This self-defense tip deals with the theme of looking ahead and avoiding needless risk, covered earlier in Self-Defense Tip #35 — A Walk Through the City and in Self-Defense Tip #67 — Listen to Your Instinct and Act on It! See the video of an avoidable streetfight.
An avoidable streetfight
Two drunks are arguing on a sidewalk, and a couple, a man and a woman, walks by them at an unsafe distance. One drunk, to show off to the other one, backhands the woman as she passes close to him. Both drunks get knocked down by the woman’s companion, but not permanently…. They pick themselves up and follow the couple, and the man has to fend them off again and again.
What was the reason to walk that close to those two bozos? And to have the woman walk closer to them?
Self-defense tip from Thomas Kurz, co-author of Basic Instincts of Self-Defense and author of Science of Sports Training, Stretching Scientifically, and Flexibility Express.
Self-Defense Moves
For your defense moves to work under stress they must be based on your natural, instinctive reactions, require little strength and limited range of motion, and be proven in fighting experience.To learn how your natural reactions can instantly defeat any unarmed attack, see the video Basic Instincts of Self-Defense.
Defend Against Weapons
To defend against weapons you have to know how they are used. Also — every stick has two ends … the weapon of attack may become a weapon of defense in your hand …To learn how the typical street weapons (club, knife, razor) are used by an experienced streetfighter and how to practice with them, see the video Self-Defense: Tools of Attack — Club, Hatchet, Blackjack, Knife, Straight Razor.
Mental Toughness
Staying cool under pressure is more important for self-defense than being physically fit and technically skilled. If you can’t control your mind what can you control?To learn mental techniques that let you calmly face any threat and act rationally in the heat of a fight, click here.
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Great video, saw it on youtube a while ago. clearly the guy is a very aggressive type who’s just asking for situations like this. it’s not that he lacked the smarts to keep his distance; he just likes to instigate things. Maybe he needs chaos and action to fuel his dreary life.
I wonder, does his girlfriend realize she was walked into this and then used as a shield to give him a good position for initiating his attack? Nah, not likely by the looks of them.
Thanks for this great example.
I think to describe them as ‘stupid’ which the title suggests is unfair. It’s not ok to blame this women for getting punched in the face. It’s only the blame of the person who attacked her. I understand that they could have gone to the other side of the road but this fight was cause but a drunken dick hitting another person out of nowhere in the street. Feels like victim blaming to say that the girl should have walked further away.
The man was in charge. He walked her into the situation. Look at my comment of June 12:
“I wonder, does his girlfriend realize she was walked into this and then used as a shield to give him a good position for initiating his attack? Nah, not likely by the looks of them.”
The woman is not being blamed for getting punched, she is blamed for being stupid – ie allowing herself to be punched. Big difference.
Second, she was not ‘walked’ anywhere. Adults make their own decisions. If you want to be treated as an adult, you also have to act that part.
The guy wanted to show the girl that he’s a badass and a protector, so he steered her towards danger to prove he is a man. Or maybe “love is blind” and they didn’t see the bozos.