Have You Been in a Fistfight?

In My Humble Opinion
21

My brother is a big martial arts fan and was really into the UFC type events. The one thing that I’ve noticed from watching tapes of them was that the easiest way to win a fight is to take somebody down via tackle and establish dominance on the ground. It seems that with a little bit of skill and knowledge, one could maneuver an unsuspecting opponent in a submission hold/position of helplessness. I think that a toe to toe fight, while gentlemanly, is probably not the most sure-fire way to beat someone’s ass

Matt

22

Good idea, but dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing…

23

I was a security guard in the days of lore. I was trained by a psychotic freak. He told me to go nuts on everybody I met, who didn’t do as they were told.
I’ve been in many many fights. The ideology then was to cause as much damage as fast as you could. There were no rules. Nut kicking, mouth tearing, heads bashed against pavement were all apart of my “training”.

I’m ashamed of the things I did to people back then. All of you karma believers will be happy to know that I got the stuffing knocked out of me just as often.

I did that job for 3 years. Probably 100 fights a year. Lost at least half.

300 fights. 150 poundings received. 150 poundings dished out.

Today, you’d have to knock me down…maybe a couple of times, before I’d strike…However…mess with the people I love, and I’m on you like white on rice.

24

I’m so dumb. I forgot to tell the end of my story and answer the question. . . my knuckles were slightly bruised the next day, and they hurt a little, both both were gone within the week.

25

“Relaxation is essential for faster and more powerful punching. Let your lead punch shoot out loosely and easily; do not tighten up or clench your fist until the moment of impact. All punches should end with a snap several inches behind the target. Thus, you punch through the opponent instead of at him.” -Bruce Lee, ‘Tao of Jeet Kune Do’

26

Wow, what a great topic. Where’s Glitch when you need him?

Anyway, I was a bouncer in two different bars in college. As you can probably guess, I have seen, been in and broken up more fights than your average joe.
In any case, in all the fights I have been in, I rarely used my closed fist to hit someone in the head or face. I am a pretty big guy and found it much easier to let the guy try to hit me and then grab him and toss him into a hard inanimate object such as a car, wall, fire hydrant, whatever. Not only that, but the only time you’re really striking someone is when you’re on the offensive. Being that I mostly had to “subdue or restrain and remove” people, since it was my job, I couldn’t very well beat them unmerciful. Sometimes, though, you just see red and have to batter someone unrecognizable because they were beating up a girl in the bathroom. Otherwise, the fights I have been in outside of work involved only a little striking, almost all of it open fist, much grappling and head-butting, and some choking for good measure. My goal, once a struggle has been joined, is to stop the other person by any means necessary. This changes from foe to foe, as there are different things to be done at different times. Whatever you do, if you’re going to grab someone make sure you do something PDQ. Otherwise, there is the chance that he will break your hand/arm/fingers in more ways then you thought possible. For example, if you put your hands on me, I hope you your wife won’t mind opening your beer bottles for you for the next few months.

In the majority of the fights I have seen or broken up, it was mostly two drunken fools flailing away at each other like a couple of girls. SOP is to run up and secure an arm in a submission hold and push him into a wall or the floor with your body smooshing them. Then you can collect them and toss them out. Sometimes they try to argue or fight you, but a little pressure on said arm makes it hard to do anything but whimper. In any case, most people try to punch each other, but end up whaling away at each other.

My advice: If you can even take 1 personal defense class, you will be way ahead of at least 75% of the chumps out there who you may end up fighting.
Then again, of the people who will actually fight you and not pussy out, 100% will probably know something about fighting. So if you do take that one class, don’t get a case of “false confidence”.

The bottom line: Learn how to defend yourself.

27

Having some martial arts training, been in two real fights and many “friendly” fights (friends drunk and unruly starting shit) I can say I’ve never hurt my hand.

That’s mainly because I don’t punch people in the face. I’ve found it to be a pretty hard target, especially since I’m not the initiator and fight pretty defensively. I’ve always used my hands for blocking and grappling, and kick whenever I can. The best target, to me, has always been the solar plexus. People can take pain, end because of endorphins/adrelaline/alcohol not notice it, but you take away someone’s breath and that’s immediate. It only takes one good hit to the breastbone or the actual soft spot just below it.

As far as I’ve understood punching it is very easy to damage the hand when anything but the index/middle knuckle makes contact, so I’ve strayed from even using closed fists. I much prefer a swift kick to their leg, or to the ribs where there aren’t a lot of muscles.

While I can grapple tolerably well I think grappling is something that can screw you quickly if you aren’t well-practived or trained in it.

While I don’t have an anecdotal punching story, I did once tap a guy in the balls. It was just a sort of half-assed snap kick, and it just nipped his sack. Not funny in itself, it was the fact that he puked about two minutes later from it. I hit him in no other way.

