throws and takedowns would not be allowed. It’s my observation that as soon as you limit what techniques are allowed – which can be a very useful training method – people forget about the methods that have been omitted and hence leave themselves vulnerable to them. So even if you’ve agreed not to permit throws when working on clinch striking, you should still ensure you don’t get into bad habits by being aware of the flaw you’ve introduced.
Start with aggressive dialogue; not etiquette
Competitive and dojo sparring often begins with a formal show of respect. Depending on the nature of the art being practiced this may be a bow, a touching of gloves, shaking hands, and so on. Street fights don’t start that way. They are frequently preceded by deceptive or aggressive dialogue. To be adequately prepared for the street, you need to have exposure to such talk so that it does not faze you.
When sparring for the street, begin the fight with one person (or more) taking on the role of the bad guy. They should close the gap with either aggressive dialogue, or deceptive dialogue that will switch to aggressive. It’s important to make the dialogue and associated body language realistic. Push, shove, splay your arms, shout and swear (not in front of any kids, though). Although it’s training, as the bad guy you should attempt to intimidate your partner in the same way a real assailant would.
The other person should attempt to control distance and talk the situation down. Sometimes the bad guy may decide to back away without the situation getting physical. On other occasions, either party can begin the sparring when he feels it is appropriate.
Deceptive and aggressive dialog
Deceptive dialogue occurs when the assailant closes the gap between you by asking for directions, the time, or a light for a cigarette. He appears friendly and unthreatening until it’s time to become physical. Awareness, controlling distance and trusting your instincts are the key to dealing with this.
Aggressive dialogue is when the assailant screams, shouts and swears to intimidate you. The aim of this aggressive behavior is to pump himself up enough to physically attack, and to hopefully overload you with fear so that you freeze and are unable to effectively deal with the situation. If you’re not used to such naked aggression, this methods will probably work and render all physical skills you have redundant.
Start without warning
Some situations will start without any warning, i.e., if your awareness wasn’t what it should have been or if you are the victim of a well-executed ambush. It can therefore be good training to also have your sparring start without warning.
Sudden and unexpected sparring
Seeing as the sparring can start at any time, all participants need to wear their protective equipment throughout the entire session. The students will then engage in normal training (fitness work, drilling techniques, and hitting the pads). Whenever the leader of the training feels like it, they will shout out the command, “Fight!” At that instant all students should begin sparring with the person or people nearest to them.
The great thing about this type of training is that you are never sure what situation will develop or when. You might quickly respond to the command and attack an unsuspecting class mate, only for someone else to attack you from the rear. One second you thought you had the advantage, the next you’re frantically doing your best against two opponents. After a certain amount of time, the person leading the training will shout, “Stop!” and the students return to whatever they were doing previously.
If you are training as part of a small group, another way to have sparring start without warning is to agree that anyone can attack anyone else at any point during the session (you may want to make some exceptions in the name of safety: i.e., agree that you can’t be attacked when handling weights). The lack of the command to start makes the sparring all the more unexpected. It also ensures that all training done between the sparring is done with the correct attitude. If you start doing things in a half-hearted fashion, your partners may very well decide that it’s a good time to attack you.
Surprise sparring is a great training method that can get you used to having to fight without warning. It is also a great way to give a training session that added edge.
Fight! Now!
It’s important that the person giving out the commands does his best to ensure that the sparring is unexpected. I’m partial to shouting “Fight!” during water breaks, in the middle of drills, straight after a previous bout of sparring, while the students are performing push-ups, and immediately after I’ve told them the surprise sparring is over (my personal favorite). The students quickly begin to expect the unexpected and start to fight well regardless of the situation and position they find themselves in.
Keep the combat up close and personal
Most exchanges between skilled martial artists take place at a greatly exaggerated distance when compared to what happens on the street. The vast majority of real fights start close and they stay close. In the street there is rarely a gap to be closed and there is rarely any back and forth. This obviously has a significant effect on how we structure our sparring for the street.
As we’ve established, real situations will begin with dialogue or without warning. The distance at which words are exchanged is typically the same as punching distance. So in the case of dialogue, the distance has already been closed when the situation gets physical (people don’t try to intimidate you from 15 feet away). If a situation begins without warning, then the distance has already been closed.
A fight is about to begin in the dojo. Notice the distance between Tim and me. Street fights take place at a much closer range.
When two martial artists fight in the dojo or competitive environment, they typically begin the fight from outside kicking distance. This means that a key part of martial arts sparring is to effectively close that gap. These skills are essentially irrelevant for the street.
This is typically how a situation develops in the street. Here I play the bad guy as Tim takes control and lines me up for a strike. Notice how the distance has already gone before things get physical. The verbal exchange and the close proximity should be replicated in street sparring.
Another big difference between the street and a dojo exchange between two martial artists is that the there is no back and forth. In the street, people don’t back off, and then move around for a bit looking for an opening before closing the gap again. All of this means that when training for the street we need to exchange techniques at close range (the exception being when we flee, which we will look at later).
Practice within arm’s reach
When you start your street sparring, you should be within arms length of your partner and you should stay at that distance; with practice you’ll get used to it. However, to begin with you may need to force the distance; here are two ways to do this.
One of the best ways is to limit the floor space. The students who aren’t sparring form a circle around those who are so that there simply isn’t the space to exaggerate the distance.Another way was introduced to me by Shihan Chris Rowen. Chris simply uses a karate belt to tie the students together. It’s a simple method but it works incredibly well. The students can’t exaggerate the distance
