 So picture this scenario. You're out one night. Maybe you're just having a good time relaxing and some dude tries to start some trouble with you And you might try to de-escalate it. But before you realize it, he's got four of his friends surrounding you. What do you do? Well today, we're gonna talk some ideas about how to handle self-defense against multiple attackers Now this was a question asked to us by one of our viewers Kevin Parham And the question was what is a good martial art for a mass attack? Now we're not gonna go so much into detail about any specific techniques But more along the lines of we're going to address a lot of considerations that people need to understand about multiple attackers So let's go back to that first scenario. You find yourself surrounded. What's the first thing that you should do? Well, okay, if it's if you sense it's starting to escalate and you think trouble's coming Try to talk your way out of it as possible, you know, don't be big Don't be all tough. Don't insult or talk back. That's only gonna escalate the situation Do whatever you can to calm it down because you do not want it to erupt into something worse than that Now the second thing you should do is really actually the first thing you should be doing to begin with and that is work on your positioning So while you're trying to talk them down and de-escalate the situation Work on trying to maneuver your way out of a harmful situation Maybe look for an exit and try to get to a position where you're not cornered or surrounded Positioning I think is one of the most important factors when it comes to defending yourself against multiple people The last place you want to be is in the center of a circle of aggression because once you're in there and it's very difficult to get out of it and While you're working on positioning ideally and of course, there's nothing ideal about the situation at all But you want to try to line them up as much as you can try to keep them in the way of each other So if there's five people try to move in a way that maybe two or three can block one or two of the other ones Because again, you don't want to be in the middle. You want to kind of align it to your favor as best as you possibly can Keep them in between you and the others Also, keep them in your sights Don't ignore the guy behind you because you're trying to line these guys up You always want to see what they're doing because you you do not know what's gonna come at you at the blindside I guarantee you if you're not paying attention to this guy, that's the problem You're gonna have now if you try to de-escalate it and it doesn't work and it does erupt in the violence Keep moving. Don't try to just stand your ground in one position and try to fend them all off Move around as much as possible Always try to get them in the way of each other make them work hard Don't make it easy for them and while you're doing that try to find a way out try to find exits You don't have to be a hero and try to stand and fight your ground Look look around the room and I like to be proactive when I go somewhere new I try to find where emergency exits are I look for doors. I look for pathways I try to take account into obstacles I check traction on the floor just it's a habit I do so I'm trying to be aware of my surroundings and Like I said, don't be a hero Don't think that you're gonna stand your ground and take them all on to be some sort of a badass this situation is extremely dangerous and Being attacked by more than one person being attacked by one person is bad enough But being attacked by multiple is a lot worse than movies make it out to be Jason Bourne does not exist and if he does he hasn't been caught on security camera yet And here's another variable. You most likely have no idea what level of training they have Multiple people could be multiple skill levels. Are they all MMA fighters? If you suspect that my recommendation is to Apologize say whatever you think they want to hear offer them by a drink de-escalate as much as you can because you're not gonna be taking them All on now I do advocate trying to escape a situation I think the best defense is not having the fight to begin with especially in a situation with multiple people Others say that the last thing that you want to do is run because it exposes your back And it increases the likelihood that they're just gonna chase you This is very possible and honestly it comes down to you have to judge a situation I think your goal is to try to find a way out or mitigating as much risk as possible another variable weapons You likely don't know what they have on them. They don't know what you have on you Also, you have your environment There could be a lot of things at your disposal that you could use especially if you're in a restaurant or a bar Lots of objects you can use on them, but they can also use them on you too So keep that in the back of your mind Weapons is a very important variable that a lot of people don't take into consideration when facing multiple attackers It's easy to get distracted by the number of people and not always paying attention to Individual attributes so while we're using your environment I mean use tables use chairs use objects as barriers to work around try to work your way out keep them in an obstacle Don't let them surround you But also try to make sure that you don't work yourself in position where you get caught in the corner That's the last place you want to be because that's actually even worse than being stuck in the middle of them You really have nowhere to go then and if all possible use them as barriers You know if you're gonna do a takedown if you happen to grab one You don't put them in the way of the other one. It's in our jujitsu school It's hard to train against multiple attackers It's not something you can pre-choreograph because it's never ever gonna play out any way you practice But at least at our school we do practice concepts and our she-hand is very very adamant about us being aware of everything going on Around us so whenever we do any one of our throws any one of our takedowns We get called out if we don't immediately look at scan around us to make sure there's no one behind us and Even throws can be adjusted at the mindset of okay Well, you want to throw a person we can throw them this way You can direct them that way or that way trying to put them in a position where the next person's gonna stumble over them or create an obstacle so there's a lot of Awareness you need to have your environments and if you're gonna have to fight in the situation do whatever you can Make it as hard as possible for them even if that includes using themselves as our own obstacles Also understand this is gonna be a dynamic and fluid group They're not just gonna stay in a position and take a number of when to attack you and there's certainly not gonna just line up And attack you one at a time at least not very likely Although I say that and there was a YouTube clip I saw years back that had a guy defending himself against multiple attackers It looked like some sort of road rage incident not really sure they're all wearing like nice work clothes and they're out in the street But for some reason the attackers were lining up and they were attacking one at a time and he was taking down one at a time But there was no technique it was incredibly sloppy and to be honest It really looked like I need the circus music with it But that being said just understand that this is not like the movies where they take turns attacking You don't know the pattern. You don't know how they're gonna react. They're all a threat at all times Do not expect it to happen like a movie. It's not gonna be clean and beautiful You're not gonna pull off some beautiful combination. It's gonna be nasty It's gonna be roughed up and if you can get out of the situation You're gonna feel it just keep in mind when you see a fight scene in the movie like that It's meant to be entertaining and it's fun to see a hero take out a bunch of bad guys But that's not the way it happens in real life Now even one of my favorite martial arts movies the perfect weapon It has a scene where Jeff speakman is walking home And he's actually surrounded by a couple of guys who mug him and in a split second like that and a few beautiful moves All the guys are dropped and I'll agree with Kevin who asked this question He said he saw this scene. He's like, oh, that's beautiful. I won't learn Kempo. Okay. I'm the same way I saw that was like wow It was so impressive when you really stop to think about it well one they had weapons and two He was in the worst place possible He was right in the center of all of them and they just kind of stood there That's not the way it would really normally happen likely in real life But it is a movie movies are meant to be entertaining and it achieved its it achieves its goal We all went. Oh, wow, that was cool and signed up for Kempo. I Also want to bring up another scene from Jack Reacher, too I thought it was a fun movie and there's a scene that's my personal favorite and it was Seeing in which he was in the bar and of course, you know a guy picks a fight with him And they go out into the parking lot and he's surrounded by five guys and basically, you know He's Tom Cruise is a total badass and he takes them all on now The reason I'm bringing up this particular scene is because it touches on another aspect the psychology of the situation And I thought the scene was rather fun by the way They handled it so basically in short Tom Cruise is brought out to the parking lot by these five guys And they're like are you ready for this and Tom Cruise is like, okay Well, this is your last chance to walk away and the leaders like how do you figure that? It's five against one and Jack Reacher goes well actually three against one and the guys like well How do you work that math out? He's like well first when I take out the leader which will be you then there'll be about two guys of bold enough To the attack and that's what take them out. The last two guys always run. It's a total cocky scene It was really fun in a moment, but it brings back serves back rent a topic of you can't assume the psychology of the group So let's touch on his first point. Let's take out the leader. You hear this a lot Oh, you take out the leader you take out the big guy fights gonna be over the writers the others will quit Maybe but also be prepared for that to not work one is Assuming you can take out the leader and not be beaten up by the other guys behind you to there might not always be a leader sometimes groups or just groups and Also, who says the leader or the one with the mouth is the best fighter or maybe he's not the one who's got the Weapon at the psychology you can't assume it might work But it probably won't you mean you still got multiple people to attend with and also understand the group mentality Look for signs, you know, they're gonna be communicating with each other in subtle ways If you think that the tensions are rising and the guy who's talking to you the person talking starts getting fidgety starts Moving around it starts getting jumpy or he starts to turn away, but his feet are pointed at you He's he's prepping he's getting ready. Also watch their hands look for them to exchange glances at each other That might be them looking for signs to make a move You really have to pay attention to the group and psychology of the group and you can never assume what they're thinking So like I said, that was a really fun scene in one of my favorite scenes of that Jack Reacher movie But even though he did the whole little badass play out analysis, it still didn't quite play out exactly how he thought it would So just remember that you can't you're not going to be able to predict or call the shots You're gonna have to ride the situation as it happens talk about the group tactics. Yes They're not all gonna stand there and take turns and attack one at a time But I also saw some arrogance before which had I think had a little bit of merit to it And the concept of if you got eight guys attacking you you're not gonna have eight punches thrown in unison at the exact same time Yeah, that's probably true But he kind of this this this instructional video took it a little too far and thinking that okay Well only these four guys and these angles these are the only angles of entry so when it comes this way You got to sit this way you can't arrange like that. You can't predict that. That's that's too unpredictable of a situation I like the concept of that Okay, thinking that okay, you got to be practical about who can attack at what time but again They're not gonna take turns you can't choreograph it and I still think the best thing to do is position yourself and try to make it as hard for them as possible and Guys and I really hate that I have to bring this up, but I've actually had people say this to me I had someone tell me years years back like oh multiple people are in a problem I'll just duck and they'll punch each other knock each other out I looked at him waiting from the chuckle and realized he wasn't joking You're not gonna duck and have them knock each other