|
| |
Q:
I was wondering if you would give me some advice on a self-defense
situation I was in the other night.
Myself and 3 other friends were coming back from a movie and I had seen a group
of friends I knew and went over to talk to them. Whilst we were talking a friend
of this group of friends I know came up and
asked if I was trying to mug him for his phone, he was drunk at the time and I
knew this wasn’t going to be good but I couldn’t leave unless I walked past the
drunk guy. Anyway, my friend said jokingly that we were trying to mug him (VERY
jokingly) but the drunk guy took it really serious and got rather violent, my
friend from that group I recognized was somewhat friends with the drunk guy so
he held him back. Now I might just say here that the drunk was Lebanese and one
of the people that if you hit them they get 50 guys to come and stab you when
you go out anywhere, and so I was naturally perplexed as to what I should if he
got away from my friend and come for me, which I
believed he was targeting me because I was the biggest.
What ended up happening was that my friend pushed him right back and told us to
just leave, which we promptly did. But what I need advice on is what should I
have done if he came at me wanted to knock my block off, bearing in mind if I
heavily bashed him (which I could have, he was really fat and drunk as well), he
could have had me stabbed.
A:
In the end, it looks as if you did everything
right, would you agree? You and your friend kept a self-defense situation cool
which was threatening to get out of control.
You didn't have to defend yourself and resort to bashing the drunk and suffering
the gut-wrenching anxiety of wondering about any comebacks from him and his
crew.
So, I would say don't second-guess yourself too much on this one situation. You
avoided a fight which could have had unpleasant consequences.
However, if you could not have avoided the fight, this is what I would
recommend:
1. Retreat. Retreat. Retreat again. Yell loudly so everyone can hear, "Come on!
You guys hold him back, I don't want to fight!" A point here --
his reaction will tell you if you are fighting or
not.
2. Keep your guard up and don't take your eyes off of him for one second. Circle
away from his power side (i.e., if he has his right hand cocked back, circle to
your own right AWAY from his right side).
3. If you feel you cannot keep him two arms lengths away (kicking distance) then
SUDDENLY reverse your retreat and close the distance, clinching with him.
Now you have negated his ability to hit you and you have physical control over
him. You have the option of talking to him and deescalating the situation,
"Listen guy, I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, let me buy you a beer". You can
also ask for assistance from the group of guys or the establishment's doorman.
If he wants to escalate the situation, you have the option of taking him down to
control him. You can take him down easy. Or you can take him down hard to get
your point across. Then when you are on the ground, you can employ the
techniques we talk about in the article
"After the Takedown, Now What?"
If you have taken him down easy, then the guy really doesn't have a reason to
comeback on you. You can chalk it up to a misunderstanding and you knew he was
drunk. If he is really drunk
you can also expect that he probably won't respond to reason and there is a
good chance that he won't even respond appropriately to pain-compliance
techniques. So, unfortunately, if you were to hit him to stop him, you'll
probably have to hit him so hard and so many times, you'll do serious damage.
And that means YOU are going to jail, not him.
Usually the legal authorities don't like to have one person damaged at the hands
of another. So, a good reason to add some grappling and controlling techniques
to your training.
|
