Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 24

Thread: how to measure your success as a fighter

  1. #1

    how to measure your success as a fighter

    How do you measure if you are a successful street fighter or not? I've been told by a kung fu teacher that I would be flattened by a few of his students (they are all larger than me) in a boxing match. The problem is their technique is shoddy, and almost non existent. They are big though, but i still think I'm capable of beating them (my instinct has proven nearly 100% correct in life when it comes to this). The key to these people is their aggression and inability to accept defeat in a fight. Is this true? I've never seen any competition fights like this (well not many), as most fight are toe-to-toe matches and people really do struggle to knock an opponent out. The best ones are the guys with the technique. According to this guy they would charge at me and wouldn't stop! To me this sounds unrelenting, and hard to beat, but maybe this guy is just being an arsehole (I stopped going to his class long back).

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    New Zealand
    Posts
    182
    There is no such thing as a successful street fighter.
    A baseball bat is a good offense against some blind drunk kid minding their own business who walks past your house.
    A boxing match doesnt usually involve bricks, blades, guns, or lava.You were probably talking about a boxing match i guess...
    Last edited by Sima Rong; 09-24-2013 at 07:59 PM.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Shell Beach, CA, USA
    Posts
    6,664
    Blog Entries
    16
    Quote Originally Posted by crazychang View Post
    According to this guy they would charge at me and wouldn't stop!
    You are luck to have someone who is doing that to you. When your opponent comes toward you, either you get him or he gets you. That will be the best training environment that any TCMA guy would dream to have. Your opponent attacks you 100 times in full force and full speed. How many times that you will end with standing on your feet, or been knocked/taken down by your opponent.

    What you don't want is someone just moves back, moves back, and still moves back. No matter what skill that you have developed, if your opponent can move back faster than your advance, none of you skill will be able to work on him.
    http://johnswang.com

    More opinion -> more argument
    Less opinion -> less argument
    No opinion -> no argument

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Sima Rong View Post
    A boxing match doesnt usually involve bricks, blades, guns, or lava.
    Lava??? You do live in a rough neighborhood!
    Quote Originally Posted by YouKnowWho View Post
    This is 100% TCMA principle. It may be used in non-TCMA also. Since I did learn it from TCMA, I have to say it's TCMA principle.
    Quote Originally Posted by YouKnowWho View Post
    We should not use "TCMA is more than combat" as excuse for not "evolving".

    You can have Kung Fu in cooking, it really has nothing to do with fighting!

  5. #5
    I shouldn't say I can beat big individuals because it makes me sound like a fool , but has anyone encountered people that go berserk in a fight who can intimidate you with fear? Some people can supposedly muster so much aggression and anger that they will knock people out. If so, and it probably is, can you train against this. The only thing I can think of, is creating a strong body that will be capable of knocking them back. Do people really get pounded and at some stage go beserk?

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by crazychang View Post
    I shouldn't say I can beat big individuals because it makes me sound like a fool , but has anyone encountered people that go berserk in a fight who can intimidate you with fear? Some people can supposedly muster so much aggression and anger that they will knock people out. If so, and it probably is, can you train against this. The only thing I can think of, is creating a strong body that will be capable of knocking them back. Do people really get pounded and at some stage go beserk?
    Some people do get a big surge of adrenaline and basically go nuts, feeling no pain in a fight. I think your best way to be capable of dealing with this is to have been in high pressure situations enough to remain somewhat comfortable and have been hit enough to be conditioned for it.

    I also think that for every one person that is truly as you described, there are a hundred clowns that go around saying, "Man when I get mad, I black out, I see red, dude there's no stopping me when I get mad bro." 99 times out of 100 they are probably pathetic turds that would fall to pieces under real pressure.
    Quote Originally Posted by YouKnowWho View Post
    This is 100% TCMA principle. It may be used in non-TCMA also. Since I did learn it from TCMA, I have to say it's TCMA principle.
    Quote Originally Posted by YouKnowWho View Post
    We should not use "TCMA is more than combat" as excuse for not "evolving".

    You can have Kung Fu in cooking, it really has nothing to do with fighting!

  7. #7
    I have never seen red. I've always been curious about that. For me, it's always been a colder more calculated decision to cause harm, even in the moment when attacked. Sure I get upset, but never like that. Personally, in my own experience, I have a much harder time with people who are calm and purposeful than somebody who is flailing mad. The former tends to make less mistakes. If you can hold off the latter long enough to get your bearings, it tends to be an easier fight to finish or "discourage through action", if you know what I mean.


