How do we Know What Works?
The old means to establish a martial art’s effectiveness were:
•Argumentation: “This art combines hard and soft styles, so it’s the best, I’m 100% sure.”
•Anecdote: “O’Sensei once dodged bullets fired by experts at 25 meters, twice. He was a wizard.”
•Appeal to Authority: “Bruce Lee taught this to Navy SEALs!”
•Demonstration: “Grab my wrist. No, the other one.”
Then MMA came along, testing experts from various disciplines against each other; a large, verifiable body of knowledge of what works emerged (along with a vast body of knowledge of what fails). However, there is today another means to know what works for self-defense. Cellphone and security cams are everywhere, which has opened a window onto thousands of cases of martial arts working and failing on the street. These can be roughly divided into several main categories:
•Mutual Combat;
•Dojo Storm;
•Bouncer;
•Informal;
•Style vs. Style;
•Self-Defense.
The final one, self-defense, is the proportional use of force to protect against an unprovoked attack that objectively threatens imminent injury or worse. A remarkable example occurred in 2022, at the Brunswick Street Mall in Brisbane, Australia.
Pro welterweight MMA fighter Viktor Lyall was minding his own business , when he reportedly saw two punks – Josh Townsend and Jessee Swain – stomping a man in an alley. The fighter promptly broke it up. Then the two attackers relentlessly followed and harassed Lyall, spurred on by a Swain’s partner, Tia-rose Shaw. Her father is a bodybuilder, as you will hear.
How Did Martial Arts Work?
The altercation is a seminar in using distance management – not getting close enough to get hit, while momentarily stepping into the pocket to hit back first. It’s also a seminar in situational awareness, never letting the second assailant get in position to sucker punch, something the punk was desperately trying to do. Further, Lyall was simultaneously making sure his own companion was close and safe. And it is a seminar in staying cool and controlling temper, in the face of extreme and prolonged harassment that included being spit on.
“Not all heroes wear capes,” wrote Lyall’s friend, BKFC star Bec Rodriguez, who originally posted the video.
Breakdown from Lawrence Kenshin:
And here’s a view from above:
The Fighter’s Side
“I never laid hands on either of those males, nor needed to until the events of that video transpired and I needed to defend myself,” Lyall told The Chronicle. “I was merely involving myself to extricate another party. That’s when I got involved, and that’s the only reason I got involved.
“You can see quite clearly from the video that I don’t want to hurt anyone, otherwise I would have, and I’m walking away getting followed.”
The pair remind of the jackals referenced in Christopher Walken’s Lion Speech. However, Lyall requests that there be no further steps taken against the two unfortunates. He hopes that their enshrinement in the global @$$hole Hall of Fame was sufficient.
“As they’re identifiable, I hope people can also respect the privacy of the aggressors and not ruin their livelihoods or whatever they do,” wrote the fighter. “Although the two males were together beating someone brutally, it was stopped. That video going viral is probably (hopefully) enough punishment for them. Please don’t harass. Ultimately, to me, it was just a bit of a tiff. They got plowed on. It happens. It’s good nobody got hurt.”
Lyall fights for the Brisbane-based XFC, and trains at Brisbane’s Gamebred Academy, under coaches Ryan Dunstan, Simon Clough, and Jason Lonergan.