Training For Real Violent Situations

Do you think reality based training is all strikes, fights, kills and weapons?

Well, you couldn't be more wrong. Real world violence is so much more than just fighting. The physical part is just a piece of the whole "violent pie", there are psychological elements and there are biological elements that many people don't realize (i'll explain in a moment).


But first, i want to deal with how you train vs the reality of when it actually happens.


How does an average "self defense student" train for a violent confrontation?

Let me take a guess here, yeah?

1-You train in some sort of big hall with wooden floors and mirrors?

2-You train in an a/c or a fan-filled windowed fresh and cool room?

3-You wear gloves and protection pads to protect your tender little hands?

4-You hit pads and bags of all kinds to feel tough?

5-You spar with someone your gender, size, height, weight, etc.

6-You have a very nice compliant partner who falls and tumbles when you throw him/her, no retaliation or resistance?

7-At the end of the day you feel confident and safe.

8-At the end of the course you get a certificate and a belt.


Awesome! right? I mean that sounds so damn lucrative!

 
Yeah... Now let me tell you what happens in a real violent confrontation based on the points above.


1-You'll be struggling for your life in a dark corner of an alley, with no one there to help you or hear your cries of help, even if people do, they may not come to your rescue, due to the fear of getting hurt themselves, police isn't always there to help you, it's just you and your attacker/s, yes, there is always a huge possibility of there being more than one attacker and they might be on drugs, drunk, etc.

2-It would be either extremely cold, or it might be rainy or really hot, noisy, sticky, smelly and nasty, as in disease ridden.

3-Your hands won't have any protection, unless of course you wear your gloves everywhere you go and if you instinctively punch and miss or hit the wrong(hard) place, you will break your fist and wrist.

4-Pads and bags don't hit back, your attacker on the other hand, won't stop hitting or stabbing you like a punching bag that you are for him, and he'll want to "puncture" you beyond repair. 

5-There is also a possibility of the attacker being a female or she might be laying a trap for you so the others in the gang can ambush you later, you just can't assume anything in a real violent situation. Although mostly it's a male, and he will be stronger, bigger, more skilled and violent than you. That's why he picked you, he knew you are weaker than him/her, so forget weight class, etc. This isn't going to be a fair situation for you. there is no "fair" situation or fight here when it comes to these things.

6-Like i said, your attacker would most likely be stronger than you and possibly heavier than you, that's why he targeted you, you are an easy target for him, do you think you can throw a 6ft 1inch, 200lbs man who is constantly hitting you and stabbing and coming you at full speed with everything he's got and not holding back a bit? What about two of them? Would you use your "lighting fast reflexes" to strike them both simultaneously like you do in training and run? Why don't you give it a try? Ask two of the strongest people who are closest to you and tell them to charge at you full speed, now test if you'll be able to use the fine motor skills you "train" in for three times a week.. Maybe even less? On those walking bulldozers.

7-At the end of the training day, you might feel safe and confident, but tell me something, do you want to "feel" safe and confident or do you want to Be Safe and Confident? They're two different things, you know?

8-At the end of an attack all you get are emotional and physical scars and bruises, no certificate or belt can help you before, during or after an attack, they're just pieces of printed cloth and paper. Would you have them or would you rather have the skills necessary to save your life and possibly your loved ones? It's up to you, open your eyes and focus on the things that actually matter.

 

Back to where i was, see, if you think that to survive violence, just "learning some techniques" will help you a 100%, you're sorely mistaken. Like i mentioned before there are a lot of psychological and even biological elements that contribute to a situation.

So what do you do?
Well first, work on your communication skills, learn to diffuse a confrontation before it escalates, try not to antagonize the guy any further, he's looking for a reason, if you give it to him, you're f'd.

Try to keep a calm low voice, but don't show any fear, you don't want him to bully you either, maintain a strong body language, be intimidating without actually doing anything obvious that might say "I'm looking for a reason to hit you", it's the subtle things that'll catch his eye.

