Thompson_The_Art_of_Fighting_Without_Fighting-Techniques_in_Personal_Threat_Evasion
There was once a very famous Aikido player in Japan who spent
his whole life studying Usheba’s legendary art. Although he had
dedicated his whole existence to this beautiful art he had never
actually had occasion to test it in a real life situation against a
determined attacker, someone intent on hurting him.
The Art of
Fighting Without Fighting
Techniques in Personal Threat Evasion
Geoff Thompson
SUMMERSDALE
Copyright © Geoff Thompson 1998
Reprinted 1999, 2000
All rights reserved. The right of Geoff Thompson to be identified
as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
No part of this book may be reproduced by any means, nor
translated into a machine language, without the written permission
of the publisher.
Summersdale Publishers Ltd
46 West Street
Chichester
West Sussex
PO19 1RP
United Kingdom
www.summersdale.com
Photographs by David W Monks
Member of the Master Photographer’s Association
Snappy Snaps Portrait Studio
7 Cross Cheaping
Coventry
CV1 1HF
Printed and bound in Great Britain.
ISBN 1 84024 085 7
About the Author:
Geoff Thompson has written over 20 published books and is
known world wide for his autobiographical books Watch My
back, Bouncer and On The Door, about his nine years
working as a night club doorman. He holds the rank of 5th
Dan black belt in Japanese karate, 1st Dan in Judo and is also
qualified to senior instructor level in various other forms of
wrestling and martial arts. He has several scripts for stage,
screen and TV in development with Destiny Films.
He has published several articles for GQ magazine, and has
also been featured in FHM, Maxim, Arena, Front and Loaded
magazines, and has been featured many times on mainstream
TV.
Geoff is currently a contributing editor for Men’s Fitness
magazine and self defence columnist for Front.
Red Mist, Geoff Thompson’s powerful debut
novel, is now available in paperback and as
an eBook.
Other books and videos
by Geoff Thompson:
Watch My Back – A Bouncer’s Story
Bouncer (sequel to Watch My Back)
On the Door – Further Bouncer Adventures.
The Pavement Arena
– Adapting Combat Martial Arts to the Street
Real Self-defence
Real Grappling
Real Punching
Real Kicking
Real Head, Knees & Elbows
Dead Or Alive – Self-protection
3 Second Fighter – The Sniper Option
Weight Training – For the Martial Artist
Animal Day – Pressure Testing the Martial Arts
Fear – The Friend of Exceptional People: techniques in
controlling fear
Small Wars – How To Live A Stress Free Life
Blue Blood on the Mat by Athol Oakley,
foreword by Geoff Thompson
Give Him To The Angels
– The Story Of Harry Greb by James R Fair
The Ground Fighting Series (books):
Vol. One – Pins, the Bedrock
Vol. Two – Escapes
Vol. Three – Chokes and Strangles
Vol. Four – Arm Bars and Joint Locks
Vol. Five – Fighting From Your Back
Vol. Six – Fighting From Neutral Knees
Videos:
Lessons with Geoff Thompson
Animal Day – Pressure Testing the Martial Arts
Animal Day Part Two – The Fights
Three Second Fighter – The Sniper Option
Throws and Take-Downs Vols. 1-6
Real Punching Vols. 1-3
The Fence
The Ground Fighting Series (videos):
Vol. One – Pins, the Bedrock
Vol. Two – Escapes
Vol. Three – Chokes and Strangles
Vol. Four – Arm Bars and Joint Locks
Vol. Five – Fighting From Your Back
Vol. Six – Fighting From Neutral Knees
Advanced Ground Fighting Vols. 1-3
Pavement Arena Part 1
Pavement Arena Part 2
– The Protection Pyramid
Pavement Arena Part 3
– Grappling, The Last Resort
Pavement Arena Part 4
– Fit To Fight
Contents:
Introduction 8
Chapter One: Avoidance 19
Chapter Two: Escape 33
Chapter Three: Verbal Dissuasion 52
Chapter Four: Posturing 68
Chapter Five: Restraint 82
Conclusion 96
The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
Introduction
There was once a very famous Aikido player in Japan who spent
his whole life studying Usheba’s legendary art. Although he had
dedicated his whole existence to this beautiful art he had never
actually had occasion to test it in a real life situation against a
determined attacker, someone intent on hurting him. Being a
moralistic kind of person he realised that it would be very bad
karma to actually go out and pick a fight just to test his art so he
was forced to wait until a suitable occasion presented itself. Naively,
he longed for the day when he was attacked so that he could
prove to himself that Aikido was powerful outside of the controlled
walls of the dojo.
