I have a good friend, who is a recovering alcoholic. He told me a story that had a great self-defense lesson in it. In his heyday, he would frequent a specific bar and drink until drunk or, at the very least, until closing. This was his day-to-day habit and as a result, he was a regular there, not unlike Norm from the TV show, Cheers.
One day, a newcomer to the bar became loud and aggressive after having a couple shots. He proceeded to pick a fight with my friend for no reason at all. As my buddy was already drunk, the whole engagement process was very short, with my friend ending up on the floor in seconds.
What this unprovoked attacker did not understand is that my friend had been coming to this bar for years and, as a result, had a circle of friends who came to his aid. Upon my buddy hitting the floor, three guys jumped up, surrounded the aggressor and brutally removed him from the bar.
The point of the story is that at no point in the initial engagement process with a potential attacker are you necessarily assured that you are only dealing with one person. Regardless of how big or small, imposing or meek your attacker looks, there can very well be secondary and tertiary threats lurking nearby. These third party players will typically wait until their person is starting to lose the battle before they make themselves known.
In Krav Maga, a metric that is used when discussing self-defense strategies is ” T.O.T”, or “time on target”. Remember, the longer you’re physically connected with your attacker the more possibilities exist that another person will jump in to help them. The best defensive strategy is to always disengage at first opportunity and exit the scene safely,
At Krav Maga Personal Safety, we look at every potential attack as a situation that must be ended and disengaged from in as few seconds as possible. Self-defense must always be viewed with the lens that variables exist which are not necessarily known at the time of first contact. The best decision, therefore, is to not engage at all if possible, but if you must, finish and exit in 6 to 8 seconds. This will prevent any unknown and unwanted players from entering the fight and minimizes the risk of having to fight multiple attackers.
