Street Fighting

[Yaksha]

Is street fighting the only way to get extremely good very fast?

[CaptinPickAxe]

no.
Street fighting is how to get put in the hospital very fast.

Training, sparring, and time is the only way to get real good...but there is no 'very fast' way unless your a natural. Even then it takes time.

[Ray Pina]

Well said.

Train and test. Train and test. Train and test.

After that you'll try to avoid fights because a) you realise how dangerous and damaging two adults fighting can be b) you realise that if you "win" you have just caused someone some body damage and can may have some legal problems on your hands.

[inic]

Originally posted by EvolutionFist
b) you realise that if you "win" you have just caused someone some body damage and can may have some legal problems on your hands.

Exact reason I don't start anything with anyone. I'm afraid to even sneeze on someone thinking they'll see me for "Bodily damage" or something. People sue like its a bodily function.

[Rayfield]

But what if your in like a bar. And what if the idiot 3 seats away is sitting there drinking by himself and making comments about you and your friend the whole time. What if you try to make friendly conversation with him and he avoids that at all cost. What if he finally gets to you and you tell him what you think. And then what if he jumps up ready to throw blows, and a fellow in the bar runs up to you and tells you " hes one of them Karate Kickers". Can you get in a street fight then? Thats a true story by the way, hapened like 3 days ago. Even then I avoided conflict, I didnt jump up and talk trash. I turned around in my seat and watched him just stand there. Once a hand full of people got him back in his seat things were cool for about 10 minutes the he started up again. The dude was way to drunk really.


Ray

[macaulay]

No one is going to kick your ass with their mouth - let them talk. Why start a fight? What is there to prove?

I always try to walk away. If I am prevented, I do what is necessary to walk away. If the other guy swings - do what needs to be done, then walk away. Just my opinion.

[Dark Knight]

Ill give my reasons to avoid a fight.

I have been the arts for a little over 25 years and fought tons of people. I have met good fighters in all sytems.

Everyone has their own idea of what violence is and when to stop. I met a guy who was a golden gloves boxer, he had been in a few bar fights and he would punch someone so hard that even if they tucked their arm in to block he would still break their ribs. (Imagine a guy like Tyson hitting you.) He stopped when the guy was no longer standing.

A grappler may stop when he has broken one or two bones, a fast one will beak an arm or wrist before your friend gets to him and he is ready for him.

Any style like San Shou, hit you hard and drive you onto something on the ground.

People think a fight stops with both fighters a little bloody and looking at each other. real life is not like that. If you know this guy is stronger and hits harder are you going to punch him and step back? Or are you going to take an eye out, pick up something heavy and hard to hit him with and stop him before he hurts you.

Many train to bite, poke, rip.... if the person you are fighting is thinking that way, you may lose an eye, finger, permanent liomp or worse.

I am an old guy, I move first and hit hard with compound strikes. I dont want to get hurt.

Be ready to give the worse, but be ready to recieve it.

[Dark Knight]

As far as training

Get a set of gloves and fight realistically with contact with anyone you can.

You need the addtional training that you cannot do on each other, but develop movement and timing. They will pay off.

[Ray Pina]

I would have finished my drink and then --- because I'm still kind of young and a pain-in-the-a$$ -- leaned over to my friend and said "Let's get out of here, this guys an a$$hole" hoping the guy would hear.

I'd leave, but at the same time display that I aint taking the guy's $hit and if he really has a problem, well, there's outside, but this is after taking into account if the guy is a) alone, b) his size and demeaner and C) is he wearing heavy jacket or something that could be hiding a weapon.

Either way leave. If it looks like he may have an advantage, leave quietly.

With that said, what Dark Knight said is very, very, very true. At this age it's not a few punches before the school bell rings.

[Yaksha]

How can you know what its like to fight if you never get in to a fight?

I do not believe a friendly sparring match can prepare you for a guy who is trying to kill you.

