Here is a post by my American Combato Instructor, Bradley J. Steiner, who has forgotten more about hand-to-hand fighting than I’ll ever know–although I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten one bit of martial arts knowledge.

No doubt about it, fight scenes are an exciting and essential component of just about all thriller fiction. What would From Russia With Love have been without that terrific hand-to-hand battle between Donovan Grant and James Bond on the Orient Express? And thank heavens that great author, the late Don Hamilton, gave his hero Matt Helm realistic unarmed combat, knife and gun skills with which to assist in the carrying out of his missions!

Unfortunately, many fight scenes in novels and in the cinema lack authenticity. Motion picture and TV shows provide sound effects for unarmed fights that would be more appropriate to a film depicting the battle for Iwo Jima. Damn! The slamming and the banging sound like the ordnance of an attacking marine battalion; way over the top for two men in a struggle.

Most of the noise that emanates from a real hand-to-hand encounter, if there is any, comes from people crashing into furniture, objects breaking, and perhaps a grunt or an outcry from one of the involved. But bare hands, elbows, knees, and feet do not, when struck — however hard — against the human body, sound like rifle shots.

Novelists who describe the “thud” of a punch or kick are crediting the hitter with the abilities of a superman. And when such a punch, during the course of a fight, barely phases the recipient — who proceeds to land blows of his own (that also “thud”) — and the fight goes on and on . . . the writer is having a grand old time, but the reader is not getting realistic entertainment.

Men in high priority intelligence and special military circles who have been properly trained  (and I know something about this, because my business has been training them, amongst others, for half a century) will rarely hit with their fists. When they do, it’s usually to the soft solar plexus or groin or kidney targets, and such punches land silently. Trained men most usually hit with the edge or heel of the hand, or possibly with the little finger side of a clenched fist. Not with the knuckles. They also hit with their elbows. They head butt, they knee their adversaries in the testicles, and they use low kicks to their opponent’s groin, shins or insteps. Jabbing their fingers into an enemy’s eyes is also a popular blow. And none of these sound like a 21 gun salute!

A fairly realistic hand-to-hand scene was done by Sylvester Stallone in First Blood, when Rambo effects his escape from police custody.

Rule #1 for realistic fight scenes: They do not involve explosives, so don’t integrate sound effects that make it sound like they do. “Sounds” should come primarily from objects and furniture breaking and/or from outcries; not from superhuman blows of the hands and feet.And play down the fists when portraying a trained intelligence or military operative fighting an enemy. These guys don’t box.

Real hand-to-hand encounters are very close-in. Movies and television normally choreograph their fight scenes with rather wide, obvious, clearly telegraphed actions, executed with combatants standing and moving while apart from each other at an unrealistic distance. This is because audiences can better see the moves. This is especially true in those absurd “martial arts” movies. Okay for delusional preteen and teenage audiences . . . but even untrained adults usually laugh or smile when they see some of the “fights” between heroes and bad guys on screen. They fight, all too often, like they were “trying to look like they were fighting”, which is what they’re doing.

Novelists who have their characters “square off”, dance about, and do jumping or high kicks and dramatic punches, etc. paint images that only impress the minds of the very young. If you write children’s books, such nonsense is fine.

“Realistic” is very appealing. Fir example, read the beginning of Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger. Bond drops a knife-wielding Mexican with an open hand chop to the throat, after simply parrying the man’s initial thrust. Simple, basic, realistic. No long thrusts, slashes, protracted jockeying about, and acrobatic histrionics. Great scene! Fleming used Kill Or Get Killed, by Col. Rex Applegate (wartime instructor for the OSS) as a reference. (Applegate was in fact one of this writer’s close associates and teachers for more than 25 years).

Rule #2 for realistic fight scenes: Don’t make them “sparring matches” in which the combatants proceed to dance about, trade blows, strike and recover, etc. “Close and kill!” — perhaps politically incorrect and unpopular — is the way the real experts in the shadow world and in special operations do it! It’s always close-in and very fast.

All too often hand-to-hand combat scenes depict precisely those movements that are never emphasized in the quality training programs given intelligence and special operations people. High kicks stand out as preeminent. Jumping kicks. Elaborate throwing techniques. (In fact, with the exception of possibly two or three very basic and fundamental throws [none of which are permissible in contests] throws are given little emphasis in quality hand-to-hand programs.)

Rule #3 for realistic fight scenes: Take some training with me and learn real world close combat, or get hold of the following books which will at least disabuse you of the B.S. that Hollywood, comic books, and the commercialized mainstream world of well-marketed “martial arts” would have you believe: Kill or Get Killed, by Rex Applegate; Get Tough!, by William E. Fairbairn; Cold Steel, by John Styers; How to Fight Tough!, by Jack Dempsey; and the U.S. Naval Aviation V-5 Manual, Hand-to-Hand Combat, by Wesley Brown and Joe Begala.

People who, like myself, enjoy Ian Fleming, Don Hamilton, and similar thriller writers, most especially enjoy no-BS depictions of good, authentic hand-to-hand combat! We want to see the hero acquit himself with real-world techniques and tactics that work. We are not Star Trek fans. We do not want sheer fantasy. Unarmed, knife, stick, and firearms use in combat ruins the whole story for us when it isn’t REAL.

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