How To Survive and Thrive In a Street Fight in 8 Simple Steps
May 6, 2008
Let’s say you’re out with your buddies (or maybe a lovely young lady) having a good time, when all of a sudden some jackass shoves you. You didn’t do anything to instigate the guy, but it doesn’t matter.
There is a special breed of males, that when inebriated, start fights with random people. This breed, when found in their wild habitat, are often accompanied by their similarly boneheaded buddies.
Or perhaps you and your posse end up in a rumble with the Socs because one of your buddies killed a Soc while trying to save Ponyboy from being drowned by a douche bag Soc. Man, I hate them Socs. Stay golden Ponyboy.
What can you do to prepare for a street brawl and protect yourself in this type of situation? Here are 8 simple steps you can follow to avoid ending up in the emergency room after a street fight.
1. Wake up! When someone threatens you, snap to attention. Be aware of your environment. Look for objects that you can use for weapons. Searching out a place to escape to is especially important if you’re outnumbered.
2. Try to defuse the situation. Try to talk with the guy and calm him down. If you did something unknowingly that offended him (like looking at him funny), then apologize. Don’t let your ego get in the way of apologizing for something you didn’t do. Your first goal should be to avoid fighting. Maintain confident body language. Don’t show the guy you’re afraid.
3. Walk away. If talking to the knucklehead doesn’t work, start to leave the scene. But maintain alertness and walk away backwards, still facing your opponent. If he’s a no-good, yellow-belly rat, he’ll attack you from behind.
4. Assume a fighting position. If the jerk is still threatening you and you have nowhere to go, assume a stable fighting stance. Spread your stance to about shoulder width apart and slightly bend your knees. The goal is to maintain balance so you don’t end up on the ground. Keep your hands up to protect your face and clench your teeth. A solid punch to an open mouth can lead to a broken jaw.
5. Defend yourself. The goal is to defend yourself from violent and unjustified aggression, so don’t be afraid to fight dirty. If you have any object to use as a weapon, use it. This can be anything like a chair, a bottle (extra man points for first breaking the bottle and then thrusting the jagged part at your opponent), or a 2X4. Here are some other techniques that could be used in this sort of situation:
- Knee to the groin. No explanation needed why this is effective.
- Low kicks to the knee, groin, or abdomen. Kick like you’re kicking down a door, using the bottom of you foot. A solid kick to one of these areas can incapacitate your attacker long enough for you to get away.
- Headbutt to the face. Your forehead is one of the hardest bones on your body. Use this to your advantage by headbutting your opponent hard across his nose. If done correctly, you can do some serious damage.
- Throw a punch. If done correctly, an overhand punch can put your attacker out of commission.
6. Take punches effectively. While you should do your damnedest to avoid getting punched, you can’t avoid them all. If you have to take a punch, strive to absorb it in a way that minimizes the impact and damage..
- A punch to the head. Move towards the punch, tighten your neck muscles and clench your jaw. By moving into the punch, your attacker may miss the mark wide to either side. Absorb the punch with your forehead. It’s the hardest bone your body. If your attacker hits you there, his hand will be hurting and you’ll have minimized the damage to yourself.
- A punch to the body. Tighten your stomach muscles, but don’t suck in your stomach. Try to shift so the punch lands on your obliques rather directly in the stomach or vital organs.
7. Give your best war cry. While defending yourself, make as much noise as possible. There are two reasons for this. First is the intimidation factor. Yelling may distract and intimidate your attackers, leaving you a better chance of getting in some good blows or getting away. The second reason is to draw attention. The more people who gather around you, the easier to call a douche bag’s bluff.
8. Make your escape. After you have incapacitated your attacker using the methods described above, get the hell out of there.
Inspired by The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook
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Great article, loved the war cry suggestion, and lots of other fantastic pointers!
I knew it! See guys. Fight dirty. Fight to win (or at least to survive). The hospital is littered with guys who fought like a gentleman.
…well, probably not, but maybe.
Things get dramatically easier if you are packin’ a spare billy club or side piece.
