Well its been a while sincesomthing like that happened part #2

[Bill Mattocks]

OK, if I'm hearing this correctly, the guy had thrown a chair and was poised, chair in hand, to slam one down on you. That's a little different. I'd have tried to get inside and take out his throat. No time for stare-downs when the guy is swinging on you with a chair over his head. But that's just me. Again, hindsight is 20/20, and armchair quarterbacks like me are a dime a dozen. Peace on ya, braugh.

And I'm not in law enforcement anymore. I work with computers now. I saw one too many women bail out the men who had just beat the stuffing out of them, and I realized I was growing to hate the entire human race. I had to get out before I decided all people suck, always.

 

[Raynac]

OK, if I'm hearing this correctly, the guy had thrown a chair and was poised, chair in hand, to slam one down on you. That's a little different. I'd have tried to get inside and take out his throat. No time for stare-downs when the guy is swinging on you with a chair over his head. But that's just me. Again, hindsight is 20/20, and armchair quarterbacks like me are a dime a dozen. Peace on ya, braugh.

And I'm not in law enforcement anymore. I work with computers now. I saw one too many women bail out the men who had just beat the stuffing out of them, and I realized I was growing to hate the entire human race. I had to get out before I decided all people suck, always.

pretty close, he had swung the chair, hitting the position i had been standing in seconds before then backed up a foot and was poised for another strike.

mind you I had moved away when I moved out of my previous position. so we had enough room that if i moved he would have time to swing and if he moved i would have time to... do somthing most likey try and dodge, im fast so i can see myself attacking after his swing if he came at me. but as I've said before trying to predict what I would actually do is pointless because im likely not to follow it.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I figured this note was along the same type of story as xue sheng's so i stole the title.

No problem and I am gald you are ok and all turned out well

 

[astrobiologist]

A lot of times, we will be judged not just by our action, but by our reaction. Kudos to you for not jumping into a situation before fully analyzing what was going on. It can be difficult to overcome your adrenaline and your instinct to run away or kick some arses. Knowing how to kick, punch, trap, throw, and so on is great, applying it properly is even better, but having control of yourself when the situation arises is key.

 

[BrandonLucas]

I'm throwing this out there as someone who has been in similar situations...

Stares don't work. Not the way you think they do. Especially on an individual who is drunk.

Now, I will say this before I get into anything else...I'm very glad that you weren't injured in this situation, and I commend you on being able to get out of the way of danger in enough time to prevent yourself from getting hurt. There is a type of "sixth sense" that you aquire over time, mostly when being trained on how to be aware of your surroundings, and it sounds like you did a fine job of using this tool to your advantage.

Now, that being said, I highly, highly doubt that the reason the chair-weilding villain backed down was because of a "look". Again, as it was stated by someone else before, no one from this forum was there to witness what happened, and that includes me. But, I've been there too, thinking that I looked mean enough to send someone packing.

I can tell you that it's more than likely not the case.

Put yourself in the attacker's shoes. If you're angry enough to smash a chair into oblivion, is it really going to make you think twice about doing it again just because someone looks at you in a "don't mess with me, buddy" kind of way?

I can tell you this much, I think I would have to be pretty darn angry to break a chair like that in public, and I'm pretty sure most other people would be the same way. I know that if I were to be that angry, I wouldn't really care if Steven Segal was giving me one of his "bring it on" looks, or if it was Chuck Norris staring me down Walker Texas Ranger style. If anything, having someone stare at me like that after I've attempted to break that someone's face with a chair is going to enrage me further to do something even dumber.

Add alcohol into the mix, as I'm sure was the case, and you can throw all common sense out the window completely. When drunk, a person's bravado sometimes is too much to control even for the police. And I'm not saying that everyone is like this, but most guys you see in a bar that are willing to throw chairs around have at least been there before...so it's very doubtful that they are going to back down from merely a stare.

Their reputation is on the line: the whole bar is watching by that time to see what's going to happen next...if the guy were to stop now, what would everyone else think of him? And for what reason did he stop? Because someone looked at him as if to say "Stop, or else"? Certainly not....

Now, I'm not sure why the guy actually stopped. Maybe he saw a cop coming through the parking lot, maybe he realized that you weren't the guy he was intending on breaking his face, or maybe you really did spook him.

I'm just saying don't put all your faith in that one stare. Even if it did pull you out of trouble this time, there are others out there that just watch for people to look at them that way. Some people are confrontational, and are just itching to start a fight.

Instead, rely more on your ability to avoid unnecessary confrontation at all cost. If that fails, then use the tools that you have been given to physically stop the situation.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Folks

Every Single situation is different. What worked in one may or may not work in another and you should never EVER think that just because something worked once it will work a second time even if you are unlucky enough to come across the same person in a similar situation or find yourself in ANY confrontations later I would not suggest thinking “well it worked once”. My advice, depend on your training.

Now we can all post our praise, critique and discuss the positives and negatives of this and talk about how our way is better or just say job well done but hind sight is 20/20 and none of us were there and being the armchair martial artist expert in things like this is just soooooo easy to do and we can ALL think of a better way of handling it… But we were not there.

Now before the debate/attack/discussion continues I will add I have been in my share of confrontations with drunks, drug addicts, and people under mental health warrants as well as just plain jerks, idiots and *******s and in my past career sometimes talking worked sometimes just standing there staring at them works and sometimes it didn't but I certainly would not ever look at one situation and expect what happened there to work in the next one. Every single situation is different. But let me tell you when the bleeding heroin addict charges you or when the drunk and/or drugged up pro-wrestler charges you thinking is out the window and in those situations I am fairly sure just standing there was not the answer, at least it was not the one I chose at the time.

I have no further comment to make nor do I plan on furthing this discussion beyond saying.....


Ray

Job well done, drunks are incredibly unpredictable and I am glad you are ok

 

[JadecloudAlchemist]

Now, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum,
What might be right for you, may not be right for some.
A man is born, he's a man of means.
Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans.
But they got, Diff'rent Strokes.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.
Everybody's got a special kind of story
Everybody finds a way to shine,
It don't matter that you got not alot
So what,
They'll have theirs, and you'll have yours, and I'll have mine.
And together we'll be fine....
Because it takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.
Yes it does.
It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.

:drinky: