Multiple Assailants
April 20th, 2009An article in my GReader Feed caught my eye: “20 Athletes You Would Want With You in a Bar Fight”. Now, I don’t know anything about who Mike Vallely is, or skateboarding culture, or even the story about this fight (beyond what is said in the video). What I do know, though, is that this video shows a great example of how not to get tied up with multiple opponents.
The video has a brief explanation of the lead-in: 4 guys show up in a Jeep and get in an argument with a bus driver, then later hop out of the Jeep and a confrontation ensues. A verbal threat comes from the four, to which Vallely responds by escalating to physical confrontation. Rather than focus on the lead-in, which could have backfired in our litigious society (one could argue that by Vallely’s statement that he could ‘take all four of you on’ that he didn’t feel threatened despite the verbal threat), I’d like to look at the combat. Vallely does a great job of springing into action, not giving anyone a chance to react as he jumps from opponent to opponent, focusing in long enough to relieve pressure or buy time before switching to a new target. I especially noted how, after the takedown, he immediately disengaged and looked for new threats. This definitely avoids the pitfall of losing awareness because of focusing in one person.
The video is embedded below, and while I don’t believe in escalating to physical confrontation unless there’s a real fear of harm or sense of being threatened, the fight itself is educational, and also demonstrates the effectiveness of overwhelming opponents by pressure (never step backwards).