The Most Dangerous Opponent: Dealing with the Sudden Attack

 I once asked a well-respected and knowledgeable martial artist who he thought would make the most dangerous opponent. I wondered aloud if he thought it would be a certain style of martial artist, a highly-experienced street fighter or maybe one of our elite military members like Navy SEALs or Delta Force.

Instead, his answer was simple: “The most dangerous opponent is the sociopath that shows no emotion, gives off no signals, but can walk right up to you and shove a pencil into your eye.”

Anthony Spangler and Patrick Graham were faced with a similar situation while collecting shopping carts in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart where they worked. Ed Lui, 53, drove into the parking lot and for no reason opened fire on the two young men, killing them both.

Lui calmly drove off, trailed by witnesses, to his home where he was arrested without incident. Police call it a completely random act without an apparent motive.

How do you defend against the sudden, unannounced and unprovoked attack?

The first answer to jump to most practitioners’ mind is awareness. We are trained over and over again to be constantly aware of our surroundings and the people around us.

But, what if the bad guy gives us no cues as to a pending attack? Interpersonal violence experts like Gavin de Becker assert that in most cases there are precursors to violence that – when contemplated later – are almost always present. And, most of the time I agree; when debriefed after incidents, victims and witnesses typically remember something that seemed strange or out-of-place before the attack.

However, what can you do if the situation truly occurs without warning?

Then, perhaps your only real defense is good reaction. If you can’t see it coming, then you have to immediately make a defensive reaction. Be that of putting distance or a barrier between you and the unfolding incident or to make a physical move to stop, deflect or redirect an attack on your person, you must act decisively.

About the only way you can make those reactions close to being immediate is to train. You must train in a realistic fashion so that you get the chance to practice your reaction over and over.

Physical Training

For physical training, try this great drill which I got from Tony Blauer:

Attack without Warning Drill

1. Stand within reach of your training partner (you can change positions to be facing, side-to-side or from the back).
2. Change your posture and arm position continually to mimic common, everyday movements. Start with your arms crossed, pretend like you are pushing your hair back, reach for your wallet, stand with your weight on one leg, etc.
3. Your training partner can attack at anytime.
4. Respond to the attack.

Vary the drill by changing the positions between the attacker and the defender. You can also call the attack, i.e. haymaker punch only, grab only, lapel grab with punch, attacker draws a weapon, etc.

I like to start training by calling the attack. Say you call the attack “lapel grab and haymaker punch”. Now the defenders get ample opportunities to train their responses to this common attack. They can try a few on and see how they like them from different starting points (remember that the defenders are going to be constantly shifting posture and hand position).

This will also be the time for instructors to provide instruction in appropriate responses or techniques. As instructors, make sure you have various “answers” for the problem for students to try. Your responses should be concept-based vs. technique-based. Let students hone the responses which best suit them. I usually let students “own” their responses unless there is something completely unsafe about them.

However, having said that you can own various responses to attacks, we’ve found that when you step up the intensity of the attacks, you’ll find that simple, direct and uncomplicated responses will be the ones that rise to the top of your arsenal despite what you might have thought you would use. You might find that all that training you did in one-step sparring doesn’t work as well when the attack is unannounced and catches you out of position. Don’t be surprised to be jarred into going back to the drawing board and refining your responses.

Now, don’t lose the intent of this drill – you are learning how to instantly react to an unannounced, unprovoked attack. The reaction is often times more important than the actual technique. Granted, I want to learn how to effectively defend and/or counter-attack against common attacks. And I will work hard at becoming comfortable with the tactics and methods that will allow me to do that. But, what will really save my bacon is to have planned a response before the attack so I can move and not get caught flatfooted shuffling through my options.

A couple of things here on this drill:

1. For you as the defender, you have to force yourself to move and stand like you would normally. Don’t kid yourself into believing that you are going to always be in a ready stance with your hands empty and ready to block. The first reaction you are probably going to have doing this drill is that you don’t want to move around – you’re afraid that you’re going to get hit when your hands are out of position or you are off-balance. That makes this drill a great teaching aid in getting you to be aware of your stance and position. Secondly, as you get more proficient at the drill, you’ll find that you can actually get pretty good at defeating attacks even if you ARE out of position. It’s a great confidence builder.
2. For you as the training partner and attacker, you must remember the intent of the drill and make your attacks realistic. Funny thing is, as an attacker, you’ll find that you are surprisingly fairly limited in the number of attacks you have. It seems like your options would be unlimited since you can attack any time with anything. But you’ll find that you are mostly grabbing, punching or grabbing and punching in different combinations. Since you are within arm’s reach, you won’t have many kicking techniques save for knees and some short range kicks. As you play the role of the attacker, you’ve gained some insight into the psyche of the attacker’s mind. This should also give you some confidence as a defender that your attacker doesn’t have some secret technique at his disposal. You’ve been the attacker and you know what you’d have to do to try and hurt the defender. You’ll also be able to feel which responses are the most effective against you. In other words, what does the defender do that really screws up your attacks? That should give you a blueprint for what you want to do as a defender.

