whereas, a successful defense
means only that you survive, and it is much easier for you to simply survive
than it is to soundly defeat someone else.
Unfortunately,
most traditional martial arts styles usually specialize in only one range of
combat... maybe two, at best. Traditional Tae-Kwon Do Karate is good for the
kicking range, but sadly lacking in the boxing range (a little closer), and is
terrible at throwing and wrestling. AND MOST FIGHTS TEND TO CLOSE RAPIDLY AND
TURN INTO WRESTLING MATCHES WHETHER YOU WANT THEM TO OR NOT!
Judo is great
in two ranges of combat: the wrestling range (what they call "ground
work"), and standing grappling (throwing range), but is sadly lacking in
the other two legitimate ranges of combat, the boxing range and kicking range.
Each range of combat demands its own set of strategies, techniques, and skills
(and safety rules and equipment while practicing). In fact, I think the ideal
training regiment for personal unarmed combat would be to take about one year
of collegiate-style wrestling. Follow that by one year of sport judo. Follow
that by one year of YMCA amateur boxing, and follow that by one year of Korean
Tae-Kwon Do karate, emphasizing the kicks and forgetting about their generally
poor hand techniques -- that is what you took boxing for. (Also, practicing
high kicks is OK for exercise, but keep your kicks no higher than your own
stomach level in actual fights). Don't stop practicing one and take up the
other, add it to your training so that at the end of 4 years you will have had
4 years of wrestling, 3 years of judo, 2 years of boxing, and 1 year of
Tae-kwon do (or any good kicking art). The order you take these in is
important!
As a fight
progresses (and tends to close), and as you get more and more tired, you will
want the fight to be moving into ranges of combat with which you are MORE
familiar, not less familiar. Also, by being competent in all ranges of combat,
you can apply a relatively simple, yet highly effective, fight strategy. Just
watch for the range your opponent is not very good in, and force him into
fighting in that range. Avoid the ranges in which he is more skilled than you
are. This is a street-proven strategy that most martial artists (even
black-belts) don't know much about because they are seldom very good at
fighting in any more than one of the ranges of combat, depending upon the art
they have chosen. (Hey you! Weekend karate class black belts! Try your fancy
flying back spin kick on a good collegiate wrestler! That will be a sobering
experience you will not soon forget.)
If you are in
a situation where you MUST go on the offensive against a hardened street
criminal, then, as good as it is, even a training plan like this will hardly
prepare you for the harsh realities of street fighting. For that, you would
need to also learn how to run fast, jump over fences, throw rocks and steam
irons with deadly accuracy, bite ears, noses, and fingers off of PCP crazed
muggers, fight with knives, and swing a tire iron with intent to kill.
Does it begin
to sound like you need to develop a severe attitude problem in order to fight
realistically from an offensive perspective? Perhaps so. This is why it is a
good idea to survive by fighting DEFENSIVELY. When you can, RUN AWAY! If you
are with your spouse, grab your spouse's arm and RUN AWAY! Ignore my
information if you choose, and if you feel that you have something to prove,
you probably will. BUT, I will always choose to RUN AWAY, if it is reasonable
and I have the means and time to do so.
