zygotesix wrote:This kind of thing really makes me think. I trained in various forms of hand to hand combat (not tae kwon do, either - real martial arts like krav maga and systema) for a dozen years. I've done hours and hours of training for fighting off multiple unarmed assailants. But the way I see it, even with the training I've had, and even if I was ten years younger and in the best shape of my life, if I got knocked out with that first punch, or at least knocked to the ground before I knew what was happening and had 6-10 people kicking and stomping on me, I doubt I could defend myself.
It's one thing to say "I've trained for this, I'd be ok" and another to do it in real life. Training is great but at some point if shit goes south the instructor will tell the attackers to stop. That doesn't happen in real life.
This also makes me realize that I wish I had some sort of actual situational awareness training outside of "look at things and be alert". My dad was a Ranger, and he taught me a lot about these things as a kid, but I doubt it's enough.
Then again I also think that no amount of training is ever "enough", so maybe that's just me.
Welp, I agree with this statement:
"Swordsmanship untested in battle is like the art of swimming mastered on land."
-the great actor Tatsuya Nakadai, as
Hanshiro Tsugumo in "
Hara Kiri"
But I'm not going to go deliberately looking for fights in order to get better fighty skills, anymore than I'd jump into a shark tank to encourage myself to swim better. So
training is what we are stuck with, and the bright side is this: if our training is never tested in real battle - Good! We win! Or at least we win if "winning" is defined as "achieving my goal of
not dieing from senseless violence." (Why else train in self defense?)
As for situational awareness - try the Marine adage "have a plan to kill everyone you meet." Wait, no, don't
actually have a plan to kill everyone you meet - that's psychotic. But as you go through the day and see people in front of you on the sidewalk, beside you at the elevator, a step or two behind you in your peripheral vision etc - just ask yourself, as an exercise, "if this person wanted to hurt me right now, how might they best accomplish it, and how could I best defend against it?" As you go through your day, look at the layout of rooms, at the architecture you pass, and play the same game - "how would someone ambush me from
that spot? Where could I go to escape?"
Think back to anytime you were ever attacked, or had reason to fear being attacked. What were you feeling right before the attack happened? Any feelings of foreboding or unease that you discounted right before the attack took place? If so, what prompted those feelings? Did you act on those feelings? If not,
what made you disregard those feelings?
If there was
no feeling of fear or foreboding before the attack happened, why not? What was occupying your concentration, what made you think you were secure?
At least have some humility. Or humanity in the first place. It is verry bad when a Mayor has to stop something like this. Any one know how the "Old Guy" is doing?
All of them ended up in the hospital with stab wounds (his were the most serious), and the guy they jumped suffered only minor injuries. All of them had weapons, shivs, what not. It just goes to show you that some people are absolutely ferocious fighters, especially when it's their life on the line.
