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STREET SMARTS
Author: Robert W. Young
When W. Hock Hochheim was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame in 2001 as Weapons Instructor of the Year, it was primarily because of the research he’d conducted into the ways in which whackos wage war with guns, knives, broken bottles and all manner of killing and maiming instruments. It was not an endeavor he could have opted not to undertake, for his survival was at stake. While walking his beat as a street cop and tracking down felons in Texas, Georgia and South Korea, he had run-in after run-in with the baddest of the bad, and he lived to tell about it only because he was prepared physically and mentally. He knew what they were going to do, and he was ready, willing and able to counter it.
Since retiring from law enforcement, he’s concentrated on spreading all that hard-earned knowledge to those members of the public interested in learning state-of-the-art selfdefense, including knife, gun, stick and empty-hand skills. Below is a sampling of his most important lessons for practitioners of all styles who wish to make the jump from sporting competition to real-world fighting.
Learn other arts so you can deal with them in a fight. Because time limitations prevent you from mastering the myriad of fighting styles out there and because some contain what Hochheim calls "sport leakage" (they innocently focus on competition moves instead of survival strategies), you should concentrate on gaining just enough exposure to the major players to enable yourself to stand up against them. "Learn enough muay Thai to be able to predict what a muay Thai stylist will throw at you and to hold your own against a kickboxer, but don’t try to become a Thai boxer," he says. "Learn Brazilian jujutsu so you can deal with the ground, but don’t go for submission holds or become a ‘lock hunter’ who’s obsessed with finishing your opponent with your favorite tap-out move. Defeat them, but don’t become them."
Build goal-specific strength.
In the sports world, it’s known as specificity of training. In the martial arts, it translates to this: The best way to become a better hitter is to spend your time hitting a heavy bag or walloping a training partner. "Past a certain point of efficiency, you don’t want to develop bodybuilder strength because that won’t help you in a fight," he says.
Practice hitting hard.
Even though it sounds way too fundamental to ever be neglected, more than a few martial artists overlook it, he claims. Instead of power, they focus on precision, speed and even the innocent ability to stop their foot or fist a fraction of an inch from their target. None of those attributes will save your hide in a dark alley. Unloading a full-power kick, punch, elbow or knee will. "The same can be said of swinging a knife or stick," he says. "Always try to hit training objects hard and envision hitting a body part while doing it."
Don’t neglect unconventional strikes.
Martial arts instructors earn their living by telling students that precision kicks and punches are the way to go, and that’s fine, Hochheim says. "But you should also think about using other techniques such as the forearm strike and the body ram. They can be unexpected and effective. Just beware of the head butt, for you can stun yourself or even knock yourself out in the middle of a fight. God did not make the human head to be an impact weapon."
When all else fails, throw a palm to the chin. An upward-bound open-hand blast to the chin can be a knockout blow that shoots in from an unexpected angle below the line of sight. And if your fingers are long enough, he says, they will snap forward on impact and hit him in the eyes.
Forget the rules.
Because an assailant will pounce on you without any regard for differentials in size, weight and age, when defending yourself on the street "you should cheat first, cheat last and cheat in the middle," Hochheim says. "We had a rule in the Army: If you’re in a fair fight, you just didn’t prepare well enough."
Eye gouging takes practice.
"Most civilians have an aversion to gouging another human being’s eyes," he says. Therefore, if your lastresort self-defense strategy calls for you to jab your attacker’s orbs at close range, you’d better find a way to mentally accustom yourself to the idea and physically familiarize yourself with the sensation beforehand.
Venture outside your safe zone.
Good kickers tend to make every sparring session a kicking-only match, and good punchers tend to make every self-defense drill revolve around hand techniques. "To prepare yourself for any eventuality, however, you must familiarize yourself with all ranges of combat—standing, kneeling, seated and on the ground with and without weapons—and become proficient at them," he says.
Train for skilled and unskilled assailants.
Of course you’ll want to develop the skills you’d need to combat the most dangerous adversary you can imagine, but you also have to think about how you’d handle a sloppy drunk at a party and a recalcitrant teen-ager caught trying to vandalize your mailbox. "Most of the criminal world is untrained," he says. "Martial artists routinely train to defeat the jab, for example, yet 99.9 percent of the population does not know how to throw any type of sporting punch. Focus on preparing yourself to deal with sucker punches and haymakers before you problem-solve sporting punches."
Don’t overlook knife defense.
Self-defense realists are fond of insisting that there’s no way you can defend against a knife attack, but you’ve got to try, Hochheim says. "Always pick up something and fight with it. That’s your first step." Resort to hand-to-weapon combat only when you’ve exhausted all other means. You might not be able to escape injury altogether, but you can often minimize it. If you’re looking for an art that teaches you how to avoid knife thrusts, try aikido. It really works."
Learn both tactics and strategy.
Self-defense has two components, Hochheim insists. "Tactics are the ABCs of fighting—like playing checkers. Strategy is the big picture— like playing chess." Keep your ABCs simple but not too simple, and know your strategy by heart before the violence begins.
Prepare for the three ranges of firearms defense.
"Defending against a gun threat can take place in one of three ranges," he says. "They are contact range, lunge-and-reach range and sniper range. There’s not much you can do at sniper distance, but many confrontations occur much closer than that." And that’s when you might be able to make your move.
Know the myth of gunfighting.
Conventional wisdom holds that in a real shootout, you won’t have enough time to grab your weapon, adjust your grip, drop into a rehearsed stance, align the sights, take a deep breath and squeeze the trigger to return fire, Hochheim says. "That’s especially true if there’s more than one opponent." That lesson also applies to knife fighting and empty-hand self-defense. To remedy the problem, practice your offensive and defensive moves without having perfectly positioned your feet, hips and shoulders. Launch a kick while standing on one leg or running, and throw a punch while falling to the mat. "Mimic the chaos you’re likely to find in a real situation," he says.
Follow the skill-development progression.
Whether you’re honing your weapons skills or empty-hand techniques, you should methodically work your way up the ladder of mastery. "First, learn the new tactic," Hochheim says. "Second, perfect the skills you need to do it using partner drills. Third, trouble-shoot it for the typical problems. Fourth, work on counters to add depth to your troubleshooting. Finally, practice it in combat scenarios." It’s a tried-andtrue method for committing new techniques to memory, and it’s the best way to make them available to you during the heat of battle. ...
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