I see more than my fair share of street fights.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Scott R. Brown
Anyone can fight....its winning that is the hard part! Unless you are smart enough to only pick fights with people more inept than you are!
Very true. You don't have to be a martial arts expert to be a bully. Quite the opposite, I would hope.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
hskwarrior
no one is just gifted in fighting.
I know a gaggle of professional bouncers that would beg to differ. Many of my bouncer friends haven't studied any formal combat method. They're just huge dudes with attitude.
A factor we must always consider is that everyone here (I hope) is a practicing martial artist. That gives us all a pretty skewed view of the world, as I oft quip 'martial myopia'. As I've mentioned many times here, I do volunteer medical work at concerts and street gatherings; I specialize in managing combative patients, so I see more street fights than the average joe. And lemme tell ya, almost all of them involve combatants with no skill whatsoever. That's one of the fundamental issues I've always had with the ol' "won't work on the street" argument. You'd be amazed what kind of stupid crap works on the street because many street brawlers can't even throw a basic combo. We, as martial artists, tend to look at combat from a more critical, tactical perspective. We imagine the worse-case scenario - facing a trained fighter. I've been doing this street medicine for over a quarter century now and faced countless combative and belligerent patients. Only a few had any training whatsoever. Most all of them were easily restrained with very basic takedowns. There have been a few exceptions, of course, but for the most part, the population engaging in street fighting can fight - do fight - but don't win - at least not when they face me and my krew. ;)