Convenience store assault.

[TCinVA]

I will also say it's always interesting to me when self-defense instructors espouse this as well, because generally these people have purposefully put themselves in harms way again and again via their career choices.

You'll find that a lot of guys who have gone willingly into harm's way have had close calls and have experience watching friends who didn't make it through close calls. They've watched people bleed out. They've watched people get confined to a wheelchair for the rest of their life. They've probably seen somebody try and recover from severe brain trauma. They've seen the bills. They've seen the years of rehabilitation IF someone manages to survive. They've seen the toll all this takes on families, relationships, and finances.

Eventually they come to the conclusion that in the big unpredictable world we live in, when you pick a fight you've pulled the handle on the Karmic Slot Machine of Suck, and that what specific flavor you're going to get served is now almost completely out of your hands. So you'd better ask yourself whether or not the reason you're pulling that handle is really worth it. "Worth it" tends to look very different when the dude you just punched is laying in front of you with agonal respiration because one good punch knocked him out and his head bounced off the concrete. Now suddenly that spat over Gatorade has elevated into a potentially lethal use of force and all the criminal and civil liability that comes along with it.

...or, he could knock the snot out of you, and you could be the one laying there with agonal respiration and a likely brain injury. Only the other guy probably isn't going to try to render first aid. Or call 911. And should you survive, what do you think the odds are that he has sufficient assets to cover the medical costs you're going to incur recovering?

The guys who have willingly gone into harm's way have all figured out just how bad it can actually get...which is why you'll find that they frequently don't rush head-long into stupid ***CENSORED***. They avoid doing so for the same reason that King Leonidas didn't just fling his small band of warriors at the Persians in just any ol' spot.

There are times in life when you get handed a fight you didn't want and you have to deal with it. There are times in life when you need to stand up and take the fight to someone. There are also times when risking a fight is just ***CENSORED*** stupid. Being ***CENSORED*** stupid is rarely a good long term strategy for success in any endeavor, especially ones that involve violence.

The guys who have willingly gone into harm's way have figured all that out in the school of hard knocks. The wise man looks at the experience of others and learns from it. The fool insists that personal experience be his only teacher.

[barstoolguru]

barstoolguru,

What are some of your strategies for deselection? If you are selected, what are some of your strategies for deescalation and disengagement?

What are some of your strategies for managing unknown contacts?

Mine; be the adult. Defuse it if possible but in no way turn your back on him or anyone. Show them if they are looking for trouble they better have a lunch with them because it's going to be a long fight.

I for one am surprised at the comments on here; you all talk about combat and standing up to a threat then want to drop your Gatorade and run when it comes

If that man would have stood his ground that guy most likely would have backed off. No one wants to get punched in the face, not even the BG.
A punch in the face heals but not doing anything will haunt you, eat at your inner soul until there is nothing left.

Why do most people go to fight training? Because something did happen and they couldn't do anything about it and it eats at them.

[digiadaamore]

But what would you gain from that? I'm just not seeing any upside to remaining there once the dude in the black t-shirt turns around and gets rude. Sure, his little feint punch left him unbalanced and open to a slew of awesome kung-fu countermoves. He blusters, makes that little feint, you make your devastating response...

...and then the cops get called and nobody saw nothin', except for his sister-in-law who was just coming out of the beer cave and swears up and down you egged him on by calling him names, and...

There's just no upside to staying engaged in a situation like that.

Well as i said i wouldnt still be there. im just pointing out if you were by some act of god you could quickly end the fight without him getting in a sucker punch. but as i said i sure as hell would have left well before that

[zacbol]

The guys who have willingly gone into harm's way have figured all that out in the school of hard knocks. The wise man looks at the experience of others and learns from it. The fool insists that personal experience be his only teacher.

My statement was not meant as a value judgment or an aspersion, again merely confused observation. Thank you for helping me understand. In reading your response I feel like I somehow caused you personal affront. If so, my apologies. Again, my confusion is/was that I briefly considered military/law enforcement, but was too risk averse. I did not need the direct experience of seeing others or myself die or suffer to know I wanted to avoid those things when possible. And so I chose not to join the military. And I try to avoid fights and walk away when possible, but in lieu of something truly horrible having happened, I suppose my commitment to avoiding conflict may not be quite as deep.

[TCinVA]

My statement was not meant as a value judgment or an aspersion, again merely confused observation. Thank you for helping me understand. In reading your response I feel like I somehow caused you personal affront.

Not at all. Text is an inexact medium as large amounts of human communication are non-verbal. I wasn't offended in the least. The text was meant purely to offer some insight into why those guys take the positions that they do.

[Zhurdan]

Mine; be the adult. Defuse it if possible but in no way turn your back on him or anyone. Show them if they are looking for trouble they better have a lunch with them because it's going to be a long fight.

I for one am surprised at the comments on here; you all talk about combat and standing up to a threat then want to drop your Gatorade and run when it comes

If that man would have stood his ground that guy most likely would have backed off. No one wants to get punched in the face, not even the BG.
A punch in the face heals but not doing anything will haunt you, eat at your inner soul until there is nothing left.

Why do most people go to fight training? Because something did happen and they couldn't do anything about it and it eats at them.

Not speaking for everyone here, but I'd say that I TRAIN to fight, not try to find one. IF the fight comes to me and I can't disengage, I have trained to deal with it but that doesn't mean that the guys personal space is the "line in the sand, this far, no further" (JLP voice). It's far easier to avoid the fight, so why not avoid it?

[TCinVA]

I for one am surprised at the comments on here; you all talk about combat and standing up to a threat then want to drop your Gatorade and run when it comes

Have you ever been on the wrong end of a .38 revolver?

I have. You know what I learned from the experience? It sucked, and I'd really like to avoid a repeat performance if at all possible.

...and guess what? I'm in the kiddie section of the experience pool around here.

I, for one, am through attempting to plumb the depths of your ignorance. It's sufficient for me to stamp "Here be dragons" above your intractable nonsense and cast you into outer darkness.

[EMC]

The Karmic Slot Machine of Suck

Phrase of the day right there.

[jmjames]

Have you ever been on the wrong end of a .38 revolver?

I have. You know what I learned from the experience? It sucked, and I'd really like to avoid a repeat performance if at all possible.

I have had the EXACT same experience.

You know why? Because I acted like the Guy in the Yellow Shirt.

I think the only thing to save me (the person with the gun was flying on LSD) was the fact that I knew the person and through the drugs he realized it was going to be a mistake.

Like TC, I have no desire... EVER... to repeat that experience if possible.

J.Ja

[RoyGBiv]

Phrase of the day right there.

I liked these, personally..

They don't need to know that, down inside, I'm mostly just feeling happy that they didn't make me shoot them.

The eagle does not hunt the fly.