first time i got beaten up

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Hey all

 

I had an unfortunate incident on tuesday and i just wanted to share to all of you what happened.

 

I was leaving school and coming back on a bus. It was a double decker in which i was sitting at the top in the middle. I was with friends at the time when two roughly 20 year old men come on and sat next with another group of friends. I was watching them because how they were dressed and what they said made me think that they were muggers. I was right as one of them sat next to someone and was crouding over him and took his wallet, phone etc... My friends then got off there stop. And it was just me on the bus with them, with several others whom i didnt know aswell. One of the muggers then sat on the seat in front of me, and the other next to me. Instantly i knew that they were gonna try and mug me. The one who was sitting next to me then put his hand in my pocket and told me to give me what i have, i said no and turned my back to him and thats when things got ugly. After i turned my back on him, he backfisted twice in the face. At this point the other person turned around and i was cornered in a dangerous postion. I decided to leave so i got up and the same time so did the mugger sitting next to me. He then repeatled smacked me several times in the face, lips, chin and neck, then got me in a headlock and tried strangling me. We wrestled a little and finally i got away. I then went downstairs and told the driver to call the police, both muggers did runners but the police did catch them.

 

I was taken to hospital but there was no serious injuries. I had to make a police statement and i have to appear in court in three weeks.

 

Even though the person who attacked me was older and taller, i still felt i could have taken him, but i didnt. I didnt put my guard, or hit back, even though if i did i probably would have sustained less injuries. I just froze, and didnt have the confidence to hit back, i just constantly avoided to look him in the face and to get away. In the end he didnt manage to take anything from me, and it was classed as an attempted robbery. I feel ashamed of myself, as ive been training for about 3 years now, and i ask myself whats the point if im just not going to fight back and get beaten up.

 

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[SaiFightsMS]

No matter how long someone has trained, how well they do in sparring or in a ring it is impossible to predict how well a person will perform in a situation that suddenly gets sprung upon them.

 

We can theorize over what we will do and make all sorts of plans but when the real thing comes up there is no way to predict what will happen.

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I totally agree, but will this prediction become less impossible if i become more experienced in situations like these

[Pepparoo]

Christ, sorry to hear about that! At least the guys got caught. As for getting beat I wouldn't worry about that too much, just treat is as a learning experience. Just because someone knows MA doesn't automatically mean they're gonna automatically be sh*t-hot and be able to overcome everyone + there were 2 of 'em. If its any comfort there was this guy we pretty much saved who got beat up pretty bad by a group of lads. When we got him away n got talking to him he mentioned he did Kung Fu for 3 years, which was kinda ironic lol... but the guy was p*ssed as a fart! + there was 5 of 'em.

[Kung-Fu Hippy]

I think that you were afraid that he may pull a knife on you. There's no telling these days.

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I think that you were afraid that he may pull a knife on you. There's no telling these days.

 

i think that was one of my main concerns, as you dont know what these punks may pull out, which was one of the main factors to why i didnt touch the guy

[Bretty101]

Hi ad,

 

Sounds to me like you did well!

 

It certainly 'frightens you abit' when these things happen and you never know how you will react. The effects of adrenaline can be the biggest shock.

 

It makes you look at your training a bit closer and question just how effective a lot of it is. You just can't do any amazing combinations or get them into a controlled take down or apply an effective lock. It just doesn't happen does it!

 

I'm glad your not 'seriously injured' and hope this doesn't effect your confidence.

 

Brimingham

 

Bretty

[Bart the Lover]

I'm sorry to hear about your frightening experience, ad. But keep training!

 

Don't give up.

 

Have you told your instructor(s) about this? Maybe they could introduce

 

some scenario training--you might be able to salvage something from this.

 

I do have a question, though. Did you not consider getting off the bus with

 

your friends? I realise it wasn't your stop, but could you have walked the

 

rest of the way, or got another bus?

 

Take care.

 

Regards,

 

Bart the Lover

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Thanx for the support betty, and i suppose you have heard of bham b4?

 

I havent told my instructor yet as the dojo is closed due to the xmas period. But i was keen to go training the next day.

 

This incident i admit frigtened me a little, but it also encouraged me hugely, as some people find kinda strange. It makes me think, (without being cocky), that if i could take a beating from a person bigger than me and then not get knocked down, then it will give me the confidence to fight on with perhaps a person of lesser strength or equivalent.

 

I admit i could have got off the bus, but i guess due to my oversized ego of wanting to be the "hardman", and considering that my bus stop was the one after the bus stopped for a lockdown to call the polcie, - i thus decided to stay on.

[delta1]

ad, sorry to hear about this, but in the end it could be a positive thing for you. Your problem wasn't courage, since you had the guts to not submit. The problem seems to be that you did not have an attitude of proactive commitment. That is something that is seriously lacking in a lot of martial arts training these days, where too many schools focus too much on the spirituality of the arts. The spiritual may outlast the physical, but it gets the crap beat out of it in the meantime!

 

You might try to incorporate some attitude and awareness into your training. Acknowlege that there are dangers out there, people who are willing to destroy your humanity for a few dollars (quid), or even for a thrill; and it can happen to you. (That should be easy at this point.) You are legally justified and moraly obligated to take whatever action is necessary to defend yourself and others as soon as you are aware that a threat is immanent. In this case, a good pre-emptive and proactive action would have been to go to the bus driver as soon as you saw them accost someone else. If they tried to stop you, in the face of multiple assailants commiting a serries of violent crimes (and the threat of violence is violence), you would have been justified in useing any ammount of force up to the point that they were incapacitated. I don't know about your laws, but I can't immagine them not allowing you to defend yourself in this case. But to do this, you have to have a mindset that says "I will act if necessary."

 

Another part of this mindset is understanding the effects of the adrenaline dump, and how to deal with it. I used to have some really good links on this, but unfortunately they were lost to a worm. Maybe some of the members here could share some of their links with us.

 

Any way, it is heartening to hear this has encouraged rather than discouraged you. Good luck.