Uechi-Ryu.com

A heinous beatdown in the heart of Greenwich Village has left a Massachusetts man fighting for his life.

Kevin McCarron, 24, was bashed with a tire iron, baseball bat and blackjack and stomped repeatedly by a gang of toughs in the middle of MacDougal St. early Sunday, police and witnesses said.

Cops on Monday busted 24-year-old Hatem Farsakh of Brooklyn, who was arraigned on charges of attempted murder and assault.

Onlookers were horrified by the savage attack. “I started screaming for someone to call the police,” said a 25-year-old woman who captured the incident on video. “It was hard to watch.”

The violent rumble erupted after McCarron, from Andover, Mass., and his friends argued with their attackers while leaving Artichoke Pizza around 5:15 a.m.

One of the attackers may have been sitting on top of the car McCarron and his friends drove into the city, prompting a booze-fueled altercation between posses, a police source said.

McCarron’s assailants ran to the trunk of a black car and returned with the motley array of weapons, sources and witnesses said. That’s when all hell broke loose. At least seven men descended on McCarron, beating him unconscious and fracturing his skull, witnesses and court papers allege.

FIGHTING MULTIPLE ENEMIES

If we were to ask the average student to list ten "hot topics" that he would like addressed in training, I'll bet you that one of the top things is - How do I fight successfully against multiple opponents? Many instructors answer this question by vaguely pointing to the kata. "If you practice this drill long enough, multiple bad guys will not be a problem", is the usual explanation.

Kata and shooting drills are wonderful training tools and a window to our warrior past. While there are undoubtedly many important points in them for this particular topic, going through the movements alone with no other understanding of the dynamics involved in a multiple opponent scenario will only prepare you for the "pine box award".

Of similar questionable value is the popular drill were several pre-arranged opponents attack you in agreed upon ways. It will never happen like that in a real fight. These theoretical drills won't be much of a consolation when you face a trio of young urban terrorists on a street corner that same night!

We haven't even brought up the issue of weapons yet! Many martial artists and shootists have the ostrich attitude about weapons ("stick our heads in the sand and pretend they don't exist"). Add the force multiplier of weapons to multiple opponents and it gets even worse. We don't need a "pie in the sky" promise of some automatic mystical combat skill, nor a carefully choreographed sequence of multiple single-opponent encounters.

Fights against real multiple opponents (notice I said fights, not drills) are too fluid and violent for this silliness. They may attack in rapid succession, or more likely en masse. They may not even react to your initial strikes or shots. Few enough guys will instantly fall to a bullet, much less to a reverse punch. No, we need to examine the problem and devise real-world tactics that allow us to use our current skills against more than one. We need a conceptual approach here.

The main advantage two or more have against you, the single defender, is that they can all attack simultaneously. This is no different whether we are discussing gunfights, knife fights, or fist fights. The disadvantage that you have is that you are forced to fight on two or more fronts, thereby dividing both your attention and your forces to respond to their attacks.

Lets look at several important factors in successfully dealing with this problem. One very important thing in these situations is to maintain your mobility. This is no place for an "immovable" or "rooted" stance. If you do not move, they will circle you, and position themselves on opposite sides of you, allowing mutually supportive attacks. They may just "stick" you in the kidney with a shank as you root yourself to the earth. Or they may orchestrate an attack with an attempt to take you down.

The ability to maneuver around them and to use ground and cover against them allows you to turn a multiple simultaneous adversary confrontation into a multiple sequential adversay confrontation. You deny them the ability to attack en masse.

Attack their mobility and visibility. Maneuver them in line and then smash a knee or a shin on the first guy, or shoot him in the head if its called for. Flee through a doorway and then attack the first man through. Throw hot coffee in his face. Jab him in the eyes with a sharp pen. You are not out to drop him with a single blow (although if you can pull it off, great!), but wear them down with hit and run tactics. If you cause enough pain and/or physical damage, they will begin to think about self-preservation instead of continuing the attack. The faster you accomplish this, the better for you.

As soon as the first man is incapacitated, even if only for an instant, go right to the next man. Maintain alertness on the man you just dealt with. He didn't disappear, and will probably be back momentarily. Do likewise to the second man. Hit and run. As soon as you can, disengage and evacuate. This is guerrilla fighting in its most basic level.

