Have you experienced a violent attack.

Hey guys

Something said on another thread got me thinking. It was that 99 percent of martial artist would not have to use their skills in self defence. This seemed odd to me, due to the fact that many people on MAP seem to have either had physical altercations and even have jobs in that area.

So my question is which of you have been involved in Altercations of a violent nature, a fight, and attack anything. Not just if you fought back and used you skills even if you just got beat, or ran away anything as long as things got physical. No deep details required. Just if you have experienced it.

Speaking for myself, I have been attacked on couple of occasions and fought back in 2 so far in my life. ( this doesnt count sparring, training etc) the other times I ran or just balled up and got hit till they stopped.

Also 5 of my friends that I know of have been involved in violent altercations as well. 3 were attempted/ successfull muggings. the other one was an argument with a drunk on a train that turned nasty, and the last was just two guys beating him up because of how he was dressed ( he was wearing doc martins and had a short haircut so they thought he was a skinhead i think)

 

yes since doing "martial arts", i've been mugged. but it was better and easier to just give them my money as they got the drop on me. other than two fights in high school, nothing else in high school. i'm pretty lucky, i'm big so no one really messed with me, even if they didn't like me.

a football player in a drunken stupor broke a window in my college dorm. he came into my room and threatened me that i better not tell on him. i told him i was going to do whatever i wanted and that was enough to end it as he didn't attack me then. later, he and a bunch of other of his football buddies tried to attack a hippie friend of mine and i got between them and they stopped.

i've had a couple run-ins with idiots on public transportation, no big deal, verbal.

like i said, i'm not a small man. so a lot of times if i just hold my ground verbally, a lot of guys don't think it's worth it.

 

Yup. I was was in the Paras and we went out looking for fights every Friday and Saturday night. Sunday too, if it was a holiday weekend.

I was young and a bit of an ****. :dunno:

Worked security between then and now. Mostly pubs in Moss Side, Cheetham and Gorton. Half of all incidents were because drunk people don't like an angry midget throwing them out. The rest were because I (stupidly) told a lot of United fans that I support City.

Try my best to stay out of trouble these days. But I'm short, I have a face people want to punch (even at rest I look like I'm scowling) and my wife is hot. Sometimes I can't avoid unwanted attention. I have genuine anger management issues as a result of my army days - walking away can be very, very hard for me. I'm in control 9 times out of 10 and it's nothing. But there are some days when... man... my mojo is messed up for weeks if, for example, I didn't belt a guy who made a rude comment about my missus.

Luckily my wife has developed a sixth sense about this sort of thing. She says if I'm feeling "red" by lunchtime then we don't go anywhere that evening. Just stay in with a dvd and pizza. "Red" is best described as a warm haze in my head which makes me get ****y at everything real quick; I talk fast, my hands are all over the place and every other word is an F-bomb. She notices changes in the way I text and drive too. Usually I don't know what makes me this way, but I can get back in control if I find a dark, quiet place and focus on my breathing. If I don't, then things can go "white" in which I don't really have much in the way of facial expressions or things to say (the "switching off" emotionally I referred to in the other thread), and it's times like this when I won't get involved in pre-fight rituals (arguing, posturing etc) and just go straight to punching/kicking/butting/bottling the guy. Thankfully these situations are rare.

My wife is a saint. :Angel:

 

Yes, but not outside of work.

 

Yes, but the injuries I incurred as a result of those incidents have all been minor compared to the injuries I've incurred in a martial arts gym.

 

Since taking up MA as an adult? Actually no. I came damn close to getting a fist fight with a former instructor without realising it apparently, but that was it. Bar one other occasion, but again, there was nothing really physical about that. Thankfully I'm fairly big (6'1", 240lbs roughly, apparently I fill door frames ) and look like I have more muscle than I actually have. Plus I don't look like a meathead but an oversized nerd and have learned not to walk like I'm so self conscious (by that I mean head down, eyes to the floor, shoulders slumped, hands in the pockets, nervous mumbling to get past people, etc), so most people don't tend to give me too much fuss thankfully.

 

I didnt mean since learning martial arts, i just meant through your whole life. It stands to reason that if only 1 percent of martial artist ever get attacked, then roughly one percent of EVERYONE gets attacked. Since the attacker doesnt know you are a martial artist or not that wont effect matters. And in my experience alot more than 1 percent of people have experienced a violent encounter.

 

Oh I get you. I just figured since you mentioned the comment of "99% of martial artists won't use their skills" it would only focus on people who could actually be considered practising a martial art.

Maybe, but I think this ignored the psychological benefits of practising almost any form of MA and how that can change an outcome purely based on self confidence, attitude, posture, etc.

 

On the outside I was short (5'7), have a baby face, get a lot of attention from girls and my looks resembled the trouble-making minority of my country.

On the inside I was too prideful, have a misplaced sense of justice, have a lot of bottled up anger and am also Armenian.

It didn't take much for me to get in bad situations. Luckily I had 2 things on my side. The first was that I was always way more angry than the guys I was fighting with and the second was that I have never met someone who could run faster than me.

The first won me a lot of fights and the second prevented me from getting pummeled by a group of people. Somehow I've never gotten any bad injuries and my face is still pretty despite having been in so many fights.

I think one day karma is going to catch up with me though. :meditate:

 

Frodo & Mitch battered me and stole my steak once. I walk a different way from the supermarket now

 

Battered Moi...less calories than battered mars bars

 

I'm not sure that your experience is to be trusted here. And I don't mean that as an insult. We tend to associate with specific sorts of people. And extrapolating their experiences to the larger population is hazardous. In my experience, the vast majority of people I know haven't had that experience. So who's right?

You're somewhat fixated on this issue. And, again, that's not an insult. But that being the case, you and the people you know are likely embroiled to a higher degree than the average person is. Whether your fascination stems from that OR you tend to put yourself in those positions because of your fascination, I couldn't say. But I know plenty of people who have never had a fight in their lives, myself included.

 

You're just not wearing enough Tapout?!

 

Lots of times. Some involving weapons. Some involving multiple attackers (3 times I can immediately think of).

Maybe I attract it? A face you want to punch?

Also, personally, I would not generally be inclined to take MA advice/teaching from someone who has never used it in a real situation. But that's just me.

 

I have been in about six or seven fights in my life and they weren't real bad but they weren't patty cake either, it was usually me and another guy and I usually ended it with hooking his head and pulling it down after hitting his face a few times, that worked good in most of my fights until I got a hold of a guy that was a high school wrestler and he shot my legs slamming me against a metal cabinet the only thing that saved me was the fact I was a lot stronger than him so I wrapped my legs around him and undercooked both his arms so he couldn't strike me help came a few seconds later.
Now I watch for the double leg or similar take down attempt if I'm getting the better part of someone, by the way I was only fighting the guy because he was picking on an old priest. Really old actually.

 

Today is not without a sense of irony:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26416153

 

I can't access that link. Anyone else?

 

Nah. London!

I get an "access denied" message....

Edit: After a routing change I now can view it ok.

 

I find it disturbing that this is actually news?