@ Raconteur - agreed. I’m not afraid to fight dirty if I haveta. Protect ya neck.
First three steps shouldn’t be overlooked. A lot of people seem to jump straight into throwing fists when put into this situation. And yes, there is no such thing as gentlemanly fighting when a drunken lout starts shoving you.
I would also suggest going for his eyes, as it makes it easier to get away quickly while he is temporarily without vision.
You forgot the best way..be in decent shape. Being in decent shape can make muggers overlook you, and it can also give you the confidence to be not nervous even when threatened. Be proactive.
Hah, this article comes about 4 days too late for me. I got in a scrap due to a buddy of mine breaking a glass door at a bar. It wasn’t pretty, but I did end up choking a guy and hitting him in the kidney a few times.
I would move the “war cry” up to the top, after trying to defuse the situation. Shouting serves two purposes: First, it conveys your readiness and may dissuade your opponent from attacking. Maybe the conflict ends there… He makes up some poor excuse (”You’re not even worth it”) and walks away. Second, it draws attention to the situation and may bring help from others or intervention by law enforcement.
“Use a weapon”? “First to break a bottle gets extra man points”? WRONG. You should never bring a weapon into the situation unless you’re trained how to fight against it. A weapon can always be wrestled from your grasp and used against you. If you’re forced into a brawl, do your best to ensure that it’s empty-handed.
“The goal is to maintain balance so you don’t end up on the ground.” Actually, this can be the safest place to be, if you know how to grapple. Many fighters actually want to end up on the ground — And I guarantee you, 90% of streetfights end up on the ground anyway.
Of course, it stands to be reiterated that the best scenario is to defuse the situation and avoid the confrontation altogether.
If you’re forced into the fight, the way you handle yourself depends on your level of experience. If you don’t know how to defend yourself, then your first priority is self-preservation (or defense of your loved ones) by whatever means necessary. However, if you can manage a brawl, then the morally superior route (and the most manly action) is to subdue your opponent without inflicting permanent damage. Breaking your opponents knees or knocking out a few of his teeth may feel good when you do it, but it’s better to bring your opponent into submission. This ends the threat immediately but allows him the opportunity to amend his ways and walk away with a new lease on life. (Not all adversaries take advantage of this, but it is the ethically superior thing to do.) This is not the “gentlemanly fighting” people are alluding to in the comments above — I would define “gentlemanly fighting” as a duel. Rather, I am arguing for using your prowess, whether inside the ring or outside in the streets, to control the situation and choose, carefully, the level of injury inflicted upon your attacker. The ability to control the fight is the hallmark of the “manly” fighter.
Alessandro-great points. The stuff about using chairs and bottles was my attempt to be humorous. Alas, my tongue in cheekiness often gets misinterpreted.
@Kyle-Good point. If you look like a weenie, it’s going to be a lot harder to negotiate your way out of a confrontation.
@Aaron-At least you’ll have a great story to share in the weeks and months to come.
The most manly thing about a fight is the ability to prevent it from ever happening. I took a martial arts course where the instructor when through examples of blocks and attacks that would hold up in a court of law (course for bouncers). There’s no good in defending yourself against an attacker if they take you to court for thrashing them (or worse, ending up in jail with assault charges). If your opponent can’t be talked down (with your Frank Sinatra lingo and cunning mental prowess as a gentlemen, this should not be too difficult), apply basic rules of engagement: DO NOT ATTACK UNLESS FIRED UPON. A great defense against a punch to the head or attempted strangling is what I call the ‘prayer position.’ Put your hands together as if praying (palms together), step forward into the punch with your dominant leg, and thrust your arms forward. this creates a V shape to deflect the punch and, if aimed correctly, might take out some eyes. This also puts you in a close situation with your opponent where your attacks can be quick and powerful to soft spots, like the ribs. Nothing like a few cracked ribs to slow someone down. What’s most important about this maneuver is if you do end up in court or in contact with police, hey “I was praying he wouldn’t hurt me, but he attacked anyways. Everyone who saw can say I had my hands in a prayer position.”
