Fighting as a team

Nick,

this question entered my mind after watching the „300“ movie.

I have read stuff on briefing the wife/girlfriend in the case of a self-defense scenario. The girl here is mainly considered as a target to defend, to evacuate savely and also as a limiting factor in one‘s choice of fighting tactics.

However, if I am out with one or more of my buddies, things are different.
My buddies are trained in martial arts (good old karate mainly). Skill and fitness levels do vary of course.

I know that you have been trained in small unit tactics in the legion and certainly on the door.

I am asking specifically for team fighting scenarios that might occur when you go out, that is mainly bars, clubs and waiting for the bus or train.

I am not talking about two good guys vs. one bad guy.
I am talking about having at least one buddy with me and being confronted by 3 guys or more.


- What is the key element in successful team fighting?

- How do you make sure that all 360 degrees are supervised?

- What drills have you used – starting from simple to basic.

- Since my main training is still in karate – can kata practice be of any help to improve team fighting?

- How can one really up the fighting power, so that 1+1 doesn‘t equal two but more in the line of 3 and more?


This are the kind of questions that entered my mind.
Any input from you would be greatly appreciated.


Boris

Boris,

Good question mate.

In Zen Do Kai we'd do a lot of this stuff, usually as variations on sparring. We'd get two guys back to back and have them fight off groups of four to ten people.

If you stay together your effect is greatly multiplied. If you get separated you're just two separate bods in a fight and are only as effective as you'd be on your own.

The goal then is to fight off your guys, maintain contact with your mates back and help him up if he goes down...he does the same for you.

Doing it is the best way to learn it. Just grab a partner at class, get back to back and spar with a larger group. You'll quickly learn things like reverse punches can actually elbow your partner in the kidney and head and spinning techniques of any nature aren't viable.

There are other things we learned on the door. In the event of a big crew coming back we'd arrange the desk and cigarette machine etc to make it almost impossible for them to get in the lobby except one or two at a time. We'd stand two of us in the breach and then have the others there to haul us out if injured or step in if we got tired.

In one of the big brawls in which about twelve of us hospitalized 68 skinheads we did that by punching out of a mob in a triangular formation. We had the biggest guys in the front, smaller guys in the vee of the formation to run interference and we went for the red cross caravan (which could be seen from where we were in the middle) as our objective. Very effective formation for when you want to go through something, squares and circles being better for standing your ground.

Hope that helps

Nick

Thanks Nick,

I will give it a try in sparring. I assume it will be difficult to maintain contact with my partner, plus sidestepping and any tai-sabaki footwork will be out of the question.

If you have the time to elaborate:

- do you have to maintain contact back to back so that you are actually touching your mate's back (or come very close to it)

- how do you stay mobile in this kind of scenario? The way I can visualise it at the moment is that your only option is to stand and slug it out.
This would seem to contradict the strategy of moving to the outside of a attacking group (if possible) and the principle of constant movement that you stressed on your multiple attackers DVD- in my opinion.

Boris

Yes mate, you want to try and maintain the contact back to back if you can...otherwise you have no idea if he's a few inches away or a few yards.

and yes, you are not being mobile in this scenario...this is very much a bouncer drill, where you're the last two standing, surrounded by a pack of people and fighting for your life. One guy might spot an opening, communicate such to his mate, and fight through that opening in which case the other guy will move with him covering his back.

Nick

Hi Nick just to add on here.

If its say two on two would you have both guys attacking one of the opponents at a time? with the premise being that you can setroy them pretty quick and then move onto the other guy.
So effectively working as one small unit.

Or would you have two sets of guys going one on one?


Also is the back to back thing just to fend the bad guys off and minimise personal injury as opposed to being an offensive tactic?

Two on two? Mate...if there's only two of them you'd be doing it on your own...this scenario is more for two doormen v a bike gang or Rugby team etc i.e. a huge disparity in numbers.

Yes, by having someone watch your back you've effectively cut down your field of fire to 180 degrees from 360.

Nick