do you think the average man today has decent fighting skills/ability…
No. Why would he? I know I certainly don’t. Unless you call “running away really fast” a decent skill.
Compared to who exactly? In general, I would say no. The average person would have no idea how to properly throw a punch, how to safely avoid an attack, how to recover after being struck. That’s not to say the average man can’t be dangerous…even a weak, wild, unaimed strike can still cave in someone’s windpipe. But it’s not likely.
The most important fighting skill the average person has is running away.
Fighting skills have to be developed, both the physical and mental aspects. From what I have seen the average man does not have decent fighting skills and under normal circumstances should have no need for them. We have all seen how extreme sports have taken things to new levels. The same thing has happened in fighting, some guys are scary dangerous and you can’t always tell who they are.
A lot of non-trained people will think they would be potential badasses in a scrum. In real life that attitude lasts until they get hit in the face or head, and I’m not talking about a knockout blow, just getting stunned will suffice. Some will go on to fight beyond that but often a hard facial hit will stop a lot of people, even large men, in their tracks.
What % of people have even been in a fight? I thought it was half or less.
what i mean is, will the average man at least know some of the basics of h2h combat, or would it divulge into madness
My physical altercation years are way behind me. My hand to hand fighting skills are non-existent. I am a pretty good pistol shot though…
I think the average man doesn’t have much experience or knowledge of any martial arts, and is also not in great physical condition. Hard to say what the average man is though. Do you have some kind of age in mind, or some kind of nationality, occupation, or position in life?
To be a bit circular, the average man would be “average” at it.
The trouble is that it isn’t really a bell curve, but an asymptotic curve, with Navy SEALs way out toward one extreme, and J. Wellington Wimpy some distance the other way.
The middle is occupied by guys who’ve seen a lot of TV and movies, but haven’t actually been in fights. We’ve been fed a lot of illusions and special effects and dramatic heroism. The real world is a lot messier and uglier.
For several years I would train with a couple of guys who did martial arts, including some sparring.
Really easy to get hurt (not injured) during sparring. That is to be expected. What I did not expect is how tired you could get in a 2-3 minute bout of sparring. It is exhausting. And this was after doing strength and endurance training. Speed, agility and endurance are far more important than strenghth. As we get older, age difference becomes more and more of a factor.
I would say the ‘average’ man is fairly sedentary and not used to being punched, so…no, their fighting skills would not be very good.
In a life or death situation, I imagine the average man would kick and punch very, very hard, instinctively. Probably not very effectively - no SWAT-like knowledge of which points to attack - but still, desperate violence can be formidable.
Mostly that madness thing. Any bout between two average men will go to the ground in less than a minute, probably 30 seconds or less, and then it’ll be gouging and twisting and biting. It will be nasty, brutish, and short. And I think the word you want is not divulge, but descend.
Under the age of say 40? No way. Before that most boys grew up with some level of “rough and tumble” and some good old-fashioned fights. We at least had/have some basic idea how to go about it. At least enough for a basic confrontation. Life and death “I’m going to fucking kill you” I would kick the age up to say 55+ and a coin flip on who the winner would be.
I’m 52. The last time I was in a fight was about 35 years ago, when I got jumped.
I have no idea “how to go about it.” I’m running away at this point.
The Onion did this one:
Report: Average Male 4,000% Less Effective In Fights Than They Imagine
I went to the James Kirk School of Fighting, and am sure I could double-fist-punch-to-the-gut-or-shoulder anyone into submission.
i assume people that come from tougher backgrounds, tougher living conditions are probably on average better fighters than people that come from say suburbia enviroments etc.
The Average Man ain’t no joke. He’ll fuck you up. He scoffs at bullet wounds and can lift school buses with one hand! The Average Man cannot be stopped by normal human methods. No, when The Average Man gets angry, well, let’s just say you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.
ETA: I’m scribbling this post out on my phone and I feel like I’m leaving something out…But dammit! Ehhh.
THIS^
I am unclear if the OP means like a fair fist fight, mano a mano nonsense where no one is trying to hurt each other.
Or desperate life and death both trying to kill each other shit. Because the second, ANYONE can be unpredictable and deadly, once the adrenaline flows you’re not even in control anymore and any random object can be a deadly weapon. I’m sitting here sipping a drink and I can see several things within reach that could kill a person.
Never been in fair fistfight, have been attacked or in fear of my life and afterwards I realized how mind altering adrenaline is, it was only hours later I really had analytic thoughts about the situation once it wore off.
Adrenaline, one hell of a drug.