Strategy against multiple opponents

The truism that street violence is desperate and unpredictable could not hold more true than when facing multiple assailants. If anything defined krav maga, it was Imi and his students in Bratislava facing multiple attackers. In developing krav maga, Imi took into account his own experiences of often being outnumbered by multiple assailants in Bratislava. Therefore, contending against multiple (un)armed attackers became a lynchpin of his krav maga thinking. In his later years, Imi approvingly observed Haim develop and expand Krav Maga's ground survival tactics. The one point Imi constantly emphasized, which Haim also reinforces, was the danger of multiple opponents converging on a defender who is grappling with one of the opponents while on the ground. 

Defending against multiple opponents, to be sure is a desperate situation and one in which many people cannot win. The odds are stacked against you especially when weapons are introduced. There are two types of groups that one can confront including a preplanned attack group and a spontaneous attack group. The preplanned attack group intends to attack you regardless of what you might say to deconflict. The spontaneous attack group may be on the fence and you may be able to talk your way out of it or gain a greater advantage to initiate a preemptive counter-attack.

Facing multiple assailants, let alone multiple armed assailants is an extremely perilous situation. Preemptive debilitating combatives are highly effective tools to begin narrowing the odds in your favor. Additional core principles involve deflection, redirection, evasive footwork, and upper-body movements combined with simultaneous or near-simultaneous counterattacks to overwhelm the assailant. These survival tactics are designed for multiple threats, allowing a defender to incapacitate the assailants, and, when necessary, commandeer weapons for the defender’s use. 

If you cannot immediately escape, there are two cardinal rules you must try to follow: (1) do not place yourself between two or more assailants and (2) do not end up on the ground. Tactically, to defend against multiple assailants, whenever possible, use flanking maneuvers. In other words, if an assailant initiates to your left or right, engage him while using footwork to put him between you and any other assailants. If facing three or more assailants, even if you were attacked by the assailant in the middle, still move to one of your flanks—do not go down the middle. Try never to engage an assailant if a defense would put you in between two or more assailants. On rare occasions, you might not have the choice but to go between them and split them. Techniques and tactics do not change, but you must modify your defenses to keep an opponent between you and any other assailants as long and as often as you can.

Imi Lichtenfeld and Haim Gidon emphasize using optimum combatives to debilitate an opponent, especially, when you are defending against multiple assailants. Whether your preferred combative is a most practical long-range kick, eye rake, punch, etc., every combative must count. You must maximize your power and reach to debilitate an opponent both viciously and effectively in preparation for the next opponent’s violent onslaught. Of course, if you debilitate, maim, or—if necessary and in extremis—kill an opponent quickly and decisively, his colleagues may think better of tangling with you; however, you may also increase their resolve to harm you. The bottom line is that, if you consider a multiple-assailant assault imminent and a threat to your life, act violently and with extreme prejudice. In any objectively reasonable force legal analysis, multiple assailants represent an extreme and very possibly deadly threat.