A street fight is definitely not a situation most of us would like to be in. It’s best to just avoid them. Getting the hell away from bad situations instead of trying to be a badass is always better. Unfortunately, taking part in a fight is not always our decision. We can be drawn into such a situation, someone will attack us, etc. And before we know it it is too late, we are in the middle of a street fight. That’s why it’s worth knowing what to do in such situations. Below you will find tips on how to escape the WORST position in a street fight. You’d better never need this knowledge, but just in case check it.
The worst that can happen in a street fight
If we are to write the worst scenarios then you can die, get hurt, etc. But that is not what this is about. Here we are talking about the worst position (in terms of grappling) you can find yourself in. And in this sense, the worst that can happen to you is to fall to the ground while your opponent or opponents are still standing. In this position, you are very vulnerable to attacks such as kicking or being seated. To be prepared for such eventualities, below you will find two action scenarios.
Scenario 1: you are lying down, and the opponent is standing
If you find yourself in a position where you are lying down, and the other person is standing, do not try to crawl to escape. By trying to move away this way, you expose yourself to attacks. A better tactic is to attack the opponent’s leg. You turn to the other person and grab one of their legs. Thanks to this, the roles are reversed. Your opponent falls to the ground and you are no longer lying. Here you must remember, it’s not a fair fight where you have to worry about your guard, etc. So you just hit the most sensitive spot – the crotch.
If your opponent is kicking somehow or trying to catch you with his legs, you have to avoid them and come to the side control. Thanks to this you are already in an almost standing position from which you can assess the situation and start running away. In the video below, you can see how it looks in practice.
Scenario 2: you get mounted
Another scenario is that someone immediately decides to sit on you instead of kicking, or you missed an opportunity for using the above-mentioned tactics. From the mount, your opponent has close to absolute dominance. He got all the advantages, including reach, power, gravity, mobility, and choice of targets. Even kids know this instinctively. Many schoolyard fights have ended with one kid sitting on the other one’s chest, slapping, and punching his helpless victim. Sitting on someone is also a common tactic used by violent sexual offenders. Fortunately, this is no hopeless situation. There are actually ways to survive, escape, and reverse such a situation.
Survival
First, you cannot succumb to the strikes that are falling on you. You must stay calm, decide you want to survive, and realize that most punches are bearable. Instead of flailing around instinctively, you must use a technique. So, as the first step of your survival, you got to cover up. One of the best options from the bottom of the mount is to use something called ‘the helmet’. It covers most of the knockout points on the head. To properly cover-up glue both your fists on your temples. Then bring your elbows together in front of your face and offset one elbow a little higher than the other to close the biggest gaps.
Escape
If you were not separated in any way and your opponent does not seem to want to stop hitting you, you can try to escape this position. In fights in controlled sports conditions, there are many different escapes to the mount position. However, they’re not all equally suitable for the street. It is because some mount escapes require your hands to be low, allowing your opponent free access to your face. And other ones require high levels of certain attributes such as flexibility, strength, or explosiveness.
So, the most useful, highest percentage mount escape is probably the fundamental ‘bridge and roll’ technique. It’s relatively simple, keeps you safe, and will work against a wide range of opponents. Moreover, it doesn’t require crazy athleticism You can see this escape in MMA all the time, so you know it’ll even work against a trained fighter.
The bridge and roll is a well-known move for BJJ practitioners. It is a classic technique. However, to adapt it for the street you do need to change it a bit. First, as it is not a fair fight with rules, there’s the whole problem of covering your face. Then the next issue is breaking the posture forward. In a grappling context, it’s quite likely that your opponent’s hands will already be on the ground. However, in a street fight, your opponent might be sitting more upright, which allows him to both, punch you in the face, and ride out your bridge.
The adjustment is to merge your bridge with a thigh bump to the buttocks. You’re not trying to do anything crazy like a knee strike to the kidney, breaking his pelvis, or snap the spine with your knee. The only goal of doing a one-legged bridge and thigh bump is to break your opponent’s posture forward so you can secure his arm and move on to the next step. Then, once he got his arms on the ground, you’re going to do the following. First, secure one of his arms to your chest using a variety of grips. Then step over his leg on the same side as the arm with one of your legs. As a next move, bridge your hips as high as you can towards the sky. And finally, roll over to the side and get to the top. From here, you can hit your opponent quickly and then run away.
Remember!
Just remember the best strategy for street fights is to avoid them. Above mentioned tactics are just in case you are unlucky and you will find yourself in such a bad situation. Have them on the back of your head, and hope you’d better never have to use them.
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