Here’s my long promised video review of  “One against Many” by Branimir Tudjan. Stay tuned for more as I’m also working on an interview with Mr. Tudjan. I’ll put it online as soon as it’s ready. Here’s the review:

The video starts with an introduction in which Mr. Tudjan explains the framework of his MOSS system: the three rules of self defense and some good advice on the realities of defending yourself and what you need to survive multiple opponent confrontations. He then goes on to point out the most common mistakes:

• Going to the ground
• Going for a lock or control hold
• High kicks
• Taking a fighting stance

This advice makes perfect sense to me and conforms to both my own training and experience. Good stuff.

The next topic Branimir covers is what he calls “The dynamics of fear”, meaning the adrenal stress response you get when you find yourself in a self defense situation involving several attackers. He explains that fear is common and totally normal in a fight. Instead of fighting it, accept it and use it to your advantage.

The last prelude to the technical portion is an explanation on the difference between the athletic and tactical response. It would take too long to explain this here but the discussion revolves around technique-based fighting versus principle based responses.

Next up is a big chapter on striking techniques. Mr. Tudjan covers a limited set of techniques he found to be most practical for fighting multiple opponents. Most of them are the classics we all know and love: palm strike, hammer fist, gouging and biting, elbows and knees, etc. But there was also the handball jump strike (both empty hand and with weapons) that I was surprised to find in the list. Personally, I like it a lot but it takes some training before you can pull it off in a real fight. You also need a solid load of guts and confidence in the technique. But once you’ve trained this technique well enough, you have a wicked surprise waiting for your attackers. [Read more…]