[Dark Knight]

I do not believe a friendly sparring match can prepare you for a guy who is trying to kill you.

Some of my best friends have knocked me out, given me black eyes and bloody noses.

Some programs like Peyton Quinns will better prepare you for a street fight because he gets you into that kind of stress.

Friendly point sparring is not going to hack it, you need to make your training as realistic as possible.

testing yourself out in the street is a bad way of learning, when the guy pulls a knife or his buddy comes from behind and leaves you permenantly disabled. Now you cannot train anymore.

Check out how the guys at the straight blast gym are training and their theories ( www.straightblastgym.com )

Or check out www.rmcat.com and see how they are training.

Reality training with contact is what will prepare you. Train as you fight.

[Dark Knight]

From the RMCAT site

"In this course you will both experience and overcome the number one problem in real world self defense. That # 1 problem is not about "physical techniques" at all either. The number one problem either trained or untrained people experience in an actual self defense situation is the "adrenal rush" "

Good question posted Yaksha.

[Meat Shake]

Mix it up with full contact. Use a rubber knife with lipstick on the blade to do knife work, it allows you to see what would have happened if the blade was live.

"and a fellow in the bar runs up to you and tells you " hes one of them Karate Kickers"."

You must live in texas.
Anyhow... Ive seen many a karate blackbelt get knocked out.

[Ray Pina]

"I do not believe a friendly sparring match can prepare you"

There is a difference between "training" and "friendly sparring." Friendly sparring is joking around before class, working on some stuff low pressure.

Training is putting the 10 or 12 oz gloves on and trying to make the other fold, turn under the pressure.

Then you take that "training" and enter a San Da or such tournament and put it to the test against someone who wants to knock you out.

Is there anything "friendly" about that?

If you are there or moving in that direction you are already becomine aquainted with random violence and the chaos around it and hot to control it.

Going out onto the street and causing trouble in the search of training is simply stupid and irresponsible to recomend (though I know of a S. Mantis group that has done that).

Like sport guys requesting video, can you show us some press clippings of guys being beat down by drive-by-martial artists?

[CaptinPickAxe]

If you're in a street fight, chances are you're fighting an untrained fighter. Untrained Fighters tend to think with their Xin (emotional) mind as opposed to their Yi (logical) mind. If you think with your Yi mind and he takes the Xin mind you'll have an advantage if you've trained full contact or close to. His emotions will get the best of him. He'll lose control and be open up in desperation to connect with some good hits. Use logic and strategy to find the open points...its hard, but thats what sparring helps with.

You can train full contact with friends. Regardless if respect is mutual between the two, you are still trying to knock each other out. You just don't have to worry about them waking up and wanting to knock you'r block off;)

[AmanuJRY]

If you're in a street fight, chances are you're fighting an untrained fighter.

Do you train to leave it to chance that your opponent would be untrained. I can't say how many people I have met who did wrestling in school or boxed as a teen, or even trained to some degree in an art. Anyone with the slightest training can prove to be devistaing under the right circumstances.

Be prepared for anything.

As far as becoming accustomed to the adrenalin...become an adrenalin junky!:D

[HiddenShadow]

Street fighting can be very hazordous to not only you and your opponent, but people in the surrounding area as well, not to mention personal property items that may get broken. There is alot that can go wrong and I would only use fighting on the street as a last resort. Your not just putting yourself in danger, your putting others around you in danger as well. What if the guy pulls out a gun, you may be able to get out of the way, but an innocent bystander may not be so fourtunate. If a fight MUST accour, then by all means never underestimate your opponent. That can be one of the biggest miskates you can make

[Aqira]

Fights in the real world happen fast, they start fast go fast and end fast period.
Because of that I have always taught my students a simple 10 second rule and that is for every second a fight last there is a 10% chance of getting hurt…
regardless if you win or lose and injury can last a life time. So 3 seconds go by = 30% 5 seconds=50% and so on.