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Old 11-25-2009, 01:09 PM   #2
lbb
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 3,202
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Re: Training for a physical confrontation

Quote:
Eric Winters wrote: View Post
What are some ways of training in the dojo that would help better prepare a person for a physical confrontation with another person? I understand there are all kinds of variables but lets just look at the basic, two people getting into a fight.
There is no such thing as "the basic, two people getting into a fight."
  • Why are they fighting?
  • Did one attack the other?
  • Why did the one attack the other?
  • Are they drunk?
  • Are they arguing over a football game?
  • What is their intention: to steal a wallet, to maim, to kill, or some vague dufus notion of "teaching a lesson"?
  • Does either of them have any level of training or experience in physical confrontations?
  • Where is the "fight" taking place?
  • Is either of them armed? If so, with what weapon, and what's their skill level?
I had a boss once who would always put the brakes on his engineers by asking, "What is the problem you are trying to solve?" If we tried to insist that nevermind all that, just listen to my really cool solution, he'd laugh and laugh and laugh, and say, "How do you think you're going to accomplish anything if you don't know what you're hoping to accomplish?" It annoyed the hell out of me at the time, but it's saved me innumerable trouble in the years since.

IMO, preparing for some generic "physical confrontation" is a waste of time, exceeded perhaps only by preparing for a confrontation that comes straight out of a comic book or a bad martial arts movie and that will never happen to you in real life.
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