The more he trained, the more his obsession for validation grew
until one day, travelling home from work on a local commuter
train, a potential situation did present itself – an overtly drunk
and aggressive man boarded his train and almost immediately
started verbally abusing the other passengers.
‘This is it,’ the Aikido man thought to himself, ‘this is my chance to
test my art.’
He sat waiting for the abusive passenger to reach him. It was
inevitable that he would: he was making his way down the carriage
abusing everyone in his path. The drunk got closer and closer to
the Aikido man, and the closer he got the louder and more
aggressive he became. Most of the other passengers recoiled in
fear of being attacked by the drunk. However, the Aikido man
couldn’t wait for his turn, so that he could prove to himself and
everyone else, the effectiveness of his art. The drunk got closer
and louder. The Aikido man made ready for the seemingly
inevitable assault – he readied himself for a bloody encounter.
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
As the drunk was almost upon him he prepared to demonstrate
his art in the ultimate arena, but before he could rise from his
seat the passenger in front of him stood up and engaged the
drunk jovially. ‘Hey man, what’s up with you? I bet you’ve been
drinking in the bar all day, haven’t you? You look like a man with
problems. Here, come and sit down with me, there’s no need
to be abusive. No one on this train wants to fight with you.’
The Aikido man watched in awe as the passenger skilfully talked
the drunken man down from his rage. Within minutes the drunk
was pouring his heart out to the passenger about how his life
had taken a downward turn and how he had fallen on hard
times. It wasn’t long before the drunk had tears streaming down
his face. The Aikido man, somewhat ashamed thought to himself
‘That’s Aikido!’. He realised in that instant that the passenger
with a comforting arm around the sobbing drunk was
demonstrating Aikido, and all martial art, in it highest form.
Why have I written this book? Why have I written a book about
the art of fighting without fighting when my claim to fame is
probably the fact that I have been in over 300 street fights,
where I used a physical response to neutralise my enemy. Why
write a book about avoidance when it is obviously so simple to
finish a fight with the use of a physical attack? Indeed why write
it when my whole reputation as a realist, as a martial arts cross
trainer, as a blood and snot mat man may be risked by the
endeavour? The reason is simple: violence is not the answer! It
may solve some of the problems in the short term but it will
create a lot more in the long term. I know – I’ve been there. I
was, as they say, ‘that soldier’.
It took me nine years of constant violence and many more of
soul-searching to realise this truth and because so much has
happened to me in my post-‘door’ years, my attitude and
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
opinion has changed. At my most brutal I justified violence, to
myself, to those I taught and to those I spoke to. I was even
prepared to use verbal violence to substantiate my views. That
was how lost I was. But I’ m not at all ashamed of that, my views
may have been distorted then but I did genuinely believe them. I
was never a bad person, it’s just that my beliefs were governed
by my limited knowledge, which left me somewhat Neanderthal.
As my knowledge has grown so has my intellect and confidence,
this has allowed me a new belief – a belief that will keep changing
as long I grow. I can see it all now. I can see where I fit into the
scheme of things. I can see the futility of violence and the pain of
violent people. I can see that fighting on the pavement arena is
war in microcosm and that wars destroy worlds. I know now
that violence is not the answer, in the short term or the long
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
term. There has to be another solution. At this moment in
time I cannot tell you what that solution is, only that knocking
a guy unconscious and doing a 56 move kata on his head is
not it. Not if we are ever going to survive as a species and
learn to live in peace with one another. I spend my time now
trying to avoid violence and trying to develop alternatives to
taking an opponent off the planet with a practised right cross.
Some of the stuff is good too, it works, it will at least help
keep some of the antagonists at bay until we can find a better
alternative.