28

It’s the 5th metacarpal IIRC. I broke mine many moons ago, but mine was impacted (they couldn’t set it by manipulation, though they tried for way too long) and I had to have pins put in. I won the fight, though :slight_smile:

29

Not all Karate practitioners use a lot of punching, there are a number of different disciplines and some put a great deal of focus on kicking.

I studied under a Sensei who taught Shito-Ryu Karate which can be described as a hard kicking style. He also taught us submission techniques.

That being said, I have always preferred feet, knees, elbows, and my head over using my fists. Hands are designed for grabbing and holding things with punching being a secondary function.

In most of the fights I have been in I have caused the most damage with low kicks to the knees and ankles with the theory here being that if your opponent can’t stand he/she can’t hit you anymore. Most opponents were also expecting me to punch them and watching my hands, it is a huge mistake in any fight to underestimate your opponent. I can punch really hard (if I have to) but prefer my feet.

You have to use your head… I once had this bozo (ie. someone I could have victimized at will) dead set on punching my lights out so I warned him that I taught Karate and he had to hit me first. I dropped my hands and presented my face to him and said " hit me ". As his fist approached my handsome countenance I dropped my head so his fist made contact with the top of my head. He screamed like a girl. My neck was a little sore afterwards as this guy did put some decent effort into breaking his hand.

In my occupation I am required to restrain individuals when they get out of control, we cannot strike these individuals so they often end up face down on the floor. Taking down any untrained individual is child’s play.

30

I’ve only been in two fights. The first was when I was in the seventh grade so I won’t count that one. The second was with my roommate when I was in my early twenties.

I remember it started in the bathroom after we argued over a guy I was dating. I remember Carla saying “I don’t know why people treat me this way.” And I remember replying “Because you’re a slut and everyone knows it.” Apparently that wasn’t the right answer because she hit me and then tried to drown me in the tub. I was on my knees and she pushing me against the tub and into the water. Somehow I got her off of me and at some point we fought our way to the bedroom. I had her in a headlock and was hitting her in the face. I also remember (vaguely) swinging her around, sitting on her stomach area, and hitting her with both fists. I don’t think my hands hurt afterwards. I don’t think i hit her hard enough to do any damage even though she had a black eye and a big egg-shaped knot on her forehead.

31

Grace, two girls rastlin around in a bathtub and on top of each other? Were either of you naked? I have a feeling I’ve seen something like that before, can’t really recall where . . .

32

It depends on how tough your hands are, really. I used to do kung fu and hit a punching bag until my fists were masses of calluses; then I worked up to things like metal doors, and never did any real damage to myself. I imagine most places on the human body aren’t as hard as that. I’ve never hit anybody, but I have been hit in the face a few times, (yeah, sucker-punching somebody who’s alone when you have five friends with you is pretty cool) and considering the difficulty of hitting someone (who’s ready for it) there, the fact that it doesn’t hurt as bad as one might think, and the possibility of hitting teeth or something else hard, it doesn’t seem like the best place to attack. Stomach and groin are probably easier targets, and will take somebody down quicker. Of course, if you can smash somebody’s nose into their brain, that’ll do the trick pretty well too.

33

From what I’ve heard, smashing someone’s nose into their brain is next to, if not, impossible. The cartilage at the end of your nose (where your striking) is not nearly hard enough to both BREAK the bone above it AND push it into your skull.

It’s myth.

That being said, it’s still a good way to end a fight.

34

I have to disagree with the guy who said you can not knock someone unconscious from a blow to the solar plexus. I have seen it happen, and I have heard of people killed by a strong and precise enough blow there.

35

A man named Ehrich Weiss died after being struck in the stomach.

Mr. Weiss had claimed that he could withstand any punches to the abdomen and was punched before he could tighten his abdominal muscles. Unknown to Mr. Weiss his appendix was ruptured and he died five days later from peritonitis, which is an inflamation of the peritoneum ( a type of internal gangrene).

Mr. Weiss died on October 31, 1926.

Mr. Weiss was better known as Harry Houdini.

36

Hand strikes are a vital part of any person’s unarmed arsenal (a good self defense arsenal covers all the various ranges that fighting takes place). That being said, close fisted punches are generally a bad idea, at least to the hard parts of the body (i.e. the head). You’re likely to break your hand. “But wait!!” you exclaim, “I can break bricks with my fist and I punch the heavy bag for 20 minutes everyday, surely I can punch close fisted?!?”, and the answer is you’ll likely fare better BUT you still stand a very good chance of breaking your hand or wrist and in a true self defense situation you do NOT want to be breaking your hand, especially when you have so many better strikes available. Hammer fists and palm heel strikes (and don’t forget elbows at slightly closer range) cause as much damage as a close fisted punch with a greatly reduced risk of injury to yourself.

