What is it about this time of year? Almost a year ago today I started a thread about self-defence following a close shave with a drunk twat. I got rid of him by threatening to call the police, much to his chagrin.
Just experienced another potential sticky situation. In the aforementioned thread someone recommended a book called Meditations on Violence, by Rory Miller who is an experienced prison guard and has seen more ugly scenarios than I have hot dinners. I’m glad it was recommended, because it potentially saved me a pasting.
In it, he describes what he calls the “Monkey Dance”; a ritualistic male precursor to a fight. In a public house I was able to recognise these signs and save myself a bit of bother - despite being in pretty good shape and knowing a fair amount of Muay Thai my drunken assailants were both plural, which is already a losing proposition, and built like brick shithouses. The Monkey Dance is as follows;
- Eye contact and hard stares.
- Verbal challenges.
- Closing the distance.
- Finger pokes and pushes.
- Roundhouse swing with dominant hand.
I twigged the pattern around the time 3 was turning into 4, remembering the advice not to play it - it plays you - and to short-circuit the pattern by acting bored. Eventually I managed to laugh off and joke away the pair before I got a roundhouse thrown at me. If I’d have cocked it up there’s no doubt that I would have played to my strengths and sprinted the hell out of dodge - call me a pussy for thinking of running away but it would be a fight I would lose.
In the spirit of that book, brutally deconstructing and disabusing Hollywood fantasy and elaborate scenarios envisioned in your own head where you act the hero, tell me about your experiences. The times you got into a scrap - not a verbal altercation (although, as mentioned, this can be a prelude) but a someone attempting to pay you an extremely physical discourtesy. How’d you get into the situation and how’d it go?