But, I hear you cry, what about those who won’t let you
avoid, escape, dissuade, loophole, posture, the ones that not
only take you to the doorway of violence but want to kick it
open and enter the arena and no amount of talk or negotiation
is going to stop them. What are we to do with or to them?
Well, this is where my ‘non-violence’ theorem becomes a
little contradictory, because if we are forced into a physical
response and if we do not fight back, our species is as good
as dead.
I, like most, have a family to protect and I will protect by
whatever means fair or foul. Because I am trying to become
a better person, and because I am desperately trying to lose
violence from my life, I have been struggling with the fact
that, occasionally when it is unavoidable, I may still have to
employ violence, if only to keep the peace. I am constantly
struggling with the fact that this still feels wrong to me, but
my, our, survival is at stake. When I was in America last year
(1997) I was teaching with Benny ‘the jet’ Urquidiz and I
asked him whether he thought, given the fact that we were
both trying to be Christian people, you could ever justify the
use of violence. He told me that he believed violence was
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
wrong, but if someone left you no other option other than
to hit him, then it was their karma, it was meant to be. He
said that he felt they were sent by God to be taught a lesson
and he would give that lesson as gently as possible.
Some people need a poke in the eye to show them the right
direction, others simply need pointing in the right direction.
It is a question of having the wisdom to know when to point
and when to poke. To some in society violence is a language,
a way of communication – a very primitive language – but a
means of discourse nonetheless. If you don’t speak to them
in their own tongue, then they will not understand you. This
is where the contention begins.
So, we have a contradiction in play here: violence is wrong
but sometimes we have to employ it. I know that the
uninitiated are already up in arms, probably scribbling away
discontent to the letters page as we speak. I truly understand
how they feel, because I feel the same way, but I fear that
they will never be convinced by words, and their experience
of life is often not broad enough to give them another
perspective. Their truth for a completely violence-free world
is as limited by their finite perspective, as mine was as a
nightclub doorman. I needed to experience the hope of non-
violence to appreciate its potential. They probably need to
experience violence to appreciate its necessity as an antidote
in a world where the species is lowly evolved.
I have a varied background in these matters. I have
experienced violence, pre-bouncer, as a scared young man
who could only suffer in silence. I have also experienced
violence as man who could confidently counter it with greater
violence and I now experience a violent world as a man who
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
can confidently employ violence but who chooses not to
because I feel it is not the answer. Most people’s opinions
are born from experiencing only one of these perspectives.
As a nightclub doorman I was often faced by violence that
terrified me, woundings that revolted me and conduct that
chilled me to the bone. However, what really sickened me –
even more than the congealed blood and smashed teeth of
an adversary – was the absolute hypocrisy of this fickle society.
Facing adversity did show me the beauty of amity but it took
time, many savage confrontations and much self-education,
before I could drag myself kicking and screaming into a better
existence. Unfortunately, even then I could not find a
preferable solution to the threat of immediate attack than
that of counter-attack. I am aware that the state might call
my actions criminal, but how do they rationalise their own
acts of violence? Perhaps by calling them law? I teach many
strategies to evade attack; avoidance, escape, verbal
dissuasion, loopholing and posturing. But what do you do
when all of these techniques have been exhausted and you
are still facing an adversary that wants to step outside the
law and attack you? You are left with a choice, either become
the hammer or the anvil – hurt or be hurt, kill or be killed.
Does that sound brutal? Are these the words of an
uneducated nightclub thug? How would you deal with the
situation? How would your peers deal with it? Those in
government? Those with power?
Without wishing to go into politics and the rights and wrongs
of what is going on in the world, I will offer an example of
how they, the leaders of the free world, the highbrow of
humanity, deal with potentially violent situations that will not
go away. The world recently found itself in a very threatening
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
situation with a foreign leader, a threat that could potentially
destroy the world and effect many other planets in our solar
system. The United Nations, the immune system of the
world, tried to avoid a violent confrontation by mediation.