Next what you can do is be prepared, don't decide on anything fixed, but be prepared, physically and psychologically for various situations;

 -If you're traveling to/from somewhere, keep a back up route in mind to your destination.

-If you're not sure about an area you're going to, then try and arm yourself, make an improvised knife, or at least keep some keys or a sturdy pen handy.

-If you're going home late at night, and you see suspicious characters lurking around you, trust your gut, try and create distance first and then change your direction from your true destination, you don't want them to follow you home and become a victim of an home invasion attack.

-Situational awareness is really important, your eyes should be in all of the 10 directions, yes, 10.
Front.
Back.
Left.
Right.
Front/left.
Front/right.
Back/left.
Back/right.
Up.
Down.

-Being environmentally aware is really the most helpful ability and the most necessary state of mind. Knowing what's where can help you devise tactic/s to escape the situation.

Someone might be hiding under a parked vehicle, a bus probably, and might try and trip you to get you to the ground and render you helpless. If you're environmentally aware, you just might catch a glimpse of that someone and be cautious of where you step and what you do.

-Be careful of needles(for disease, poison), blades(infection, high blood loss possibility), acids(i don't need to tell you how dangerous this one is), chilli powder(to blind you and disorient you with pain, so they can rob or even kidnap you possibly), etc.

-There's also the terrain in which you might be attacked, i.e. wet, slippery, rocky, etc.



Stuff like that. Basically you have to understand, violence is not all physical, it's psychological, biological and environmental too, and for that you have to train as such, remember, train like you fight, fight like you train.

Well, that's about it for today.

Thanks for reading.

Do they matter?

 

Do you think, age, height, size, speed, strength matter? Or do you think it's just your overall skills and mostly your intent that really matters?

Well, i'll just let his actions speak louder than my words.

Did you see what happened there? Such a brave little man he is. i'm sure his parents are proud of him.

The thing is, in majority of cases like the above, who you are matters more than how physically trained and what rank/belt you are.

Many would say, what this kid did was risky, dangerous, etc. etc. but what if he hadn't done what he did? Don't you think the outcome could've been much worse? Maybe the robber would've shot both of them. You can clearly see the robber isn't an experienced one, his mind must be in a state of panic, and the combination of gun in panicked hands just doesn't set well with each other.

There are different types of violence, and there are different types of suitable actions and reactions for them, here's the thing though, no one can possibly train in each and every one of them, why? Because there are virtually infinite possibilities.

The most common thing between all those situations is the intent, the one who has the perfect intent, increases their chances of survival. The psychological aspect of the situation determines the survivor. The best thing to do is choose a few handful of effective physical methods that apply to the maximum number of situations, so you don't waste time thinking and focus more on having a perfect intent, so you can put those methods to good use.

Now in the above video, you see, he didn't apply any "technique", no, what he did was use common sense, he got the weapon away from him and just started striking, it wasn't on any specific target, why? Because there wasn't enough time to stand there to think and choose his target. He hit what was in front of him, which disoriented that already panicked idiot, he was surprised, and that gave the other guy enough time to come around and help the little man. The robber ran like the coward and a failure that he is, all because of that boy's on the spot instinctive actions, not reactions or thoughts, but actions.

Back to the topic.

As you saw the attacker was... lets say... umm.. superior? to the boy... or was he? No, he wasn't, he was taller, maybe stronger, but definitely not superior, why? Because he lacked the necessary things, three of them being, courage, will and a perfect intent, not to mention the presence of mind, which the boy has here, wouldn't you say?

That's it for today.
Thanks for reading.

Surviving an Assault and Appropriate use of force

Today i'm going to deal with one of the very sensitive topics in the self defense world. The "Appropriate Use Of Force" and can it truly help you survive a violent assault?

In today's violent world, anyone can be attacked without any warning or signs. There are people who do not care about the law, about innocent people like you or your family. There are many situations where physical assault take place, from bullying in schools to mugging to home invasions, road rages, etc. All attackers in those situations have one thing in common, and that's their Violent Intent. Those people don't think or care who they're gonna hurt, all they know is they are going to hurt to get what they want and once they have gotten it, they might not stop and might kill you in cold blood without hesitation.

