street fight

[hEmPY]

LOL

warnin

the link leads to a youtube video where 2 doods fight 1 vs 1

bring it

one of them gets beaten hard

LOL

[DickHardman]

yeah.....i remember this clip were the mexican guy knocks the white guy out, and then proceeds to jump up and down on his jaw.......str8 up trash....

[Albert]

Who the hell carez really..

but wikipedia haz got us covered in any case, heh..

Street fighting is a term used to denote spontaneous, hand-to-hand fighting in public places. This violence is usually intended to result in injury and submission but not death (although death may inadvertently occur). It often results from a dispute and can stem from group association, harassment, or bullying. Violent incidents involving firearms are not usually called street fights.

problem solved.

a street fight iz just any fighting that iz unsanctioned.

We should probably just ask chuck norris though.. Or maybe burt reynolds? he fights bears.

[A-Zo]

Bunch of scum bags if you ask me....not much else to say.

[bodhisattva]

.
Everyone needs to come to a consensus on WHAT the **** constitutes a "street fight".

Definition of a "steet fight" :

Something insecure guys spend a lot of time talking about and thinking about.


It's funny, the guys who are really great at BJJ and MMA that I've listened to at seminars and whatnot - they really don't use the words "street fight" very much. Sometimes they'll say something like "Now, to do this move on pavement, you'd have to adjust it like this.." but they really rarely say "to do this in a street fight.."

But then, guys who hardly train at all - they come into the gym, and that's all they talk about. If they stay around, they quickly catch on and start training for sport. They realize the guys who are training for sport are much, much tougher than they are.. and fall into line and train for sport too. It's funny how often "sport" things work on the street, wheras "street" things don't seem to work in sport or in the street.

[KirkhamsEbooks.]

Is it possible to be an article spammer lol. In a yahoo group I got tired of a bunch of supposedly experienced martial artist talk about the "street fighter" so I emailed a guy I knew and wrote this article

The Ultimate Fighter A Conversation with a Gang Member

http://kirkhamsebooks.com/MartialArts/MartialArtsArticles/UltimateFighter.htm

He lurks around every dark corner. He has no fear. He's been in fights everyday of his life. Despite your years of martial arts training he can defeat you.

He is - THE STREET FIGHTER!

Come on friends and fellow martial artists. Think about this.

If some poor soul got into fights everyday he or she would most likely be killed before developing any real skills.

A person trying to survive living in the streets wants to avoid conflicts which could get him/her killed.

Avoiding these conflicts negates the very essence of the concern some martial artists have. Despite the way boxers, wrestlers and soldiers train some martial artists insist the best way to learn to fight well is to just fight.

Let's have an interview with a gang member who also happens to be a martial artist

Rick: How long have you been in a gang?

GM: I got down with a gang around age 14 and became inactive around age 21.

Rick: Why did you join a gang?

GM: Most people join gangs to obtain something they aren't getting at home. I got down because I didn't feel I was getting respect at home. Another strong reason you get down with a gang is because you have friends who are gang members. My friends were older and in gangs and basically showed me the way.

Rick: Did you get into a lot of fights?

GM: I got into a lot of senseless fights and I've had my share of fighting for a cause. In fact by the time I started formal martial art training, I could already hold my own in a fight and knew what worked and didn't work for me.

Rick: What caused most of these fights?

GM: Well I have to give you some background so you can understand the layout. I'm 30 now and came up around Hartford CT where you had crews like the Ville and the Ave. Connecticut has its share of import gangs like bloods and crips, but it also has plenty "homegrown" gangs and nations like Elm city boys, pump nation, and old crews like the ville and the ave. In my city alone, we had well over 11 gangs. Now keep in mind that each town/city has it's own set of gangs, and each well organized gang has branches in other towns and cites, and so you can imagine how deep this thing is. so you pack about 20 gangs in a minor city and you can see how a lot of fighting starts. Most fights had to do with rivals going places they had no business, and/or disrespect issues. My personal fights dealt moreso with civilians and rivals from other cities. I've never really been a hot head, but if something did start, I had the power and resources to make problems disappear.

Rick: Have you ever fought martial artists?