The UN tried to escape a violent situation with compromise,
they ‘loopholed’ by trying to offer ‘the threat’ honourable
alternatives to war, they ‘postured’ by threatening war, (even
flying bomber planes over his country in a threatening
manner). They absolutely exhausted mediation. When it all
failed, what did the United Nation do, what did they consider
justifiable, though unfortunate, what did they greatest minds
in the free world agree upon when all their avoidance
techniques did not work? WAR! War was what they agreed
upon! War: the greatest expression of violence known to
man, where thousands of men, women and children are killed
and maimed. The UN told this leader in no uncertain terms
that they were prepared to talk to him, that they wanted to
avoid war, that they wanted to find an alternative to bloodshed
but the bottom line was, if he did not comply, they would kill
him and his people!’
The immune system recognises cancerous cells, it knows that
one cancerous cell can destroy the whole body if it is not
killed, so it sends out killer T-cells to assassinate the
threatening cell. Ugly, but necessary if you want the body,
and the species to survive.
As for me working with violence? Physically the toll was
bearable, if not a little hideous. My nose, broken in three
places (I’ll never go to those places again!) stab scars in my
head, broken knuckles and fingers and a cauliflower ear that
could win a horticultural ribbon. But some of my friends were
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
not so lucky: three lost their lives, a couple their marbles and
yet another lost the sight in one eye to a glass-wielding
psychopath.
Psychologically however my wounds were less superfluous.
Overexposure to the brutality of people left me temporarily
paranoid, cynical and often very
violent. I could see only physical
solutions to life’s many disputes.
Punching an adversary
unconscious after an argument
was, to me, as perfunctory as a
mint after dinner. It was never
gratuitous, I hated fighting, it was
survival, and that was all. In my
world violence was a plumber’s
wrench – no more than that.
This behaviour was acceptable,
even expectable but in civvy
street, me and my kind were
brandished Neanderthal. So
when I finally transcended ‘the
door ’ there was a time of
readjustment, of trying to locate
my place in a capricious society
where doormen were seen as
vogue in times of trouble and
vague in times of peace.
I was frequently informed by those who had not met violence
down a dark alley (and it’s too easy to say when you haven’t
‘been there’), that violence was not the answer – a view
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
voiced so often these days that it has almost become a fashion
accessory. Not an easy standard to apply though when faced
by a savage adversary intent on flattening the world with
your head. How many would not employ even the vilest
instrument to protect a loved one? For instance the young
lady who nearly burst my ear drum out side a Coventry
nightclub would never have believed herself capable of violent
assault, yet when her beloved was attacked her principles
disappeared quicker than a gambler’s rent money. ‘Violence
is not the answer!’ She yelled at me indignantly. Granted I
had just ‘sparked’ her irate boyfriend with a practised right
cross. He had tried to marry my face with the speared edges
of a broken beer glass – I felt compelled to stop him the only
way I knew how.
‘No?’ I replied with mock surprise. ‘Well, tell your boyfriend
that when he wakes up.’
My reply angered her so much that her face contorted into a
domino of hate. She proceeded to remove a stiletto heel
from her elegant foot, hoist the makeshift weapon above
her head like an executioner’s axe and attempt to separate
me from my mortality. She was about to employ violence to
accentuate her point that it was ‘not the answer’.
It would seem that hypocrisy in our society knows no bounds.
Ironically my own life as a bouncer began due to my own
innate fear of violence. I donned the required ‘tux’ in the
hope that confronting my fears might nurture a greater
understanding of my own sympathetic nervous system, one
that seemed in a permanent state of alert, maybe even descry
a little desensitisation. It was to be an eventful, if not bloody
journey that lasted nine years. En route I discovered that
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
truths that can only usually be found in the middle of stormy
oceans or at the top of craggy mountains. Nothing comes
free of course, and there is a consequence to every action
that we take; if you pick up one end of the stick you also pick
up the other. Enlightenment came at great expense. My
innocence was clubbed like a beached seal, my marriage
ended in bitter divorce and my faith in human nature took a
near near-fatal slash to the jugular.