We all were raised to follow the law and we do. But when we're being attacked, the law isn't  there to protect you, it is going to get involved though, but only after all the f'd up things have already happened to you and the irreparable damage has been done.

No matter how harsh it is, that's the truth and i'm sorry to burst your pretty little bubble with the prick of reality! but you just can't avoid that. when it comes to violence, there is no avoiding this kind of harsh reality.

Many people including self defense instructors will tell you to use "appropriate force" .

Well, first, let me ask you and them this, What is appropriate force? How do you know what's appropriate? Which situation is it appropriate to do what? How would you measure it? Would you measure appropriate force when an attacker is coming at you wanting to beat the living shit out of you? Or when you and your girlfriend/wife/family member are being ambushed out of nowhere by two or more attackers with weapons? And when they're raping them and forcing you to watch while they make a sandwich out of their shoes, your face and the concrete or in other words, "curbstomping" you by crushing your face with their shoes on the pavement or on edge of the sidewalk? huh?! Was that too graphic for your fragile little mind? hmm? Was i too harsh? Too mean? Well too f'ing bad! Because that's how it happens! That's the reality of it! You have to deal with it and for that, you first have to accept it and then f'ing get used to it! And do something about it by being prepared for it.

Now, you don't wanna end up like the above mentioned graphic scenario, do you? Well, then throw the "appropriate force" bullshit away, unless you understand what it means, because when you're being attacked, you can't just be like "Wait mr. attacker! I want to "assess" the situation first, so i can use the appropriate amount force to defend myself and hurt you in an appropriate manner in the process and then we can go home and appropriately live happily ever after" And then make the cute face like this (^_^)... Well? Can you? Yes. Yes you can. But that'd be pretty f'ing stupid now wouldn't it?

There is no time to do anything except fighting back.

There is no "appropriate force" when it comes to Real Violence. You're not going to f'ing wait and see what's appropriate and what's not. NO!

When you see someone is coming at you violently, or when they're already there beating the fcuk outta you, all you do is fight back with all you've got so you can survive! And you fear and hate that person with all your mind, body and soul during the whole time they're on you and even after that. Anyone that has been in a violent situation will tell you the same thing.

You can't think in those situations! You just have to.. Do! Do what's necessary to survive and go back to your family alive and in one piece, and not end up beaten to a pulp, a bloody mess of many shreds and pieces.

So please, just stop with the "appropriate force" non-sense, alright?

Now if someone reads this, all they'll think is "man! this guy is hell bent on killing everyone and now he's asking us to do the same thing" or "if we do this we'll definitely go to jail" blah blah blah etc. etc. etc. You can think all that if you want, see, if you're thinking that, it only means that till now, you were lucky enough to have not faced with such violence and i'm happy for you, really. But can you predict the future? What if god-forbid you do face it someday? What then?
I'll tell you what? If you've read this and remembered this, you just might be able to fight back without worrying about what the law is gonna do to you after the attack and instead worry what the attacker is gonna do to you during the attack if you don't fight back, and what you're gonna do to him so that you can survive, and when you do think and act like that, you'd have a chance of survival in violence.

Look i'm not saying that you should just go around breaking the law and killing everyone who messes with you or looks and walks towards you the wrong way. NO! That's what the attackers i'm talking about here do to you and to others, because they don't have the same respect for others lives and the law as you do.

What i'm saying is don't think about what's "legal" or "appropriate" in situations that could end with you ending up in a morgue or in a hospital bed. Although with the amount of damage you'd sustain during those violent attacks, you just might think of death as a much better option. Sad, i know, but it is what it is. Thing is, I know you don't want to end up in jail, no one who's smart does, but you don't wanna end up in the hospital or a morgue either, i know i don't.

Another thing is, there are many courses that do teach you about appropriate force and there's no doubt they're very valuable, they'll help keep you out of jail if something does go wrong. I won't say that i don't teach appropriate force to my students/clients, because i do, but here's the thing, that's only for the common fights that happen, by common i mean non-life threatening and no weapons involved, but just some verbal or light hand use types of things, in those scenarios you won't be removing a cleaver and start hacking everyone around you, no, you'll deescalate and if necessary subdue the attacker, if necessary, that's for a mildly violent situation, everyday common violence, etc.

