(This Virtual Dojo segment comes from an old article of Mr. Heilman's published in Inside Karate in 1987.)
Today's typical karate student is sadly ill-prepared to face a multiple-oponent situation. Despite his/her dedication to their art and their excellent instructors; despite their hours of practice in basics, body movement, kata, self-defense and sparring; their experience has largerly been on a one-to-one basis. Very seldom, if ever does the training encompass multiple-opponent fighting.
It is a generally accepted concept that fighting is 20 percent physical and 80 percent mental activity. Facing multiple-opponents, one is obviously overmatched on the physical aspect and therefore must rely much more heavily on the mental. Thus to become a proficient multiple-opponent fighter, the student must have a thorough understanding of the principles involved since flawless execution of the basics alone will not suffice. The purpose of this segment of the VIRTUAL DOJO is to present a step-by-step approach to the subtleties of effective multiple-opponent fighting.