GM: I may have fought some self proclaimed martial artists...lol. Honestly, it doesn't matter what you are. Most of my affiliated brothers were street brawlers, boxers, or just gun crazy. Basically, what it all boiled down to is whether you had skills or not. I've seen many people get beat down, and worse. Coming up, most guys liked to start out boxing and they'd try to scoop you up and slam you on the concrete. My approach as a lighter guy, was to prevent someone from scooping me up, and so I used my natural speed and boxing to handle them.

Rick: What were some of the outcomes?

GM: Some of the outcomes of gang fights are beatdowns, life altering injuries and death. When people think of gangs, they think of what the media portrays as the "dangerous gangbanger". They usually show urban youth in baggy clothes, wearing the latest hip hop fashions and things like that. The media's information about gangs and gangmembers is borderline outdated. Gangs have evolved into well organized organizations that parallel the structure and functioning of the mafia. Let me clear up a few things. Not all gang members have tattoos, not all are even into the hip hop culture. Not all gang members are urban youths. You have your authentic street gangs and you have the copy cats. The authentic gangmembers can trace their line much like martial artists trace their arts lineage. The copy cat gangs are wannabes and have no authentic lineage to real OGs (Original Gangsters). A lot of the wannabes commit crimes to try and get a name for themselves, and most times these are a lot of the things you heard about. But here's the kicker. These wannabes are living in suburbia. Some come from nice homes, wealthy parents etc. So we have to keep in mind that identifying gangsters is not as easy as the media portrays. So now that we know the difference between real gangs and wannabes, we can now see that when an authentic gangmember like a latin king comes across someone posing as a latin king, how violence starts.

Rick: Would you say I was correct about "street-fighters" avoiding fights as much as possible therefore not being as skilled as your average self-defense based martial artist?

GM: Well each scenario will be different for everyone. I'd say a person who has experience with real fights, will always have a hand up versus a person who does self defense drills. The reason why is because until that person who trains in self defense gets their hands dirty, they will lack true experience in fighting someone. For instance, a street brawler doesn't train to do one technique to take someone out. They basically concentrate on bashing someone's head in and pounding on someone. So if the martial artist does a self defense move and it doesn't work like in class, they may be up that famous creek. Experience reins supreme. Think of someone shooting at a shooting range all the time, and now they are placed in a scenario where they have to shoot and hit moving targets. They will most likely have to adapt and fine tune their skills. Whereas a person who shoots moving targets all the time will have to adapt less. BUT I will say that the martial artist does have more "tools" to work with and should be able to train effectively enough to give them a good chance at defending themselves.


Rick: How often would a street fighter get into fights?

GM: People from the street learn the ins and outs of street life and one of those learning processes deals with fighting. You have the billy bad ass that go around looking for a fight and those types can fight daily. Then you have others who fight for other reasons. But put it this way, they will fight more then a martial artist and that's because they are out there like that. Martial artists are typically trained to defuse the situation. in the streets, things just keep escalating.

Rick: What you're basically saying about martial arts skills vs the street fighter is training in rote combinations wherein a certain response is ass-u-me d (which can get anyone killed) is pretty useless as compared to drills which prepare a martial artist for the as many situations as possible, hitting a human being full contact, getting hit full contact, the mental stress of defending your life, will better prepare a martial artist for survival as compared to a street fighter who may get into a fight once a week or once a month?

GM: The best way to give you a visual idea of the comparison is from a movie called glory. It was about blacks in the civil war who wanted to fight in the civil war. One scene showed a black man who had to shoot his one shot rifle and refill it to be able to shoot again. The refilling was a process similar to a musket Well he was pretty good at doing it, and he was one of the fastest to do it. So then a commander which had seen battle before comes over to him and tells him to do it again...so while the guy was firing his rifle and reloading, the commander shot his handgun by the trainees head which made this trainee nervous, so nervous that he couldn't perform the task that he was one of the best at doing. This illustration is as close to real life as you can get. When we train in the nice comfortable dojang/dojo/kwan, we are usually in a comfortable, air conditioned, well ventilated area. Most have nice wooden floors, carpet or mats. So then we learn forms, free sparring step sparring and maybe even weapons. But here's the thing, none of that reflects real life scenarios unless were get in a fight in a store or something. The sad truth about martial arts training is that as the years have gone by it's been watered down. For instance, we say today that unarmed combat versus a knife isn't really possible, but there was a time when people MADE it work...so what changed? the NEED for this training. Also, the hardcore do or die training also has changed. So until people start training realistically which is always uncomfortable then we will always give the upper hand to the street fighter who is getting the real life training most MA are trying to prepare for. We need to train in the dojang, in the woods, on concrete, in all types of weather, on uneven ground, on ruff turf as well as smooth turf, we need to train in dark alleys and tight spaces. So by the time we are finished training realistically the playing field is either equal to street fighters or we have the complete upper hand.


