Wow, I think it’s kind of sad that my dad could beat me…
He just turned 60, and I’m 19. I could get beat down and never stand a chance against a 60 year old man. Craziness.
I’m 6’ tall, he’s 6’3" so that’s a big part of it, plus he’s in pretty good shape, plays tennis a lot, and I’m quite weak. I bet in 10 years I can take him.
I think it’s very important for a young man to have a goal of some kind.
Hmmm, let me think.
My dad is an old alcoholic. I am a young hockey player with years of pent up issues.
Well, it would be close, but I think I could manage a win.
My dad’s dead, but he definitely could have taken me. I’d have an edge in reach, probably a hair quicker, but he was way stronger and had been taking the same karate classes as me, but about twice as often, so he was undoubtedly more skilled.
As for my step-dad, I could take him. Strength is about even, I’ve still got reach and speed on him (by much more of a margin than compared to my dad), he’s got no martial arts or military experience, he has horrible balance and sense of what/where his body is doing.
My dad is 67 and in pretty good shape. Could I take him?
Without question.
In seconds.
I have a bunch of Martial Arts training that he doesn’t have.
When I was about 17 or so and he was in his 50s and had been doing a desk job for years, for some reason I reared back to throw a punch at him. The next thing I remembered, he was picking me up from the floor and apologizing profusely that he didn’t know what had come over him.
I had forgotten he had been a professional boxer decades before. Apparently the training just kicked in, and he hit me with a conbination that would have made Jack Dempsey proud.
Could I have taken him – not on my best day. About a year or two before his death at age 80, a large dog came running out of a yard at my mother while he and she were on a walk and somehow he sidestepped the dog and clocked it right behind the ear and it went down like a brick. He once again claimed that he didn’t know what came over him…
Nope, not on my best day.
TV
Some observations between this post and the “Ladies, could you take on your mother in a fight”-
-around 40% of the female posters (perhaps more) commented that they would never do anything like that. It was as though they were incapable of comprehending it. On the other hand, far fewer male posters in this thread said the same. Though I figured that it would come out like that, what with the differences between men and women.
-Most of these battles seem rather skewed. Since most people’s fathers are going to be 20+ years older than them, life will have taken their toll much more. Of course, experience, and an active lifestyle could tip things in favor of the dad.
Not many days go by I wish I have not hit my father… My father does not fight fair… he plays and toys with your emotions… He says just enough to push the limits of your ediquette… He’ll come home completely drunk and do nothing but talk complete shit to you… and then in the morning he act’s like your his best friend…
Because of this, I don’t talk much shit… I don’t get in many fights since my teen years anyway. But I can’t stand people who do. It’s ok for a while but after too much it starts to remind me of my Dad… which is a bad thing because if I ever did hit my Dad, it would be one that I would not let him forget…
I would make it my point to make it so embarrassing that he would never even think about talking shit to me ever again.
So yeah, I could not only take my father, I could kill my father. But I don’t because of the small chance he might grow a brain and stop screwing around with me. Thing is, he takes the response of me not doing anything about it as a sign that it’s ok to talk more shit. Some people never fucking learn…
I had to move out of the house because of it and live with a friend… now, me and my little brother have moved in to a new apartment… I work nights, so I had to go to sleep the other day… meanwhile, my stepmother and my Dad decide to come over and check the new place out… my father, half drunk, busts into my room while I’m asleep and wakes me up… he nearly broke the door trying to get in… Comes in the room, and sees my shotgun, still unpacked and not yet put away… and has the balls to ask “what’s the shotgun for?” I felt like saying “what the fuck do you think it’s for, asshole?” But I did not… I just said “just for having…”
So, in theory, I could beat up my father… the reality is that my father will hit me before I ever hit him.
Not even close - my Dad would kick my ass withouth breaking a sweat.
I’m 39, 5’10", 200#
He’s 69, 6’4", 250#, built like a lumberjack. He can still hit a baseball a phenomenal distance.
