This is an edited account from a former Kobukai Jujitsu student about a real life altercation that he was in recently.  Note – this student stopped training more than 10 years ago due to work/family situation.  He states that he was amazed at how much his brain and body retained. He also stated in his letter to me the training points mentioned at the end of this account.

He was out with his family for dinner.  After leaving dinner and having his family work their way through the crowded sidewalks, they ran into three very drunk young men coming in the opposite direction. One of the drunk guys pushed his 11 year old down saying “Get the fuck out of my way!”   The former Kobukai student asked him “What the hell is your problem?” while helping his kid up. The altercation then happened very quickly.

The guy he questioned immediately got in his face and grabbed his coat. The former Kobukai student attempted a Nikajo/Kote Mawashi on him, but as he pushed the elbow toward the face (like you are taught) the force of the push smacked the assailants elbow into his own face and sent the assailant flying.  The second attack was on him immediately from the second assailant on the man’s right who grabbed the sleeve of his coat and pulled him. The Kobukai student turned to do a palm heel to the face and osoto gari, but the palm heel put the assailant down hard. The former student didn’t get a chance to do the osoto gari. It may have been because the third assailant was already pulling on the other side of his coat. The former student reacted with a Nikajo again.  He said the assailants hand was wrapped up in his coat so it wasn’t perfect, but the combination of his twist, and the entanglement in the coat did the job and took the guy to his knees with a scream of pain. As the third guy went down one of the assailant’s girlfriends jumped between them all screaming “They are drunk!” The former student’s wife was pulling him away when the first attacker came drunkenly charging at him again. The Kobukai student swatted his arms down with his left hand and did what he called a “half-assed irimi nage” with horrible form but it again took the guy down to the sidewalk. All of this took only 5 – 10 seconds at the most he estimated later. At that point other friends jumped in stopping further contact between them. Some women, perhaps friends of theirs were yelling at them to stop before they get “destroyed.” The assailant who got the palm heel to the face had a bloody lip, but was saying he was sorry, and it was his own fault for jumping into the fight.

In the aftermath, the former Kobukai student related these feelings. These are his own words.

“Sure I was justified in defending myself, but I really fucked one of them up and put the others down all while on autopilot. I don’t feel like I won some victory or something like that. All I keep coming back to is I am thankful not to have gotten hurt.  I asked my wife why she jumped in and what she said was odd to me.  She said “You should have seen what it looked like. I was afraid you would kill one of them.  They were flying all over the place.”  My son saw it as well and explaining the whole thing to him was difficult as it was very scary for him seeing his dad engaged by a group of guys.”

Here are his observations about his training in the far past that helped him”

• The Best training is done when you are completely exhausted. That is when you mind really learns.
• Endless repetition is key. Train till it is automatic.  Train until you are bored – then train some more!
• Real self defense training is hard! It hurts. You may get injuries. Sometimes it just plain sucks. Everyone at Kobukai should know and accept that.  But the dividends you get when you really need them are totally worth it.

The former Kobukai Jujitsu student gave me permission to relay this real life story to you because we both agreed to how beneficial it may be to current students, and motivate them to keep training – because one day it may really be necessary.  He asked me not to reveal his name.