[Crackpot comments in brackets.]

Hello Sir,

I recently discovered your website after getting my ass handed to me a couple months back. Not looking for getback or anything, just wanna be able to handle myself in the future. I'm 25 and could stand to lose about 40lbs, which I'm working on. I love the advice you gave in "On the Road to Knucklehead Damascus" - simple, well thought-out, on it.

[I have no idea when I wrote it, what is in it, or how to find it. I like the title, though.]

Only reason I'm even bothering you with this is a boxing gym and a judo school, both with very competitive teams, share a building, and the schedules aren't terrible if I don't mind training for about 4 hours straight or so. I'm not sure whether the steps in your advice are sequential, or if steps 1-3 are meant to be done in tandem. If you don't normally advise starting boxing and grappling together, do you think the convenience in this case could make it worth it?

[These are the best to forms of unarmed combat you could practice. I would suggest you train in both, but not overtrain or confuse your body. I would start with a main focus on the art that is more immediately useful for self-defense, which depends on your needs. Were you mugged by a strong-arm man? If so, start Judo first. Or where you punched out by some wicked little twerp? If so, start boxing first. Or were you ganged up on? If so, this would make boxing more important for taking a beating, moving around, and hurting people that get close.

[Suggestion: Pick a focus art. Train for a month so that you can get some basics in the bank and not learn two new things from scratch at the same time. Do this 2 or 3 days a week. After a month, add the other art by adding training days. Don’t take away from the base art. Add the second art to bring you up to 4 to 5 days of training. I would not train them on the same day until you get to the point where your coach has you acting as a reliable training partner and he thinks that you’re ready for MMA focus. Once this point is reached, then I suggest doing a day each of just one art, and then 2-3 mixed days.]

Thanks either way for the knowledge you already put out,

M C

…

Good luck in your training, MC and do not get too obsessed with empty hand only solutions. Ultimately group attacks and armed attacks of certain intensities cannot be dealt with reliably with just hands and fists. In our increasingly predatory world, you want to avoid all voluntary “fights” [partially for the reason that the guy you beat down might come back with guns, blades or friends or cops] and be prepared to defend your self and non combatants under your protection with and against the wide variety of arms littering this ruinous world.

Don’t forget bricks. American cities and police forces have been defeated with bricks. The greatest captain of the 200s B.C., Phyrus of Epirus was killed by a roof tile heaved down by some Greek woman during a street fight.