A Strategy and Tactics Primer
for the Martial Artist
By Rory A. Miller
ASSUMPTIONS
Before we start explaining strategy or tactics we need to address
assumptions as they apply to martial arts. Assumptions are those
things you believe to be true without really considering them. They
provide the background for much of how you see the parts of the
world that you have never experienced. You assume that people
in the world are very similar to the people you know, or you
assume that they are very different. Either point of view will
color all of your interactions and perceptions with those people.
Violence, for the vast majority of martial artists, is unknown
territory. Though they have studied “fighting”, very little of what
they learn is based on experience, and very much is based on word of
mouth. That leaves a lot of room for assumptions, both personal
assumptions and assumptions picked up from teachers, the assumptions
of the style, etc.
Let’s start with the assumptions of the style. Every style is for
something, a collection of tactics and tools to deal with what the
founder was afraid of. For the old style of jujutsu that I study,
the assumed opponent was an armed and armored warrior, the assumed
environment was a battlefield full of armed people, the assumed
situation was that your weapon had been dropped or broken suddenly
and the assumed goal was to get an opponents weapon, probably by
killing him. This list of assumptions drives almost everything in
the style. It forces a close, brutal, quick and aggressive concept
based entirely on gross motor skills.
A style based on the founder’s fear of losing a non-contact
tournament will look different, even if it is just as well adapted
for that idea of a fight as my jujutsu.
This is the first thing you must do: understand thoroughly
what your style is for. Violence is a very broad category of human
interaction. Many, many instructors attempt to apply something
designed for a very narrow aspect of violence, such as unarmed
dueling, and extrapolate it to other incompatible areas, such as
ambush survival. My jujutsu, for instance, is wonderfully adapted to
close range medieval battlefield emergencies. From there it is a
fairly easy stretch to predatory assault survival, but difficult to
adapt to either sparring or the pain-compliance/restraint level of
police Defensive Tactics (DTs).
Each instructor also has assumptions based on his or her experience,
training and (too often) television and popular culture. The first
major assumption is a belief in what a “fight” is and looks like.
The second is in how they define a “win”. Most styles and
instructors are remarkably well adapted to getting the win in the
right kind of fight, and crippled when the fight doesn’t match their
expectation or when the conditions of a win change.
STRATEGY TRAINING
Goals may differ. Real violence is
a very broad subject and no two encounters are the same. What is a
“win” in one situation may not be in the next. The goal is
how you define the win in that particular encounter. Sometimes it
will reflect your martial arts training: an incapacitating blow may
be what you need. But sometimes the goal is to break away or create
enough space to access a weapon or just get enough air to scream for
help. If the goal changes, so does everything else. If you have only
trained for one goal, i.e. the submission, you will be hampered when
the goal is different. Start putting your students in situation
where the goal is non-standard, such as escaping from a small room
or car; drawing a weapon from one of several opponents’ belts or
getting to a dummy phone and punching in 911. One of the simplest
drills is “Breakthrough” where the student must, as fast as
possible, get through a door blocked by two opponents. Fighting each
or both of them takes too long.
The goal is what needs to happen, parameters are what you can’t do.
For me, that’s Departmental Policy and Procedure most of the time.
But it may also include not leaving someone behind, not losing a
weapon from your belt or any number of limitations.
Goals and Parameters combine to dictate strategy. Strategy is
the general plan for accomplishing the goal. Fight, run and hide are
the three classic survival strategies. Don’t limit yourself to
these, though. Deceive and strike; ambush; wait for a mistake and
exploit; are all well known. In the martial arts “Do Damage” is the
core strategy of karate, “Disrupt Balance” is the strategy of judo.
Strategy and environment dictate tactics. Tactics are the
‘how’ of implementing strategy. Availability of weapons, targets,
escape routes, as well as lighting, footing and space are all
elements of the environment that will affect your choice of tactics.
Tactics and the “totality of circumstances” dictate the specific
technique you will use. Totality of circumstances is the law
enforcement term for all of the infinite details of the moment that
influence a decision. For instance…
Goal: stop bad guy from
hurting me.
Strategy: fight.
Tactic: hit him with a stick many times.
Technique: snap to the exposed temple.
The point is, if your goal
changes, so will everything else. How you move, how you think, how
you act. Everything changes. The striving for perfection of a single
goal, the hallmark of dojo training, is far too narrow for real
life.
Conflicting Goals in Drills
Be aware that in any classroom or dojo setting there is a gap
between the perceived goal and the real goal. The perceived goal may
be anything from mastering a technique to learning knife defense.
The real goal never changes: make the instructor happy. This is why
when you teach scenarios the students will not go “outside the box”
without specific permission. They won’t scream, or yell at another
student to dial 911 or run away or grab a weapon off the wall- all
things they should really do if attacked – because deep down the
goal is to give the instructor what the student thinks the
instructor wants. As such, an instructor should allow their students
to occasionally travel outside of the box.
Rory A. Miller is a
Corrections Officer who resides in Portland, Oregon. He is a
training officer with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office and
is ranked in Sosuishitsu-ryu Jujutsu and Judo.
