Action Beats Reaction

[bushido_man96]

i had the wonderful opportunity of living in a foreign country and living among the people for a time. for a number of reasons i was a pacifist during this time but that did not mean that i failed to initiate an attack if i percieved a threat. did i strike them? no. i would use body language, distance, jokes, disconnected speech, et cetera to avoid physical confrontation. nowadays i must say that that seems to be the best course. avoid at all cost, even the ego. however, when all else fails, my father always said not to throw the first punch, but the second and third and my mother said to never start a fight but always finish it. advice which has helped to carry me.

absolutly 100% agreed

I got similar advice from my parents as well.

[MizuRyu]

what if two of the members of this family had a disagreement?

surely one of them is better than the other.

either they will both stand there looking at eachother, or it will be a never ending string of block/counter.

Actually, they did. Right in the hallways of the school a few years ago. The younger brother went for a push and it started from there, lasted MINUTES. The youngest lost a couple teeth and got knocked unconscious in the end of it. They've got attitude and aren't afraid to flaunt it... and it isn't pretty.

[elbows_and_knees]

1- there is a scienc we call it Statistics, accordingly the chance for a well trained martial artist to get in fight with a well trained person is pretty slim

2-yes it helps but not that much, in partcular if you do point sparring.

3-evading and blocking and hitting should happens almost together , if you limit your understanding of a block to a middle block which does not work ,then yes it's true. evading, a drunk guy who sees two heads on your shoulder and can't make his mind to hit which one first, is pretty enough.

4-comitment has nothing to do with point sparring, i do full contact and it still needs determination,tactics and fake moves which you wouldn't see in street fight, just look at the street fights video clips, 99.9% ends up to a rain of creazy heymakers ,there is comitment in all the moves,there is no fake move, here is the time that a hard block works, or a soft art like Aikido has a chance.

statistics, great!

1. statistically, very few of ALL adults, trained or not, will EVER be in a violent altercation in their adult lives.

2. it helps plenty, if you do it right. No person in their right mind would tell you that hard contact sparring will not help in a fight. It teaches you to deal with the stresses of a fight in a way that other training will not. I will even go further to say that ring competition helps even more, because there is the added stress of fighting hard contact against somebody you don't know.

3. I was once a jkd guy - I learned a lot about defanging the snake, simultaneous blocking and attacking, etc. when you have rapid fire punches coming in, it's safer to simply evade. since we're talking statistics, let's take boxing. what percentage of boxers parry single strikes to the head on a regular basis? What percentage of those same boxers parry fluuries of strikes to the head? What percentage evades said flurry? Why? Also, not everyone you fight will be drunk. Heck, I know plenty of guys at the club who don't drink.

4. you don't HAVE to feint when you fight full contact. I rarely feint. I don't recall tyson feinting much. I don't think vanderlei feints either. tactics you use rely on your fighting style and have nothing to do with commitment. Feint or not, when you throw your strike, you commit to it. Where did you get your 99% haymaker statistic? that's not what I see every day. I see more sloppy, yet rapid straight punches, speedbag style, and windmilling overhands. either way, blocking can and does still fail and evading would be more efficient - AND help you to get behind them, where you have complete advantage. Watch several pros who strike rapid fire and / or with arcing punches, like liddell and vanderlei - can you block EVERYTHING they throw? not likely. you couldn't evade everything they throw either, but your chances would be better.

Also, why are you assuming that you will be fighting someone untrained? statistically, you will be on the street, but in the club, I run into trained fighters quite a bit. I've met several NFL and pro boxers in there. Zab judah (boxer) was in there last month. these are guys you don't want to underestimate. they don't always fight, but sometimes they do. I've almost gotten into it with an ex NFL lineman (he'll remain nameless). Luckily, we were able to talk it down. Jerome Bettis has been in there before...can you imagine fighting him? trained or not, he would be a monster. I guess statistically, a streetfight will be with an untrained person, but why limit yourself to such a low level - I prefer to train for the person that is just as good or better than me.

[HG]

In martial arts, what's more important...???