But you never know who you're messing with and even the mildest verbal argument might turn into a full fledged, weaponized, violent assault with multiple attackers coming out of nowhere on you, and you should be prepared for that.

So when it comes to that kind of violence, for me at least, the "use of appropriate force" means, appropriate "time & place" to use force and not the lethality of it. (Although i know that's not what the law means by that).

You should know, that it's our natural God given right to do absolutely anything and everything to ensure our survival along with our loved one's and anyone or anything that wants or means to take that right away from us, is far from being our friend. 

So unless you or i get a 24/7 P.S.D or a Protective Service Detail on us, i think i'm gonna keep this definition in mind when it comes to my life or my attackers death, what about you?


Now that all the violent parts of this post have been said and done, I'll get to the logical part.

Even though, i hate "Appropriate force", it still exists as far as law is concerned, to put it simply, an example of appropriate force would be something like this;

Let's say a mugger gets you, puts a knife or a blade to your throat or just stands at a distance with a weapon, let it be a gun or a knife or a blade or an acid bottle, or anything that he could use to hurt you, he asks you to give him all your valuables, now what do you do?

A- Do you violently beat the living daylights out of him until he dies from it?
B- Do you give him everything and run away?
C- Do you give him everything only to distract him and then beat the living daylights out of him then run away?
D- Do you not give him anything and let him kill you?

If you chose A, C, or D, you're in trouble with the law. If you chose B, you're safe. All he wanted was your valuables, in return you got your life back.

Now add one more thing to that situation, let's say you gave him your things, if he runs away, you're free, but let's say for the sake of this example, he still won't leave, now ofcourse this means; Red flag, he doesn't want a witness describing him to the cops, now what do you do?

A- Run and let him chase after you, maybe he'll give up.
B- Attack him enough to put him down to create an opening and run.
C- Attack him and beat him up, so he doesn't get up and dies.
D- Stay there and be killed.

If you chose B, it means you know what appropriate force means.

Appropriate Force is not just sitting there and taking a beating or Staying on the scene and killing your attacker. This isn't a soldier's war you're fighting, this is civilian life. Appropriate force means, when you know and are sure of the present danger, you will use only enough force on the attacker so you can create an opening for yourself and escape the situation alive, it is not to severely injure or kill your attacker, but to ensure your own safety and survival.

So, now i've posted both sides of the spectrum;

-One where you turn into the violent attacker you were supposed to be fighting and face the consequences of your actions.

-The other where you not only survive but also not be labeled the criminal yourself.

Something to think about, yeah?

Well, that's it for today. Stay safe, Use Common Sense and Logic in your training and life.

Thank you for reading.

Multiple Opponents: can you fight them simultaneously? ofcourse not!

Today i'm going to talk about multiple opponents and what to do if you get in such a situation.

As they say there's strength in numbers, well that is completely true when it comes to fighting multiple opponents.

See there are many people who claim to teach you to "fight" multiple opponents and along with those promises you'll see them in their demos doing the same. Then of course there's always the movies that make you think it's possible.
If i haven't already said it, i'll say it again, movie fights, demos and even most of the instructional videos you see are not real fights, they're choreographed movements and that's completely different than being in an actual fight.

Now, there is an exception to fighting multiple opponents, here, size matters, the bigger you are the more difficult it will be for them to put you down, but again, if the number of opponents is high enough, then the biggest of guys can go down.

The thing about multiple opponents is you never know how many there are, where they are and when they'll show up and that's why you never fight multiple opponents, you escape a multiple threats scenario.

Many people that i've come across till now have asked me the same set of questions and this one was always included in that set: How can i take on 3-4 opponents at the same time?" -The answer is, YOU CAN'T! no one can, not unless the individual has a gun, even then it's going to be extremely difficult in that panicky situation to pull out the gun, aim, and shoot all 3-4 people, at least 2 of the 4 will reach you, try to take the gun from you and will succeed too, then you're a dead man.

