No offense to anyone here, but I kind of notice an extreme point of view that runs through a lot of these threads: there seem to be only drunks and competitive/pro fighters.
I'm sure that people don't actually believe that (maybe some do), but those are the two groups that seem to get mentioned the most. I think that there is a whole lot of possibilities between drunken thugs and the competitive/pro fighter.
Most of your opponents on the street are almost as unlikely to be drunks as they are to be pro fighters. The most likely altercation with a drunk is one where a pro fighter will be at an equal disadvantage: a drunk driver.
Another issue is that on most forums, "the street" seems to be very poorly defined, and as near as I can tell, includes your living room, where drunken uncles have inexplicably parked thmselves and where terrorist attacks and gang hits are a constant threat. Apparenlty, "the cage" is the street in miniature. Seemingly the only place not the street is "the dojo," and if you're anywhere outside of the dojo, you'd better be trained like Batman and have all of the accompanying items that go with the suit and body armor capable of stopping a .50 caliber round.
I agree with sgtmac_46: most opponents on the street are untrained and unmotivated. Absolutely true. Opponents outside of training will fall into two categories: non criminals with whom a disagreement has gotten out of control and become a physical altercation (alcohol is unlikely to be involved) or criminals perpetrating a criminal act.
In the case of the former, hard sparring is going to serve you very, very well, provided there are no weapons involved. Throw in guns and knives and unless you've trained to deal with them specifically, the pro fighter is at as much of a disadvantage as the untrained citizen. Regardless, it is usually non-martial skills that make the difference. Non-martial skills are what head these encounters off most of the time, even with drunks. If you want to train in the ____-fu that will effectively protect you in most curcumstances, train in verbal-fu. That and common sense about where one goes and when one travels.
In the case of the latter, actual criminals, I will contend that being a competitive or pro fighter offers you zip and that hard sparring offers you as much advantage as no sparring. Yes, there are exceptions. I love Bill's posts in the self defense section about people with martial arts backgrounds effectively stopping actual criminals with their MA training. These are extraordinary people. And their circumstances are also extraordinary exceptions.
Most (not all) criminals are untrained and unmotivated, so they succeed by taking advantage of circumstances. They avoid circumstances where they are likely to fail. That is why the little old lady with a purse is much more attractive as a target than you are to an unarmed mugger. A guy who wants to rob you will either hold you at gunpoint, pick your pocket and get away, or have buddies, thus avoiding any confrontation that would directly expose him to your ability as a fighter.
Fact is that criminals are like predatory animals. They calculate their targets based on chance of success. Elderly and children are the most vulnerable. Of those in between, women are a more likely target than men. Smaller men or really out of shape men are a more likely target than a man in good condition or a larger man. Confedence plays a part too. They nervous, scared of his or her own shadow person, regardless of gender, is more of a target than the confident person. Thus the confidence building of the ATA and many commercial studios can serve a student very well by itself.
Then there are ambush predators. They lay in wait on jogging trails or watch the crowds for a good mark.
If drunken thugs are what I am encountering most of the time, chances are, I'm hanging out in the wrong part of town or frequenting the bar too often. I train pretty hard. and can handle myself against a lot more than a drunken thug in a straight up fight. But verbal skills, alertness, and common sense are my street proven methods of staying alive.
If I'm being jumped by a pro fighter, chances are I've stepped into the ring. competitive fighters generally don't go around jumping people.
I don't remember who said this, but it was in another thread: '99% of the time, verbal skills, alertness, and common sense will keep you out of trouble. We train for the 1% of the time that those skills are not suffiicient.'
Daniel
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