out. This is not a cartoon You're not gonna be able to grab this guy's knife swing and redirect and cut that guy It doesn't work that way. Don't ever practice that way. These are real dangerous situations Don't assume that these guys are bumping in this and they're gonna hurt each other They're after you you got to protect yourself position evade as much as possible and get out of there Grappling I'm sorry. I'll you BJJ guys out there avoid the ground When and in any real street fight the ground is the last place you want to be tenfold for multiple attackers Once you're down there, you're most likely not gonna get back up It's hard enough to grapple one person Even if you're really good you can't grapple five and I do sometimes here Brazilian jujitsu guys be like Oh, I hate that did it you know date they fight that that that criticism that other people always say We can't grapple multiple people did I want to seriously ask if you are a grappler and you hate the criticism that you can't Grapple more than one person the ground. Please. I'm genuinely asking what are the tactics for it? I haven't seen anything what do you guys suggest if you do get stuck on the ground and there's multiple people? What is your best tactic because I think that would be worth exploring so honestly I think the best way to defend yourself against multiple attackers is to be very proactive and try to prevent the situation from arising Easier said than done But if you can learn to recognize the signs and sometimes if you feel tensions rising if you can remove yourself You can pacify things a little bit that you always want to take that road as opposed to having to fight multiple people now As to the question what is the best art to learn and the best way to train the fight multiple attackers? well There's a couple options now there are things you can get you know There are weapons you can buy and carry on you and protect yourself with and there are good self-defense tools But they have risks too and also keep in mind too that when you introduce something like that You are automatically escalate escalating the situation. That's another topic for another time But something you do need to understand. So what is the best art for multiple attackers? I don't think there is a best art, but it's the best mindset You want to find a school that teaches you awareness environmental awareness and concepts of multiple attackers And I don't mean pre-choreographed moves or sequences that you have to Memorize and break out on spot because it's going to play out exactly ABCDE. It doesn't work that way don't look for that but look for our schools that teach you how to move and how to create openings and Avoid any school that says they've got a guaranteed technique. Oh guaranteed. They'll save you on the street That's a that's a sales gimmick. Nothing is guaranteed But there's a lot of schools that will teach concepts like that for example Kempo Which gets a lot of criticism for you know preconceived pre-choreographed techniques But when you really break those techniques down, there's concepts and there's principles and there's ideas that you're supposed to take and adapt and Use them in situations. So I do like that that awareness is tied in there And like I said some jiu-jitsu schools like the one I go to we're always always always Always reinforcing the fact of that whenever you're doing a throw you're tied up with the person You have to be looking over your shoulder. You have to be aware who's over there and then try to use them as obstacles against each other Boxing MMA schools I'm always going to recommend them for self-defense because they're a great way to learn speed Footwork fighting skills, especially if you have to learn in the you know a short amount of time But please keep in mind they are focused on one-on-one fights boxers don't train for multiple people Yes, they could probably adapt to it But if your interest isn't to you know defend yourself against multiple people boxing the MMA are good But that would find some sort of a tactical school that could teach you that awareness to go along with it And we've brought this up many times to best way to learn Spar, you know, we talk about pressure testing techniques, right? You know learning how to spar actually making sure stuff really works on a resistant opponent I think the same thing goes for this if you want to learn how to practice or if you want to learn how to defend against multiple attackers Spar multiple people at once you'll see real fast how hard it really is and I promise you right now It's not easy. You it's you know, these aren't guys, you know Where you're gonna hit once they're gonna drop to the ground They're trying to knock you out and you have two or three of them trying to do it You have a fight in your hands now. We did this years back in our old school We would do multiple attackers or multiple sparring sessions and it was really fun And even though we didn't take it super super seriously It was an interesting practice to put yourself through a different mindset because it's a lot harder to pay attention to two people Let alone three or four. So I do recommend doing that But I also promise you this too of all the times it's sparring multiple people never once a day Hit each other and knock each other out because I move out of the way. That's just not realistic But sparring I was sparring and pressure testing That's the only way you're gonna get a feel of how to handle yourself in a situation like that So that's today's topic and discussion on defense against multiple attackers. I want to thank Kevin for such a great question I think this is really worth talking and even get into into greater detail at a later level But the discussion has to start somewhere a lot of great ideas to think about and chew on Also, if we have any viewers out there with experience in multiple attackers or teaching tactics for such Please put it in the comments below I would love to hear your feedback and we also like to practice making your call Subscriptional Awareness, which means please subscribe down below and click on that bell icon So you become aware when the next episode drops and also please join us on our patreon family We've got a lot of great exclusive content. We're always adding all the time So thank you so much for watching if you'd like this episode We've done a bunch of other awareness videos including environmental awareness Which goes into much greater detail just how to avoid situations like that So please be sure to go check that out. Thank you everyone and we'll see you next week