Your best option is the "stun and run" idea. However, if you must stay and fight (duty, family, or a myriad of viable reasons), then increase your level of violence beyond that which they are prepared for. Remember, if you are going to stay in the fight, you must cause them to think about self-preservation and escape instead of their aggression.

Few people will remain in the fight with an eyeball hanging down on their cheekbone, or their nose flattened and pulped by an ashtray. Pain is the key which unlocks that door. You do not want to remain in a multiple aggressor confrontation too long, because eventually they will get lucky.

If you got tired just reading this, then you might want to examine your physical shape. Winning against multiple adversaries is not for the feeble. There's too many rolly-poly masters out there vaunting multiple assailant combat tactics.

If you can't run up and down a few flights of stairs without having to call paramedics what do you think a "three against one - if you lose you die" scenario will do to the old ticker.

If you are serious about your real-world combative ability, stop fooling yourself and get into good physical shape. The idea that you don't need to be in shape because you know some "mystical" fighting method, or because you carry a Gunsite Pistol is silly.

means an Inequality of force. In this case its numbers. In short, one of you, and two or more of them isn't "fair" in the eyes of the law, and you can do many things, and use much greater degrees of violence that would not be acceptable "legally speaking" if you were fighting a single opponent of equal skill and ability.

This means you may use that tactical folding knife in your pocket to sever a few muscles, where in a single man confrontation you might not have that option. With a little training from the right people, the multiple adversaries might actually be at a disadvantage against you and your "force multiplier". You may use improvised weapons too.

Remember the comment about coffee in the face? How about that baseball bat you picked up from the ground? Or the big heavy belt? Use your imagination and your environment. Two or three against one is not fair, so don't be stupid and try to fight them fairly.

Its also a good idea to (if possible) put the adversaries in line with one another so that some of them can't engage because their partners are in the way.

Move on the diagonal - going on the attack, moving to line them up as you attack and strive for putting them in line with one another? Listen, you cannot go on the defensive when two or more are coming to get you. Doing so is just plain silly. Try to avoid such things, but when you cannot, go aggressive and attack, moving, shooting.

As far as cover goes, I'll tell you this - its always important to know where it is, but rarely a factor in a sudden attack. In none of my fights was cover ever a factor in the initial clash. Later afterwards it was, but not initially. Had I been thinking initially of running to cover I'd have been shot in the back instead of killing my adversary.

Gabe, and others can't add much to already posted, it would seem that to us it would be a basic way to survive,one thing that really bothers me in most of the schools, that even handle or talk about multiple fighters they never discuss with the student that they may be injuried, and it doesn't mean the fights over, I have been on a few shooting boards and it never fails to surprise me the amount of young troops that just don't believe they are going to be hurt, and or stop once they recieve a wound.
I was always taught to fight through an ambush,and more than one to me is just that.

great way of training this is called the "Circle of Death". One guys is designated the "Coordinator", and one guy stands in the middle of a circle of people and closes his eyes. Each of the antagonists in the circle watches the Coordinator as they are assigned numbers from 1 - N.

Once everyone understands their numbers, the defender is told to open his eyes and prepare. The Coordinator then calls out one number at a time, in random sequence. The person with that number attacks, in any way they see fit, but with COMPELTE CONTROL. The defender takes that person on, and has, say 10 seconds to dispatch him.

After 10 seconds, another number is called, and so on, until everyone has had a chance to attack. The attackers can use any technique they wish, armed or unarmed, but the idea is speed, control, and non-compliance. The attacker means to give the defender a hard time, but must attack. No playing at the edges to use up time. Change defenders with each cycle so everyone has a chance to get the 'feel' for either side.

Over time, as the people involved become more comfortable with this mechanism, the 10 seconds is reduced. 8 seconds, then 5 seconds. Once you hit 5 secs, you change things up with multiple attackers.

First, one person attacks, and a couple of seconds or so later, another, with the Coordinator calling the numbers. 1-1, 2-1, 3-1. etc. With weapons, or without. Then decrease the number of seconds before the attackers pile up.

Eventually, you include Airsoft, with proper safety gear like masks and cups. Improvised weapons, movement, etc. Then add obstacles in the fight area. Furniture, walls, etc. Add E&E to the mix, so if the defender can get to a door and get out, he's safe. Etc. Lighting can be another way to manipulate the environment.

I've found this to be an outstanding way to train for multiple attackers and various scenarios. Goes great with Gabe's FoF ideas, as long as safety can be maintained.