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CHAPTER 1

Understanding Strategy and Concepts

The crucial foundation for hand-to-hand combat is based on mastering the ranges of fighting, using the natural weapons of your body and knowing where to hit the opponent’s body. This is as true for the streets as it is for the ring.

Fighting Ranges

The fighting range describes the distance between you and your opponent. This distance is rarely fixed¹ and changes in the heat of battle. An understanding of fighting ranges requires knowing how to move in and out of range and knowing what offensive and defensive tools work best in the different ranges. Whether you are empty-handed on the streets or wearing gloves in an MMA arena, the following are the four ranges of hand-to-hand combat.²

A superior fighter will be able to flow into and out of different fighting ranges at will, and will know the most effective offensive and defensive tools for each range. To fight efficiently, you maximize your strengths and exploit your opponent’s weakness. Therefore, against an opponent with excellent boxing skills, a good strategy might be to use a weapon, keep him in kicking range, or close the gap and take him down to the ground.

Kicking/Long Range

In this range, you engage with your opponent primarily with the longest limbs of your body—your legs. This usually favors a tall fighter and an expert kicker like a Muay Thai fighter. A height-disadvantaged fighter will usually try to close the gap to neutralize the kicking range and fight in a closer, more advantageous range.

Kicking/Long Range—The ample space in this range leaves plenty of room for kicking.

Punching/Medium Range

In this range, you engage your opponent primarily with straight punches and wide hooks. You can still kick in this range, but your guard needs to be up because your opponent is close enough to hit you with punches.

Punching/Medium Range—The medium range is conducive to both kicking and punching—so keep your guard up!

Trapping/Close Range

In this range, you engage with your opponent primarily with elbows, knees, upper cuts, hooks, grabs, throws, takedowns and headbutts. This is also considered a clinching range, and being able to manipulate your opponent’s body and “trap” their limbs will effectively neutralize their hitting capabilities while you remain able to hit them.

Trapping/Close Range—The claustrophobia-inspiring close range brings with it the option of clinching (or being clinched by) your opponent.

Grappling/Extremely Close Range

In this range, you are rolling on the ground attempting to gain a superior position from which to disable your opponent or cause him to submit. The transition into this range is usually initiated by the takedown. Many of the offensive tools you use in the trapping/close range are effective here with the additional offensive tools that are exclusive to the grappling arts such as the arm bar or the triangle choke.

Grappling/Extremely Close Range—Following the takedown, many of the offensive tools that are effective at close range remain so on the ground.

Natural Weapons of the Body

Just about every part of your body can be used as a weapon to strike, pin, leverage or distract your opponent. This is especially true in the clinching and grappling range where tools like shoulder bumps and headbutts are very effective.

1) HEAD—to strike with the top or the back of your skull.

2) TEETH—for biting, tearing or gnawing on an opponent in an extreme life-or-death situation.

3) HANDS—an instinctual and effective tool that can cause a high amount of damage to your opponent. There is a risk of hurting your hand when throwing punches.

CLOSED HANDS

Punch—the traditional boxer’s weapon used for throwing jabs, crosses, hooks, and uppercuts.

Hammerfist—a closed fist that hits with the bottom, meaty portion of the hand.

OPEN HANDS

Palm—to stun or push an opponent.

Fingers—to grab, poke, gouge, or pinch an opponent.

Knifehand—to strike an opponent in certain soft and vulnerable body parts, like the throat.

4) ELBOWS—to hit an opponent with the very hard bone in your elbow.

5) FOREARMS—used to smash against an opponent’s face, throat or other body part.

6) SHOULDERS—to bump against your opponent’s face in a clinching or grappling situation.

7) KNEES—like elbows, these very effective strikes cause high amounts of damage with minimal risk to you.

8) LEGS—to strike your opponents with a variety of kicks.

9) FEET—to use the instep, heel or ball of your foot in stomping or sweeping your opponent.

You’re practically a walking arsenal.

Target Areas of the Body

A key element to finishing a street fight quickly and safely is to target the most vulnerable areas of your opponent’s body. Ideally, the best target areas on your opponent’s body are those that render him unconscious or prevent him from fighting back. Target areas are best attacked with combination strikes (example: jab to the eyes, kick to the groin, hammerfist to the jaw-line). To improve accuracy with combination strikes, use shadowboxing, cooperative partners and marked punching bags or training dummies.

