Ever had to use your MA in a real sreet fight

[alanseijas]

BLH28, 2 questions if I may. Were you enraged, and possibly went too far there; and where did you learn Jeet Kune Do?

 

Of coarse I was enragred. The kid's been harassing me for 3 years and I have never had enough courage to stand up for myself. I've always been telling the teachers on him, and they dont do ANYTHING but give him a 2 minute lecture. I knew I wasnt gonna take any more of his B/S so I showed him how angry I was.

 

I take Jeet Kune Do from Octavio Quintero, who is certified by Jerry Poteet. He's an awesome teacher and is very intelligent in JKD.

 

Well, sometimes people get what they deserve!

 

Cool on the JKD. I wish I had an opportunity like that. All I know of JKD is from reading.....

[okinawate]

Hi,

 

We have new article about okinawa karate on our web site.

 

I hope you will enjoy it. It is all about streetwise fighting.

 

48 techniques of okinawa karate part 4.

 

https://www.karate.org.yu

 

I would like to hear your oppinion.

 

Regards,

 

Stanic Milos

 

Tsunami dojo

 

Belgrade, Serbia

 

https://www.karate.org.yu

[Shorinryu Sensei]

*whew*..I made it through to the last page wthout quite having to get my neck high, * protective suit on! Close though...REAL CLOSE!

 

OK, as to the subject of the thread. Yes, I've had to use my MA training on 5 different occasions. More, if you count talking my way out of a situation. I won't bore you with details, but all of the 5 situations were started by the other individuals at first verbally, then to the physical plane..either by throwing a punch, or by touching me (poking my chest or grabbing me). Thus far, I've been lucky and not had anyone land a blow to me.

 

Why have I been in that many fights?

 

Easy. I'm 6'6" tall, weigh around 240lbs. I like to dance (country or R&R), and the only place you can do that around here is in a bar. Bars have alcohol, and naturally..drunks! Drunks (sometimes) like to pick fights, and in the case of cowboys..add alcohol, and the first person they look for is the biggest guy in the place..usually me!

 

I have been involved in my MA for longer than most of the people posting on this thread I suspect. I am 50 years old and have been a student/instructor of this system since 1975 (you can do the math on how long that has been). This gives me, I think, a little better than average viewpoint on fighting, self-defense and reality situations.

 

One observation if I may from reading the last 9 pages is this. There are two subjects that will bring out the * in most males of the species. That is fighting, and the other is SEX! An example of fighting is what I'm seeing on this thread today, and sex..heck, just read a copy of Penthouse Forum if you want to see fantasys in print.

 

I would cry * with the majority of what I have read on these 9 pages today about fights you say you have been involved in, just because of the situation they have described as being rediculous (not mentioning ANY names here).

 

People, martial arts at intended, and your instructors SHOULD be stressing this, for self-defense purposes. Not to batter some jerk for hitting on your girlfriend. Not for kicking the crap out of some idiot that stole your basketball. Not to make you feel more like a man and to prove who's the tougher guy on the street! It's top save your butt, and protect your love ones from harm!!! Oh sure, feel free to protect total strangers also..I've done that a bunch of times.

 

I agree with Bart on the weapons thing. Sure, carry a pocket knife. I usually do because I find I often have to cut something, trim a cuticle or clean my nails, etc. But to carry multiple knives..or a gun for protection? Get a life! You're watching WAY to many movies there people!

 

Where I live, literally every truck or car has a rifle (.22 cal to hunting calibres) or shotgun, or a pistol in it. Why? Because we HUNT up here, and I personally have had to use my .357 twice to dispatch a deer that wandered in front of my truck at night, and rather than see it suffer and die slowly, I killed it on the roadside. Not legal I know, but the responding police never took my weapon, nor gave me any problems because of it.

 

Would I use it in self-defense? Of course! But in my experience with seeing probably 100 +/- REAL fights from junior high school, to bar/street fights, I have only seen a couple where the person pulled a knife on someone..and after that person was subdued by a whole bunch of UNINVOLVED spectators, he WENT TO JAIL!

 

OK..I've vented and said my piece. It just really pisses me off to see a bunch of kids saying they carry guns/knives for self-protection. You're just asking to spend time in jail if you even pull it out, let alone use it.

[Sens55]

Shorinryu Sensei,

 

I would have to agree with a lot of what you said. Using our arts should never be taken lightly. Your words concerning bravado and braggadacio are certainly correct. I would also agree that kids carrying weapons is dangerous. That being said, don't mistakenly assume that because there is no need to carry a weapon in your area that the same can hold true in all. Again, this is not condoning carrying the weapon. I believe that unless you know what you are doing the weapon can be just as, if not more dangerous, for the user than not carrying one.

 

However, sometimes it is wiser to be armed than not. I work in sales and my job takes me to parts of town I wouldn't normally roam without reason. I often have to go into areas where gangs are commonplace and some of the inhabitants would think nothing of mugging (or worse) an outsider that ventured into their territory. I know for an absolute fact that my carrying, and one time displaying, my weapon kept me from becoming a statistic. Again, I'm not recommending it for everyone (or anyone), but one should be hesitant before saying any such need is just a Walter Mitty moment.

 

I am also a big guy. I've been studying various arts off and on for years. I've had my share of scraps and have no real desire to mess with anyone else. But I still take my self-protection and self-preservation seriously and all my experience and size won't mean diddly if jumped by a bunch of gangbangers who think I'm an easy way to make a few bucks. In my one instance, by making eye contact and letting my previously concealed Beretta come into view let them know that I was not an easy target and they moved on. On that day that .40 was worth every penny of the $900 I paid for it an then some!

[Shorinryu Sensei]

OK Sens55, I'll give you that. Since I don't live in a large city (no such thing in this entire state actually), I'll give you the fact that I don't totally understand the mind set of gang bangers, or other than what the movies portray (and who believes most of that crap anyway?) as being the situation in those areas.

 

I lived in Houston, Tx for 6 months a few years ago, and found myself in a few "interesting" neighborhoods a couple of times, but never had any problems. But then again, I don't know if Houston has the problems of say NYC, LA, Chicago, Miami or others.

 

I feel that if you carry a weapon, ESPECIALLY a gun, then you are more prone to using it..when possibly the situation doesn't warrant it.

 

I guess I'll just stay up here in Montana, where all we have to worry about is crazy Californians, grizzly, mountain lions and the occasional Earth First tree hugger idiots.

[Sens55]

Shorinryu Sensei,

 

I wouldn't disagree that carrying a weapon is not always the wisest. I might also add, however, that I spent 15 years in the Army in Combat Arms positions and was (ages ago) an instructor on a few weapons systems. I have been using firearms almost my entire life and have more than an average understanding of their use. I do not think that everyone should carry a weapon. They really need to be able to use it if needed. And when I say use, I mean from both a mechanical and a personal perspective. Displaying a weapon without the ability of determination to use it is dangerous. That being said, if someone is in that situation, they should train on the weapon before even thinking about carrying it.

 

By the way, I read an interesting article in this month's Black Belt magazine the night I posted my response to you. It was written by someone who just wrote a book concerning group attacks and violence and it had some interesting conclusions, supposedly statistically supported, that show your chances of handling conrontation with more than one adversary. One point it made clearly was that an adolescent male living in an urban area is something like 6 times as likely as any other group to be involved in (either victim or aggressor) than anyone else.

[Warp Spider]

I agree with Bart on the weapons thing. Sure, carry a pocket knife. I usually do because I find I often have to cut something, trim a cuticle or clean my nails, etc. But to carry multiple knives..or a gun for protection? Get a life! You're watching WAY to many movies there people!

 

OK..I've vented and said my piece. It just really * me off to see a bunch of kids saying they carry guns/knives for self-protection. You're just asking to spend time in jail if you even pull it out, let alone use it.

 

Well, I think the main advocates of being seriously armed here are JerryLove (with multiple knives) and myself, (submachineguns and grenades) and although I don't believe I've met JerryLove in person, I don't think that either of us is what could be considered a kid.

 

Further, I think that your view of self-defense is very limited. Please remember that there are places in the world where bullets are cheaper than food and you can be quite literally shot for the clothes off your back.

People, martial arts at intended, and your instructors SHOULD be stressing this, for self-defense purposes. Not to batter some jerk for hitting on your girlfriend. Not for kicking the crap out of some idiot that stole your basketball. Not to make you feel more like a man and to prove who's the tougher guy on the street! It's top save your butt, and protect your love ones from harm!!! Oh sure, feel free to protect total strangers also..I've done that a bunch of times.

