Will you attack first or you wait?

[P.A.L]

This is neither about sparring nor a life/death situation, it’s about a normal confrontation on a street or stadium without any weapons involve. do you initiate the attack or you wait for counter, in my karate (I am not talking about my style) I will wait for a attack or I fake a attack in order to receive a real attack , if the timing be ok I will accept the attack otherwise I refuse it and wait for the next one. Now this is my mentality I just can not imagine myself initiating a real attack. What is your mentality for this kind of situation? Is the MA style we practice affecting this or it is just personal?

[Hengest]

Personally, once I feel that an attack is imminent, I'll hit first. I've found from my own experiences that this is a much less dangerous way to deal with a situation and, contrary to popular belief, isn't against the law in most westernised countries.

[kotegashiNeo]

me too hit first hit fast hit hard but only after I have tried to run away first

[jedimc]

not sure wot i would do , i would proably wait for the other guy to do a round house punch or something theni would block it and counter.

[cross]

it’s about a normal confrontation on a street or stadium without any weapons involve.

 

Im not sure if there is really such thing as a "normal confrontation".

I will wait for a attack or I fake a attack in order to receive a real attack , if the timing be ok I will accept the attack otherwise I refuse it and wait for the next one.

 

Are you saying you will wait for your opponent to attack? This is a big no-no. If you KNOW he/she is going to attack, dont wait for it, hit first. That means you may not need to deal with his attack at all if your attack(s) are effective.

Now this is my mentality I just can not imagine myself initiating a real attack.

 

The pre-emptive strike is not for everyone, but i would much rather hurt the other guy than have him hurt me.

Is the MA style we practice affecting this or it is just personal?

 

I think its a bit of both, we hear about "no first strike in karate" all the time and the debate about weather this means you should not hit your opponent unless they try and hit you. In my opinion, the pre-emptive strike in no-way contradicts this quote if you feel that you are in danger. To feel that way means that someone is already "attacking" you even if not physically, by placing you in an uncomfortable situation.

 

So that is an example of how style may affect a persons mentality.

 

The things mentioned earlier cover more of the personal aspect of the mindset. i.e. The parts about not being able to imagine yourself initiating a real attack, As opposed to being decisive and realising that you may need to hurt someone before they hurt you.

 

For more info on the pre-emptive strike and the other aspects discussed in this post, have a look at this article.

 

http://www.sammyfranco.com/firststrikearticle.html

[cross]

And to answer your question "Will you attack first or you wait?":

 

If i get the feeling that the guy will attack me very soon, i will attack first or take other action to avoid the situation. i.e running. All this occurs after talking your way out hasnt worked and you are remaining in your defensive posture.

 

The bottom line is its alot easier and takes less movements to attack someone than it does to defend against there attack and then counter. I would rather be hitting than getting hit.

[pineapple]

Only in the dojo does a person throw one blow and stop or hesitate before throwing another. In a real street fight, the attacker will normally throw a fast combination of strikes, therefore it is better (if you are unable to avoid a confrontation) to hit him first. It is better to hurt him than to have him hurt you.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Keeping in mind that every situation is different, and every person is different, all I can speak for is myself.

 

I would only attack first if there were more than one person attacking me, or if the person was larger than mem, or that I knew that person had extensive training in some sort of art (ie: boxing, karate, wrestling, etc).

 

I've been in a number of street fights started by the other guy, and I've found that if I stick to my training (what I've learned), it works very well as a defensive art. Twice I have have been able to nail the person as he draws his arm back to throw a "haymaker", and each time I had the pleasure to see him falling backwards on his butt with his arm still back in a chambered position.

 

For the others I've had to fight, shifting your body while simultaniously blocking and throwing a counter has worked well for me. It hasn't failed me yet.

[GojuRyu Shawn]

If it were a real life situation, where my enemy had a knife, I would kick it out of his hand, drop my kicking leg down and while i was doing that I would do a kind of jumping front kick. That would immobilize them for a bit, thus giving me a chance to run.

[MissG]

the only 'real-life' fights i've been in were years ago before i had any sort of training.

 

In sparring class however, the instructors keep telling me to attack as I have a habit of hesitating, just standing there waiting for the other guy to hit me first, which also means that i've not yet won a fight at sparring but i've got a while to go yet!