Most Important Aspect for Self Defense Striking

[devante]

So assuming a very narrow alleyway with a deadend, then yes if thats the case, then close-range fighting is very important in deed

I think you should develop functional skills in hat range in the instance you get stuck and have to fight in that range....maybe you don't have to be good enough to win. But you need to be good enough to at least survive so you can navigate to the range where your effective at; you have to be good enough to not be overwhelmed.

 

[KounterPunch]

Btw most important aspect of self defense is awareness.
Situational awareness , to be precise.

Your UFC training isnt much use if you can't tell I'm about to cold co ck you with a bottle to your dome.

^ admittedly crude but true.

 

[DoctorTaco]

 

[Gavster]

The important aspect in self defence is matching your strength vs their weakness. If they are punching you and winning and you move them into a wall where you have more strengths on the inside then you win. Adversely the same applies. They are winning due to their strengths vs your weaknesses, you need to lower their strength and improve your weakness. Whether you can do only one or both is situational.

If you can beat a bigger guy on the feet, know your environment and don't get backed up. If you can't beat a guy know your environment and back them up or run away.
My reasoning is if I know a good amount in all areas, I'm going to try to get the fight somewhere there that my opponent doesn't know. I might only know how to run faster than him. Lol. So be it.

 

[DivineComedy]

I think you should develop functional skills in hat range in the instance you get stuck and have to fight in that range....maybe you don't have to be good enough to win. But you need to be good enough to at least survive so you can navigate to the range where your effective at; you have to be good enough to not be overwhelmed.

Mhmm, of course and I agree. SS just started the thread as the most important part to self defense was _____________. It really is the range/distance/angling, but given SS' restrictions on mobility then yeah it becomes the close exchanging range.

 

[pheonix5]

Purely boxing you have the advantage,although a good boxer can time a good straight or hook. But if given the chance to clinch,you can reverse the situation by clinching and circling out,even get the other guy against the wall. Dirty boxing,headbutts,knees elbows.

 

[Phlog]

The most important aspect of self defense striking is your mind. There are 3 levels of altercation with varying subclauses and ones aspect that you apply varies for each:

1: run, its not worth it, escape is possible and desirable.

2: its dominance display, give or take a beating and go home. For this, your sport training of angles, timing, movement are all paramount, the psychological battle is similar to the experience of stepping into a ring/cage for a sanctioned fight.

3: This is IT. There is no where to run, for whatever reason, prospects of jail or damage incurred do not factor, winning is all important. It's life or death. In this instance the training and approaches you have for the first two will actively work against you. You must be utterly convinced of your victory, you do, in every moment the most hideously effective possible action, you are that action. The prison yard rush is a good example of this. Only if the defendant is of exactly the same level of commitment, and or, is vastly more skilled than you will they prevail. It is a rare skill to be able to throw that switch but it is the most effective self defense tool, you just don't want to have to use it.

To get all samurai on ya, its a case of accepting your own death, being pure action with one goal and something that translates as 'stealing their soul through their eyes' (communication of your intent, filling them with a sense of their impending doom).

 

[Bay Area]

Stop saying "run" guys. It's a popular answer on this forum, but no one here is really going to run from a conflict.

"Hey asshole! Were you looking at my girl?"

**turns and runs full speed out of the bar**

 

[Ivaylo Ivanov]

stop saying "run" guys. It's a popular answer on this forum, but no one here is really going to run from a conflict.

"hey asshole! Were you looking at my girl?"

**turns and runs full speed out of the bar**

lol!

 

[SAAMAG]

Actually that was funny

 

[DoctorTaco]

Stop saying "run" guys. It's a popular answer on this forum, but no one here is really going to run from a conflict.

"Hey asshole! Were you looking at my girl?"

**turns and runs full speed out of the bar**

I've missed you 'round these parts.

Much more realistic answer would be cheap shot or sucker pinch, perhaps improvised weapon. I know a few ways to break an arm and a few fingers with a hand shake attack, in case I can convince the guy to "shake like a man first. You know, bro code"

 

[devante]

You can't run or most likely you wont; but you don't have to bite on whatever they are trying to do to hype themselves up or get you to engage. I have let guys say all sorts of stuff and act hard; cause I don't want to fight anyone, I just ignore them backdown etc. Because I don't care about what you say or do unless you actually attack or take steps to attack me. Most guy haven't been around enough violence to recognize when someone is just talking and when someone is ready for war; most guys are like guys in training who talk about banging and so on. But they don't really want it like that, so you just have to see the situation for what it is...don't let it escalate I.e. going back and forth with them..letting them get their hands on you or just staying somewhere you know someone wants to fight you at.

Then if I have to fight I am trying to limit his opp to attack me...def/counter it and get the hell out...most guys don't really want to fight and will quit if you don't make it easy for them; secondly most guys can't fight back I.e. they will quit when an opp starts beating up on them or they will quit or backoff when they see they don't have an adv over an opp.

 

[Bay Area]

I've missed you 'round these parts.

Much more realistic answer would be cheap shot or sucker pinch, perhaps improvised weapon. I know a few ways to break an arm and a few fingers with a hand shake attack, in case I can convince the guy to "shake like a man first. You know, bro code"

Well in my 34 years of life on this planet I've seen it all in regards to street fighting. And one thing is for certain: all your training isn't going to help you if you get hit first. Usually the way it goes is you are in a bar, one guy is talking smack to you, you talk some smack back, the BAM!, you get cold clocked because you didnt think it would get to that and you weren't prepared. And by the time you recover, the staff is breaking it up, everyone is pushing and shoving, and you go home with a black eye, and the other guy goes home without a scratch. Reason being is you are a sensible man, and you are not going to hit someone first just because of some smack talk. So you are always second to the draw in those situations.