Your increased survival of Action Beats Reaction (strike first)

Your moral, martial and legal obligations to never throw the first strike

Please vote and leave comments

Strike first in most cases. If it's for self defense do what it every it takes to survive. Something not so serious, maybe leading the opponent to a false opening might be the best course of action.

[Jiffy]

1- there is a scienc we call it Statistics, accordingly the chance for a well trained martial artist to get in fight with a well trained person is pretty slim

2-yes it helps but not that much, in partcular if you do point sparring.

3-evading and blocking and hitting should happens almost together , if you limit your understanding of a block to a middle block which does not work ,then yes it's true. evading, a drunk guy who sees two heads on your shoulder and can't make his mind to hit which one first, is pretty enough.

4-comitment has nothing to do with point sparring, i do full contact and it still needs determination,tactics and fake moves which you wouldn't see in street fight, just look at the street fights video clips, 99.9% ends up to a rain of creazy heymakers ,there is comitment in all the moves,there is no fake move, here is the time that a hard block works, or a soft art like Aikido has a chance.

statistics, great!

1. statistically, very few of ALL adults, trained or not, will EVER be in a violent altercation in their adult lives.

2. it helps plenty, if you do it right. No person in their right mind would tell you that hard contact sparring will not help in a fight. It teaches you to deal with the stresses of a fight in a way that other training will not. I will even go further to say that ring competition helps even more, because there is the added stress of fighting hard contact against somebody you don't know.

3. I was once a jkd guy - I learned a lot about defanging the snake, simultaneous blocking and attacking, etc. when you have rapid fire punches coming in, it's safer to simply evade. since we're talking statistics, let's take boxing. what percentage of boxers parry single strikes to the head on a regular basis? What percentage of those same boxers parry fluuries of strikes to the head? What percentage evades said flurry? Why? Also, not everyone you fight will be drunk. Heck, I know plenty of guys at the club who don't drink.

4. you don't HAVE to feint when you fight full contact. I rarely feint. I don't recall tyson feinting much. I don't think vanderlei feints either. tactics you use rely on your fighting style and have nothing to do with commitment. Feint or not, when you throw your strike, you commit to it. Where did you get your 99% haymaker statistic? that's not what I see every day. I see more sloppy, yet rapid straight punches, speedbag style, and windmilling overhands. either way, blocking can and does still fail and evading would be more efficient - AND help you to get behind them, where you have complete advantage. Watch several pros who strike rapid fire and / or with arcing punches, like liddell and vanderlei - can you block EVERYTHING they throw? not likely. you couldn't evade everything they throw either, but your chances would be better.

Also, why are you assuming that you will be fighting someone untrained? statistically, you will be on the street, but in the club, I run into trained fighters quite a bit. I've met several NFL and pro boxers in there. Zab judah (boxer) was in there last month. these are guys you don't want to underestimate. they don't always fight, but sometimes they do. I've almost gotten into it with an ex NFL lineman (he'll remain nameless). Luckily, we were able to talk it down. Jerome Bettis has been in there before...can you imagine fighting him? trained or not, he would be a monster. I guess statistically, a streetfight will be with an untrained person, but why limit yourself to such a low level - I prefer to train for the person that is just as good or better than me.

You raise some really good points there. The reality is that we should train for the worst and hope for the best. Not the other way around.

[Zorbasan]

thats a good way to put it.

[bushido_man96]

I don't like to assume that I am going to be fighting someone who is unskilled. Personally, I don't fight much. Never have. So, if someone wants to dance with me, I assume that they have been in fights, and therefore more experienced than I. And experience is a valuable teacher.

[Jiffy]

This is a good thing in that you are not being caught unaware, you just need to ensure though that you don't find yourself doubting your own abilities. You need to be able to remain focused and to keep your confidence and agression.

[bushido_man96]

This is a good thing in that you are not being caught unaware, you just need to ensure though that you don't find yourself doubting your own abilities. You need to be able to remain focused and to keep your confidence and agression.

Yeah, that I need work on.

[Jiffy]

Me Too.