Unfortunately, there are too many variables for a “this is what you should do” solution. If you’re in a fairly nice bar, chances are that the bouncers will be aware of a situation before any punches are thrown. If they’re not and someone punches you it might be better to take the punch rather than laying the jerk out and later finding out he has a high-priced lawyer, or worse, is one. Jon was correct in his warning about attacking first.
If you’re in an alley at 3 a.m. it’s anything goes, although if you’re in an alley at 3 a.m. you deserve to have your ass kicked. Nothing good happens after midnight. The only people out at that hour are cops and criminals, and the cops wear uniforms.
In such a case, your primary targets are all on your opponent’s centerline - Eyes, nose, throat, solar plexus and groin.
straight punch to nose. if it doesnt break it then it’ll make their eyes water and give you time to run for cover.
failing that - throw your girlfriend at them, run for cover.
on weapons
Do not carry one since it can get you more into trouble if you don’t have a permit.
Second: Do not use a weapon if you can’t fight without it. i knew i guy that always got beet up by some guys that had something against him. one day they tried beating him up at school but he got his hands on a broom and beat them up really good. he had been studying kendo for some time…they left him alone after that but he couldn’t carry a shinai or a stick around every time so he took up another martial art.
only use a weapon if it enhances hour fighting skill or if you really need to use one to defend yourself and your loved ones.
you carry weapons on you and you don’t even know it:
Keys - put them in your fist. it’s called “granny’s fist” and it can be deadly
A news paper - roll it up and you can beet someone with it. if they try to grab you hit their wrist…it hurts like hell.
A belt…a piece of leather with metal on an end…need i say more?
A pen can be used to put pressure on soft tissue. the neck and eyes are an obvious choice, so is that point under the ear.
Fingers: poke eyes, try to rip mouth tissue, grab the other guys finger and push then the other way.
I disagree with the war cry suggestion. One of the main reasons for loosing a battle (physical, verbal with a friend or significant other or in a board room) is to become angry or altered. Yelling would alter your senses and not let you be as centered as necessary to react quickly.
I would also suggest taking Krav Maga classes, by far the most effective fighting system in the world.
Take care,
Art Gonzalez
Check my Squidoo Lens at: Quantum Knights
DON”T Break a Bottle
Not just for the weapon charges alone, You break a bottle wrong and you wind up with a handfull of broken glass… There is a technique to that that can’t always be duplicated in the heat of the moment.
In my school days my fight checklist went something like this.
1. Try to talk my way out of it. - Self depreciating humor worked most times.
2. Run - Under the philosophy that “he who runs away lives to run away another day.”
3. Get beat up - Obviously the least desirable outcome.
I didn’t learn to successfully defend myself until I got older, and really tired of that third step.
For outstanding training and practice in all of these techniques (and more, as well as fitness sessions and more advanced fighting classes), start here:
http://www.kravmaga.com/
Hey, you forgot run like your hair is on fire! Oh yeah, I don’t have any hair. Oh well, I still like the idea of creating a distraction and running like crazy to get out of the situation. It may not be very manly and you can call me a chicken if you like, but avoiding a fight is the best way to survive it.
For the advanced lessons. When you and your buddies are are faced with an unescapable bar fight with an equivalent or greater number of aggressors:
- Pick out the smallest guy in the opposing group and jump on him first
- Repeat until all little guys are disabled
- Of the remaining big fella’s jump on the least largest one with the most number of your buddies already on him
- Repeat until all the big fella’s are disabled
Great article, should i find myself in a street fight i will do my darndest to recall this.
Quick question, where did the picture for the article come from?
You forgot to mention step 0: avoid the situation entirely if possible. Like it or not, some places are more likely than others to attract the more bone-headed of the populace. Avoiding certain bars, parts of town, or other such places will go a long way toward staying out of the bar brawl entirely.
For that matter, if you’re going out to the bar, never go alone. For one thing, drinking alone is a bad idea in and of itself. For another, never assume there’s only one bone head; he’s probably out with his equally bone-headed friends. Have backup, you may need it.
growing up I was trained in jujitsu. two reasons:
1) putting some one in a painful lock does not normally leave marks, so you don’t get that whole lawyer with the bruise photo’s.
