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unfair advantage
Not too long ago I faced a blind-drunk Canadian former hockey player outside a bar. Won the fight without throwing a punch. There were about 15 witnesses. It was in front of DV8 in Taipei.
It all started earlier in the evening. An American had somehow insulted him and he was bent on literally killing the American. The guy was extremely strong and it took six of us to push him out of the bar. All illusions of me being a lone aikido super-hero went out the door with him.
I'm convinced that if I had to fight him one on one, I would have needed a huge stroke of luck to beat him. He was much younger, stronger, extremely agressive, and he had probably been in far more fights than I will ever be in.
About 45 minutes later as my friend and I were leaving the bar, this drunk Canadian shows up again, bent on finding this American that he wanted to beat to death. I told him that the guy had left a long time ago, but he didn't believe me.
So then I told him that if he wanted to fight someone he could fight me. (I really don't know why I said that.)
So, I take off my jacket and stand my ground -- basically ready for anything. He had four friends and I had one guy watching my back.
The Canadian looks at me in near disbelief for about 10 seconds and then decides to go home.
I won, not through the power of intimidation, but with the power of rightousness. Given enough time to stop and think, the Canadian realized that fighting was the wrong thing to do, and he changed his mind.
I have seen this phenomenon happen countless times in my life. People who can only use intimidation to fight are far from the essence of aikido.
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