UFC fighters vs Marine Corps martial arts experts, guess how it plays out

You train how you fight and you fight how you train.

I ran across this video in an article on Business Insider's website today (which is a reprint of the original article on We Are the Mighty that shows 3 UFC fighters, and Dana White, spending a day at the Marine Corps Martial Arts Center of Excellence (MACE), in Quantico, VA. UFC veterans, Forrest Griffin, Marcus Davis, and Rashad Evans went through a training lane where they'd have to fight their way past marines in a 'no rules' scenario of combat survival. Watch the video to see how they pan out. Spoiler alert, not well for the UFC guys.

What can we take away from this video? Combat sports and military/high risk operator skill sets serve two very different purposes.
 
Military and high risk operators train to achieve a completely different goal from what MMA and tournament & civilian martial arts train for. And that becomes very apparent at the 5:18 mark of the video. UFC fighter, Gabriel Gonzaga approaches two enemy marines.  Right away, he makes two critical tactical mistakes: 1. he puts himself between both opponents, exposing his back to one of them, and 2. he focuses his attack on one opponent. And he immediately paid for it.

In fact, each of the MMA fighters made the same mistake when fighting multiple opponents. They all focused their fight on one enemy while ignoring the other active opponent, and that's why they were each killed in the exercise.

Fighting in the cage/ring/mat against a single opponent is very different from what happens in a combat situation. But what's more relevant to us civilians, is that what happens in a combat situation is more aligned to what happens on the street. Odds are that the guy you get in a fight with has friends, who are not going to wait their turn for you to beat them up.  Environmental conditions will not be ideal (see how everyone was slipping around in the snow on the video), weapons can be pulled and used, and there is no referee or coach to enforce rules or call the fight.

Training MMA is training for sport, against a single opponent in a fairly safe environment. If you do train MMA or any other combat sport (muay thai included), it's very important to remember that the objectives of your style aren't the same as the objectives of an armed assailant or a crew that picks fights for fun. The dynamics change outside of the gym.

Here are just a few tips to keep in mind:
1. If you do end up in a situation outside the gym, assume that there's more than one bad guy.
2. In the street, never, ever take the fight to the ground, that's the quickest way to get your head stomped.
3. If/when you find yourself going to the ground, get up, fight your way back to your feet.
4. Keep moving, don't focus on one single individual opponent. Tunnel vision kills.
5. If this is a real concern for you, seek out a local school that trains reality-based self defense where multiple/armed opponent tactics & group psychology principles are applied. Check out one of the following:

•  Krav Maga - not my first choice, but given the Krav franchise, its the most widely available option. 
• If you're near a Senshido school, go there. 
• Better yet, if you can train directly with Richard Dimitri, take advantage of that. 
• If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out the Muay Thai Academy International (shameless plug, it's where I teach, and this stuff is what we cover).

Either way, check out the video. It's entertaining, and the exercises the UFC fighters went through looks like a lot of fun.

This video was originally posted on You Tube in 2011. Video credit, HarryBank99

Three Dimensional Knowledge

How It Really Goes Down in a Multiple Attack

If you get on the internet, you’ll find a large amount of information on multiple opponent fighting. A large percentage of it is crap, but not because it isn’t any good. In fact a large amount of it is very well thought out and logical, but unfortunately it’s just conjecture and theory. In other words it’s just an educated guess.

My friend Richard Demitri has a saying on his website at Senshido.com, “Ask the experienced not the learned”. Now why is that? It’s because they’ve been there and done that. They can tell you things that books and theory can’t. They have what I call “Three Dimensional Knowledge”. They’ve been through the wringer, they have studied and understood it, and they can explain it.

Most theories have a one dimensional or maybe a two dimensional knowledge of a subject at best. They lack the third dimension, the physical, where the rubber meets the rode. Unless your theories, tactics and techniques have been tested, you won’t truly know if they work or not. The third dimension is the proving ground; it lets you know what is and what isn’t. It gets rid of the illusion and shows you the reality, there is no bias it just gives you the plain truth. Then it’s up to you whether to accept it or reject it to your peril.

In the next installment I’m going to teach you about a multiple opponent attack that happened to me. I’m going to try and explain to you what happened and what worked and what didn’t. It took me some time to piece together what happened that night and what I could have done to have avoided the situation. My reason to tell you this story is to help you understand the truth of this type of assault and not the fantasy that you might believe happens in this type of attack. My hope is that you learn from my experience and become the wiser for it.

And always remember three dimensional knowledge is always the best teacher when it comes to life and death.

Take care,
Daniel Sambrano

My next muay thai video - elbow knee combos

The poll results are in and your voice has been heard. According to your votes, I'll shoot a 2 part series on elbow & knee striking combo drills, and I'll also begin to shoot basic multiple opponent tactics drills. The multiple opponents concepts goes pretty deep with a wide number of factors to consider - but we can at least get it started, right?

If you are a subscriber to my blog I'll email you a training and drill regimen PDF as a holiday gift for being a loyal reader.. If you want to be included in this offer, simply subscribe to the blog.

Folks, this is my blog, and by know you know that I could care less about training for sport or MMA. But this is also your blog. So, I encourage you to reply to posts, or send me a message with your own thoughts and ideas about muay thai, street fighting, self defense, and yes, spicy food.

I'm humbled and thankful that you take your time to read my rants, so let me return the favor - don't be shy about posting your rants!

The most basic, yet most effective muay thai block

Whether you train muay thai, MMA, krav maga, or any of the myriad close quarter combat / self defense systems out there, this technique is a must have for your personal arsenal. Remember, you saw it here first.

I'm gonna get straight to the point here. The defensive technique I demonstrate in the video below is one the easiest to learn and apply. I call it the 45 degree block because of the angle at which you hold your arms. Its amazing how effective it is in stopping elbows, hay maker punches and even high kicks.

As you'll see, when you step in with the 45 degree block, you end up in knee or elbow striking range. Its a great entry technique to counter off of a strike. Once you're in close range you choose to use hard techniques or soft techniques such as head control or joint lock take downs, depending on the situation. Oh, it also works well in a multiple opponent situation. With that block you can control (while softening him up with knees) while creating a barrier between you and the other attacker(s).

Historically, this block comes from muay chao cherk (muay chao churd), the ancient form of muay thai forged in the battlefield. After a soldier lost his sword, his best form of defense was to get deep inside the strike range his attacker where he can, yep, disarm his opponent, and use his body as a shield from the fray. Modern Thai military forces have also integrated the 45 degree block into the lerdrit system.