Ooh! Fight!

[Coyote]

I'm just curious. What is your best story about a fight you've been in? How about your best story about a fight you've avoided? True stories only, please, and only about yourself.

Example: This is the best story I have about a fight I was actually in. It happened when I was in high school, and spending a year in Bath (remember, I'm a Yankee.) I was having a pretty crappy day, just one more in a series of crappy days, when this little **** ran up to me and pushed me off of my bike. We had been butting heads and trading insults all year, and this was, of course, the last straw. I got up, brushed myself off and started after him. He backed up to the low wall between the school and the main road and started talking trash. As I was already in a pissy mood, and as he HAD just pushed me off my bike in the middle of the street, I told him to shut up or I'd throw him over the wall. Well, he didn't shut up, but he did start throwing punches. I blocked, moved in, and lifted the berk up and tossed him over the wall. Of couse, what I hadn't realized at the time was that while the wall was only about three feet on our side, the drop-off on the other side was closer to eight feet. He landed and got up, okay, but he had to run all the way back around the school t the gate to come back to where I was, a distance of about a quarter mile in each direction. By the time he got back, he was so out of breath that there wasn't any more fight in him. It wasn't until I got home that I realized that I HADN'T actually managed to block all his punches-- I had a nice shiner for a couple of days and a bloody lip. He didn't look hurt at all, the jerk.

As for a non-fight, this is from the time I spent a summer working for a construction company named Cambridge Patrners in Ann Arbor. I was working on the cleanup crew and spent pretty much all day, every day hoisting big, heavy things into these huge dumpsters in the hottest summer in Ann Arbor's history. Not a pleasant experience, I can tell you. Anyway, earlier that summer I had wrecked my car in a truly expensive manner, and I had gotten my license revoked. One day, riding home on the bus, a group of high school punks got on the bus and started discussing how they were going to pick a fight and jack some guy for his wallet. I was also near the back of the bus, holding my metal thermos and trying hard to be invisible, when one of these kids sees me and decides I might be good to roust. Just as the bus starts moving, they get up and surround me, crowding right into my personal space. Now, there's four of these kids, all big, strapping young lads, and there's me. I'm dead tired, I can't lift my arms, and I'm dirty and hungry. About the only good news is that I'm still holding my damn thermos. I look up at these kids and say, "Don't do it. It'll hurt," and I'm thinking, me . It'll hurt me. I guess these kids thought I was being nonchalant and supremely confident, or something, because they all sat back down and got right off the bus at the very next stop.

Okay, those're my examples, and they're both true. I don't know if there is a moral to either one-- they happened to me, but I never really tried to analyze either one. What are your stories?

[Adam]

Had fights. Weren't amusing or anything to brag about.

[labeledas]

had many fights regret every single one, except for the ones in the ring with buddies, those are good fun

[Coyote]

You seem to misunderstand me, Adam. I was not bragging. Fights tell us something, both about ourselves and about others. They also tell us about how we handle adversity. Not everyone has had fights, nor has everyone who has been in a fight been in a serious one. Being in a real fight, while not good, does give you an entirely different perspective. I know all sorts of people who have never been in fights who think that its all guts and glory. You've been in a fight, you know different. Even so, not everything about fighting is bad. If it were, we could all receive the same benefits that we get from marial arts (respect, discipline, certain higher order thinking skills, etc) from classes in the cooking arts. Think about it.

[Adam]

I have thought about it. A lot. That's why I don't want to brag about any individual fights that I've had unless I'm asked about them specifically.
For me, fighting is like drinking. It can be a lot of fun, it's addictive, I usually get hurt while doing it and I feel like crap when I wake up afterwards. And if you're unlucky, you'll do things that you'll never stop hearing about. The feeling of futility afterwards is the worst though.
Not everything about fighting is bad? Untrue. Unless of course it is by agreement, like labeledas said.

[Infesticon #1]

I've always avoided a fight situation. The scariest one was when I was back in York. I was coming home from a party when I heard a guy running behind me so I moved to the right of the path to let him get past me, he ran in front of me and then turned round and took my hat off and said "yeah, it's you".

I had no idea what he was talking about, and told him so.