You can never know exactly what will happen in a situation like this and how it will play out, you cannot play out every possible and probable scenario there is in your training, you just can't do that, there's a million things that can happen and a billion things to take into account for each scenario, anyone would go crazy thinking all of that.

What you can do is follow a set of principles and a short but realistic set of techniques about 5-6 not more, maybe even less, that can be applied to just about anything.

Remember, the more choices you have the more time it'll take for you to choose and execute your choice, and you can't afford to lose precious time in those situations.

I'll say it again, never try to fight multiple opponents, if you do, you'll fail miserably and it'll be the last, fatal mistake of your life, you escape multiple opponents.

So next time you train, try some strategies out on how to escape multiple opponents, rather than fight them, try hurting them enough to clear your way and get out. Also, get your cardio up fast. If you tire out after escaping, your attackers can catch up to you and this time there won't be any escape and you'll have enraged attackers who want your head on a platter. Why? Because you just hit them dude! Remember?
That's why physical fitness is necessary to include in your training.

That's it for today.

Thanks for reading.

Martial Arts vs Street Fighting and Self Defense

 Examples of Street Fights

Examples of Martial Arts

Today's topic deals with the difference between Street Fighting and Martial Arts, I have already posted a topic on Street Fighting vs Self Defense. Now this is a long one, so get ready 'cause i'm gonna try and make it as detailed as possible.
Now, as you can see in the above images, there's a distinct difference between the two.
Question is which one of these actions in the above images would you be able to do if you were in a life threatening situation, had little time, a small space to move around, and no warning at all, the simple things(as shown in street fighting examples images) or the other things(that are done in dramatic way and with pads and protections with dancing and movie-like movements?)

Martial Arts-What does "Martial Arts" mean?

"Martial" means War. "Art" means well, Art.

Martial Arts today is a very delicate subject. People are confused between the reality of fighting and what MA's have to offer in it, in today's time of brutal and merciless violence. Why has this happened?

Well, first lets start with a little simple history and it's current state, Martial Arts as you know them today, weren't the same years ago, they were actually deadly arts, that were used by warriors and officers of the law in wars and real combats, that was about a 100+years ago and before the time when martial arts were popularized as sports for entertainment or recreation or money making schemes or whatever you wanna call it, this transformation happened a few years ago. Although there are MA's used as sports since the ancient roman times, i'm not saying that in those times all MA's were used only in real combat and not in sports, no, there were some that were used for entertainment in those times, but the rules then were not as you see the rules in tournaments today, they were much less safe and much more brutal, some even proved to be fatal, so you see, even when they were used for sports, they were effective enough to seriously injure or kill another person, don't you think that kind of thing would be useful in a real situation? Well, yes and no, in today's time the violence is much more different than violence in those times, today violence has the same principles, but it has become much more out of control, messy and ugly, it's reality is unbearable(so much so, that many people today, willingly choose to ignore it and the so called "violence" shown by the media doesn't help bring out the truth about violence either). Plus, there will always be consequences of using violence. Legal, Moral and Societal consequences that you can't take lightly.

So, anyway, back to my point, because of that, basically, the sports mentality will not help you in a real situation, like today's so called most "dangerous" and "deadly" sport MMA, yes i've heard someone call MMA deadly, i have no idea where that person got that "info", i guess it's from all the publicity. Anyway, let me tell you this and many people who know about the reality of combat and violence will tell you the same thing, the MMA you know, the ring Sport, is not even close to being deadly. There is nothing deadly about a combination of thai boxing and bjj, both of which are quite safe fighting sports, well, at least as safe as fighting can get.

Many so-called expert fighters don't even know how to handle a weapon wielding psycho or coke head who's coming at them full speed stabbing and slashing his way into their face, neck and guts. There are a very few mma fighters who cross train with 'reality based systems', and only then do they even understand the difference between their ring sport and basics of violence, but that's very rare.

