COMMENT by Erik Kondo
Many social violence dominated Monkey Dances can be very intense. Each combatant is working very hard to assert his or her dominance.
Despite landing and receiving wide variety of multiple blows/strikes, the combatants emerge relatively undamaged from the encounter. Some reasons for this happening are:
1. It is hard for the average person to “finish” his or her opponent when the opponent is actively fighting back. Technically ineffective fighting methods that involve lots of movement can be very effective against similar ineffective fighting methods.
For example, punching and hitting one’s opponent on the ground is not nearly as effective as slamming their head into the pavement.
2. The social nature of the violence is such that the opponents are “fighting” within culturally understood rules.
3. The presence and intervention of bystanders sometimes controls the conflict is someone’s Monkey Brain gets completely out of control.
4. Submitting to your opponent will usually put a stop to the assault.
It is important to note that much of self-defense physical instruction is predicated upon a single blow having predictable results. I.E. a strike to the groin guarantees the opponent will bend forward, a palm strike to the chin always causes the opponent to arch back, etc. Belief in these high percentage results creates these unrealistic fighting sequences.
The videos are evidence that no strike has a predictable result every time.
COMMENT by Rory Miller
See Ineffective Bad.