He then claimed that earlier on in the night I'd been at a pub called the Rose and crown (on Hull road) and me and a group of friends had thrown some punches at him or something. I told him I'd been at a party all night and hadn't been to the rose and crown, he told me he knew it was me because of my hair ( I had fairly long curly hair) I admitted that I hadn't seen anyone in York with hair like mine, but that didn't really matter as I'd been at a party all night on the south bank.

He then got agitated and started shouting "if you think you're so hard take another punch at me" I told him I didn't really think violence was the answer and that he should probably see his doctor (he was acting pretty crazy). he then grabbed hold of me and tried to throw me to the floor, I wasn't taking that so I turned him round (he was trying to spin me about, I just went with it turning him) and broke his hold on me, I then shouted at him "WHAT IS YOUR ****ING PROBLEM" he then tried acting apologetic and started with the bs about me being at the rose and crown again why don't you take a punch at me etc etc..... Again I told him I'm not the type to take punches at random strangers, probably not even against people I dislike who are trying to piss me off.

He then asked me what colour socks I had on. I asked him why. He said that the guy who punched him was wearing white socks, I don't even have any white socks.

he then asked to see my socks, so I showed him. and told him to go see a doctor for help, because even if someone has punched you in a pub randomly stopping strangers and harrasing them really isn't the way to go about doing things. I then just ran home and phoned the police.


The police told me that they couldn't do anything, I should have phoned them up whilst the guy was hassling me, how exactly should I have done that? I still don't know.


Incidentally I told my friends about this, and it turns out the same guy had done this **** to one of them.

So if any of you are ever in York and you get a weird guy hassling you ****ing drop him. If I ever see him again that's exactly what I'm going to do, I know it's wrong but it really effected me.

[Drealoth]

My favourite fight that I was in was in grade 6 I think...I don't remember much about it, but I do find it great that two people back then could go at each other for a good 15 minutes and nobody would end up hurt. I get hurt more in sparring now...

[labeledas]

street fighting from my perspective is stupid and dangerous, i have been in too many situations and learned that my safety is more important than my pride, no one fights fair the always have someone backing them up or will use weapons, bottles, rocks etc... and these fights usually involve booze / impaired judgement, anyone who brags about street fights IMHO, has never seen or bben a victim of the dirty under belly of it.

i considering myself fairly deadly but will run from a street fight and be called a coward and just not give a damn. i plan on fighting in the ring and am not gonna let some punk and his friends ruin that for me because the have a little liquid courage in them.

and like drealoth said those were the good old days unfortunatley alot has changed since then.

[Coyote]

Believe it or not, I agree with you. A streetfight is dangerous, uncontrollable, and, generally speaking, something to avoid at all costs. I certainly wouldn't enage in one just because of pride-- I've grown up quite a bit since the last time I was in a for-real fight. Of course, the other portion of this thread has, thus far, been completely ignored. What about fights that you managed to avoid? I would be willing to bet that most people who've studied MA for any length of time can recall instances where they had the option of fighting but managed to respond in a way that prevented violent conflict. Anybody?

[Xia]

I really don't like telling this story from any point of view. It started with the man called Steve Green..he is still a kid. He started with me and I turned the other way. Then he starts talking trash about my mom...That was it I gave him one chance to back off and apologise. I put on sunglasses. He did not and came at be bare fist. I went into another world or something else, 1 second later he is on the ground with a bad injury on both legs, and one shoulder.

He did hit the ground pretty hard. All I remember was my view go black and white and landing in a Kung-Fu stance. I must of went fast all the people around me said they blinked and he was on the ground. I left a mark on myself for doing that, a bleeding skin and circle bruse on my left arm.

[Tireces]

[nzric]

There's one fight that I kept thinking of when I read this thread, although I wasn't in it and I didn't get out of it. Weird situation but here's the story:

I was really close to some guys since I was about 16. We used to get into clubs with fake ids and generally hang places, chat up girls and act cool. Looking back, we were basicaly all talk, although a couple of the guys were pretty street-smart and one of them had the habit of attracting trouble.

When we were about 20 we used to go to a club about twice a week, we knew everyone and it was like we owned the place. Anyway, I always went but one night I just didn't feel like going. I stayed while the other guys went. It happened to be the one night that someone started an argument with one of my friends, they took it outside and had a big fight in the parking lot.

