My take:
1. You need functional Striking skills (Boxing, etc.)
2. You need functional Groundfighting skills (BJJ, etc.)
3. You need adequate Wrestling/Judo skills and balance to resist takedowns as well as perform the occasional reap or throw. Staying on your feet is the ideal situation.
4. You need to learn to fight dirty, using bites, eye-gouges, groin attacks, and other "illegal" techniques.
5. You need weapons training, including disarms and how to use a knife and a handgun. Carrying a legal weapon isn't a bad idea, as long as you know what you are doing.
6. You need superb stamina and speed in order to fight and escape multiple attackers if necessary. Strength doesn't hurt either. Therefore, you need to be in great shape at all times.
7. Most importantly, you need to develop the mind-set of a defensive streetfighter...a very alert, paranoid individual who is looking for a street attack at all times. Most of us fit this profile. You need to learn to spot traps, ambush points, threatening individuals, etc. Then you need to learn how to avoid, defuse, evade, and counterattack. Training in First Aid, Criminology, Combat Psychology, and Basic Strategy wouldn't hurt either. And you need to emotionally condition yourself to really inflict pain, injury, or death on someone who wants to take your life.
If you can't do all of these things competently, you aren't a real fighter. You're a poser. Personally, I am a long way from competent in most of those areas. But I'm improving.
Start now. It will take a life-time.
1. You need functional Striking skills (Boxing, etc.)
2. You need functional Groundfighting skills (BJJ, etc.)
3. You need adequate Wrestling/Judo skills and balance to resist takedowns as well as perform the occasional reap or throw. Staying on your feet is the ideal situation.
4. You need to learn to fight dirty, using bites, eye-gouges, groin attacks, and other "illegal" techniques.
5. You need weapons training, including disarms and how to use a knife and a handgun. Carrying a legal weapon isn't a bad idea, as long as you know what you are doing.
6. You need superb stamina and speed in order to fight and escape multiple attackers if necessary. Strength doesn't hurt either. Therefore, you need to be in great shape at all times.
7. Most importantly, you need to develop the mind-set of a defensive streetfighter...a very alert, paranoid individual who is looking for a street attack at all times. Most of us fit this profile. You need to learn to spot traps, ambush points, threatening individuals, etc. Then you need to learn how to avoid, defuse, evade, and counterattack. Training in First Aid, Criminology, Combat Psychology, and Basic Strategy wouldn't hurt either. And you need to emotionally condition yourself to really inflict pain, injury, or death on someone who wants to take your life.
If you can't do all of these things competently, you aren't a real fighter. You're a poser. Personally, I am a long way from competent in most of those areas. But I'm improving.
Start now. It will take a life-time.
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