The Ultimate Fighter A Conversation with a Gang Member by Sensei J. Richard Kirkham B.Sc.He lurks around every dark corner. He has no fear. He's been in fights everyday of his life. Despite your years of martial arts training he can defeat you....
Tags: street fighting, martial arts, self-defense, self-defence, mental training, stress training,fighting strategies
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He lurks around every dark corner. He has no fear. He's been in fights everyday of his life. Despite your years of martial arts training he can defeat you.
He is - THE STREET FIGHTER!
Come on friends and fellow martial artists. Think about this.
If some poor soul got into fights everyday he or she would most likely be killed before developing any real skills.
A person trying to survive living in the streets wants to avoid conflicts which could get him/her killed.
Avoiding these conflicts negates the very essence of the concern some martial artists have. Despite the way boxers, wrestlers and soldiers train some martial artists insist the best way to learn to fight well is to just fight.
Let's have an interview with a gang member who also happens to be a martial artist Rick: How long have you been in a gang?
GM: I got down with a gang around age 14 and became inactive around age 21.
Rick: Why did you join a gang?
GM: Most people join gangs to obtain something they aren't getting at home. I got down because I didn't feel I was getting respect at home. Another strong reason you get down with a gang is because you have friends who are gang members. My friends were older and in gangs and basically showed me the way.
Rick: Did you get into a lot of fights?
GM: I got into a lot of senseless fights and I've had my share of fighting for a cause. In fact by the time I started formal martial art training, I could already hold my own in a fight and knew what worked and didn't work for me.
Rick: What caused most of these fights?
GM: Well I have to give you some background so you can understand the layout. I'm 30 now and came up around Hartford CT where you had crews like the Ville and the Ave. Connecticut has its share of import gangs like bloods and crips, but it also has plenty "homegrown" gangs and nations like Elm city boys, pump nation, and old crews like the ville and the ave. In my city alone, we had well over 11 gangs. Now keep in mind that each town/city has it's own set of gangs, and each well organized gang has branches in other towns and cites, and so you can imagine how deep this thing is. so you pack about 20 gangs in a minor city and you can see how a lot of fighting starts. Most fights had to do with rivals going places they had no business, and/or disrespect issues. My personal fights dealt moreso with civilians and rivals from other cities. I've never really been a hot head, but if something did start, I had the power and resources to make problems disappear.
Rick: Have you ever fought martial artists?
GM: I may have fought some self proclaimed martial artists...lol. Honestly, it doesn't matter what you are. Most of my affiliated brothers were street brawlers, boxers, or just gun crazy. Basically, what it all boiled down to is whether you had skills or not. I've seen many people get beat down, and worse. Coming up, most guys liked to start out boxing and they'd try to scoop you up and slam you on the concrete. My approach as a lighter guy, was to prevent someone from scooping me up, and so I used my natural speed and boxing to handle them.
Rick: What were some of the outcomes?
GM: Some of the outcomes of gang fights are beatdowns, life altering injuries and death. When people think of gangs, they think of what the media portrays as the "dangerous gangbanger". They usually show urban youth in baggy clothes, wearing the latest hip hop fashions and things like that. The media's information about gangs and gangmembers is borderline outdated. Gangs have evolved into well organized organizations that parallel the structure and functioning of the mafia. Let me clear up a few things. Not all gang members have tattoos, not all are even into the hip hop culture. Not all gang members are urban youths. You have your authentic street gangs and you have the copy cats. The authentic gangmembers can trace their line much like martial artists trace their arts lineage. The copy cat gangs are wannabes and have no authentic lineage to real OGs (Original Gangsters). A lot of the wannabes commit crimes to try and get a name for themselves, and most times these are a lot of the things you heard about. But here's the kicker. These wannabes are living in suburbia. Some come from nice homes, wealthy parents etc. So we have to keep in mind that identifying gangsters is not as easy as the media portrays. So now that we know the difference between real gangs and wannabes, we can now see that when an authentic gangmember like a latin king comes across someone posing as a latin king, how violence starts.
Rick: Would you say I was correct about "street-fighters" avoiding fights as much as possible therefore not being as skilled as your average self-defense based martial artist?
