Fight Club: Rule #1... there are no rules!

If you’ve always wanted to knock down that wolf-whistler on the street or teach a bully a lesson, you could start by learning the basics of sparring at Bangalore’s own Fight Club.

The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.

Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt) from David Fincher’s 1999 release Fight Club changed the way we perceive street fighting forever — he made it look sexy, classy, and cocky, all at the same time.

Not only was the movie and his character a trip down that ‘attitude’ lane, it was something that revolutionised our idea of loosening up forever. But, no matter how much we may enjoy watching Brad Pitt beat somebody to pulp just because he feels like it, reality seems miles away. It’s a movie and street fighting is illegal.

More than a decade later, Bangalore’s Independent Shootfighters Association, conceptualised by 32-year-old Ashwin Mohan, launched a similar platform where individuals can come and fight against each other. They call it — no points for guessing — The Fight Club.

However, this Fight Club is not so much about fighting as it is about sparring, a form of training common to many martial arts. The fights are not bloody and there are many instructors to watch out for the safety of participants. “It’s not meant just to show off your fighting skills and physical strength. It increases your pain threshold and helps you defend yourself better in dangerous situations” says Mohan.
A typical scene at the Fight Club, held in Kormangala’s India Heritage Academy every weekend, involves two men or women weltering on a thick mat with only one motive in mind — winning.

While onlookers cheer the duo, Mohan records the entire fight sequence — a maximum of five minutes — on a handy-cam. ‘Be careful’, ‘don’t lose yourself’ are some instructions that Mohan gives as the fight progresses. At the Fight Club, the main objective is to help people learn how to defend themselves rather than pick up fights on the road.

“You are out on the streets and you experience a situation in which you are surrounded by five people, with or without weapons. Sure thing, you can’t escape. The Fight Club gives you an opportunity to learn how to defend yourself against rowdies in situations like these,” says Sindhu Kashyap, one of the instructors at Independent Shootfighters Association. “It’s a practice and learning platform.”

The Bangalore Fight Club is probably the only place where one can actually pick-up a fight. However, people who can’t handle losing gracefully and try to take revenge are reported to the police and expelled from the club. Though these fights are nothing more than sparring, Mohan expects participants to take them seriously.

“At the first session, one might not win, but after two to three sessions of sparring and observing others fight, one will at least get a hang of how to defend oneself,” says Kashyap. Mohan adds that the club helps one shape up his or her mind and learn to stay calm in any given situation. “The practice also helps you face your fears,” he says.

Manoj R, 25, a regular at the Fight Club joined it to better his weekday martial training with the Independent Shootfighters Association. He says, “Although I have enrolled for the weekday classes, free fighting like this helps in bettering martial arts skills.”
Even a right-hand fracture hasn’t come in the way of Manoj’s passion to learn the art form. “I had hurt myself while trying to pull my hand out of my opponent’s grip. These accidents happen very rarely at these fights. There are many instructors looking out for our safety and each fight is documented and uploaded on YouTube,” he clarifies. “The Fight Club also helps me stay focused at my work and beat the week’s stress over the weekend.”

While most Fight Club enthusiasts are enrolled in the weekday batches, there are a few who go exclusively for the weekend action. Kevin Alfred David, 33, is one such person. He has been training in martial arts for the past 15 years and couldn’t resist the urge to go to the club after hearing about it. He says, “Through the club, I’ve learnt never to underestimate my opponent and take defeat as a way to learn and grow. I try and spar with a different person every weekend to be able to enhance the learning.”

David has another reason to attend the Fight Club regularly — a street fight that had left him helpless some time ago. “There were 15 people and I couldn’t do anything. But, after picking up skills here, I have become confident of being able to defend myself in a situation like that,” he explains.

At the Fight Club, one gets to experience other kinds of martial arts as well. “We have an instructor for Varma Kalai, an ancient Indian martial art technique, for instance. So suppose you’re in a real-life combat situation and you don’t have any object to defend yourself, you know how to hurt the opponent just with your fingers,” says Kashyap.

Though no blood and gore is involved at this desi Fight Club, there have been a few tooth-breaking incidents, recalls Ashwin. “It’s part of the game. If one can’t take it further he/she has to drop out of the fight. There’s no point in stretching the fight to the five-minute time limit and getting hurt.”