Sport competitors have only one mentality, that is to win, not to survive, but to win, but many don't understand this, and i've said it before in my other post, that there is no winning without surviving it(violent situation/s)first.

Today you would not see any division of military or law enforcement training in katas or stuff like that, at max, they train a little in bjj and maybe some ju-jutsu, especially law enforcement train that because they need it in their jobs, as they deal with resistant perps on almost a daily basis, that cannot be restrained easily, they need to take them down so they can restrain them and put the handcuffs on and make the arrest and some fight back even after that, so, they, need these skills, even bouncers need these skills, to restrain angered drunk people who create trouble in clubs, etc. Military guys train in them because they have to be well-versed in every range of combat, as the situations they're in, especially in close combat and also to detain a possible target, you never know what you might need to do or who you might face, with what kind of weapon/s, in what kind of situation/s or terrain/s, so their grappling is quite a lot different than that of the law enforcement type and obviously completely different the sport one. But military personnel rarely ever need to use any sort of H2H or CQC methods, up until a few decades ago they didn't even give that much importance to H2H methods, most of the training consisted of things like firearms training, urban, jungle, guerrilla warfare, survival in different terrains, radio operations, explosives, interrogation techniques, sniper training and depending on what division of Military you were going for, the training would expand from there. Hand to hand combat was almost non-existent in Military training, even during WW2, H2H combat training was less than 2-3 days for the soldiers. It was not until the early late 90's and 2000's that H2H started getting some significant attention in Military training.

Now, back to my point, every line of work that involves violence in some way, has developed training systems specifically to fit the needs of their respective occupation/s. Of course the techniques are taken from many different martial arts, but those techniques are then modified so that they can be put to use effectively in live combat and violent situations they face on a regular basis.

So, dealing with violence on a regular basis is a job for the brave men and women of the law enforcement and the military, and they do it, to ensure our safety, so we can live our lives comfortably, peacefully and not have to deal with all that violence ourselves.

Of course, then there are the bouncers, guards who try and maintain the peace in places like clubs and bars etc. where a thing like peace cannot exist for even a mere second with all the angry drunk out of their minds people, who are always looking for trouble, and then there is the security, VIP protection and bodyguards who protect their clients lives with their own, who ensure their client's safety before their own.

But, unfortunately, for civilians, there is no one to protect us, when these above mentioned, are not around to fight for you and put their lives in danger for your safety.

So who's responsible when that happens?

IT'S YOU! and only you who's responsible for your own safety. First you try and deescalate, if that doesn't work, don't wait for the other guy to hit you first, because if he gets a shot in, believe me, you're not gonna be able to think, see or hear anything clearly, you'll be disoriented, blacked out or knocked out and the guy will be stomping on your head before you can take you next breath, there's your reality!

All you can do and all you should do is: Be First, Be Fast, Be Simple, Be Direct and Be Violent when you're in it, and you should know by that time, that you're not getting out without a fight, after you're finished with the guy, then you can escape.

Of course during the fight your primary goal should be survival, but since you can't survive without a fight, your main goal in that case should be bringing your attacker down first and then, escaping the situation.

I'm talking about the worst case scenario here, it's not always that you'll be fighting for your life, majority of times, fights can be deescalated verbally and you can get out with no trouble. In fact, like i've mentioned before, they can be avoided altogether.

One more point i want to mention is, many people say that you should keep the law in mind while you're in that situation, well, let me ask you this, when the guy won't stop beating you up to a bloody pulp, do you really think about the law? Do you even care? Does your attacker, 'cause let me say this, if he did, he wouldn't be attacking you in the first place, so if he's not thinking about the law, you probably should either, at least not till you know you're safe.

For Example:- Once you have used enough force to stop the assault on you and are able to escape, then you should escape, and not just stay there to kill him, now that would be considered murder, but if he got cut somewhere on his body while you two are struggling with his knife, which he was using to stab you, now that wouldn't be your fault, see where you should draw your line? Okay. Of course, if you see the attack coming beforehand, none of this ever has to happen, but sadly most people don't, so this applies to them.

