Can you tell?

My chinese friends dad tells me that he can tell if anyone is a good fighter just by the way they look, move or come across.

I strongly disagree with this way of thinking purely because i have seen some people fight suprisingly well when they looked fairly "timid".

One comment i liked was- "Look, he's obviously had his nose broken a few times so he must be pretty good"

Or he's just had his head kicked in several times or he did it from something completely unrelated to fighting.

Does anyone else think that they can tell if someone is fairly handy?

 

Nah, I met this one guy that came off as extremely effeminate and weak. Dorky looking guy. Turned out that he was a sambo expert. Punished me and my friend for a couple of hours on the mat.

 

your friend's dad sounds like a schmuck, no offense.

 

Look at that blokes eyes, they do look fairly nutty.

 

I didn't mean that he looked hard, just that he looked like a bit of a psycho.

 

when I look at his face, I half expect to hear the jason music playing. foo foo foo, chh chh chh

 

Yeh, you wake up in the middle of the night and he's at the foot of your bed with a huge machette....!

 

Depends. If his dad was himself a fighter for a long time, he might be able to tell to a certain point. That doesn't mean he cann look at anyone and tell if they're a good fighter, just those that are already fighters. That is, if he can tell anything at all.

PL

 

I presume he meant jason from halloween (or is it friday 13th?), well that's what i thought anyway.

I know he had a few fights back in HK but how many or how good he was i don't know. He's done a few forms in his lounge before although it did look as if he was making some of them up!

 

Friday The 13th

 

The jason music is comprised of 3 exhales and then what sounds like someone making a ch- sound faintly, it comes off quite creepily.

 

I could quite well imagine that guy doing that actually.

One theory he did come out with was to look at peoples knuckles to see how prominent they were, as if to see if they had done lots of punching/striking....

 

Thick neck and cauliflower ears are usually a good indicator.

 

Guess I'll play devils advocate and agree with your friends dad. There are always exceptions to the rule, but I do think that you can often tell a compitent fighter by the way that they carry themselves. But I also think that the things to look for are often more subtle than how badly broken someone's nose is. I usually watch for things like:

1. How tall do the present themselves? Sounds crazy, but a good fighter will let you think they have a lot less reach than they have.

2. How much does their center shift when they walk.

3. Are thier movements compact or wide.

4. Physical attributes (ok, now that broken nose comes in) along with cauliflower ears.

5. General psychological attributes about how the enter a room, how their eyes move, etc.

Anyway, you get the idea. Nothings sure fire in this, but it's great to get as much data as possible as you approach a situation.

- Matt

 

I must say that I also agree with Matt. Of course, nothing is certain, but there are things that a trained eye will notice.

-Watch their eyes, where are they looking. Are focused on one point or do they seem to take in everything at once.

-How do they walk. Are their hands in their pockets?, do they swagger, do the have a firm confident walk.

-Are they shorter than they appear to be. People who are confident will always seem taller than they really are. Confidence is a key aspect of a fighter.

Just my 2 cents

 

some people just give off a scary energy. It has a lot to do with their confidence how they hold themselves and how they speak... If you spend a little time with a person, you can often tell quite a lot about them, even wether or not they can kick you around the block.