The next question is I stated “close fisted punches to the hard parts of body”, does that mean I can punch to the soft parts? And the answer is, I wouldn’t for one simple reason. Adrenal stress. Under adrenal stress, which you will be subject too during a aggressive attack, you are unlikely to remember to only go close fisted against soft parts, and open fisted vs soft parts (consider yourself lucky if your animal brain doesn’t take over and you end up using your hand like a primal club). For self defense you want simplicity and consistentcy (sp). So training open hands strikes all the time (i.e. vs hard and soft parts of the body) is probably best.

As for all of this punching specific parts of the body, keep in mind that again under adrenal stress you cannot count on having this level of precision. You should still train to hit the critical parts of the body in the hopes that muscle memory kicks in and you strike those parts anybody, but ultimately against a moving aggressive target hitting the temple, solar plexus, heart 3 point, etc will be more or less dumb luck.

But what if you really absolutely must be one of those people who punches close fisted, what can you do to allow it? Punch makiwari boards. Punch heavy bags (100 lbs+). Punch stone. Punch pots filled with sand. Punch pots filled with pebbles. Punch iron. Do this long enough and your hands will look like shit, but your hand/knuckles will be like a friggin’ piece of iron, and your wrist will be like an iron bar. But make no mistake about this kind of training is hard but it is the price to pay if you want to punch close fisted.

37

My last major fistfight was way back in the sixth grade. It started, as most fights do, stupidly–over a pure accident. Some friends and I were flinging bits of landscaping bark at each other, and a piece I threw landed in the path of a neighborhood kid who was skateboarding. He went flying. Got up, walked over to me and mashed the piece of bark into my front teeth. I hit back and so it went.

We were both tentative but neither of us would back down. We went through minutes of measuring each other, circling, then brief flurries of serious punching, more measuring and circling, then more punching. This went on for (I’m not kidding) about thirty minutes or more. It didn’t help matters that we had a ring of friends egging us on. I don’t think one of us failed to land a thrown punch. He went for my mouth; I went for his eyes or for body shots. Thank goodness the flurries were brief. I was growing exhausted just from the initial adrenaline rush and the endless posturing.

The fight ended only when my dad called me in for dinner (and you didn’t say no to the man). After dinner the whole pack reassembled, and though we resumed the circling we threw only a couple of more punches apiece. That nonsense went on for another twenty minutes before we managed to lower our fists simultaneously and call it a night.

The next morning I looked okay on the outside, but the inside of my mouth looked like complete hamburger and my ears were ringing. And my knuckles were bruised and swollen. Could hardly operate my fingers. I hurt like hell. I confessed to my best friend the extent of my injuries, thinking I’d gotten shamefully routed. Turned out the other kid’s eyes were swollen shut and his torso was kind of brown and purple. His mom reportedly wanted to call the cops on me for beating the hell out of her boy. And when he and I both showed up where the other kids were, to everyone I looked like the lopsided winner. But I felt like a complete loser in more ways than one.

Over the years I’ve thrown a punch or two and at other times I’ve taken a couple (participated in football and wrestling and worked as a bouncer in college), but I’ve always managed to avoid all-out fights. If someone laid a hand on me in the bar, it was psychologically easier for me to just use an Aikido wrist- or arm-lock or a wrestling hold to “help” the patron out the door. I was never too proud to ask for help from the other bouncers if that didn’t work. Actually throwing a strike is a step I haven’t had to make in a long time.

But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fight that was unavoidable and didn’t make the participants look ridiculous.

I like my teeth, and what’s left of my brain is allergic to gee-forces.

38

Oooh, fun topic!

The last time was not pleasing. Many people believe that a hand strike is the quickest way to end a fight. I have found that an elbow strike is just as effective, if you are close enough to make contact.

I prefer to grapple, since most of my experience is in Judo. A little bit of classic boxing rounded me out enough to where I can hold my own till I can get close enough to lock an arm, or apply a choke.

I was at work, and was being rushed by an angry co-worker. He swung at me, a big ugly haymaker, as he charged. I stepped back, pushed his head down as he came at me, and put a very unhappy guillotine on him, turning around for leverage as he moved.

Now, I was a bit taller, so I toed up, and arched my back backward, until he was almost hanging. From there, I simply changed my grip, grabbed his hair, and helped his face come in contact with my rising knee. Surprisingly, he didn’t go all the way out. He was on his hands and knees, trying to get up. I dropped the point of my elbow into the hollow place behind his skull, right at the top of his neck. I don’t know what that spot’s called, but homeboy went OUT.

Hands hurt when you hit with them. I’d rather use my knee or elbow ANY day.

39

It was good to hear from you again, Glitch. It’s been way too long.

40

When I was a kid I got into very few fights. I do remember once though, I think in 8th grade, that I punched somebody I was in a fight with. But I got laughed at because I made punching sounds (like you would make in a fake fight) while I was doing it.