I saw the “Fighting thread” and thought “oh cool I’ve been meaning to make that thread”. But it’s about watching fighting. So here’s the thread I wanted to post.
Anybody here actually know how to fight? I do not. Got in the most minor scraps as a kid and some mainly BS “hold me back” stuff in college, but nothing approaching real.
Over the years since I got sober I’ve gotten myself in excellent physical condition and have been searching for what’s next. I have no real compulsion to do a marathon or a longer triathlon. So I’ve been thinking I’d like to learn how to actually fight.
The disciplines online I’ve found most interesting are Krav Maga and Muay Thai. There are also a bunch of MMA gyms near me (I happen to live in a very MMA-gym-heavy place) that teach a combination of stuff that always includes BJJ.
My biggest issue is schedule. For years I’ve been getting up at 4:30AM and doing my workouts super early before the world starts moving. Once the day starts my schedule gets difficult. And once things start to wind down in the evening I am kaput (obviously this might not be true if I didn’t get up at 4:30). No gyms do classes at 5AM (at least none that I’ve found). I might be able to find an individual trainer to work with me at that hour, but that’s not really what I’m looking for and would probably get really expensive quickly.
I joined a Kung Fu studio for a few years when I was in my 20’s. The work outs were great, but most of the more advanced strikes/moves I was learning were meant to cause extreme injuries, death, and disfigurement. Not my cup of tea. If your conscience won’t let you execute the moves, I’d suggest finding a discipline that suits you better.
It’s an easy kick to block–as simple as raising a knee, but if you are in close enough you can drive the back of your heel into the beanbag pretty effectively. If that drops them to their knees you’re in a position to drive your elbow straight down on the collar bone, which I’ve heard is a pretty weak bone. I have broken my left CB twice, so I believe it’s true.
If I am in a position to elbow their collar bone, I’m giving them a 12-6 elbow to the back of the head. I’m not fighting someone unless I have to and if I have to, I’m going to try to hurt them.
I think you’re going to hurt them worse by breaking the collar bone. I broke mine skiing and could not lift my shoulders from the ground once I regained consciousness. It was a clean break though, so maybe that had something to do with it.
Let me be clear. I am interested in causing brain trauma and affecting your quality of life if you put me in a position where I feel forced to fight. I would also consider trying to inflict permanent damage on the eye.
I do not want to fight. If you make me, I will go scorched earth on you. My fighting philosophy is to look up what is banned in UFC and try to learn how to do those things.
Two guys picked a fight with me outside a bar and got me cornered in an alley. I was running my mouth a bit too much. One short stocky guy slammed me against the wall and tried to swing which glanced me. Something in me went berserk and I threw two off balanced right hooks directly into the base of his jaw. After the first one landed i kind of saw his eyes blank out but i had already thrown the second. He fell directly backwards pretty hard.
The second guy tackled me and put me in a hold and i was convinced i was going to get the everloving piss kicked out of my skull by the first guy. But i think he may have been injured because his friend let me go and they disappeared quite suddenly.
I have had a few minor “close ones” since then but usually when people get in your face they arent intending to actually throw fists.
My friend is a really good street fighter and has said the key is just overwhelming aggression early on because whoever lands the first punch usually wins vs two untrained fighters
Have always wanted to learn to box or learn some martial art but I’m not really sure where to begin.
I hear you and agree that inflicting maximum damage to end the fight as quickly as possible is the point. As someone who tends to think about ramifications of my actions, I would avoid reaching into someone’s eye sockets and pulling the bridge of their nose out or crushing an eye socket or caving the side of their head in with, oh, I don’t know, an elbow. The authorities might find your response excessive and charge you accordingly, or the jerkoff you just destroyed could force you to defend yourself in court. Be careful out there.
I taught my brother to fight using your friend’s advice. He was trying to box me and I used my shoulders to block his punches and would slap him hard enough to sting, but not leave marks. I let him do his thing until he got frustrated and wanted to quit, then told him to stop boxing and just rain down punches until I fell over. That was definitely the ticket and I usually ended up bloody after our sessions. One of his friend’s mom bitched me out for teaching him how to fight after he wrecked one of her kids. I hated her with a passion, so it was pretty satisfying.
yea lol at bar tards squaring up like it’s the fucking UFC. The guy that just charges in and wreaks havoc will win that fight.*
*against the untrained. Even a mildly trained fighter will whoop your ass before you even know what happened.
I do wonder sometimes still if I really hurt that guy. every moment in that fight felt like slow motion and I will never forget the feeling of impact and almost feeling it reverberate, and then the sound it made, followed by seeing his eyes suddenly look like they were looking a million miles away. I feel a little bad about it, but it was a total self defense scenario (even if I definitely taunted him enough to want to hit me in the first place) and I have no doubt had I not KO’d or stunned that guy so badly that they wouldve sent me to the hospital, they were saying all sorts of shit like how bad they were gonna fuck me up and how I made a huge mistake etc. etc. My dumb ass, following my usual (and often correct) principle of “no one threatening a fight ever actually wants to fight” just kept taunting them and didn’t realize I had kind of accidentally walked myself into an actual corner. Could’ve ended up much worse but to this day I am proud that i had the presence of mind to hurl my glasses far away so they couldn’t be damaged in a scuffle.
Nowadays, I would never go that far or get in that fight in the first place, but I still feel someone as loud mouthed and impulse-control lacking as me should probably learn because I don’t doubt there will be another. I almost got in a fight on the golf course the other day.
I try to remind myself that I’m not all that tough anymore, but sometimes I can get pissed enough to throw caution to the wind. Happened at the mall about six months ago when I was in the men’s room with my son (14yo) and we wound up exiting a few seconds apart. The first thing I saw when I opened the door was this mid-20’s punk get in his face saying “What you lookin’ at bro?” as he passed by him, holding his arms out like he was daring my kid to throw a punch. My kid ignored him, but I was seeing way too much red and went after him. I said “Say that again motherfucker, say it to me. I fucking dare you.” I was going to slam him into the wall and beat his ass, but my kid tugged on my jacket and said “Dad, let’s just go.” And that was that, but that punk was shitting his pants. He tried to walk into the women’s bathroom and was stuttering something about his girlfriend while I was raging at him. Good thing someone with some maturity was there to stop me from going to jail. But then again it wouldn’t have happened in the first place if he wasn’t there, so…
I recommend choosing something that fits your size/strength/reach/etc profile. I need to start exercising more and am looking into joining a studio. BBJ is good for evening the playing field against bigger, stronger attackers. At least that’s what one of the websites says. Very good reviews on Yelp, but I haven’t visited yet. I’m still fairly strong, but I’m not big, so BBJ seems like it might be a good fit for me. Definitely going to check it out and see if my kid wants to learn with me.