Intro: Learn how to win your next physical confrontation. Perhaps, you enjoy the rush of participating in many physical confrontations or maybe you were the victim of a violent assault and you realize that you need to know how to defend yourself against future attacks. Although many of us are peace lovers, fighting is an essential part of our common human experience because we have been fighting since the days of Cain and Able; therefore, we are all genetically programmed to fight whether we are males or females because we evolved from generations of fighters.
A real physical confrontation is a violent struggle where two or more people battle for physical dominance. While larger and stronger people are expected to win fights, many of them don’t because fighting is more about your psychological makeup, your training in martial arts, and your skill with weapons. The best fighters attempt to change every confrontation towards their strengths, while avoiding their weaknesses. Your strength could be your state of mind, your physical body, and your usage of weapons.
Step 1: Learn about fair and unfair fights. Before fighting any man or woman, you must first understand that there are two kinds of fights: fair and unfair. A fair fight has an established set of rules. Good examples of fair fights are boxing matches, kick-boxing events, wrestling competitions, and mix martial arts tournaments. These are fair fights because the participants do not have an unfair advantage against their opponents because of the fighting rules established before the fight.
However, unfair fights are usually unplanned fights that occur in the streets, in the ally, or in the parking lot. They are unfair because no rules have been established before the fight and they happen with a wide variety of unpredictable factors, which makes them extremely dangerous and sometimes deadly. An unfair fight should be avoided at all costs because they are potentially deadly encounters that bring no honor to the victor. An unfair fight should only be undertaken as a last resort because you may have to defend yourself from a violent assault, you may have to protect a family member from dangerous people, you may have to shield a close friend from a violent attack, or you may have to help a helpless stranger from being beaten to death.
Step 2: Study the rules of the fight. If you are about to participate in a fair fight, you must train according to rules of the fight. You must understand the legal and illegal fighting moves and styles. In other words, don’t kick your opponent if the rules only allow boxing, don’t wrestle your opponent if the rules only allow kick-boxing, and don’t punch your opponent if the rules only permit wrestling. Usually when a fighter breaks the rules it is because he or she is losing the match.
Step 3: Train with people who are similar to your opponent’s physical size, weight, and sex. Although many fair fights usually involve two people of the same sex who are similar in weight and height, fewer fights, particularly in mix martial arts, involve men against women, large people against small people, strong persons against weak persons, and tall fighters against short fighters. Usually these fights are designed to demonstrate to students that physical size and strength is not always an advantage.
Step 4: Develop a good strategy for your opponent’s fighting style because some fighters are aggressive and always on the attack, others fighters are defensive and are reluctant to attack, and some fighters have bad habits that expose their vulnerabilities. You must become flexible and make adjustment to the changing tactics of your opponent. You must develop great physical endurance because some fights may require tremendous physical effort. You must be mentally strong to endure the physical punishment you will experience in a hard fight.
Sep 5: Establish a good fighting stance to maintain your balance during the beginning of the fight because this will make it hard for your opponent to knock you off your feet. If you are knocked down, then you are finished unless you can fight on your back and you are stronger than your opponent. There are many fighting stances designed for effective fighting, but many fight stances involve spreading your feet apart because having your feet close together makes it easier for your opponent to knock you to the ground.
Step 6: Bend your knees and be prepared to shift your weight quickly and continually throughout the fight. Bending your knees helps maintain your balance and decreases the likelihood of you being knocked off your feet.
Step 7: Guard yourself by keeping your arms up near your head to block any strikes made by your opponent. Protecting your head is extremely important because your body can endure more punishment than your head and a good strike to your head can end your fight night early and dramatically.
Step 8: Use the beginning of the fight to ascertain how your opponent plans to fight you, to determine how strong your opponent is, to determine your opponent’s speed and quickness, to determine your opponent’s areas of strength and weakness.
Step 9: Make adjustments based on your opponent’s height. If you’re taller than your opponent, then try to keep him or her at a good striking distance because your longer limbs should allow you to strike your opponent from a greater distance. If you are shorter than your opponent, get in close very quickly because taller fighters can damage shorter fighters from a good striking distance where their height is their advantage. When moving in, make your attack from an angle or block your opponent’s punches when attacking straight ahead because this manner of attack reduces the likelihood of serious injury.
Step 10: Finally, make adjustments based on your opponent’s speed. If you are faster than your opponent, then move in fast, from many angles, strike fast, and move out fast. Attacking your opponent from different angles reduces your vulnerability when moving in for a strike. You must do your fighting in effective bursts because this allows you to assess your opponent in between attacks. If you are slower than your opponent, then fight defensively and patiently by keeping your strikes simple because a fast moving opponent will become tired and slow down to your speed. Many slower fighters defeat faster fighters with endurance and patients. Slow fighters should fight with accuracy more than with speed. Always remember that fast is good, but accuracy is better and you should take your time when you are fighting in a hurry.
Tips: Fined a good mix martial arts expert to train you and prepare your next confrontation. There are many men and women who are trained in the art and science of mix martial arts that would love to train you.
Warning: understand that in a fair fight your opponent is not your real enemy because he or she respects you and they only are participating in this type sporting event to celebrate the competitive nature of the human spirit. Watch more mix martial arts, boxing, and wrestling because these sporting events will teach you moves and help you anticipate moves.
However, understand that in an unfair street fight your opponent is your great adversary and you must defeat him or her by any means necessary. In other words, if you can’t run away from the attacker, you should grab any object and use it violently as a weapon and you should make loud noises or scream out for help to attract the attention of others. You should fight to get out of danger because unfair street fights are more about life and death rather than winning or losing a sporting event. Additionally, whether you are participating in a fair or unfair fight, all fights can result in serious injury or death; therefore, always fight to protect yourself.
Related Sources: My Life Experiences; Mix Martial Arts by Anderson Silva; Mix Martial Arts by B.J. Pin; Mix Martial Arts by Kelly Gripper.