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"Street Fighting" - myth and reality. You can tell he ain't never been in combat, There is a perception that self-defence is "street fighting", two guys slugging it out toe to toe until there is a winner. If you are training to prevent yourself from becoming the victim of a violent crime through only some form of hand-to-hand combat (Karate, Kung Fu, Jeet Kun Do, NHB) you misunderstand what violent crime is all about. People who are skilled at fights in the street are commonly called thugs, criminals, vicious, gangsters, violent or often just "an ass*ole". They are habitually violent. Stop for a moment and think about this. Perhaps there is a reason why fighting is illegal. Crime is a process, with identifiable goals and methods. An attack is only the 4th stage of a 5 stage process (See the article The Five Stages of Violent Crime). You might be better served by understanding how crime and violence actually happen, and armed with this knowledge, actually prevent it from happening to you. We tend to focus on our training, the aspects of motion we deal in, because that is what we and our instructors know. Yet, what is the actual nature of the threat we face? Should we not know our enemy? I somehow doubt your instructor is teaching you how to go out and viciously hurt people. That's street fighting. If there's a ring, gloves, a mat and you're called athletes or competitors, it's a sport. If you were learning about street fights you would be learning about how to pick a victim, you would learn how to carry your knife for easy concealment and quick draws. You would be learning how to mislead someone's attention before you sucker punched them, how to stomp them on the ground and you would use foul language, lying, crudity, shock, fright and improvised weapons as training tools. Who are we most likely to face in a fight? According to the figures on violence it's your family, your neighbours, your acquaintances or your colleagues. Most "fights" are with people you know*. * 60% of assault victims and 63% of sexual offence victims know the offender by name -- Crime in South Africa, ISS Paper 49, April 2001 Perhaps this will cause you to re-evaluate your approach to the fight you are training for? Perhaps even learn how to de-escalate things verbally (the professionals in this are called negotiators) or defuse situations with better behavioural skills. Do not expect an attack on the street to be a fight. It is likely to be an assault. A criminal or violently inclined person is not seeking to compete, to contest - his agenda and focus is to win. If you are imagining you will "fight" you have an inferior strategy as you are focusing on what you know best - competitive combat. He's got a better idea - he's going to use the worst possible move for you. His winning is designed around you being unable to fight back, thus it makes sense to him to attack you from your blind side, knife you, use a tyre spanner, pistol whip you, throw you with a brick or whack you from behind with a pole. Violent crimes are about the removal of your options, leaving you unable to respond, creating a suitable helpless victim. Bad guys know the risks attached to conflict, thus they seek to eliminate harm to themselves. Winning means dominating decisively, hence assess and set you up first. Please note that I use Marc MacYoung's definition of "fighting". which is as follows: "Standing there and attempting to contest on equal or near equal terms over a drawn out period of time. Now whether this means the advantage is yours or his depends on the situation, however, what is important is that the advantage is not overwhelming. This lack of significant advantage is what causes the contest to be drawn out over time. If the advantage is overwhelming it isn't going to be a fight, it is going to be a slaughter." This man will not be in your face unless he knows he can take you. To eliminate your ability to be a threat he has come prepared for this assault, and will use weapons such as shock, fear surprise, hesitation, confusion, doubt, panic and indecision first. Otherwise expect to be blind sided and taken out of the fight before you had a chance to even throw a punch. That is what an assault is. That is what street fights are about. He has come prepared to use overwhelming force on a surprised victim and will use weapons, thus you are likely to be hurt if you plan to stay and fight - your job is to seek to end the situation and get away, which immediately reduces the risk of harm to you. |
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