Okay, that drill works for a physical attack on your person while standing. What about for something like a carjacking?

First, let’s take a look at a real-life carjacking attempt:


Kansas City Star - Kansas City, MO - August 23, 2005

Persistent carjackers dog out-of-towners

A Lexus driver stomped on her accelerator, drove in reverse and careened the wrong way down Kansas City streets early Monday to escape a gunman who wanted her car.

The driver and her friend, both women from Iowa, came to Kansas City for Sunday night's Kenny Chesney concert at Kemper Arena.

Although they escaped with their Lexus and their lives, one of the women said: "It was the worst night of my life."

Investigators said the robbers, who remained on the loose, were "extremely bold" for continuing to pursue the women after the first carjacking attempt failed - and in well-lit areas with witnesses.

"That's extremely rare," said robbery unit Sgt. Mike Foster. "They usually just move on."

After attending the concert, the Iowa women headed to the Holiday Inn at the Plaza. They were in front of the hotel at 45th and Main streets, waiting for a red light, when an older model maroon Dodge Aries pulled up behind them carrying a woman driver and two male passengers. The men stepped out of the car and approached the Lexus sport-utility vehicle.

The Lexus driver yelled for her passenger to lock her door. The passenger fumbled for the lock button and accidentally rolled down the passenger window. One man pushed a gun against her head and said, "Give me the car!"

The passenger ducked and screamed.

The driver "floored it," ran the red light and turned east on Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard. Unfamiliar with the area, the two women didn't know where to go. They drove into a Sonic restaurant parking lot at Tracy Avenue to turn around.

"We wanted to head back to the Plaza, where we kind of knew our way around," said the Lexus passenger, who did not want her name used.

But as they turned around, the Dodge blocked their way.

"The gunman ran up to us again, tapping the window with his gun and saying, 'Get out!' " said the Lexus passenger, who was stunned to see the man waving his gun with customers so near.

"He was saying, 'Get out of the car,' but I wasn't about to get out," she said.

The Lexus driver punched the vehicle into reverse, then used the drive-through lane to pull around the other car and escape the parking lot. She sped down several streets the wrong way as a police dispatcher gave her directions to a police station on her cell phone.

"But we had no clue where we were going," the passenger said.

The dispatcher then told the women to drive to a Westport business that remained open in the 4000 block of Mill Street.

The dispatcher "told us to get out of the car and run inside," the passenger said.

Officers met the women at the business. The passenger said she and her friend were too scared to drive back to their hotel, since the gunman found them there.

Sgt. Tim McClure escorted them to the hotel, to a gas station and all the way out of town to Liberty.

The passenger said: "We were worried (the robbers) would find us again. We weren't going to stay the night there. We wanted to get the heck out of Kansas City."

Police said they were still reviewing the case. Anyone with information should call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-TIPS (474-8477).


Okay, good job by the two women to escape some obviously determined criminals.

One way you might train for this is to physically take your car out to a parking lot. Have your training partner play the role of the carjacker. Practice accelerating forward away from the carjacker and, alternately, practice putting the car in reverse and accelerating backwards. Get the feel of the throttle lag and what it takes to put your car in reverse. I would try to make the situation as realistic as possible and even do it at night if you can.

You can go further and take an evasive or security driver course if you want, but the key is to get out there and actually do it so you have actually rehearsed your response to the attack.


Mental Training

Physically training to respond to all of the possible attacks or situations you might face in a day is difficult and impractical. However, there is a way to train mentally, using visualization and imagery to provide yourself with unlimited rehearsal and training opportunities.

The What If Game

“What if that panhandler approaching my car suddenly produces a gun and tries to carjack me?”

“What if a car drives by and I hear gun fire erupting from it?”

“What if the guy just getting on the elevator tries to pull out a knife?”

You can play this little mental game anytime or anywhere. Simply look at the various stories unfolding around you and ask yourself what you would do if the players suddenly took on an aggressive posture or began to attack.

You can play out your response in your head as well:

“I’ve left enough room between my car and the car in front of me so I can quickly pull around it up onto the sidewalk and drive off”.

“I would drop down behind that big, thick brick planter to shield myself from any flying bullets.”

“I will drop my gaze to look at his hands and control his elbow and hand when he makes a move to draw his weapon.”

A huge side benefit of playing the What If Game is that you will find yourself becoming more and more aware of threatening or potentially dangerous people.

Don’t wait until you are thirsty to start digging a well.  Have a plan and practice your responses before the sudden, unexpected attack happens.