your sparring.
Don’t limit the techniques or ranges
In a real situation, anything goes and hence you need to ensure your street sparring isn’t limited. If your background is in a striking system, ensure that you bring grappling into your sparring. Likewise, if your background is in grappling, ensure that you bring striking into your sparring. The more wide-ranging you make your sparring the more realistic it will be.
Allow banned techniques
You also need to ensure that you include the techniques not allowed by the rules. In combat sports, there are two groups of techniques that will be banned. First, there are those banned in the name of the purity of the sport, i.e. boxing is about punching so anything that can stifle the exchange of punches is prohibited. All combat sports have similar restrictions in order to maintain the purity of the sport and give the spectators what they want to see. Secondly, there are the techniques that are banned in the name of safety, such as low blows. All of these banned techniques are allowed in a street situation.
Modifying dangerous techniques
A real fight has no rules, and hence you need to ensure you ignore the rule book of your art when you structure your street sparring. It’s pretty easy to ignore the purity-based restrictions, but great care needs to be taken when ignoring the safety-based ones. In some instances you can substitute dangerous techniques for less dangerous alternatives. For example, if your partner secures a grip on the knot in your belt, it’s a safe assumption he could also have attacked your groin in the same fashion. Likewise, putting the thumb on your partner’s forehead above the eyebrows can be used as a substitute for eye gouges.
Substitutions like these ensure that you develop the skills to use and defend against such attacks. The flaw in this training is that if you’re not mindful of the intent of the substitution, you may find yourself using the substitution in the street at a time when you should be using the real technique. As I said at the very start, always be aware of the flaws of any drill. Because the alternative is to omit the techniques completely, I feel substitution is the best way forwards.
In addition to substitution, you can also reduce the intensity of certain techniques to ensure safety. For example, if you nip your partner with your teeth, he can be sure he would be missing flesh if the fight was for real. It is important that your sparring is closely supervised by a suitably experienced and qualified person when bringing potentially dangerous techniques such as biting and gouging into your sparring. The person supervising the sparring will be able to advise you on substitution, omission and intensity.
By not limiting the techniques or ranges of your sparring, you ensure that “blind spots” don’t develop and that your sparring has relevance to a real fight.
Emphasize simplicity & high-percentage skills
It is vitally important in the street to keep things very simple. The simpler a technique is, the more likely it is to succeed. The more complex a technique is, the more likely it is to fail.
However, it doesn’t always work that way in a dojo or competitive bout between two martial artists. In that environment, using complex and sophisticated methods can catch your opponent off guard. The simple methods will be more easily recognized and countered so it can be advantageous to use methods that are “off radar.” In almost all combat sports, much of what was winning fights a few years ago is now obsolete because it is easily recognized and hence easily countered. Competitors need to enhance, disguise, and evolve their techniques if they are to keep winning. Complex and indirect can work fine in the dojo or in sport. The complex and indirect won’t fare well in the street, however.
Advanced isn’t always better
When sparring for the street, be sure to stick to the basics. Many martial artists inadvertently associate the term “advanced” with “better.” That is not how it works in the street. There is the basic stuff that works; and the advanced stuff that doesn’t work. There are no such things as “advanced self-protection” or “advanced street fighting.” When sparring for the street, keep everything simple and avoid any temptation to get clever.
Use fight-stopping techniques
It is also important to emphasize techniques that will have the greatest effect. A head shot will have a greater effect than a strike to the body. A strangle will finish the fight, but a joint lock might not (you can’t fight when you are unconscious, but you can fight with a broken joint). Methods such as body shots and joint locks still have a role to play, but priority should always be given to the techniques that will end the fight the quickest.
For street sparring, stick to techniques that are simple, have the best chance of working, and are likely to have the greatest effect.
Vary the numbers (real fights aren’t always one on one)
This is a big one. Dojo and competitive sparring is almost always one on one. Street situations aren’t like that. They can be one on one but they can also be loads of other things. It’s therefore very beneficial to mix up the numbers when sparring for the street.
Techniques such as this can work really well in the dojo or competitive arena where the fight is guaranteed to remain one on one.
Real situations frequently involve more than one person, Sparring with multiple opponents will teach you which methods are most suitable for the street. If you do go to the ground in a street situation, don’t try to finish the fight from there. Do your utmost to quickly regain your feet.
Fighting vs. protecting yourself
Successfully fighting off two or more assailants isn’t anywhere near as easy as depicted in the martial arts movies. With enough commitment and ferocity, it is possible to take on more than one person successfully, but it is never advisable to do so.
The subject of multiple opponents is frequently overlooked in the martial arts world with most training focusing on the one-on-one scenario. Practicing against multiple opponents will help prepare you should the worst happen. Such training also brings home some really important lessons about how you should face street situations. Some martial artists attempt to justify the lack of training against multiple opponents by stating that successfully outfighting multiple opponents is impossible. It is true that outfighting committed multiple opponents is extremely difficult (not impossible); however, it should also be understood that you don’t need to outfight them in order to protect yourself.
A few years ago, I was teaching street-based sparring drills to a mixed ability group. As part of this session we were practicing two-on-one sparring. At one end of the room was a young, relatively inexperienced martial artist who was visibly nervous at the prospect of having to simultaneously face two opponents. At the other end was a group of extremely experienced martial artists. The members of this group had multiple black belts and were all skilled fighters. This group was actually excited at the prospect of getting to test their skills against two opponents.
When I signaled for the fights to begin, the experienced martial artists went off with all guns blazing … but invariably were quickly taken off their feet and beaten up by their colleagues. By contrast, the inexperienced martial
