The Street Fighter's Advantage

It would be very dangerous for any martial artist to assume, because of the nature of their skills, that they outclass any unskilled opponents they might face. The skills that a martial artist gains from training are at best an advantage. There are other factors that dictate the success of your actions. For instance, what makes a ferocious animal dangerous? Is it the inherent skills the animal possesses? Why are some dogs considered more dangerous than others? More than likely, all dogs are equally skilled with the weapons they have been given through their evolution. But some animals are more vicious than others. This tenacity separates the docile from the dangerous. Humans are no different.

This quality is difficult to pin down, but it is a real danger any martial artist may face. It is practically impossible to interpose this concept into a martial arts classroom. Most classes are orderly, disciplined areas where safety is very important. You are restricted to some level of abstraction, and the true tenacity that a determined, vicious opponent exudes is not easily conveyed. You can essentially imagine a wildman, throwing punch after punch after punch, kicking, grabbing, and whatever it takes to achieve victory. A truly tenacious opponent will not yield to all but the worst pain, where victory at all costs is the order of battle.

Never underestimate surpise and intensity!

This is not necessarily a fight fire with fire kind of situation here. If you face a street fighter that relies strictly on the intensity of the attack, your response does not have to be matching it exactly. Certainly, that is one of your options, and there is nothing inherently wrong with using the intensity of your own response to counter theirs. In some cases, intensity is the only option. However, just like in a real war, escalation can only lead to one thing; destruction. In a martial artist's case, the outcome will be that someone gets hurt, and probably badly. You may have to protect yourself, but know that any level of damage (i.e. up to death) may be inflicted on your opponent during a full intensity brawl.

Intensity is necessary in a fight, but it should not be the intent of a martial artist to carry out an unrelenting series of full power attacks until the opponent lies broken on the floor. The intensity should be on the vigor and power thrown with each attack or technique, but it should be done in a calculated and collected manner. The wild street fighter, and I use the term generally since there are many types, will attempt to throw as many blows into the shortest possible time without any semblance of plan or thought. The advantage this strategy provides is two fold. First, any fight begins before it really starts. Both sides must size up each other and have concluded that they are not completely outclassed by their opponent. Given that, a fight might not even take place if one side backs down first. The best way to achieve this is to intimidate your opponent into believing that he cannot possibly beat you. A high level of intensity will definitely get your opponent's attention. (This usually involves lots of profanity, name-calling, gesturing, etc, but I think a calm exterior in the face of such boisterousness is far more intimidating.) If the street fighter applies it quickly and intensely enough, then his opponent might yield to the onslaught believing he has been completely outclassed. You find this kind of behavior all throughout nature. Not too many animals, though, will actually take it to the fight stage. The second advantage is that sheer intensity is a tactical advantage on its own. Like a swarm of bees, a series of blows launched quickly and with full power can overwhelm the opponent, achieving victory through a sudden and total application of force.

The martial artist, on the other hand, should use a calculated intensity. Bruce Lee said that one should fight with "emotional content." This is a state of outward calm, where the actions of the martial artist are guided by cold passion. This is not anger, as Bruce Lee said, as anger is undirected and blind. Strong emotions can make our actions stronger, more intense, but they also interfere with our ability to comprehend, plan, and act. To act with emotional content is to use the power that emotions provide without succumbing to them. Throw a technique with intensity and passion while maintaining a calm and calculating mind is to use "emotional content."

The street fighter can use strong emotion as the driving force behind his intensity. Someone that is at rest is unlikely to be feeling strong emotions. Unrestrained emotion is a dangerous force when uncorked. The martial artist should know that the mind controls emotions, not that emotions control the mind. Too often, the undisciplined mind will easily give into rage, fueled by some more sophisticated emotion (jealousy, envy, love). This can lead to terrible things, like assault, rape, murder, or other vile crimes. The undisciplined mind is what martial artists will most likely have to fight. Discipline of the mind is one of the important steps a martial artist must take. If you allow the strong emotions to take hold, all your training and knowledge will be harder to reach.

A good martial arts school will always focus on discipline, whether this takes the form of traditional respect, obedience, or simply training hard. This is the primary advantage a martial artist has over the intensity of a street fighter. The mind should be calm, and outwardly the body should be relaxed. Each technique should be done with force, precision, and emotional content. Think of it like light. A single bulb can throw illumination over a wide area, but a laser concentrates light, and the focused intensity of a laser can cause much more damage than an undirected bulb.

The second advantage a martial artist has is a body of knowledge. Any serious study of the martial arts will yield a series of techniques (bag of tricks, repertoire, what have you), and this knowledge used with focus and discipline is the real source of a martial artist's power. Keep in mind that simply being aware of a technique does not really constitute it as part of the martial artist's arsenal. You have to have reasonable confidence in these techniques (see the previous section if you need a refresher), or they most likely fail when they are needed. The street fighter will probably have a small number of techniques. Even so, if the street fighter is really good at those few techniques, he or she still presents a considerable threat. In almost all martial matters, simple things done well will always beat complex things done poorly. To combat the street fighter, know your techniques, keep them simple¹, and use them with focus and discipline.

As always, the best defense is to not fight at all. There are few reasons to justify getting into a fight, and the risks always outweigh the rewards.