    Still, I find this seeing red thing kind of interesting. I guess i'll never really understand it because I've never felt it myself.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    CA, USA
    Posts
    4,900
    Quote Originally Posted by crazychang View Post
    I shouldn't say I can beat big individuals because it makes me sound like a fool , but has anyone encountered people that go berserk in a fight who can intimidate you with fear? Some people can supposedly muster so much aggression and anger that they will knock people out. If so, and it probably is, can you train against this. The only thing I can think of, is creating a strong body that will be capable of knocking them back. Do people really get pounded and at some stage go beserk?
    There are people out there who may not be formally trained, yet can be very dangerous in a fight. Because they have experience in fights and, more importantly, *they are perfectly willing and able to fight*, in some cases as easily as turning on a light switch. Many such people have long since refined their attacks, most often starting with a 'sucker punch' or other ambush.

    A smaller man can beat a larger man, BUT, don't make the assumption that size doesn't matter, because it does. There are a lot of factors to take into consideration. There are times when size and/or aggression, power and intent will trump superior skill/technique. It's also happened that skinny untrained runts have beaten bigger men because their aggression/intent/experience, as opposed to refined technique, was greater than that of their opponents.

  9. #9
    I think the most important aspect of harm reduction is to have the ability to assess the situation quickly enough to choose the best course of action under the circumstances. Sometimes that choice is made for you, but quite often that is simply because you weren't paying enough attention before hand. Of course there are always exceptions. This applies to everything, not just fighting.

    You can spend a lifetime perfecting your craft and still get steamrolled because you didn't have the good sense to bounce out when you had the chance. There is a lot more to fighting, and engagements in general, than just the mechanics of the actions themselves.

  10. #10
    My kneejerk reaction to the question was: "To have been in no 'streetfights' at all"


    "The four truths: Assaults happen closer, faster, more suddenly, and with more power than most people believe"
    ~Rory Miller from 'Meditations on Violence'


    Perhaps your sife was thinking something along those lines crazychang?

  11. #11
    The key to fighting somebody who is over aggressive is to weather the initial storm and regain the upper hand when they start to gas. This is not easy and you stand a good chance at getting KO'd or KOing before you ever see them gas. But you have to play the long and the short game. They are only playing the short game, this is where you gain an advantage. Of course, none of that matters if they just walk through you.

  12. #12
    I think size and strength is important. If you have enough strength in the arms, you can be confident to do the damage when you strike even against big people. It's just that these individuals didn't look very intimidating, but they were quite big which is why I question the instructors snap statement. Its pretty hard to keep taking punches in the face even if you do go into a fury.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Location
    CA, USA
    Posts
    4,900
    Well, I don't know about the individuals you mentioned, but you can't necessarily make a judgment on how tough or how good a fighter is based on whether they 'look intimidating' or not. Some good fighters look like tough guys, and some, by all outward appearances, absolutely do not. You don't really know the toughness or resilience of a man (or woman) until or unless you're fighting them, or see them fight. This applies to how different people might deal with many other issues in life, too, besides just fighting. I've witnessed many instances where someone picked a fight, thinking the other person would be a pushover, only to get the surprise of his life.
    Last edited by Jimbo; 09-27-2013 at 06:23 PM.

  14. #14
    We also need to understand that bigger does not always = stronger.

    I have also seen significantly smaller people punch harder than bigger guys because they know how to throw a proper punch. I learned that one as a kid with that carnival punching bag game. You would see people run at it, spin into it, jump in and all that, then you see a guy walk up plant a solid stance and utilize proper mechanics to put the rest to shame. It was a common occurrence. Of course if two people who know nothing get into a fight, the bigger one has an advantage, but as the knowledge base grows, that gap gets thinner. In hs wrestling I was in a lower weight class and spent most of my time practicing with bigger guys, some a lot bigger, and older in some cases. One of the most valuable lessons I learned going against the much bigger guys is to get ready to spend the first bit surviving at best. But if you are open to the early win but also considerate of the longer game, you can beat them. Of course if you take two guys with the same skill level and one is much bigger, the big guy will win almost every time. When I took that attitude into other arts later in life it always served me well.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by crazychang View Post
    How do you measure if you are a successful street fighter or not? I've been told by a kung fu teacher that I would be flattened by a few of his students (they are all larger than me) in a boxing match.
    fight them? just not in a boxing match would be a good measure lol

    if you lose, you should train harder!
    if you win, you should train harder!
    I guess we are who we are

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •