If they don't know you are a martial artist.
As a youngster I was introduced to wrestling, jujitsu and boxing. After four professional fights, for some reason, I lost my killer instinct and gave the ring away. I just felt I did not want to hurt people as I hate people hurting me.
From the age of fourteen, I would toughen my knuckles on walls and power poles. At nineteen, I could break six concrete roof tiles stuck together with one hit. Evidently, I had a hard hit. I have broken ribs and knocked quite a few people out. Since I have become a Christian, although I have been in scuffles, I have only used my fists twice, knocking both people out, as I prefer to make use of the surrounds.
Most people who have learned martial arts that I have witnessed in street fights seem to fall into two categories.
- Those that are lucky enough to be picked upon by someone stupid enough to pick them but who does not know what he is doing, so the martial artist is able to easily perform an effective blow. Or, as in one case, when one Thai kick-boxer I knew kicked the daylights out of an attacker, only to end up in court.
- Those who are confronted by a street-fighter who does not play gentleman's rules. The result is the trained fighter gets hurt. Like one judo expert I knew who thought what worked in the gym would work in the street. If it were not for others pulling the dude off him, he would have been killed.
Another person I know was attacked by two dudes much bigger than himself. He lured one dude away from the other, tripped him up and somehow smashed his head into the concrete, knocking him out. The second dude was more concerned for his accomplice, or he may have decided that he did not want to be a hero on his own.
People talk about throwing lots of punches, but one calculated hit in the right spot is usually sufficient to finish off an attacker, even after having been hit or knifed.
When being attacked by a number of people, focus only on one person. Forget the others. Do damage to one and bluff the rest.
At fourteen I learned to make sure that there is a building or a wall or a fence or tree behind me. Later I realized that these are good for an attacker to be guided into head first. They are hard and provide cover from behind. Even when three people are trying to hit you, only one can hit you at a time if your back is to a wall.
When in a street-fight consider yourself dead already. Helps a lot. The odds ratchet up in your favor as your fear disappears.
Talking about being dead, once two car loads of animals jumped me in the street. I made out I was dying as they kicked me. My groans became less until I died. I think it helped, because apart from a few bruises, only one of my wrists protecting my head was sprained from the kicks.
Handguns can be issues, but a fatal shot is not so easily performed by an attacker, unless the gun is at your head or heart.
A knife or a broken bottle to the face are a person's worse fear. Unless ambushed, this need not be a problem, because a calculating person who considers himself dead already should be able to cause the attacker to seek a toilet.
I would like to say that I haven't really been in a serious street fight for years, but that is not entirely true. However, I have talked my way out of trouble many more times than what I have been attacked; not to mention the times I have bluffed my way out of some serious situations.
I was assaulted some six years ago after I had just been talking to two dudes and I turned to leave. The tallest dude grabbed me from behind. He pinned me to the ground in a headlock and his friend was stomping his heal into my kidneys. I grabbed one of the fingers of the dude who had me in the headlock, prized it open and pushed it back as hard as I could. He screamed with pain, exclaiming, "He's broken my *#@&^% finger," and then ran away. His buddy ran away after him.
I was in bed within 10 minutes after that incident. The next morning I could hardly move. My kidneys were bruised and I was in agony whenever I moved. If I were not as strong and fit as I was at the time (rock hard muscle), I would have been in a much worse state. As it was the pain lasted a few days.
Injuries are a major problem. All about six months apart, I fractured one rib, then another rib and then my sternum near the clavicle. Naturally, my gym work was impaired. This factored into the last time I was assaulted 3.5 years ago, from which I am still recovering.
A woman attacked me and after lifting her up, while putting her down, she pulled my pony tail and twisted my neck. My trapezius muscles not being as strong as they were eighteen months earlier, the action aggravated a whiplash injury in my neck from 1989. Consequently, I suffered from paralysis of the arms, severe spinal pain, frozen shoulder, the muscles in my right arm atrophied, and now I am beginning to get some strength back after 3.5 years. But rough shoulder in my right arm sometimes pinches a nerve and this can be momentarily crippling, not to mention painful.
In writing this, I had the thought that my last two assaults must be pay back for my younger years, although I was not an aggressor, even if a couple of individuals were hospitalized. I must admit, in the last few years I have felt a little insecure knowing I am incapacitated when seeing danger approach.
Street awareness is a different mentality to when one is in the ring. Nevertheless these days, street awareness requires one as incapacitated as myself to think more often than before in terms of stranger danger.
- Stranger danger, hide in a manger. If caught, walls 'n' fences best sought. Fast talking, keep walking. Let's hope bluff will be enough.
Fortunately, they produced no hardware. Instead, one of the hoods halfheartedly threw a rock towards us, which missed by a mile, giving the impression that their fun had been spoiled. One hundred yards along the street, just over the rise, we discovered they had assaulted a man in his 30s, who was still bleeding from a nasty gash on his face.
God's Way Is The Best Way And, Really, The Only Way A Christian Should Know
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