That's one view, but not all martial artists train for self-defense, and I think it's closed-minded to think that way. To my recollection, many martial arts were originally developed for war, so I would question that they are intended for self-defense.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

I agree that IF you're going to carry a weapon, you should have the training in it's proper usage and tactics for that usage. As I said, living where I do, despite ythe fact that nearly every VEHICLE is armed, as is nearly every household, I would guess the average Joe blow isn't walking around with a firearm, or anything bigger than a pocket knife on his person.

 

I feel that in large cities, if EVERYBODY is so paranoid about being mugged running to the store for a quart of milk, then I think the needs to put these cities under martial law, because they're getting just to damn fanatical and paranoid, and this paranoia just fees upon itself so people say "Well, if he has a gun, so will I."..and goes on and on.

 

What's next? Everybody eventually start buying Army surplus TANKS?

 

It's no wonder we see more and more people from the East or West coasts coming up here to live. They bring with them "superior than thou" attitudes, raise our property taxes, take our jobs, etc..but I sure can't blame them for wanting to get out of the cities. It's just to bad that they come here! lol

That's one view, but not all martial artists train for self-defense, and I think it's closed-minded to think that way. To my recollection, many martial arts were originally developed for war, so I would question that they are intended for self-defense.

 

Granted, the majority of martial artists are recreational MA's, and just do it for the fun of it. Others train for the sport aspects, which aren't ALL bad for self-defense, but not as good as actually self-defense oriented arts.

 

And yes, some martial arts were developed for war, but the empty handed arts (ie: karate, kung fu, TKD, etc) were developed for self-protection, not for war per se.

[Warp Spider]

I feel that in large cities, if EVERYBODY is so paranoid about being mugged running to the store for a quart of milk, then I think the needs to put these cities under martial law, because they're getting just to damn fanatical and paranoid, and this paranoia just fees upon itself so people say "Well, if he has a gun, so will I."..and goes on and on.

 

What's next? Everybody eventually start buying Army surplus TANKS?

 

Well, martial law is really no fun at all. Curfew and whatnot.

 

Anyways. You have a point, sort of, about how everyone is arming themselves because everyone else is doing it. However, this isn't as bad as it seems, because there is a limit to how much you can arm yourself. Ideally everyone could be armed to the absolute minimum level, but since there is a variance in the level or armament, and the criminal element tends to be the ones on the upper end of the spectrum, it only makes sense to take the alternate route, arm yourself as much as possible, that way it's a level playing field.

 

Though one would think this would continually escalate there is a hard limit based on current weapons technology. The most a person can feasibly carry concealed is maybe a couple of submachineguns. So if EVERYONE has a submachinegun, it will have the same level of stability as if everyone had a knife, or as if everyone was unarmed. Everyones on a level playing field, which is important, because not many people will try to mug you if they don't hold some kind of advantage over you.

 

A common misconception about armed societies is that someone's just going to flip out and cap you for some little thing, but there's no evidence to support this, and plenty to the contrary. There are plenty of armed societies in the world, and a small argument doesn't escalate into gunplay there. I can't say I've conducted a thorough investigation, but I highly suspect that more people are packing where you live than you think, but they aren't flipping out and blowing people away over every little disagreement. There were kids who carried handguns at my high school. They even got in fights sometimes but the guns didn't come out unless the other guy pulled one first. You say that lots of people have guns in their vehicles where you live, but are they shooting at each other at red lights? Of course not. (I hope. ) It's actually quite safe and stable when everyone is packing.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

No. Nobody's shooting at each other at stop lights around here..not even an occasional road rage incident! lol All I do personally in regards to road rage is flip the occassional tourist and idiot off that pulls in front of my 3/4 ton 4x4 when I'm doing 75 mph down the highway and he pulls in front of me from a side road. GAWD, that makes me SOOOOOOOO MAD!!!

 

 

Anyway, I guess I just have a hard time understanding why people would be so paranoid that htey feel they can't leafve their homes without being armed for combat. Do you think this has anything to do with movies and TV perhaps? We see all this crap all day about murders, kidnapings, etc, that people feel that this is real life?