# Bad guys attacking one at a time?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 12, 2016, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-guys-attacking-one-at-a-time/752024 "2016-04-12T17:56:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-guys-attacking-one-at-a-time/752024/41 "2016-04-18T22:32:45Z")
I know of one situation where a guy made it work IRL. Sgt York in world war 1 was alone with a squad of Germans rushing him. The guy shot all of them dead by aiming for the furthest away German so they wouldn’t realize they were being picked off. Took out the whole squad. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-guys-attacking-one-at-a-time/752024/42 "2016-04-18T22:50:06Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > IIRC, one of the movie novelizations goes into some detail about various Jedi fighting styles, and a character pejoratively describes one style as showoffy, with unnecessary spins and so forth. I can’t remember which book that was, though. Jedi fights would frustrate me badly if I weren’t already suspending my disbelief and just enjoying the dance. They move too slowly, given the nature of lightsabers. If pressed on it, I would prefer to assume there’s a lot of Force-chess-match stuff going on that’s slowing them down, as they process foresight and adjust their attacks and defenses accordingly. Inefficient moves and refraining from fully committing on a move might make sense against an opponent who can see into the future; increasing the number of possible moves you can make at any moment might fuzz their foresight enough to give you an advantage. ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2016, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-guys-attacking-one-at-a-time/752024/43 "2016-04-23T01:23:56Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > In some prisons, they have specially trained teams of guards to extract particularly troublesome prisoners from their cells or from other places where they are holed up. The guards have assigned roles - “you go for the left arm, I go for the right, you are right leg, you are left leg, Joe goes behind him and grab around the neck.” It isn’t pretty like the movies, but very, very few prisoners can delay being extracted for more than a minute or two. This is almost exactly what I’ve heard from the couple of friends I had who worked in corrections. > [@](#): > > Nearly any plan is better than no plan. And a two- or three-to-one advantage is a big advantage. And I would pick any three college football lineman against the average street fighter, or even the above-average one. Because while you are taking out the first one, the other two tackle you and sit on you and beat the crap out of you. I can’t remember where I read it, so unfortunately no cite, but apparently football and rugby players did really well in the fighting in the Pacific islands, where the terrain often turned battles into close-quarters encounters. The reason was exactly this; they were used to working in concert with others, even without explicit instruction or pre-planning. They’d swarm Japanese infantry armed with bayonets or officers with swords. > [@](#): > > The single defender against multiple assailants had better not wait to be attacked - he must take the initiative against the weakest attacker, or whoever is closest or is leading the attack. Take him out and get the hell out of there. Yep. Since we had lots of military and law enforcement personnel in my first _dojo_, they of course turned it into an acronym: DDEE (Disrupt, Disable, Escape, Evade). Assuming you can’t avoid the whole mess by practicing good situational awareness and getting the fuck out before everything turns to shit: [ul] [li]Disrupt the attack by any means necessary, including acting crazy, attacking first, causing a disruption that interferes, whatever you can think of.[/li][li]Disable as many attackers as necessary. Concentrate on causing the kind of damage that will make it difficult to chase you: blinding (salt thrown in a face or vinegar spit in eyes is surprisingly effective), broken limbs especially leg/knee damage, put obstacles in the way. Knockouts are great if you can get them but the point is to cause chaos, confusion, pain, and deterrence, plus slow them down as much as possible.[/li][li]Escape as soon as you possibly can. This is your number 1 priority. If you can do this without steps D and D, then bloody well do it! Only idiots fight if they don’t have do, because everyone has a bad day and can screw things up, and multiple attacker situations are Very Bad Things™.[/li][li]Evade the bad guys. Get out and get away. Make sure you and the people you might be protecting (because martial arts badasses often forget that their friends and family are \*\* not\*\* badasses) are kept safe. Make sure not to get followed or tracked home, because if a group was actually motivated enough to attack you, they might not give up easily.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![akrako1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@akrako1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akrako1)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-guys-attacking-one-at-a-time/752024/44 "2016-04-25T20:40:12Z")
what’s most amusing to me is the lengths directors go thru to make the other attackers look busy when they’re waiting their turn. It’s hilarious if you start watching for it. “Why is that guy in the back jumping around like that?” Tho what most irritates me is when an attack lead by multiple GUN WIELDING assailants someone becomes hand-to-hand… And the other attackers are just standing around with their guns, waiting for their mates to get bested one at a time - and by someone unarmed. Sigh… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bad-guys-attacking-one-at-a-time/752024.md?page=2)