How do you fight a taller person?

[SevenStar]

Taller people generally have the advantage of reach. When this is the case, the only thing that will help you is footwork. You have to be able to move inside of their range. Once you get inside, work their body, make use of hooks, knees, elbows and uppercuts and make angles on him - don't stand in one place. Think about tyson in his prime. He was short for a heavyweight. He used superior footwork to get inside of everyone. Now, watch him today - he can't get inside anymore and he gets killed. footwork is key.

darkfist has the right idea, but I disagree that once you take his 45 and attack that he will not regain balance. There are no absolutes in fighting. Ideally, you don't want him to regain, but realistically, he very well may. you can't always retain contact either.

[Cobra Commander]

Do not give in to their physical intimidation through their body langauge, tone of voice, or bravedo.

YOu must stand your ground yet be relaxed and not too threatening. Often a bully know's his prey...

Stepping in is good as long as you occupy his hands/feet from not damaging YOU while you are counter attacking Tall guy.

Remember not every tall guy is the same. Some may actually be very efficient in fighting and what not.

Never anticipate but adapt and accept the possibilities both negative/positive.

[TheSnake]

I dont have much combat experience on the street, but my step dad was always knocking people out on the street when I was younger. He was black, angry, 6'5", 250 pounds, he was a 4th degree black belt in ishinru, and also had training in other arts like Kune Tao(I think this is how its spelled).

I will say this, for everything there is a complimentary. If someone is trying to intimidate you, you can bend with their intimidation encouraging their arrogance and helping them to get ****y. When you are thinking about everything(All your tools), and if you have the total approach to combat, there is ALWAYS a way. If you have some sort of segmented approach to combat(Style), you will have your limitations, especially when going up against someone larger than you. Against someones larger size, you have your own size as an advantage. The smaller size should be looked at as a complimentary advantage to the larger opponent.

You need to practice your techniques in a real life situation of course and you have to be practical. Here is some practical advice. Like I said above, you can always trick your opponent mentally or confuse them by encouraging something that will give you an advantage(THeir own arrogance). In conquering adversity, you must first bend with it. Play as if you are intimidated by him, and apply your fighting skills in this way for a short time, then you can instantaneously and swiftly change your tempo and your gameplan and utilize your speed for some explosively hard shots. Use ALL YOUR MIGHT! Remember, emotional content is necassary. When expressing a technique, especially against a giant, you need emotional content. Make the committment and punch through his face when he thinks your weak.

Mike Tysons powerful punching techniques improved because of the emotional content involved. What would have been a regular technique, became completely anger fueled. You wanted this same devastating power, but without the anger. And you have to erupt at the correct moment. The power that you have, your opponent should not believe in.

[SevenStar]

Stepping in is good as long as you occupy his hands/feet from not damaging YOU while you are counter attacking Tall guy.

Remember not every tall guy is the same. Some may actually be very efficient in fighting and what not.

Never anticipate but adapt and accept the possibilities both negative/positive.

whether or not he is adept at infighting doesn't matter. If you are at the reach disadvantage, you MUST get inside in order to hit the guy. consequently you have to make angles and move in. You don't have to occupy his hands and feet either. There is no need to chase limbs. Rather, you avoid them. I'll refer again to tyson in his prime for that one.

If you make angles, where his limbs are are of less importance also. when he punches, if you slip to the outside, you just zoned off most of his weapons. Angles and footwork.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

everything seven star said and learn to root and be mobile at the same time. or just make sure when you hit you hit like a train ... it's easier for them to hit you so you got to work harder at making sure yours count.

forget the head if its too high .... just work with whats there and the head will ask to be hit eventually. people underestimate body shots. couple solid hooks/elbows to the floating ribs are no joke.

learn to grapple. if it wont help you in your current class learn it anyway. i think its even more important for us smaller guys to know the ground than bigger guys. get good at chokes (short arms are awesome for chokes from what i've been seeing) and i'm guessing throws. being good at throws seems to make sense due to a lower center of gravity, but i'm just now starting to work on it so i can't say for sure.

[Zaharia]

As a shorter person myself, I can add this valuable piece of informationg..... GO FOR THE BALLS!!!! Check it out....