Rick: Any additional closing comments?

GM: Well, I'd like to say that gang membership is on a rise in America, and parents everywhere need to be heavily aware of what their children are doing. Also note, this is not just a teenage thing. There are gang members as young as 8 years old committing violent crimes. It's time to take back our families and provide them with all that they need to make it in this world. take care and be safe.


Rick: I'd like to thank you for your time. I understand you are no longer active in gang activities. I wish you luck in your quest for peace.

About the Author

J. Richard Kirkham is a dual certified teacher and martial arts instructor. He has expertise in alternative teaching methods and positive reinforcement methodology. He's written several books in the printable electronic format and has made downloadable videos and DVDs. One of his downloadable books, Bringing The Martial Artist Out from Within, covers both realistic mental and physical training based on his martial arts and behavior management experience. He currently resides in Honolulu with his wife Jan and son Hunter. Feel free to visit Mr. Kirkham's website at http://KirkhamsEbooks.com or you may email him at help@kirkhamsebooks.com Copyright 2007

[Knuckles&Knees]

Nice article, Kirk.

Some things I agree with the former gang member in the article, other things not so much.

I agree with Garland that there never seems to be a clear definition of "street fighter" other than a mythical image given in peoples conversations similar to the "ninja."

Personally I basically define street fighter as anyone that throws punches or physically fights on the street. They don't need to fight often they can fight every blue moon. Most untrained fighters can't fight that good in my opinion - be they gang banger or not.

Given that the so-called street-fighter has been given the mythical image similar to that of the storied ninja... formally trained fighters will question Bruce Lee's ability at fighting but ironically just assume and Italian mafioso like the late John Gatti can damn near defeat the world with his hands (of course such myths began to come down when Gatti got knocked out in prison).

Some street fighters can fight very well (especially if they punch like a ton of bricks) others not so much. So, for me it all depends on the person.

But yeah... I agree 100% to improve at fighting one needs to at least spar or "roll" on the mat. Simply punching at air (while better than nothing) is not enough.

Good article.

[KirkhamsEbooks.]

Thank you I was lucky to have the resource

Since you brought up sparring as a means of training for a street fight let me share another article I wrote

Not saying you said this obviously, but I have seen the attitude which practically forced me to write this article


The Myth of The Ultimate Martial Arts Drill http://kirkhamsebooks.com/MartialArt...ArtsDrill.html



There seems to be a prevalent myth that a common martial arts drill is some kind of ultimate drill. That if you become adept at this drill, you'll be able to defend yourself in any type of attack in the street. Martial arts instructors have developed drills to improve this drill and others have made it an integral part of a sport.

Have you figured out what the drill to which I'm referring? That's right ladies and gentlemen, the ultimate, the one and only - spaaarrrriiiinnnngggg!

For the purposes of this article, we will define sparring as an abstract martial arts drill in which two or more partners exchange attacking, defensive and counter-attacking techniques and tactics in a non-synchronized manner.

All drills, including sparring, have positive and negative attributes. I'd like to point out some of these attributes, both positive and negative to bring this good but sometimes misunderstood drill to the level and categories it belongs.




Positive Aspects of Sparring

Sparring is an Abstract Drill

The drill is flexible enough to train for a variety of situations and environments.

General defensive, offensive and counter-offensive tactics are developed and improved.

Distances can be experienced and tested of a variety of partner body types.

A variety of strikes and combinations can be experienced and executed.

The timing between blocks and or evasive movements and counter-striking can be observed, executed and improved.

The drill has positive aerobic and anaerobic factors similar to a type of interval training in which the athlete jogs then sprints a prescribed distance or time at intervals.

Sparring is executed by a number of styles and seems a good

basis for different styles of martial arts to both train and compete together.