So, I realise that until the species we call humankind evolves,
there will always be a need for violence (unfortunately, I have
no doubt about this in my mind) to protect the good majority
and the world, from the bad minority and the indifferent from
themselves. This doesn’t make violence right, rather it is a
necessary evil – sometimes you have to lose a finger to save
a hand. This does not mean that everyone has to partake in
violence, or even agree on its necessity, on a large scale to
protect this world from those who would inadvertently
destroy it. Many people make the mistake of thinking that a
solution must be palatable to be correct – this couldn’t be
farther from the truth. Violence to prevent greater violence
will never be more than a hideous expression of physical
domination, but it may save mankind until its metamorphosis
into a spiritual domain.
Therefore, not everyone has to ‘get their hands dirty’. There
will always be a select few, like the killer T-cells in the body,
that roam the bloodstream protecting the body from the
intrusion of viral cells, who are chosen to do the dirty work
in the name of those who won’t or can’t. The immune system
protects the body this way, and even God in his infinite wisdom
had warring angels in Heaven to fight evil. Returning to my
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
original questions: why did I write this book, why do I teach
avoidance techniques? Because violence is wrong and one of
the best remedies is to attack proactively so that we can
avoid, escape, dissuade, loophole or posture to avoid physical
confrontation and prevent violence from becoming manifest.
I believe that a part of the evolution of our species is to rid
the world of violence, so I would like to explore as many
ways of avoiding fighting as I can. If all we know is ‘a punch
on the nose’, then, when the shit hits the fan and contention
is on the menu, we will have no other choice but to employ
a punch on the nose. If, however, we have several other
alternatives to choose from, and we can become expert in
using these alternatives, then we can strategically evade the
use of force, and still ensure victory most of the time.
As with all my concepts, this book is pieced together from
empirical study in the field. None of it is theory, I have made
it all work on many occasions against fearsome opponents
who wanted to part me from my mortality, or from my good
looks at the very least!
When I started in the martial arts my ‘ippon’, my knock out,
my tap-out was to beat my opponents with the use of physical
force. My objectives have now changed. Now if I have to hit
some one to win the day I feel that no one has won. So my
ippon now is to beat someone using guile as opposed to force.
My hope is that this book will encourage the same in you.
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
Chapter One
Avoidance
Avoidance is the very first in a long list of tactical manoeuvres
aimed at ‘not being there’ when an attack is taking place. And it
really is very simple, even obvious, but I find it is the ‘simple’ and
‘obvious’ stuff that usually gets overlooked and lands people in
an affray that should never have occurred. These tactics are not
to be read and stored, rather they are to be read and practised
over and over again until they are natural, everyday habits, like
getting into the car and putting on your seat-belt, (something
that once had to be forced is now a habit). In fact, I bet if you
tried driving without a seat belt it would feel awkward after
wearing one for so long. Avoidance is being aware, understanding
the enemy, understanding yourself and understanding your
environment. If you are training in a martial art, then avoidance
is understanding that
art and whether it
will stand up to the
threat of a real
encounter. More
than anything,
avoidance is having
enough control over
yourself, your ego,
your pride, peer
pressure, morality
etc. to stop these
negative emotions
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The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
from dragging you into a situation that could otherwise be
avoided.
Many people find themselves fighting because they are worried
about what others might think if they run away. If you are very
confident in yourself and you know your capabilities you will
have no problem walking away, or simply not being there in
the first place. Insecure people, those that are not sure of
themselves or their art, will be fighting all day long because
they lack the strength of character to go against popular
opinion. This is often the case with martial artists (no offence
intended), especially high graded ones. They are frequently
on such a high pedestal (placed there by themselves, or by
their own pupils) that they drag themselves into fights that
could/should be avoided, because they are worried about
letting their students down in some way. This is often their
own fault because they have taught a ‘corporal’ system that
only addresses the physical response – the ultimate accolade
being a KO when attacked by an assailant.
I understand this; it is a syndrome that I too went through as a
young instructor. As a man that has ‘been there’, my ideals
have changed and whilst the physical response is, obviously,
still on my training curriculum, it is no longer my main artillery,
neither is the physical ippon (KO) my main aim. Rather my
goal is to defeat an opponent without becoming physical.
In theory, I am aware that this aim is simple and straightforward,
in reality in a confrontational society such as ours it is not so
easy – a tremendous amount of self-control and confidence is
needed to make this lofty goal an actuality. This is
predominantly why I make my personal system of combat such
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