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...D%26safe%3Doff

[hskwarrior]

i would agree with zaharia,

go for the jewels.

but you have to realize something first. In a street confrontation most of the time people tend to be head hunters. always trying to knock a block off, but since you may be shorter and to knock his block off would require you to punch upwards, it is much much easier and more effective to use body shots, or punch kick tear, juggle, squeeze, bite, or whatever his nasty ass BALLS!!!

once you demolish the family jewels, he will come down to your level where you can finish the job.

something else you should realize. the head is able to take some very severe damage, while the body can't. people have been hit in the head with baseball bats and were still able to continue fighting, but if you break a rib, arm leg, or whatever the fight could be over instantly.

another thing, and this is my personal secret but its time to share with everyone.
when faced with a violent confrotation, two men are likely to get nose to nose and try to intimate each other. NEVER take your eyes away from his. This is the perfect opportunity to execute a devastating nut shot. No man wants to feel like he's been punked, so if you were to get him to think he has the upper hand you can STRIKE when he's clueless.

trust me it works.

[Samurai Jack]

My ex-wife really liked that technique. I think the attorney taught it to her.

[hskwarrior]

SHHHHHH, don't let my girl know that, she may use that sheet on me.

but seriously, has anyone here ever taught their girlfriends a few techniques only to have it backfire because she used it on you?

My girl (my spicy latina killing machine ) is a little fighter, she loves to kick so i won't teach her any kicks. but the funny thing about it is i am always throwing punches at her (just playing around with her ) and when she got iritated she began putting her hands up and start blocking. buy after almost 3 years of me doing this to her she is now blocking me without thinking now.

just the other day I went to play slap her and i knew she would block it so i tried to set her up. I threw the first blow and when she blocked i instantly threw a second shot at her and withitout flinching she block it also and suddenly all you hear is screaming "OOOOOOHHHHHHHH" the i say "so you think you're the sheet now, huh!?!?!?!


hsk

[Zaharia]

Agghh - FLASHBACK!!!! - BAD RELATIONSHIP!!!! - BAD RELATIONSHIP!!!!

[hskwarrior]

sorry, you'll be ok.

[Zaharia]

Thanks for the support, dude.

[Gen3sis74]

Depending on how big the person is I would suggest you take them to the ground especially if you are short and stocky. Ive seen how short people do against taller people, just the other day I saw a shorter black guy (around 5'4" and 135 pound) fight against a white guy (5'10" around 160 pounds). The two went at each other, the black guy went low and landed two jabs on the white guy, the white guy missing and they both went into a standing grapple, the white guy stopping the black guy from punching anymore. The 2 stood grappled for a rather long time, the white guy was eventually able to lift the black guy up and scoop slam him, however along the way the black guy was able to get a nice grab around the white guys head. As the two fell, the black guy was able to put the white guy on his head as they went down. The black guy then held him there and the black guy kept him held while the white guy struggled to get free. Sadly a dog from down the street came up barking and bit the white dude on the face, the white dogs owner was also white, im assuming this happened because the white dude was on top. After the bite the black guy let the white guy go. The white guy was holding his head and face also revealing several scratches he had taken from the fall. The black guy appeared completely unharmed and was ready to fight the white guy again, the black guy actually struck him in the face afterwards, and the white dude did nothing. The black guy was short and pretty stocky, he had some pretty big forearms as well.

[SimonM]

whether or not he is adept at infighting doesn't matter. If you are at the reach disadvantage, you MUST get inside in order to hit the guy. .

Sevenstar is right. I am a big guy. I like infighting. I like it a lot. Elbows, knees and throws are three of my favorite tools. And yet when I've faced shorter people the ones who let me keep them out at long range get slaughtered. Those who close have done much better. There are two people who I used to spar with regularly who could massacre me. One was exactly the same height as me. The other was MUCH shorter than me and he did basically exactly what SevenStar said: he made good use of angles, he got in, got his shots, and then got out.

[Zaharia]

Going down to the ground is fine - assuming that you are in a safe environment i.e. there is no glass, or any other hazardous material on the ground, and that you are only facing one opponent. Needless to say, if you go to the grount when your opponent is part of a gang, the chances are you're going to be massacred. Like I said earlier - go for the balls. Or, you can go for the legs, in particular the outer thigh, as this will give your opponent a 'dead leg', thereby debilitating him, and subsequently finishing the opponent off with a vast aray of 'weapons'.