KISS when you fight

Russell Stutely is a kick ass martial artist who teaches the value of getting in first

I’ve trained in a few different martial arts over the years, but of all of them, GKR is the one that I’ve dedicated my life to. There are many reasons why, but one important reason is GKR’s belief in the value of the basics, and I believe that basics are the bedrock of good fighting.

Watching a Russell Stutely video today, he finally put into words, what I’d long been feeling – that wrist locks, arm bars, high kicks, chokes, and even many GKR escapes don’t work as a first course of action. I’d realised this several years ago, when I discovered that against non-compliant opponents, even fairly basic escapes often failed, in some cases putting me into a worse situation. I was agonising with this realisation, and I underwent a crisis in my belief in GKR karate. But I trusted the words of my sensei, who said to me, “Just because you can’t make them [the escape techniques] work, doesn’t mean that they don’t work.” At the time, he meant that I needed to do more practice in order to understand the dynamics and mechanics of these escapes, but I realise now, that there is another stage in executing these techniques, apart from the techniques themselves.

Russell Stutely teaches a system of automated responses called Body Alarm Reaction (BAR). It’s basically a powerful slap on the head or arms, followed by further striking and disorienting techniques designed to give you time.

I have great respect for Mr Stutely, but you don’t need to master BAR to increase the effectiveness of your defence. The fundamental principle of BAR, is to do something to the opponent before he does something to you. Do it fast enough and hard enough so that he is disoriented and unable to muster sufficient composure to fight back, and keep doing something until the fight is won, or you have time to escape.

With its combination of pressure point attacks, waveform movement, and speed, BAR is devastatingly effective in practiced hands, but the fundamental principle can be applied equally to a punch, or other types of strikes.

I was at a barbecue the other day and I got into a play fight with another adult. I tried to put on a leg lock (which is not a GKR technique). I’m reasonable at them, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not make the other person surrender. Eventually, I presented him with an ankle of my own, and he grabbed it and twisted it until I submitted. At the time it really irritated me to lose to a non-fighter, when I have years of experience. But then, the more I thought about it, the more I realised why I’d lost. I forgot to KISS.

What I discovered in my play fight, were two things:

1. If you’re fighting but you are not prepared to hurt the other person, then you lose most of your effective techniques. Or at least, those techniques, cease to be effective.

2. It’s better to stick to simple techniques than complicated ones.

In the average self-defence situation, it’s better to get in with a quick, easy-to-perform technique, than to go for the big killer shot, or the complicated lock, or the risky high kick. Once you get the easy technique in, or even a couple of easy techniques (a jab, or a low kick), then that buys you the time to execute more powerful techniques.

As Russell points out, it takes a brave man to launch straight in with a big killer technique.

I’ve discovered that at tournaments. I’m capable of; even competent, at a far greater range of techniques than I dare use at tournament. But the additional speed of the action, as well as my respect for the opponent’s ability to punish mistakes, means that I’m very apprehensive about using anything but the simplest techniques. Furthermore, I’ve discovered that I invariably DO get punished when I move away from basic techniques – even to something straight-forward like a side kick!

So, my rule for fighting – both real and in a tournament, is to always remember to KISS – Keep it simple, stupid!