Two of my mates were in a car in the parking lot. One of them wasn't a fighter (which is fair enough) and he was too scared to move, but while the other friend used to talk real big, now the time had come to back it up he hid in the car. My two other friends, who were used to street fighting, took on about eight guys on their own - they took out a few but someone got one of my friends in a wrestling hold while the others gave my second friend a kicking.

That basically destroyed our group. The two guys that fought never forgave my (big mouth) friend for staying in the car and because of that we all sort of drifted in separate directions.

I was hard on myself for a long time, thinking that somehow I should've known something was going to happen. I have no doubt at all that I would've taken on the other group of guys in the parking lot if I had been there, and I'm just as certain I would've had the s..t beaten out of me as I didn't have a clue about ma back then.

Don't know what the moral of that is, except for the fact that whether you fight or you don't fight, you always lose in some way. But then looking back I know my group of mates would've broken up as there had been a bit of tension before. The fight was just a catalyst.

[labeledas]

dude even if you did fight and win they would have just coe back with more guys, the was i see it now i try to talk my out of it if i can, hunility is a great tool, like the other day in a bar one of my friends made a comment to someone who didn't take it to well i went over to resolve it and he was like i don't care how big you are,

my first comment was yeah you probably would knock me out and we shook hands and it ended there

btw it was me and three other really good fighters but it wasn't worth it we we're on unfamilliar territory and he could have had 30 friends in the bar with him,

the point is i would rather give someone the satistifaction of thinking he could kick my ass no problem then to start a **** storm, nomatter how many people i have backing me up

[#1 Stutta]

i know it sounds kind of weird coming from a 15 year-old kid, but I've been in plenty of fights myself. I'll tell you about one that happened back in Pennsylvania.

It happened in the fall. I was 14. The neighborhood around my school was rundown and full of junkies and the such. Well, it happened after football practice. I was on my way home when this guy came up to me. He was a little bit bigger than me. Maybe 15 or 16.

He started talking **** to me and he told me to give him my wallet. There's one problem; I didn't have my wallet with me. I told him this, but he didn't believe me.

Eventually, he pulled out a small knife. It was about 3 inches long. He advanced on me. I retreated about 5 feet.

He saw me retreating and he lunged at me. I grabbed his arm with the knife and flipped him over onto his back. I got him into a wristlock and broke his wrist.

He dropped the knife and I picked it up. I then put him into an armbar and busted his elbow. I got my arm around his neck and he started punching me with his better arm. I jammed my fingers into his carotids and he finally fell asleep.

I then picked up my stuff, took the knife, and walked home. My mom asked me what happened, and I told her that my helmet came off during practice and I fell down the stairs at school. I had bruises on both my arms and my face. My lip was split in three places.

I saw that guy at the mall about a week later and he was wearing a cast. That was probably the worst fight I've ever been in. I'm still thanking God that I'm alive.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any fights that I've avoided. But, I'll get back to you on that.

[Energy.]

THIS IS A GOOD ONE!!!
i like fighting, by agreement that is... i think me and Coyote have a bit in common, but on subject, the funnest and koolest fight ive ever been in happened about two months ago, oh yea, just so you know, i am a 16 year old martial artist living in roanoke VA, and in case you did not know, va is very prejudice... i am white, and black folks were trying to steal my bike, there were three of them, and i said "you dont want to fight, unless you want to fight me" HAHAHA, i know! its stupid... but its true. and so, there 'leader' stepped up and kicked me in the shin, i did not flinch, and felt no pain. I saw the look on his face and could tell he was scared, and then he threw a punch with his left hand, i dodged, and used a technique (which i learned from this very site by the way) and decked him out with a hammer fist to the collar bone, i broke it, but i had no time for regrets, sometimes its life or death were i live...
he was down, i looked at the other two, and could see that they were scared out of there wits, i then said "you better get out of here while you still have legs" that one was pretty cool, especially when compared to my other one... and then they said, "man, this bike aint even worth stealin!" and then they ran back to where they came from, (hell probably). but that story is entirely true and i have only trained in MA for 3 years, but i am a natural at fighting, i dont exactly have size, but my strength seems speed and power seem kinda unnatural if you ask me... LOL... i think it is because i grew up in the country...
ALSO , those guys were about 19, 17 and 15, i fought the 19 year old, HE WAS 3 YEARS OLDER AND I STILL WON...