Self Defense Stories

[The Xia]

This thread is a place for posters to share real life self-defense experiences.

[Jumpin'Sidekick]

You must be really bored, right?
By the way the only time I was close enough to need to defend myself besides sparring was against 3 12year old punk kids and a really big friendly dog(they wanted to scare me with it). I laughed at them in the face and they told me to go on the next bus because they were afraid of me. The incident lasted for 5 minutes. It was in February 2005.

[SevenStar]

I work as a bouncer as a second job. I guess you could say I'm defending someone all the time. I may post some stories later.

[shizenjin]

I once had a beer bottle thrown at me. I put my hand up to shield my face and the **** thing hit my palm, which made my fingers close in on the bottle.

I admit this was a once in a lifetime random thing and had nothing to do with my training. But the guy that threw is was so shocked he just called me a name and walked off.

It took me a good few weeks before I stopped talking about it. I was 17 at the time.

[SevenStar]

I had a guy pull a tazer on me last night. I pulled my baton on him, with spray in my other hand. He walked off. Nothing happened.

a few weeks ago, I got into it with three guys. One hit me, I knocked him unconscious with a right cross, his BIG brother hit me in the side of the head, right near the temple. The third brother was on the ground - I pushed him into the one that I hit, knocking them both off balance, right before I hit the dude. After I got hit by the big guy, I turned around to strike him, but another bouncer tied him up and dragged him outside.

I can go on for days. but I won't. I will list some things I've learned though:

grappling is more helpful in the street than many stand up guys would lead you to believe.

not every altercation that ends up on the ground results in someone's buddies stomping you.

cops WILL hit you, even if you're innocent.

a bottle of moet is as hard as a baseball bat; don't get hit by one.

it's always the smallest guys who talk the most smack.

the amount of smack people talk is directly proportionate to the number of people watching what's going on.

fights begin and end VERY fast.

sometimes talking is your best weapon.

be nice to people - you do sometimes encounter them again in situations that are not in your favor, and people do hold grudges.

knives are dangerous. stay away from them.

metal detectors aren't foolproof

always be aware of what's going on around you.

[The Xia]

cops WILL hit you, even if you're innocent.

What happened for you to find this out?

[franco1688]

I have some pretty good stories for you guys. I was a bouncer for eight years and presently I'm a night club manager. I've been training in martial arts for about fifteen years. I've been stabbed (a few times), shot at, punched, kicked, bit , scratched and I promise you they are all true stories. I don't have an exact count but I've been involved probably over 1000 fights (52 weeks in a year x at least 3 fights per week x 8 years / you do the math). I have also fought in full contact martial arts matches and boxed. I will make this one comment right now. The best way to learn how to fight is to fight. That's the only true way to perfect anything. Take cooking, for example, you can watch people cook on the food network everynight, and you can read all the cookbooks that the library has to offer, but when it is all said and done do you think that you're going to be a master chef? I'd have to say no! You may be a master of theory, but you're not going to be a great chef until you actually get your hands dirty and actually cook. Sure there's some guidelines that past masters have laid out for you to follow but there are so many other factors that you may not think of that will only be mastered through trial and error. In my opinion, fighting is the same way. Fights are unpredictable and there are so many factors that come in to play in a fight that you don't think of until you are standing there toe to toe with an opponent. I'm not even talking about what techniques you might use. I'm talking about what you feel during a fight. You're adrenaline is flowing, you may or may not be scared or nervous, and more than likely you will get hit. How are you going to react when you experience all of these factors? You can practice and study martial art theory all you want, but there is only one way to make a theory a law and that is by testing it, applying it and perfecting it. I'm not saying you should go out and get into fights. Just like any scientific experiment you should test your theory in a controlled environment (ie. sparring, fighting full contact, etc.). You must practice until you are comfortable and you are no longer nervous when you're facing confrontation. Also, you shouldn't be worrying about what technique you're going to use it should just happen.

[SevenStar]

What happened for you to find this out?

I took a guy down outside the club. He was acting a fool inside, got put out and tried to overpower one of the other bouncers. I took him down, mounted him, and when he tried to fight, I attacked his arm - put him in an americana. Just then, I get hit from behind and dragged - I turn around (with stun gun handy) and saw a cop standing over me. people standing around were yelling at him that I work there, not to mention that I had on a bright read shirt that read "STAFF" - he did it on purpose.

[tug]

"I can go on for days. but I won't. I will list some things I've learned though:

grappling is more helpful in the street than many stand up guys would lead you to believe.

not every altercation that ends up on the ground results in someone's buddies stomping you.

cops WILL hit you, even if you're innocent.

a bottle of moet is as hard as a baseball bat; don't get hit by one.

it's always the smallest guys who talk the most smack.

the amount of smack people talk is directly proportionate to the number of people watching what's going on.

fights begin and end VERY fast.

sometimes talking is your best weapon.

be nice to people - you do sometimes encounter them again in situations that are not in your favor, and people do hold grudges.

knives are dangerous. stay away from them.

metal detectors aren't foolproof

always be aware of what's going on around you."


