Using martial arts in a self defense situation

Real street fights: for experienced martial artists, what techniques.................

For experienced martial artists who have been in "street fights", what techniques did you find were most useful in real physical confrontations? Thought it'd be interesting...obviously, grapplers would use grappling and strikers would use striking....my guess is punches and clinch/tie up would come out top?

 

Avoidance.

 

I wrote a fairly long post that was lost in the aether as the threads were merged

Pushing.

If it's a pre-fight interview that has just moved physical, or is just about to, but no serious head of steam has been worked up yet, you can use well-timed and well-placed pushing to prevent a person from having the balance to throw a powerful blow, you can create distance, and the times I've used it, or seen others use it, the physical goes back to verbal abuse for a while before they run out of steam.

You have to be good at reading body language and telegraphs though.

Remember that most people don't even realise themselves when they start winding up their arm for a haymaker. It is very disconcerting when every time they think about punching you they end up flying backwards. You can create distance and give them an out, or you can create distance and give yourself a window of escape, or you can push them out of a doorway and create a barrier or easily defended avenue.

This is not a good tactic if someone has really good motivation for hurting you though, or if they come in suddenly with a vicious attack.

 

End of the day man, fighting in the street means you lost before it began. As to effective fighting techniques, pretty much everything you learn in martial arts has the capacity to be used. As a general rule of thumb, high percentage techniques work better. Double points for modifying them.


Jab cross is great. Beel jee (open fingered jab) cross can be better.


It's a bit of a moot point because the only way you'll find out what works best for you is actually getting in fights. Not something I'd recommend.

 

Not if you're stepping in to prevent someone else getting battered.

 

1) social awareness to see social violence coming - I.e. ego fights
2) situational awareness to minimise the chance of asocial violence. I.e muggings, murder etc.
3) calm rational thinking, for when you get taken by suprise

5) And having the fitness to allow running away if needed/possible.

Technique wise, distance management (pre and during fight)striking, clinch control, and appropriate finishes/control, (think how is this going to end without going to jail yourself).

Personsally ive found the ability to physically manhandle someone from standing, really really usefull in social violence.

 

It depends on who they are, often getting involved in other peoples ego fights, doesnt end well for yourself.

If you think about it like an ape hierachy, stopping a junior getting put back in his place by a higher ape, is the equivalent of challanging the higher ape for his place in the pecking order.

It can be done, but its definitely a risk which not all circumstances require.

Because as chadz said, the moment your fighting in the street your already a loser.

 

Are you taking a general point, and now arguing specifically about consensual fighting?

I think you should have a look at that link you pasted in your signature.

Good job I didn't say "intervene in all circumstances" then!

Bear in mind though, I did use the word "battered". Receiving a battering, rather than a light duffing up, can hospitalise people, people can die from their injuries, it can lead to severe psychological trauma, and people can take their own lives from the resultant psychological trauma.

Every person who ever stepped in to prevent harm is a loser now?

Sorry, but that's not the kind of cardinal point I want on my moral compass.

 

Self defence (lawfully) =/= fighting.

 

It certainly can. It depends on the circumstances.

Unless you're using some narrow definition of fighting that I'm unaware of?

noun
1.
a violent confrontation or struggle.
"he'd got into a fight with some bouncers outside a club"
synonyms: brawl, fracas, melee, row, rumpus, confrontation, skirmish, sparring match, exchange, struggle, tussle, scuffle, altercation, wrangle, scrum, clash, disturbance

 

Self defence under law is the right to protect yourself or others around you from harm using reasonable force. Fighting is something you get charged for doing.

 

Afraid not.

You can fight in self defence, or in the defence of another, or in defence of property. When you defend yourself in a fight, you are fighting.

Starting a fight is where you get into trouble.

 

Ugh, I swear you're just dragging this out for the sake of it. :/

 

sorry I should clarify, the majority of social violence (that ive seen), is 1 person picking a fight with an semi unwilling victim, often the fight is about social hiarachy, stepping in during the infight phase, can often tranfer and escalate the violence onto you, which can now include bystanders.

I didnt say never step in, I said only do so with the full awareness of the ramifications.

Geoff Thompson makes this point in dead or alive after it happened to him, and ive had it happen to myself.

People are often just apes in clothes.

 

Never thought of pushing and running away - great idea...

 

Come on now, be fair. You've dragged this out with just as many posts as me.

You said something that is incorrect. No big deal, we all do it. But I'm not going to stop correcting you just because you repeat it. Fighting is not, in and of itself, unlawful. It is the context in which you engage in a fight that determines whether your actions are unlawful or not.

Is it really being a douche to be accurate with this stuff?

 

Correction, everything legitimate , I'm not sure about stuff like Monkey stealing the peach:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=m...hXkJcAKHRlLAb4Q_AUIBigB#imgrc=pwRhutXIRtFUpM:

I've seen worse on youtube videos too.

Good old jab cross. Ah, yeah...I must have drilled this thousands of times by now in shadow boxing, bag/pad work as well as light sparring.....

Could you please explain what you meant by "high percentage" techniques?

 

Simon and Dead_pool both raise good points.

However, it does strike me that whenever self defence comes up, people automatically seem to think about alcohol-fuelled night club punch-ups. The topic of self defence has far wider scope than that.

As someone on the downhill slope to 40, the monkey dance is fast becoming less and less relevant to me.