Quit Moving Backwards When Training!

You don’t rise to the occasion—you default to the highest level of training you’ve actually maintained.

Let’s get this straight: this post is mostly for my reality-based self-defense crowd. If you’re a sport fighter working inside a ring or a cage, this doesn’t apply the same way. In sport, moving backward is often smart, tactical, and effective. Look at Floyd Mayweather. His ability to move backward and control space with footwork helped him dominate fighters like Manny Pacquiao. You may not like his style, but he knows the rules of the game better than most, and he uses them to win.

But when it comes to real-life violence—the kind you face outside the gym, without mats, refs, or boundaries—moving backward can get you hurt fast.

Why? Because in training environments, everything is controlled. You know where the walls are, where your training partners are, what’s behind you. Even if you're retreating, you’re safe. You’ve got spatial awareness because the environment doesn’t shift unpredictably. But life doesn’t work like that.

Let me take you back to grade 3. Me and my friends figured out a pretty simple but effective trick. One kid distracts, another crouches behind the target, and the first pushes. Kid falls right over. Boom. It worked because people don’t track what’s behind them. That same logic still applies—only now the consequences are a lot higher than a scraped knee.

We’re forward-facing creatures. Evolution designed us to move and fight forward. The things behind us? Historically, that was our tribe. Our allies. Our backup. We didn’t have to worry about what was back there because our people had our six. That’s why, when you move backward in a violent situation, you’re moving blind.

You lose your peripheral vision. You lose tracking. You lose control of your space. And worse, you have no idea what you’re stepping into. In the real world, I’ve never had unlimited space. There were always curbs, parking meters, broken bottles, crowds, and random obstacles in the way. Moving backward? That’s a luxury you don’t get.

I’m not saying never move backward. If it’s your only option, do it. But it should never be your plan A—just like dropping to the ground in a fight shouldn’t be your first choice either. Your goal should be to move offline, to angles you can track with your eyes. Spaces where you can maintain awareness and make tactical decisions. That’s why having someone “watch your six” is so crucial—because that’s the one area you can never fully control on your own.

Let me give you a real-world example. I once escorted a man out of the bar I was working at. He was agitated and clearly gearing up to fight. He started backing away from me, arms spread, caught in that full-on “monkey dance” adrenaline posture. All his focus was on me, his perceived threat. What he wasn’t tracking was the curb behind him. He stepped off and—boom—got nailed by a cab. Rolled over the hood like in a bad movie. Thankfully, he was okay. But it was a perfect example of what happens when you move backward blindly in a dynamic environment. You lose track, you lose control, and you pay for it.

So here’s the takeaway. Drill it into your training: moving backward is a flaw. It should be the move you make when everything else has failed, not the one you default to. Train to move forward. Train to angle out. Train to move laterally. Keep your eyes on your environment and your options open. Control your space. Don’t give it away.

Quit moving backwards.

—Randy
@randykinglive
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