I had the chance to see my dad in a fight a few years ago (we caught some young guys in the process of breaking into my parents’ house), and it wasn’t a pretty sight. He very nearly killed one of the guys with his bare hands. Ugly, ugly stuff.
This is an intersting question. I’d think it would go almost 50/50, with the edge going to my father. I do have the height, reach, weight on him. He however is still in good shape for the most part but he’s probably been in many more fights then me, any more then 1 is more, and has some military training.
I think that it would come down to who ever got the first really good punch in. Maybe I should just go and try and get the first punch in and see what happens from there. 
When my brother was a lanky angry teenager he used to attempt it and dad would push him away and tell him:
“When you’re big enough, you’ll be too old”
My brother is 32 now and is a big man who works outdoors and all his muscles are a result of physical work, rather than the gym. He is in fantastic nick.
Dad is 64 this year and he had a new suit made for his and Mum’s wedding anniversary lately. It had a 64 inch chest and a 40 inch waist - just to give you an idea of the kind of man we’re talking about.
At Christmas this very subject came up and all 6 foot 4 of my baby brother looked over at the old man and sombrely informed us all:
“If I ever think I’m big enough, I’m relying on one of you lot to remind me I’m too old!”
An interesteresting thread, as Ed the Head said.
At this moment, I can’t be sure. It would probably come down to which one of us would collapse under our own weight first.
When he was in high school he played nearly every sport they had - football, basketball, swimming. He was in great shape and very strong. He got into fights all the time and broke other guy’s noses regularly. Then he was an MP in the Army and they showed him lots of dirty tricks.
I never got into many fights in school, but a lot of it was intimidation - I played football after school with a bunch of other guys and they saw the way I punished the offensive line, and they knew I had a terrible temper. After high school I studied martial arts and I am now in the Army. I’ve always had lightening-fast reflexes.
But the thing is we are now both in really bad shape. His years of strenuous sports have cost him and now he’s falling apart. I broke my back two years ago and had to have corrective surgery - I can only hobble around.
He’s always been a lot bigger than me, and his experience would probably have done me in. Who knows? If we were both in shape, I might be able to take him if I stayed out of his reach.
My stepdad? No problem. Even without my back I can take him easy.
Heh… My father’s shorter than me, very overweight and out of shape, and generally clumsy and uncoordinated. I’m not in great shape but I could certainly whup his ass. Thankfully we’ve always had the sort of relationship where it’s never once been an issue.
All you have to do is hit the old dude over the head with a steel chair and give 'im the People’s Elbow. WWE style!
Probably not. He actually works for a living and is in pretty good shape, whereas I sit in front of a computer all day pretending I’m working while I read The Straight Dope.
The best I could do is probably a Three Stooges sucker-eye-poke and then run like hell. I KNOW I can outrun him.
Although we’ve had differing points of view, my Dad is 82, and I couldn’t disrespect the man in an aggressive manner. That’s just not right.
I doubt it. My dad’s bigger than me, and he went to school to learn how to hurt people very efficiently with one’s bare hands (former Green Beret).
I could probably take my dad now that he is basically infirm. However, he fights dirty and mean. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were ever a reason to do it now that he wouldn’t simply shoot me.
In the 50’s he was among the founding members of the Banditos, a motorcycle gang in San Antonio. He is also the only surviving member that is currently alive. In the 70’s he was working for the air force and they considered any type of organization like that “communist” so he got out of it. I can give a lot of background information on the Banditos (and how they weren’t a gang like the gangs today) if anyone is interested in another thread.
As opposed to all the surviving members who are dead.
honestly… it has been an excersize in self-control that I never have. I have been able to whup him since I was about 18… today he is over 70 has two artificial knees and doesn’t hit a lick at a snake all day long… and is still an asshole, convinced of his own superiority. I could twist him into new and exciting shapes. but I don’t. He’s my Dad, and I love him.