2) many of the trips and throws look more like the other guy is clumsy and fell, again probably will not land you in court.
throwing a punch or a kick is clearly aggressive, so even if you did not start the fight, you look just a guilty. locks and trips are rather innocuous, and hopefully will go un noticed.
the way my old man always said it, ‘”put the guy on the ground, then walk away so he has time to decide whether to get back up”.
Chris Cree
I think we went to the same school!!!! The only difference for me was that I switched your steps 1 and 2.
I think Krav Maga would be more popular if they called it Jew Jitsu. Whee! Seriously, has anyone done an in-depth study comparing Krav Maga and Jiu Jitsu in terms of defensive efficacy? I’m curious.
P.S. I liked the piece but I think it’s unclear that the bottle recommendation is a joke (although the part about breaking it is amusingly phrased).
War cry works good - often freaks people out and confuses them.
Another effective strike is to hit them with an open palm, striking upwards to the jaw (easy knock-out) that way you can say it was in self defense. (you were pushing them)
NEVER turn your back on an enemy - I took a serve beating years ago after i thought I had won the fight - I walked away after knocking the guy down and the guy got back up punched me in the back of the head: resulting in a face plant into the concrete… Not cool.
Last tip - stay sober
@Mooja: The smallest guys are normally the worst guys to try to take - size does not determine the skill of a fighter.
I was in a fight recently, for relatively chivalric reasons, and although I came off very well, this article has still been interesting and helpful.
However, I have one critisism (this may have already have already been discussed in the comments, I haven’t read them all so I apologise if I’m repeating something someone else has said). In point 5, Defend Yourself, you suggest using a weapon, and this is something I would always advise against. I realise laws vary from state to state, and are obviously different in my home of England, but usage of a weapon, particulalry something with a sharp or jagged edge will always land you in trouble with the law, regardless of circumstanses(although courts will be more lenient if you use something blunt, rather than something that can be seen as a “deadly weapon” like a glass or a smashed bottle). A couple of years ago, friend of mine was attacked by multiple opponents who were older and bigger than him, and in a moment of desperation picked up a glass and hit one of his assailants with it. Although my friend was defending himself, was seventeen at the time and had no previous convictions, because he used the glass, a “deadly weapon” he was seen as the criminal, regardless of circumstances. He was sentences to 21 months in prison last December.
This has been a rather longwinded comment, and I have rambled on too much. The point I am making is using a weapon, especially if you could cut or stab someone with it, is to be advised against as it is more than likely it will land you in far more trouble than you’re already in.
I don’t know about this. The last fist fight I got into was when I was 22 yrs old at a nightclub. Some guy was being a moron and hitting on my girl, we ended up leaving but he followed me out and swung at me. It landed me in county jail for a night because this a-hole who turned out to be a government official. No charges were pressed thank God. But I remember afterwards looking in the mirror and seeing my face all beat up and bruised and thinking to myself how immature it was for me to even fight the guy. I think a real man handles his problems without having to get physical about it.
The best advice that I ever got about fighting was to steel yourself for the fact that you are going to get hit and that there is a good chance you will get beat up. As long as no one brings weapons, fistfights are rarely lethal, and getting your butt kicked really isn’t that bad.
These are some good tips overall for someone who is clueless and needs guidance on how to behave like a man in this situation.
Some good stuff in the comments too, but I think people missed the point. This is a tip for someone to use in a bad situation, not for people who want or need to learn to fight.
One point, sometimes you simply cannot avoid a bad situation. Not too long ago I was in a very nice, reputable, normally calm and quiet bar when an entire drunken wedding party stumbled in. They had reserved an adjacent banquet hall and wandered in when it closed. The security officer that was working was not going to be any help either, he was about 60 and maybe 5′7 going 275 I’d guess. Not the picture of intimidation.