Think about everything, including the law, before anything happens in the first place. Remember, 'Prevention is better than cure'.

Now, back to MA, see, when you're in MA and you're training in a class, you know you're safe and no one's trying to violently murder you or rape you or rob you or invade your home, you think you can fight cause you kicked your sparring partner's ass, but do you ever stop to think?

Was your partner actually a violent criminal who knew how to use violence?

Did he want something from you so bad that he was willing to do anything to get it from you?

Did he go full force on you and didn't stop and got back up even when you did successfully "beat him down"?

Did he attack you with a really sharp weapon that you didn't know he had it on him?

Did he even resist your attacks to his fullest extent or was he just a living and willing dummy for you to play on?

Did your instructor stop the fight or did you "end it"?

Were you ambushed in your training?





There won't be many people in a real situation, except the other guy's friends possibly.

If you're lucky, there is a chance that there might be some people around who'll intervene for you and/or help you in keeping the attacker down till the police shows up.

But what if there is no one and you did beat down the attacker, and the police shows up after that, you have no proof that you're not the attacker, since you're the one standing and he's the one who's down, you're gone, to jail that is.

Yes, it has happened, people have gone to jail for protecting themselves and/or others, at least until they proved it that it was self defense, or if they had a good expensive lawyer that did it for them.

These type of misunderstandings have occurred more than once.

In a street fight, people will just stand there and watch, rather than helping you, many will actually cheer and shout and encourage you to do stuff and their shouts just escalate things more and more, making you and the other guy more angry and pumped up to fight each other, and then it all goes down to hell from there.

There are instances in violent situations, where people have come to help, but those are one of very few instances, where that happened, the victim was lucky enough that there were people around, it's not always the case, even the case of intervention, the people who tried to help have been shot or stabbed.

Can you handle that? Can you handle someone getting stabbed or shot and taken to the hospital with severe injuries or to the morgue; dead, because they were trying to save you?

Especially because you'd realize later that you froze in the panic and were unable to act under pressure to help the guy who helped you.

There are always legal, moral and societal consequences to such things.

These type of things in life are not at all easy on anyone and neither is violence, it's scary, messy and nothing like you'd imagine, martial arts can only help you so much, you know as the saying goes, 'It's better to have something than to have nothing', even if it is not that much effective at least you would have something to defend yourself with. But the best thing to have to defend yourself is you, your brain, your intuition.

That being said, remember, sometimes, having the wrong thing, just makes bad things worse. So don't rely on them, they still lack the necessary training prep you need to survive real violence.

Also, you need to understand that, there are much worse things that can happen to you than just death.

Note- I realize that many will criticize me and hate me for saying those things about MAs and MMA. Well, to them all i can say, is calm down and think rationally for a second, let go of all that blind rage and bias, and just try to see the point i'm making here.

Again, i'm not saying they're not effective, i'm saying each and everything has a purpose and it's particular elements that it's the most effective in, it's up to you to know what suits best where.

It's up to you to make something effective for himself/herself.

I'm not saying don't do this and that or do this and that, you can do whatever the hell you want, it's your life, who am i to tell you what to do? No one, that's who.
This is just me trying to clear up some misconceptions, trying to open up some eyes, that have been shut by all the propaganda, promotions and all of the movies today, just open your minds for a bit, let go of that hate, rage and bias and you'll realize that there is a point to this and quite a good one too, one that just might save your life some day, if you ever get into one of those type of situations as a result of failing to avoid it.

Anyway, i said whatever that needed to be said and that's about it, if you don't agree, well, hey! Everyone's entitled to their opinion.

There is a saying by Thomas Jefferson to P.H. Wendover, i don't remember the whole thing, but i do remember the first part of it, and it goes like this;

"Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to truth, and that i am sure, is the ultimate and sincere object of us both".

So take from it and do with it what you will.

Well, Thanks for reading, i told you this'll be a long one. I hope this helped though, as i tried my best to do so and make it as clear and detailed as possible.

(I do not own any pictures, they were public domain, taken from wikipedia).