I wholeheartedly concur, well said. I used to bounce in a dive bar in NYC for about 6 years, and out of all the altercations during those years, I can only remember 2 instances where the situation was diffused while standing. Every single other time, we went to the ground.

And, not to bash cops or anything, but one must be extremely careful of what is said and done around them. Every situation has it's own set of realities, and every situation is different (or at least must be approached that way).

TuG.

[madhusudan]

ok, i'll bite........

in 1999 or early 2000 my girlfriend had pretty much ended it with me, except that we still hung out all the time and slept together. i still liked her but she was seeing a new guy. he was pretty short and scrawny. we had words at one bar and i was tossed out since he was well known there. me and the girl headed to our favorite bar (stupid idea, since he knew to look there) and i started drinking heavily.

i was depressed and got really drunk. as i was leaning on the wall, and she was telling the bartender what happened earlier the guy rushed in with a big tall friend. before i could react, he had thrown a right cross which did little damage. he busted my lip open the tiniest bit and turned my head to the side. i roused myself for defense by getting my arse off the wall, and he was already running off. his big friend was coming forward with his fist raised so i grabbed it with my left and grabbed his throat with my right. after choking him for a few seconds the massive bouncer rushed in and threw the other guy out. i was drunk and wanted to follow, but of course everyone insisted i stay in the bar.

for the rest of the night i was kinda like a hero. girls were eyeing me and it was kinda cool. man, that little guy had a weak punch. that's my story.

[Lee Chiang Po]

As a young man I worked as a printer, but as a second job I worked as social director in local bars and dance halls. Bouncer. I am only 5'4" tall, but have always hit a scale at around 200 pounds. With a JJJ and HFWC background, I was always able to handle large men easily. Not always, but most times you are dealing with drunks that are fairly easy to handle. Large men seldom actually know how to fight as they have usually not had to learn. It is the smaller man that has had to learn to fight. And there are some that would scare the heck out of Bruce Lee out there too, and they might not have had a single lesson in a MA. In the establishments I have bounced in, I was not allowed to pound on a customer. My only job was to stop or prevent anyone getting injured in their place of business. I usually talked them out of being aggressive most of the time, and for those that I could not reason with, I would get in a subtle submission hold and take them to a corner and talk to them. I remember one bouncer telling me he fought all night, every night. He stayed sore and busted up from it. I was there 2 weeks before I had to use force and I didn't have a single fight or out of control discussion. I was able to do my job well. To some, being able to see out across another fellows head gives them a sence of superiority. And no one wants to be tossed around be someone that is 5'4" tall. Anyway, one night in a bar down in Louisiana, I broke up a fight between a couple of fellows and they both got mad at me. One of them was so upset that he had to be restrained and held for arrest. This didn't sit well with him either. Several nights later I was just coming in from my day job and wanted to sort of drink myself a cold beer and unwind before my shift started. As I came in the back door I met some friends and stopped to talk. My eyes were still not conditioned to the dark. As I stood talking this fellow came up and reach between my buddies and stabbed me in the right chest. The blade was only 3 inches long, but it went in and cut my left lung. The blade lodged in a rib of my sturnum. It hurt too. I reached and took hold of his knife hand and stepped back and entered into a wrist hold and forced him to bend over in front of me. I kicked him with a heel shot right in the crown of his skull, which dropped him like a lead ball. I was hurting and bleeding a lot, so when the cops and firemen got there they just took me to the hospital. It was not until after the knife was removed and I was stitched up that they told me the other man had died instantly from my heel kick. A grand jury no billed me as it was self defense and an unintended death.
In another case I was walking to my car at about 3 am when 3 men jumped me. 2 were facing me and one behind me stabbed me in the back, almost into my spine. I think that was his intention. Again, it hurt a lot. I ran backwards into him and elbowed him in the face. The 2 men that were in front of me ran and left him. I turned and stabbed him in the throat with my fingers. Both hands. He fell back against a truck and looked like he was going to come at me again. I cut him hard into the throat with a kill hand chop and crushed his windpipe. I then put put my fingers into both his eyes and moved away from him. I was hurting so bad I did not want to move again. My attacker fell to the ground and I staggered back to the club where the only person there, the owner, called an ambulance and the cops. This ended just like the other stabbing. As I was being stitched and plugged up they came in to talk to me and informed me that I had killed the man. Again, I was no billed. I was told however that it would be to my best interest to find another line of work. I stayed with it though, and eventually the word was out everywhere and I could not get a job as a bouncer. But, I was very appealing as a body guard and companion. My earning ability was greatly enhanced.

[SilverNeedle]

oh, man... that's is some extreme self defence...

