Self Defence

[scouse130484]

The other week i was walking home from the club with me mates when i was jumped and fortunatly only one of the 8 attacked me so i managed to defend myself giving the other guy a broken eye brow, colapsed cheek bone and broken nose but i injured my hand in the prossess and i was just wonderin how many of you have been made to defend yourselfs, what happened and how did you feel afterwards?

 

[Tony]

I was attacked when I was 17! At the time I hadn't been training in any Martial Arts school, just with books. But not many people would escape unscathed. Luckily they didn't leave mark on me! I was so scared but determined not to be a statistic I ran as fast as I could! Even though I didn't use what I already learned I escaped with my life and thats the main thing!
You did very well in defending yourself! I have managed to stay away from such incidents and i have managed to talk my way out of confrontations, but sometimes felt like a coward for not standing up for myself!
So what exactly happened, did the guy rush you, and did you punch him a few times? What happened with the other guys?
I know a black belt from my friend's taekwondo class was in a similar situation. He had accidentally knocked some guy's drink over and apologised, even offering to buy him another one. But this guy was obviously lacking in the grey matter and was being very aggressive. The black belt did not want to fight him, but in the end it seemed he had no choice and delivered a high side kick to his head! with all that guys friends watching and being threatening. Just goes to show what idiots there are in this world!

 

[Zepp]

I'm glad that you made out mostly alright scouse.

There are already a lot of threads like this one in the General forums. Here's one of my posts about a time in my life when I had to defend myself:
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11527

 

[Touch Of Death]

The other week i was walking home from the club with me mates when i was jumped and fortunatly only one of the 8 attacked me so i managed to defend myself giving the other guy a broken eye brow, colapsed cheek bone and broken nose but i injured my hand in the prossess and i was just wonderin how many of you have been made to defend yourselfs, what happened and how did you feel afterwards?

Well Iv'e hurt myself in fights as well(dilocated shoulder for one). However, when you shatter your hand on someone head. Have you really won? Softer targets get the job done just as well. Try smacking the guys head into inanimate objects next time.
Sean

 

[Gaidheal]

Yeah.. I have had to defend myself, including a couple of situations where I basically provoked others. But my first real fights were when I was bullied at school, which is what started me down the path of MA. I basically developed a rudimentary style of my own and later met formal arts which allowed to hugely improve my competency and put proper technique into it. I then went through a stage after school where I had a huge chip on my shoulder, in all honesty and got into a couple of fights before maturing.

Once past that and active in my local TKD school, two incidents come to mind:

One night I'd been out to a local nightclub, had a good night and was somewhat drunk too. I'd met some friend as well as a couple of new people, including a charming young woman whose company I was enjoying a lot, though it was not 'romantic' or anything at that point. We (the group of about five) decided we'd get food from various places and then head home. Whilst I was getting my food an old boyfriend of hers turned up and I came out of the shop and was introduced. A few minutes later, probably because he was jealous, he decided that I was "Looking at him funny" (which is silly because actually I was sitting down eating my food and looking at that mostly) so he started throwing punches and kicks. I was caught off guard and basically got out of the way of the attacks but without blocking or countering and backed up into the shop I'd just left. He and his friends followed me in and tried to carry it on in there in a limited fashion, a few hits and trying to drag me outside. I refused to leave and fought them off to stay on my feet and remain in the relative safety of the shop. Once I did lose my footing but got back up quickly taking only one kick to my ribs. In the end they ran off before they could be arrested. So, why not use my arts? Well, first off I was caught off guard, I'd not used MA for years at that point, aside from weeks earlier having started training again. I was concerned that if I did I'd seriously hurt someone and it'd end up being me in court, not them. Also I was drunk enough that I knew I was slow and couldn't count on accurately landing my techniques or pulling them off fast enough to land them at all, especially as I was out of practice. I protected my face, I played it smart by staying in the shop and I got off with a couple of cuts and bruises. It was a win/win in many ways - i.e. we all walked away. THAT is what counts at the end of the day, no matter what anyone says. The object is to protect yourself from being hurt, at all if possible, but certainly you want to minimize the damage. You 'win' real life fights by being alive, preferrably standing, at the end of them. So, I won. It'd be different today though, in the same scenario. I am far more fit, much more confident and frankly a lot better martial artist. But you wanted an honest answer, that's one ;¬)

The second story is just a funny :¬)

I was a student at Aberdeen University and on a night out in Aberdeen we were all queueing for our pizza (to eat on the way home), when a drunk guy, about 6'2" but clearly very drunk started trying to push into the queue. I decided immediately that he was a pratt, but not a serious threat, despite his mouth. However, he then proceeded to insult some of the women present and some of the blokes present decided enough was enough. As they spilled onto the street to lay into him I left cash with a random woman along with instructions on what pizza I wanted and dashed out to try and make sure noone (especially my friends) got either seriously hurt or seriously hurt anyone else, especially as the area was on CCTV. I succeeded in talking just about everyone into leaving the idiot alone and just getting him into a taxi and taken home. As I then tried to help/manhandle him into said taxi he flailed his arm and by fluke caught the very tip of my nose. Before I'd even realized what I was doing I'd floored him with a fully chambered overhead punch to the centre of his face! Ooops! On CCTV too. Right at that minute the Grampian Police arrive.. heh! I managed to explain what had happened and asked about the fact I'd just floored the guy (who by then had been driven home in a Police car) and they basically said.. "Well, he's not going to remember... so what punch? What CCTV footage?" ;¬) I checked up the next day and he was apparently fine and unable to even remember the start of the evening, much less my punch, heh!

John

 

[RCastillo]

I'm still wating for those children I have at the high school I teach to give them a free lesson. I'd rather give it to a Principal, they need a lesson in manners. :asian: