10 Things you need to know win any fight #9
If you are taking Martial Arts or thinking about taking a Martial Arts class one of the reasons you probably are taking the class is “to learn how to win a fight”. I have been teaching and training in Martial Arts for 46 years and I have found that there are 10 basic ways to “win a fight”. During the next few days I will be discussing each in detail. Here’s the list and let’s begin the discussion.
Block the initial attack and make your response overwhelming
Don’t fight their fight. Fight to win.
Take them down and pound them
Don’t get sucker punched, always be ready for a fight
Relax and breath
Stay low in your stance and with your kicks
Use a weapon if you have one
Be aware of where you are at all times during the fight
Do everything with Bad Intentions
Don’t believe them when they “give up”, unless they are hurt
Let’s look at #9: Do everything with bad intentions.
It would seem obvious that when you are in a street fight you would want to do any and everything you can do to win that fight as quickly and as efficiently as possible, yet many people actually don’t do things in a real fight that would stop the fight immediately, but rather try to do flashy or “point” techniques that tend to only make your attacker mad and give him confidence to continue the fight.
When you do anything during a real street fight, including punching, kicking, and ground techniques you must always remember to do all your techniques with “bad intentions”. That means you do everything with the full intention of hurting the other guy. That doesn’t mean that you do some kicks and punches soft and pretend you are in a tournament match. That means when you throw a punch you try to tear the guy’s head off. When you throw a kick you try to break his bones and when you take him to the ground and try a submission, you don’t wait for a “tap”, you listen for a “bone breaking”.
I remember when Mike Tyson wasn’t insane and was an incredible heavyweight boxer and World Champion. When he fought another fighter he had the distinct advantage of having the other fighter being totally afraid of him. Why? Because he threw every punch with “bad intentions”, he intended that every time he hit the other guy, it would hurt or end the fight. He didn’t do any thing with the intention of prolonging the fight or giving the other guy confidence. He wanted the fight over as soon as possible and he wanted to hurt the other guy. And this philosophy worked incredibly well. He knocked out almost everyone he fought and many of the boxers he faced were actually looking for a way to get out of the fight or get knocked out quickly, so they wouldn’t have to take the punishment any more than they had to.
Billye Jackson was the World Kickboxing Champion from Dallas, TX and the joke that went around was that Superman wasn’t a white reporter living in Metropolis; Superman was a 5’8” black man working at TI. He never threw any punches of kicks during a fight that were not intended to hurt the other guy. His kicks and punches were devastating and always thrown with bad intentions. I learned that the hard way when I first came to Texas.
I was the most famous demonstrator of KI in the South and did my KI demonstrations at all the major Karate Tournaments at that time. I would let the biggest, strongest, meanest guy in the audience come up and hit me Full Power with strikes to the solar plexus, throat and ribs. And I would take full power kicks to the ribs. I would finish off my demos by bending a 12-inch razor sharp knife on my neck. Because of the sensational aspects of the demonstration and the fact that if my KI didn’t work I could literally be Killed, I always drew huge crowds and was the favorite demo of the tournament, in fact I was the only person to ever demonstrate at the US Karate Championships for 5 years straight. One; because it was a great demo and two; because everyone was waiting to see someone knock me out.
Now back to Billye Jackson. When I first came to Texas I didn’t know anyone and no one knew me except some of the big tournament directors like Allen Steen. Master Steen was not someone to trifle with and never let anyone do a demo in his tournament without testing him. He invited me to demonstrate at his US Karate Championship, but with a small catch I did not know about at the time. It was his “test” for me to see if I was “real”. He told me he couldn’t find anyone really big to hit me, so he had a friend of his Billy Jackson volunteer to hit me. I didn’t know whom Mr. Jackson was, but I was soon to find out. Mr. Jackson came into the ring for the demo with his hands wrapped for a fight. No one had ever done that before. When I asked him why he had his hands wrapped, he said so he wouldn’t break his hand when he hit me. I was about to find out what he meant.
When Mr. Jackson hit me in the ribs he hit me so hard and with such power that he tore my skin and I started to bleed. His knuckles literally left marks across my ribs and the blood started to pour out. I did not get hurt but I did learn why Mr. Jackson was the World Champ. He never did anything for fun, when they asked him to hit me, he wrapped his hands and fully intended to knock me out, break my ribs or even kill me. When he didn’t do anything but draw blood, I made a good friend and got the respect I needed to continue to be the number one tournament demonstration in the South.
Here is the point. You must have that same attitude in a fight. Throw all your punches and kicks with bad intentions. If you go to the ground, break his arm; don’t work for a tap out. If you will remember this simple tip you will win a lot more fights and win them a lot faster.
For more info: Grandmaster Ted Gambordella is the author of 42 books and 24 DVD’s. For more info see his website www.blackbeltinabox.com