What's the most important thing you need in a fight?

There are many things, many factors to consider when it comes to a street fight, like for example, the possibility of multiple opponents or whether the opponent is carrying one or more weapon/s or his height, size/weight, the terrain you're in, as in wet slippery ground, or ground covered in debris, or as i stated in my previous post, unhygienic, disease covered ground, also traffic, and many more things too.

Now as for my topic on what's the most important thing to have in a fight? well, there are many answers,
1-Skills.
2-Abilities.
3-Weapons.
4-Friends/Back-up.
5-Presence of mind.
6-Calm, Clear Mind.
7-Techniques and Principles.

..and the list goes on..

But along with these things, the most important are three things, 1-Perfect Violent Intent 2-Psychological and Physical Training 3-Preparation.

Now, what is a Violent Intent? lets break it up, shall we?
Violent- Using physical force to hurt, damage or kill someone or something.
Intent- Aim, Intention or Purpose.

Now, why did i say you need to have a Violent Intent?

It's because your attacker has the same thing, he has an indiscriminate violent intent, and he's going to use it to scare, intimidate, hurt or even kill you or anyone to get whatever he wants from you, and to protect yourself, you're going to have to do the same, its the way that you're going to use it, that'll differ from him.

Unlike him, you should be able to turn it on and off whenever you want/need it to, in your life you can be the most kind and caring person, but when it comes to fighting, you should be the most cruel, brutal and violent person you can be and do everything necessary when it comes to protecting yourself and your loved ones, don't spare anything in protecting yourself and your loved ones.

Now we all know what i mean by physical training, it contains physical fitness, capabilities and capacity and fighting skills and abilities.

What do i mean by psychological training and preparation?

Well, psych training is important in real and sport fighting training, but both mentalities differ from each other greatly.

Sport mentality also can be seen two ways, i.e in competition sport fighting, like karate tournaments and MMA(cage fight, especially the modern MMA). They're not that different but not exactly the same either.

Anyways both have the mentality of scoring points basically and winning, MMA is more full contact than other tournaments you see and more injuries occur, like in sport boxing, but sometimes even more as they use all of the 8 human weapons, including grappling and not just punches.

See, sport competitors have just one thing to worry about, as in, just their one opponent, they don't have to worry about multiple opponents, weapons, different terrains, and their opponent is not trying to kill them, he just wants to win, either by K.O or Submission.

Their mentality is more focused on winning than surviving, but in a real fight you can't focus on winning, there's only surviving, without it, there is no winning.

There is no winning in a street fight, because it's highly unpredictable and you never know what, where, who or when you might face a life threatening assault.

In a ring you know who and where your opponent is, when the fight is, not to mention you have preparation time for the fight, in a real situation you will not see your opponent until he's right in front of you or worse, behind you, ready to attack, it's sudden, swift, fast and it quickly ends, unlike sport fights which last till 30-40+ minutes, a real fight is no more than 10-20 seconds at max, everything happens simultaneously and almost instantaneously, and you won't have any prep time for it either, you'll just have your gross motor skills, if you trained them constantly that is, as all your fine motor skills will be forgotten and fly out the window in that panic filled, violent situation.

As i said, in any real fight, Surviving is Winning, and to survive, you need to prepare yourself not just physically but mentally too, not with sport mentality, but a truly alert, aware, prepared and a violent mentality, a street fighter's mentality, a criminal's mentality, but with complete control over it.

How do you train for it? you train for it in 2 ways;

1- By actually training in things that occur in real situations.
Or
2- By actually getting into these type of situations on a regular basis and get yourself used to them.

I don't recommend the 2nd option for civilians though, unless your job requires that sort of thing, for eg: A Law Enforcement Official, or Military personnel, or a Bouncer, Bodyguard, etc.

So to review, along with the things i mentioned the most important things you need are:
1- Perfect Violent Intent.
2- Psychological and Physical Training.
3- Preparation(which comes with the training and experience/s).

That's about it today.

I'll be posting on more topics in the future and even go into more details on different subjects.

Thanks for reading.