[Lee Chiang Po]

Extreme, yes. I have to admit that in every case where it looked like I would have to defend myself from deadly force, I was frightened. Not just scared. But terrified. I suppose that the survival instinct kicks in and my motions become powerful. I have never panicked, and I have always kept my head, even when I was so scared that I had to force myself to act. I am in my 60's now. An old man I guess by some standards, but I do not feel old or think old. Even though my body will sometimes complain. I have been a practitioner of JJJ and HFWC since before I was a teenager. 50 years or so. I have said this several times before, but in all my years as a practitioner I have never come upon another person so trained. I have come up against some very dangerous men though. In my younger years I was far more active as I appreciated the extra money of the second jobs.
One night I was working in a place in Moffitt, Oklahoma. Called the Top Hat I think. A man was just walking down the line stabbing people in the back with an ice pick. He was mad, but had only had a couple of beers so was not really drunk. He was mean. Dog mean. I had never attacked a person, but always waited until I was attacked. In this case however, I attacked the man with the ice pick. He was stronger than myself by a lot, and he was well over 6 feet tall, but on the thin side. He moved so fast that I was barely able to pary away the pick, and I was unable to enter a technique that would neutralize his attack. I felt like it went on for some time, but only lasted seconds. Eventually he lunged and I was able to grab his ice pick hand and slam him into the floor. I proceeded to break his elbow and wrist, and he just reached over and took the icepick in his other hand and stabbed me in the leg with it. Let me tell you about an icepick. It can reach the bone easily and it will go all the way in. It hurts like hell. I managed to get hold of this arm and break it too. I then went to pounding on him and broke his jaw and cheek bone. With a broken jaw and both arms broken, he managed to get on his feet and kick the heck out of me. I had never seen a man so determined. I again managed to get hold of a leg and kick the other from under him. I took one leg and another man took hold of the other and we finally managed to restrain him. Once he started to calm down he started feeling the pain and passed out from it. He didn't kill anyone, but ended up going to prison for 40 years. It was one very cold night when the wife of a very drunk and rowdy man shot me in my butt that my own wife told me that my career as a night club social director was finished. I think my greatest tool was my ugliness. I am a very ugly man. Very ugly. I also have a fierce look that can buckle the knees of the boldest of men.

[Faruq]

What art were you practicing at the time Chiang Po?

[Lee Chiang Po]

I can't say that I practice. It is all from throughout my life. I started my Wing Chun, Hung Fa, when I was still quite young. I was adopted at 8 years old and was the youngest of the family. Everyone trained Wing Chun. I began training in JJJ at a later date. Jujitsu is probably the one that I use when things get ugly. No matter how large or strong a man is, the weakest part of him is his hands, then his arms. I would make every effort to avoid going to ground in any fight. It becomes a serious 1 on 1 then, and you can not defend well against a gang. However, I did train for that. Both Wing Chun and Jujitsu have deadly aspects. Bil gee is a lethal form of self defense, and if you choose, using JJ you can completely destroy someone. Another story of self defense. I am not sure what year it was, maybe 1988 or 89. I was picking up some machine parts for a printing press in an industrial district of north east Dallas, Texas. I was at the back of my truck when 2 men approached me asking for money. Homeless men. I handed one man my pocket change and said that was all I had on me. As I continued what I was doing, one of them, a huge man with arms as large as my legs, just grabbed me by my neck with his left hand and started shoving me toward the corner of the building. There was no one about. The other man stopped at the corner of the building to keep watch while the other man led me down beside the building. It felt as if he would break my neck. I realized that he was many times stronger than myself, and that if I did not react he would do me great harm. As we got about half way down the side of the building, I sort of leaned in against him really hard. He cursed me and told me to get off him and then shoved me away. This made him extend his arm to full length, which put him at his most vulnerable. I quickly threw my right arm in a counter clockwise circle and over his left arm before he could draw it back. I had his hand locked behind my neck and sort of kept my momentum going. This locked his elbow and hyper extended it backwards. I kept rolling into him until I heard the elbow break. He went on to the ground and I took hold of his beefy hand and folded it toward his wrist until it popped. He was screaming loudly, and so I kicked his head until he got quite. I took hold of his other hand and proceeded to break his elbow and wrist on that arm. I noticed a Rambo knife laying beside him. I believe he intended to murder me with that knife. His friend came running back to see what I had on me I guess, and ran right into me standing there with the knife. His friend was silent on the ground so I suspect he thought I had killed him. He turned and ran down the RR tracks until I could no longer see him. I left the man laying there and went back to the truck. I was not in any condition at the time, and from the look of me, I was a good victim. It is by skill of technique that I was able to defend myself. If I were only able to escape injury it would have served me well. The thing to remember is that you are always going to be held responsible for your actions. You are only allowed to defend until the threat of life and limb are past. You are not allowed to then further punish the assailant once he has been neutralized. That is very hard to resist though.