Buddy of mine who is seriously the most leathal SOB you can imagine in terms of martial arts training went home with a black eye because he was in the exact same situation above. Its usually not like sparring where you guys give eachother space, and then inch towards each other feeling eachother out with jabs. But thats what people train for, and thats not how it goes down in real life.

So the solution, or my solution is, if im in that situation in a bar or club, and some guy is talking getting heated, I tell him straight out: "If you want to fight, then follow me outside where no one is going to break it up." And walk outside. If he doesnt follow you, then just go home. Situation diffused. If he does follow, then find a nice dark vacent area, put your guard up, and get busy. This way, the fight is tremendously in your favor because you are used to sparring in practice this way... in the ready position inching towards each other.

 

[KarateStylist]

1. I was sparring a guy the other day who must have done some kind of knock down karate or something. We were sparring in a narrow part of the crowded mat where there wasn't room for side to side movement unless we wanted to go into the weights or heavy bags.

2. He hit really hard and was way faster than me. He could bounce in, hit or kick me, and back up before I could counter, and he was hitting me pretty f*cking hard.

3. Unfortunately for him, the reason that he was so fast is because I outweighed him by about 80 pounds (260 vs. 180) and he was not able to take ground or drive me back. I never stepped back.

^^^ That was a pretty detailed description....

^^^ NO. 1. I'd say your hunch is right.... as a lot of traditional karate's & sport karate's utilize this strategy.... I'm including "knockdown" karate as a full contact variant of sport karate....

^^^ NO. 2. The fact that he relied on mobility over stability cements you view, IMO, that you fought a "knockdown" karateka....

^^^ NO. 3. That size & weight differential is considerable, certainly well out-of most sport fighting bounds....

KarateStylist

 

[Lion Killer]

I'd just like to add that one of the reasons you could back him up, "take his shots," and bully him around is because you're 80 pounds heavier than him. He's obviously got to stick and move if he's fighting someone taht much bigger than him. Would you prefer to trade punch for punch with someone 400 pounds?

 

[SummerStriker]

I'd just like to add that one of the reasons you could back him up, "take his shots," and bully him around is because you're 80 pounds heavier than him. He's obviously got to stick and move if he's fighting someone taht much bigger than him. Would you prefer to trade punch for punch with someone 400 pounds?

Sorry, you might have misunderstood the point of my post. My point is that his martial arts training failed him in a classic situation (backed up by a bigger man) despite his considerable skill. This is the same problem I could face, being walked down by a large guy, particularly sense I have experience training with two people in the 400 pound plus range. I'm thinking about what striking skills he would need to beat me that his training neglected, because it is a model for a case where I could be endangered.

 

[yodave]

the biggest misconception in this thread is that infighting is brawling. its not. the infighter best weapon is a good lead hook, not a haymaker and a good infighter doesnt stand in front of his opponent at optimal punching range.

he fights inside where it is too close for a ordinary person to punch yet he knows how to land hard clean combinations from this range without getting hit once. mike tyson is the obvious example but also somebody like ricky hatton.

witch brings me to my next point that is the second biggest misconception is that strenght is the biggest factor inside. if that is the case then ask yourself how strong joe frazier was or many other small infighters. you see if there is one physical strait that is good inside it is to have shorter arms than youre opponent.

but it is not really about this, its about how well you can throw punches in a close distance and how well you can defend them, so infighting is just as much a skill as outfighitng, a lot of people dont know this, they think only the outfighter has skill, this is not true.

 

[Free your mind]

the biggest misconception in this thread is that infighting is brawling. its not. the infighter best weapon is a good lead hook, not a haymaker and a good infighter doesnt stand in front of his opponent at optimal punching range.

he fights inside where it is too close for a ordinary person to punch yet he knows how to land hard clean combinations from this range without getting hit once. mike tyson is the obvious example but also somebody like ricky hatton.

witch brings me to my next point that is the second biggest misconception is that strenght is the biggest factor inside. if that is the case then ask yourself how strong joe frazier was or many other small infighters. you see if there is one physical strait that is good inside it is to have shorter arms than youre opponent.

but it is not really about this, its about how well you can throw punches in a close distance and how well you can defend them, so infighting is just as much a skill as outfighitng, a lot of people dont know this, they think only the outfighter has skill, this is not true.

Good post.

 

[yodave]

Good post.

thanks,

the biggest classical example of this debate was ali vs fraizier, the outfighter vs the infighter, one trying to draw circle arround the other with his jab while the other was trying to land his vaunted left hook on the inside. of course there was a lot more going on inside the ring than this but i feel these are these were the main weapons of these two.

now, you have a third type of fighter who, like a george formean is tall and strong and likes to land a rear cross. but they typically like to fight on the outside to land this punch. hearns was another example of this kind of fighter, lenox lewis as well.

 

[Gavster]

Not knowing that running is sometimes an option is stupid.

When I was 20, heading to work after sleeping off an allnighter in the city the day before, a Maori guy my height with 30kgs on me begs me for 5 cents and as I go to walk around him, he pushes me into the wall. He grabs my phone outta my pocket and I reacted by pulling his jumper over his head and throwing uppercuts at him. I'd never trained uppercuts at this stage and bruised the crap out of my hands on his hard Maori head. I stepped back to assess the situation and he put his hands up saying: come on then. Only his three mates are running over from across the street and its 1pm outside the plaza on a Monday - the place is deserted, just us 5.

So I run. Fucking smart decision.
Yes when you are incoherent in a bar talking smack chances are you won't see any clues preceding a fight, I had glimpsed the four of them across the road earlier, which saved me getting my ass whooped.
Majority of fights in the pub are between drunks so yes running is no option if you're maggoted.