1 on 1 street fight clips

[Tom Yum]

I just think for everyone cutting all these people up... no offense but you can preach all you want about using the body in punches... no looping punches.. no grappling technique and all that.. but when someone is trying to punch you in the face.. how many of you would think about all the things youve mentioned... in the frenzy of a fight im sure a lot of you would lose 90% of waht you taught.. the ten percent you remember could be the difference... but i would say alot of it goes away. Just htink about that before saying how bad these guys are.

it depends on how often you train and if what you do becomes instinctive.

check out the old kimbo vs. bird fight - the man sticks with his boxing and doesn't throw haymakers; he keeps his hands up proper and is aware of his balance, throws text book jabs,crosses and hooks. the other guy gets in some kind of weird stance and throws haymakers and off balance overhands

training takes over instinct after awhile.

[Xee]

I just think for everyone cutting all these people up... no offense but you can preach all you want about using the body in punches... no looping punches.. no grappling technique and all that.. but when someone is trying to punch you in the face.. how many of you would think about all the things youve mentioned... in the frenzy of a fight im sure a lot of you would lose 90% of waht you taught.. the ten percent you remember could be the difference... but i would say alot of it goes away. Just htink about that before saying how bad these guys are.

Umm . . . that's . . . the . . . whole . . . point . . . of . . . training.

Lemme explain.

A couple months into my JKD class, my instructor started showing me some boxing. Then one day he said we were going to spar, boxing only; no shin kicks, eye jabs, trapping, etc. Eh, no big deal. I felt pretty confident in what I knew. I popped in my mouth-mouth guard and strapped on my gloves. The bell went off, we touched gloves . . . and I proceeded to get the snot beat out of me.

I mean, the first time I got hit, I was like "Holy $#!+"; I completely broke down. My defense wasn't defending, I was tripping over my own feet, everything I thought I knew went out the window. I mean, it's one thing to have it shown to you and an entirely different thing to actually do them to a guy who's trying to do the same thing to you. His punches seemed to be coming a million times a minute and every time I'd try one of my own I'd get a glove in my face for my efforts. My main objective became to cover up and hope his punches didn't land.

Man, that was the most humbling experience I've ever had to go through. I almost dropped the class right there. Here I was, two months into JKD, thinking I could adequately defend myself and I had just got my ass handed to me. I was totally ineffective. Had that been a real street-fight I would have be beaten to a pulp. Going home that night, I felt like complete crap.

Then I remembered what he had told me when I first started classes, that the whole point was to get as close as we could to the "real thing." The only difference was that would be doing it safely; yeah, you would feel pain but you wouldn't get hurt. The class is meant to condition you; you don't want the first you get hit to be on the street where you won't be prepared.

Remembering that, I showed up again the next week and continued my training. Fast forward a month later and I was amazed to find that I was getting better.

In short, I learned my lesson. Well, two things actually. One, I learned that I had a long way to go to become an even marginal fighter. And more importantly, I learned that taking a hit didn't mean the end of the world; you would get your chance.

Now, what does this have to do with the movie clips? The first thing my instructor told me was that in a fight, when the adrenaline starts to run, a number of things happen to your body. Among them is that you lose the ability to think the things out rationally and you revert to a "reptilian" mode of thinking. In that mode, you do what comes naturally.

Just at look at the guy who did the wrestling move; it was something he had practiced a lot, something he knew and because of that it came instinctively to him. How effective it was is moot. It simply illustrates the point that if you practice something long enough, it'll come to you without thinking.

If either of those guys had any training, you would have seen a whole different fight.

[kengar]

One big mistake by the smaller guy, he delivered a good punch that staggered the larger guy and didn't go in for the kill. He may have been too beat and tired, but that would have been his chance to take the fight.

[NYCMonkey]

Yeah, he gets a strike in that gets a good, staggering effect, probably one of the most obvious oppurtunities that he had missed.

[warriorpoet]

opinions are like armpits.....

I see a lot of posts having to do with those videos, and "someone with training could have done better"s, and I have a little story to add, not to say that any of you are wrong, but here is an example of training: For the last 5 years I worked Loss Prevention(plainclothes security arresting shoplifters) 2 of those with a guy I will call "dave". dave has been in different forms of martial arts for most of his life. At the time he was 28, he started when he was 7, or 8. Traditional karate first, then judo, ju-jitsu, aikido, most recently kajukenbo,...the list goes on. Nearly every time he was teaching me things(classroom atmosphere) he would knock me around pretty good, but every time we arrested someone, and they fought(real world), he would bleed; sometmes profusely. I would usually come out pretty well. I think the difference is that I learned initially to fight by brawling with my brother and my cousins, not in a classroom. Later on I took a couple of years of american/european boxing, then after I met dave, I got into the martial arts(and polished my style considerably). everyone knows, you fight how you train. he was used to "classroom force" I'll call it, not "real world" force. if you do not train "real world" in the classroom, you will fight "classroom" in the real world. all the knowledge in the world does no good if you don't know how to properly apply it.

[NYCMonkey]

Hi poet,

When I mention training, I mean realistic training, in this scenario and for yours probably in some cases, street training, meaning no consent, full-force, all-out scenario driven training. It should simulate a real streetfight like in those clips, but you learn how to work through the 'disaster' moment to moment. I'm not saying anything is wrong with Judo, or whatever other 'art' he took, but to apply it correctly, you need to train it correctly.

If someone tapes a training session in where they're practicing scenarios, it should look like a wild fight, but with certain skills being implemented. It's never going to be as pretty as what's on the mat, because if it is, it's wrong.

[nvr8nf]

I totally agree it's the type of training you do. The more realistic your training, the better you will respond to a "street fight". Years ago I took took tang soo do classes for a couple years and learned some great techniques. Problem was we didn't train realistically at all. We would do a lot of forms and our sparring was very light. I am now taking a MMA class and I have learned more "real world" techniques in 2 months than what I learned in 2 years of tang soo do. The advanced members actually do MMA matches. What I really like is when we learn a new move we first practice with no resistance until we are using fluid movements and know it well. Then the resistance is continually increased.

But, I have to say that those fights in the clips, especially the first one, look like most of the "after the bar closes drunken fights" you see!