Target these points on your opponent, while you protect your own.

Hand-to-Hand Combat Concepts

A key strategy to adapt from MMA to the streets is to strike quickly and overwhelm your opponent(s) with brutal hits. Clinch if you must, but avoid the ground as much as you can. Strike while in the clinch, and throw or take your opponent down.

When engaging an opponent with strikes in the various ranges (with or without a weapon), you should employ the following critical tactics:

• Neutralize your opponent’s offense quickly.

• Emphasize limb destruction.

• Emphasize the angles.

• Emphasize body manipulation.

• Emphasize speed and high hit percentages.

Neutralize Your Opponent’s Offense Quickly

Strike before your opponent hits, deceive your opponent or use counterfighting techniques to neutralize your opponent’s offense and end the fight quickly. Even in the ring, you don’t want to absorb punches like boxer. Although knowing how to “take a punch” is important, the fewer strikes you absorb and the more strikes you give improve your chances for victory (e.g., kicking before an opponent’s punch reaches you).

This is a good example of neutralizing the opponent’s offense is using a long-range attack: your kick, to stop the opponent’s mid-range attack, the cross. Here the kick does damage against the opponent while keeping you at a safe fighting distance out of range of getting hit.

Emphasize Limb Destruction

Focus on hitting an opponent’s limbs as well as body and face. Although striking an opponent’s limb won’t immediately end the fight, it can cause your opponent to lower his guard or feel pain in their limbs (e.g., as with an elbow to an oncoming punch). This can effectively neutralize your opponent’s offense.

Here, I am throwing an elbow at my opponent’s cross. Done with correct form and proper timing, an elbow thrown at an oncoming punch is a great example of limb destruction. Without healthy limbs (arms, hands, feet and legs), your opponent’s ability to fight is rendered nil. Therefore, targeting those areas with counterattacks that break bones or cause great pain (like elbows to punches or foot stomps to feet) will “destroy” your opponent’s limbs and end the fight quickly.

Emphasize the Angles

Use angular movement in your footwork to evade and parry incoming strikes and retaliate from a position against which your opponent is unable to defend. Also, hit different areas of your opponent by aiming at high and low targets on the left and right sides. With combination attacks and angular movement, you will be able to: (1) expose different areas of the body to hit, (2) move in and out of ranges, and (3) compound the purpose of your movement with confusing your opponent (e.g., slipping to the outside of an opponent’s punch).

This photo shows an example of slipping on the outside of an opponent’s punch. A very subtle but effective approach to fighting is to use angular movement. Whether you are moving forward, side-to-side, or retreating, be conscious of your diagonal movements, as well. Diagonal movements allow you to slip punches and to sneak in punches when your opponent is pressing forward. You can either step in diagonal directions or simply move your upper body in diagonal directions to defend or attack.

Emphasize Body Manipulation

Always find ways to control your opponent’s body in the clinch or while grappling. By doing so, you keep him unbalanced and vulnerable to your strikes or finishing moves. Also, by manipulating your opponent’s body, you can flow into and out of ranges (e.g., getting inside to throw your opponent).

Here, I am positioned to throw my opponent over my shoulder. Learn to manipulate your opponent’s body using proper form and leverage so that, once you are in close against your opponent, you can throw him, sweep him, drop him, or lock him quickly and securely.

Emphasize Speed and High Hit Percentages

Speed in striking and movement is important to overwhelm the opponent with a high number of attacks from different angles, and to be able to control the ranges. In addition, aim to overwhelm your opponent with hits until you are sure your opponent is down. For example, many fighters are able to absorb direct hits to the face, so one knee or elbow to the face might not finish the fight. Therefore, you should continue striking with your knees and elbows until your opponent is out. Training that incorporates attacking with combinations is crucial to developing high-hit percentages.

Footnotes

1 A situation where the range may be fixed is if you’re fighting in an elevator.

2 In many martial arts, fighting with a weapon is considered a range in itself. However, a martial artist can fight with a knife in any of the four ranges described here. Remember that an opponent can grab a knife or another weapon when you’re fighting in the street.