GM: Well each scenario will be different for everyone. I'd say a person who has experience with real fights, will always have a hand up versus a person who does self defense drills. The reason why is because until that person who trains in self defense gets their hands dirty, they will lack true experience in fighting someone. For instance, a street brawler doesn't train to do one technique to take someone out. They basically concentrate on bashing someone's head in and pounding on someone. So if the martial artist does a self defense move and it doesn't work like in class, they may be up that famous creek. Experience reins supreme. Think of someone shooting at a shooting range all the time, and now they are placed in a scenario where they have to shoot and hit moving targets. They will most likely have to adapt and fine tune their skills. Whereas a person who shoots moving targets all the time will have to adapt less. BUT I will say that the martial artist does have more "tools" to work with and should be able to train effectively enough to give them a good chance at defending themselves.
Rick: How often would a street fighter get into fights?
GM: People from the street learn the ins and outs of street life and one of those learning processes deals with fighting. You have the billy bad ass that go around looking for a fight and those types can fight daily. Then you have others who fight for other reasons. But put it this way, they will fight more then a martial artist and that's because they are out there like that. Martial artists are typically trained to defuse the situation. in the streets, things just keep escalating.
Rick: What you're basically saying about martial arts skills vs the street fighter is training in rote combinations wherein a certain response is ass-u-me d (which can get anyone killed) is pretty useless as compared to drills which prepare a martial artist for the as many situations as possible, hitting a human being full contact, getting hit full contact, the mental stress of defending your life, will better prepare a martial artist for survival as compared to a street fighter who may get into a fight once a week or once a month?
GM: The best way to give you a visual idea of the comparison is from a movie called glory. It was about blacks in the civil war who wanted to fight in the civil war. One scene showed a black man who had to shoot his one shot rifle and refill it to be able to shoot again. The refilling was a process similar to a musket Well he was pretty good at doing it, and he was one of the fastest to do it. So then a commander which had seen battle before comes over to him and tells him to do it again...so while the guy was firing his rifle and reloading, the commander shot his handgun by the trainees head which made this trainee nervous, so nervous that he couldn't perform the task that he was one of the best at doing. This illustration is as close to real life as you can get. When we train in the nice comfortable dojang/dojo/kwan, we are usually in a comfortable, air conditioned, well ventilated area. Most have nice wooden floors, carpet or mats. So then we learn forms, free sparring step sparring and maybe even weapons. But here's the thing, none of that reflects real life scenarios unless were get in a fight in a store or something. The sad truth about martial arts training is that as the years have gone by it's been watered down. For instance, we say today that unarmed combat versus a knife isn't really possible, but there was a time when people MADE it work...so what changed? the NEED for this training. Also, the hardcore do or die training also has changed. So until people start training realistically which is always uncomfortable then we will always give the upper hand to the street fighter who is getting the real life training most MA are trying to prepare for. We need to train in the dojang, in the woods, on concrete, in all types of weather, on uneven ground, on ruff turf as well as smooth turf, we need to train in dark alleys and tight spaces. So by the time we are finished training realistically the playing field is either equal to street fighters or we have the complete upper hand.
Rick: Any additional closing comments?
GM: Well, I'd like to say that gang membership is on a rise in America, and parents everywhere need to be heavily aware of what their children are doing. Also note, this is not just a teenage thing. There are gang members as young as 8 years old committing violent crimes. It's time to take back our families and provide them with all that they need to make it in this world. take care and be safe.
Rick: I'd like to thank you for your time. I understand you are no longer active in gang activities. I wish you luck in your quest for peace.
About the Author Sensei J. Richard Kirkham began martial arts training 1973. He is a dual certified teacher, expert in behavior modification and has spent years studying the fear factor in relation to self-defense and martial arts.
He's the author of Bringing The Martial Artist Out from Within with it's Full Bonus Video Over Coming Fear and Self-Defense http://martialarts808.com/FightingTechniques/ You may post this article in its entirety including the About The Author Section
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Topic: The Ultimate Fighter A Conversation with a Gang Member (Read 16984 times)