Of course some sloshed buffoon comes over and plops down in my wife’s seat as soon as she gets up to use the restroom. He was there to order a drink. My wife came back and the guy had no clue what was going on, and insisted that he was going to get his drink. Fine buddy, just get out of my wife’s seat. His response was something like “wife? her? husband? ah.. you? well I’m going to get my drink dammit”.
My inclination was to just yank the bar seat out from under him and let him knock himself out when his chin hit the bar, but me vs. an entire wedding party seemed like bad odds to me. I just stood there and glared at him and said again that I was her husband and my wife wanted her seat back. He got his drink and then his loud mouth drunken female companion pulled him away saying something about ignoring us because we were just trying to start trouble.
We paid our tab and left after that. And I knew that if the guy started trouble, I’d have been jumped by a bunch of drunks and whooped.
So, my rather long drawn out point is again, you can’t always avoid trouble. And you can’t always think that any technique you know is going to save you, there is always someone better. And you always have to be ready to face the fact that, yes, you are about to get an ass whooping, just do your best and take it like a man.
@ Brett
I understand part of what you were doing here was to be humorous, but this kind of article is best written without anything that could be misunderstood. A broken bottle is bad on so many levels. It becomes a deadly weapon which will land you in jail on weapons charges, plus, in the heat of battle it is very likely not to break as expected an leave you holding a handful of broken glass.
@ everyone suggesting run away
It’s not only non-manly, but it could actually cause you to get hurt worse. Fleeing from an agressor will trigger a response. That response is generally to chase after the fleeing prey (which at that moment, you are in his eyes). It is best to stand up to him, but you have to do that right as well. When trying to talk your way out of the fight, it is EXCEEDINGLY important that you give away NO sign of weakness. Stand at your full height, pull your shoulders back slightly and get a little cocky. Be fair and reasonable about what you say. In the given example from the article, tell the guy that you didn’t mean anything with your look and that you were amused by something else going on. Smile slightly and act friendly, but let your body language convey a readiness to defend yourself. If you are at a bar, offer to buy the guy a beer as a peace offering and move on, you might even end up with a bar buddy.
I’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by six….
The only time I got into a streetfight was when I was recovering from surgery on my foot and hobbling back out of town through a carpark.
4 guys surrounded me, started pushing me, getting little jabs into my sides and tried stamping on my bad foot. Considering that I had no chance of running away and wouldn’t be very good at kicks to the groin of 4 physically more capable people than myself I went straight for the face of the biggest guy, the ringleader. It hit him in the eye, the cheek and the nose and must have killed. Anyway the rest of the pack immediately backed down, muttering vague threats and agreeing with each other about the psycho they’d just met.
I fully expected a call from the police over the next few days since I lived in CCTV Britain and probably had about 5 cameras trained on me at any one time, possibly following me to the car, but I guess the buffoons didn’t want anyone to know that a cripple had scared off the whole lot of them.
I guess I didn’t really have a point to share, just wanted to share the mentality of some people.
Nothing wrong or unmanly about running. Hell, it’s even a military tactic. If they chase you, they’ll have less energy to hit you with. People who say “I’d never run. I’m a man” have never been beaten badly, or maybe just once. I’ve been in alot of fights, and lost alot of them. When I did run and get away, sometimes one of the trouble makers would see me later and try to start in on me without his crew around, and he’d get hurt. If you’r doggin people for bailing the scene, you are insecure in your manhood. And another thing, when you stand up tall, you are an easier target and less balanced.
@iamsofakingit: you are toatlly right, get it in your head you are going to get hit, and it willprobably hurt.
@maxwell demon: I have compared the 2 somewhat. I’m more familiar with krav maga. The main diff is one is a martial art and the other is a survival technique. One you can use to subdue, the other is for destruction.
You need to set a point at which you will take physical action against your opponent. eg he lays a hand on you or tries to touch you in some way.
You must then retaliate quickly and with as much force as you can muster. You are going to be scared, so decide when he crosses that boundary you have no choice but to act. And do it with all your might.
Aim for the bits that hurt, nose, eyes, bridge of foot. A kick to the side of the knee can sometimes work. Don’t bother with Karate. Bare knuckle fighters beat black belts.
When you have the opportunity, run away.