darrianation

In the “Empty hand knife defense” thread there was some discussion on criminal traits and how they attack in the real world. The discussion was limited to the knife but we can expand that to include guns, sticks/clubs, to just about anything. Anyway, this discussion got me thinking about who we should be training to beat.

Many athletes, aspiring writers, actors, and so on “model” their mentors or those who they look up to in there chosen profession or event. This maybe something that the model does well such as a young golfer may study and mimic Tiger Woods swing and which clubs he uses for the long shot, a Karate student may try to learn that perfect side kick of the national champion studying it and practicing it down to every detail because he admires the speed and power in which the champion posses with that kick.

A boxer will study his opponent (usually watching films) to find ways to defend against his strengths and to exploit his weaknesses. Foot ball teams, basketball teams and so on do this also. We as self-defense practitioners should be doing this same thing against our potential enemies.

Beside learning all we can through books, videos such as Youtube, and other outlets we should develop a model to train against to give use the biggest bang for the buck.

In a former training group I belonged to we had our model who we called “Bubba”. I have talked to other groups who modeled the same enemy only calling him by other names.

First let’s define some common factors surrounding the criminal real world event.

• Proximity (they have to get close. Ruse/deception are common ploys to get close).
• Once the assault begins you’ll often see the rapid middle linebacker bull rush.
• Multiple attackers
• Attackers are likely armed.
• Teamwork amongst the attackers acting in unison.
• Surprise attacks often come form the rear or flanks.
• Many attacks occur in low light conditions.
• Many criminal attackers have done it before and therefore have real world experience committing violent crimes.
• Straight forward no frills ugly violence.
• Brutal, aggressive, and unforgiving.

This list isn’t all inclusive and there are certainly anomalies that go against the common themes in criminal assaults but generally speaking these are common threads seen in the majority of criminal assaults.

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