Negative Aspects of Sparring

Sparring is an Abstract Drill The drill is flexible enough to train for a variety of situations and environments. There is not enough repetition of techniques and tactics to increase learning speed in a reasonable amount of time as compared to single focus drills.

General defensive, offensive and counter-offensive tactics are developed and improved. There is not enough repetition of techniques and tactics to increase learning speed in a reasonable amount of time as compared to single focus drills.

Distances can be experienced and tested of a variety of partner body types. The wide variety of experiences are a positive aspect of sparring, however my own experience is that often times the number of partners are limited.

A variety of strikes and combinations can be experienced and executed. Strikes and combinations can be experienced and executed, however in my experience partners tend to only execute those techniques and combinations the partners are comfortable with in order to avoid being struck. This tends to limit experiences in both observation and execution.

The timing between blocks and or evasive movements and counter-striking can be observed, executed and improved. There is not enough repetition of techniques and tactics to increase learning speed in a reasonable amount of time as compared to single focus drills.

Sparring is executed by a number of styles and seems a good basis for different styles of martial arts to both train and compete together. The schools which spar a great deal will have an unfair advantage over those schools which treat sparring like any other drill. This would be comparable to students thinking their style is better by comparing how well breaking-holds are executed or any other drill.

The drill has positive aerobic and anaerobic factors similar to a type of interval training in which the athlete jogs then sprints a prescribed distance or time at intervals. From strictly a self-defense point of view, anaerobic capacity is more important than aerobic capacity. A long sparring session doesn't emphasize the intensity of a self-defense situation.




Variations of Sparring to Overcome Negative Aspects

I'm the first to admit, despite its weaknesses, I love sparring. Well they don't call me The Drillman for nothing. So I developed several variations of sparring to focus on various aspects of self-defense training and compensate for some of the weaknesses.

Repeat Sparring This helps me quite a bit. If my partner tags me with a strike, he/she repeats the same combination over and over until I develop a block and or evasive movement. This benefits my partner as he/she repeats an effective combination and it benefits me as I learn to avoid being hit by an effective combination.

Taking Away Weapons Remember I mentioned martial artists tend use only techniques and combinations of techniques they are comfortable with (okay okay with which they are comfortable for you English teachers out there)?

Now we take away those favorites techniques and combinations by removing weapons.

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination

When attacking you may only use these combinations of weapons

All

Left arm right leg

Right arm left leg

Right side weapons

Left side weapons

Left arm

Right arm

Right leg

Left leg



When defending you may only use these combinations of tools

All

Left arm right leg

Right arm left leg

Right side

Left side

Left arm

Right arm

Right leg and evasive

Left leg and evasive

Add or take away evasive

Evasive only

Now mix them up

You're attacks and defenses are unlimited

You're attacks are limited by a set of guideline above but not you're defenses

You're defenses are limited by a set of guideline above but not you're attacks

You're defenses and attacks are limited by the same set of guideline above

You're defenses and attacks are limited by different sets of guidelines above.

And the list goes on.

Think think think. Add a safely knife right in the middle of sparing. One student throws another that's sparring a safety baseball bat another student joins another.

Tai Chi like slow motion free for all with three martial artists.

This is a great drill done slowly. Temporary teams against one student are formed, but you have to keep an eye on your temporary partner as well.

I've actually got a lot more drills than this , but many of them do not match the topic of this article, my carpal tunnel hands are getting tired, and the drills don't match our stated definition of sparring. Feel free however to check out my printable ebook, Bringing the Martial Artist Out from Within for more drills.

Thank you for your support. If you have martial arts drills or articles feel free to share them in any of the martial arts groups below.

Rick Sensei J. Richard Kirkham B.Sc. http://kirkhamsebooks.com/MartialArt...mbykirkham.htm





About the Author




J. Richard Kirkham is a dual certified teacher and martial arts instructor. He has expertise in alternative teaching methods and positive reinforcement methodology. He's written several books in the printable electronic format and has made downloadable videos and DVDs. He currently resides in Honolulu with his wife Jan and son Hunter. Feel free to visit Mr. Kirkham's website at http://KirkhamsEbooks.com/MartialArts/ or you may email him at help@kirkhamsebooks.com You may post this article in its entirety.


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