Real life fight stats

Interesting article in this month's Black Belt magazine. A guy studied YouTube "real life fight" videos and produced some stats:

• 78% of fights started with a punch
• 85% of the time, that was a right
• 97% it was a punch to the head
• Looking at the entire fight, there was only a grab, hold, or lock 10% of the time, and a kick of any kind 8% of the time. 75% of those kicks were below the knee
• 52% of fights ended up on the ground. On the ground, 100% of attacks were punches (no locks, holds, etc)

There are major method objections to these results - 86% of the fights were male-male and 12% were female-female. Since it's mostly cell phone footage, there is a bias towards public places, the first world, etc. Attacks on women are likely to be different. Etcetera.

Still, I found it interesting. In my experience, every untrained street drunk throws a right roundhouse punch. Your average guy doesn't have the flexibility to kick high or the knowledge to use any kind of throw or grab (or escape from one).

Anyway, not saying it's some kind of definitive study or anything...just something that was interesting.

 

Did he say how many fights he looked at?

The only thing that suprises me is that only 51% went to the ground, I thought it would be more. What did he define going to the ground as?

 

50. Not a big sample.

As for the ground he just says that in 52% of the videos, "at least one person went to the ground".

The author is Dr. Joel Kupfersmid who teaches at Kent State University.

 

Keep in mind "went to the ground" is pretty vague and could also mean they were knocked out or down by strikes.

 

100% of my fights end beneath the ground. Kata Dante FTW. :Alien:

 

Those stats aren't surprising, though the validity of using youtube videos as a data source is a little questionable.

If anything the 'going to the ground' stat is rather high. You have to remember where that old 'going to the ground' chestnut came from!

 

Here's a link to a 2 year old post where I cited the article from whcih the perverted going to the ground stat came.

http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showpost.php?p=34104791&postcount=12

 

As an aside... some info from a very rough draft of one of my writing projects:

The information below, which I included in my first book, also still seems to hold true based upon what I see in youtube videos, BCS statistics and A&E statistics. The only real change since then is that in the UK the banning of smoking and the greater action on glass has lead to glass damage becoming less common.

 

Thank you for posting about Nash's research. I have seen a summary of his interesting paper http://kitsunekan.com/articles/jeffnashhaov.php
and I am trying to track down a copy of the original paper. The Journal of the Shotokan Research Society International does not seem to be active anymore :-(.
So if you know how to get a copy of the original paper, could you let me know please. Thank you.

I am also interested if there is other research into common types of attacks.
Respectfully
Dominic

 

Thanks for the informative post Jwt.

The male on female offenses were very disturbing to read. I can only imagine what was going on through the victim's mind as she was "dragged away..." It's dreadful to think about what happens afterwards.

IMHO, every women should enroll in an anti-rape/self-defense course. A rapist's most power tool is fear, and if a women is prepared mentally, she has a significant chance of escaping unharmed.

The above is my personal opinion.

 

And a broken bottle to the face wasn't...? :dunno:

 

Ah I still remember my aikido teaching me the beer bottle tsuki when I was younger

 

My emails to and from me to the late Jeff Nash and to Bob McMahon are on my older mac. I'll see if I can fire her up in the next week or so. I may have the full article on there, but it is possible that I just saved the original website link which might now be dead.

 

I remember a scene in Green Street Hooligans (awesome movie btw) where some dude gets stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle; definitely cringe worthy.

It's just that there's A LOT of psychological damage with rape, and sometimes that cuts much deeper than any physical injury.

 

Further to this I think this is all that was released into the public domain. Jeff never published the book. If you want more detailed summaries then my last book is the only one I can think of that puts the list into context.

 

sounds about right going off what I have seen myself happen on "the street"

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNMf...1.1.0.136.996.4j5.9.0...0.0...1ac.2vOBIhvHkSo

Its not 'unbeleiveble violence' but this actually represents better the type of abuse/attack I often face in my security job.
i.e. gobby chesty chav.
and they flake after one good shot (though more often a good push aiming them at a corner or sending them a good distance)

 

Hello, thank you for your replies, I would be interested if you could dig up any more information. Thank you.

You also mentioned that your latest book contained more background on Nash's list. Could you let me know the name of your book please.
Thank you
Dominic
Sendai Kenpo

 

The following list was given to us ona RBSD seminar. The guy who ran the seminar is a UK policeman and got the ststs from official sources

 

That's Jeff Nash's list. Regrettably no studies since have given that amount of detail though I have enquired.

The biggest change over the last few years in giving an accurate picture (and better policing) has been the information provided by the A&E departments. I've found their studies very interesting.