Lol that's funny!

Many years ago, my then gf snuck up on me and shot me in the ear with a water pistol, it went right in and hit the eardrum, by pure reflex I kicked her in solar plexus. She wasn't impressed.

Yeah but most people develop tunnel vision when the adrenaline kicks in. They don't stop and think about tactics but just charge forward. Victims struggle futilely over the knife against a stronger assailant instead of kneeing him in the groin. That's another benefit of MA training, you're much more likely to avoid kicking into that stupid, instinctive fight-or-flight mode.

That video was hillarious! He just punched him right in the face

No human body is faster than a bullet or an explosion from a piece of dynamite, unless you are Chuck Norris.....I must....Bow........

If you can escape and survive or not is not really the question IMO, because you will try to defend yourself nomatter what.

If two people attack you and try to kill you, you might get out of it. The chanses depend greatly on how skilled they are an if they have weapons. Ofcource, if there are more attackers, there's even less of a chanse.

I think that your ability to think a bit strategical will come into play. Where to run, lure your oponent into a position where you can use your surroundings against him/her, etc.

This is sucky to know. I wish martial arts would do brilliant things because then the otherwise physically defenceless like me could stand a chance! :P I'm physically weak, clumsy, have poor reflexes and few skills... I guess even if martial arts worked a treat I still wouldn't be good but at least martial arts alleged to give the smaller opponent the edge.

You're pretty much screwed then. You'll never be a ninja, but at least martial arts can help you overcome some of your physical shortcomings, since you'll learn how your body moves.

Here's a tip: If you get the chanse, knee someone in their tail bone. That's right, you heard be, tailbone. If anyone here has ever hurt their tailbone they will know what I'm talking about, they won't be able to walk propperly, let alone run, for sevral days!

And I think martial arts can give a smaller weaker person the advantage, atleast against untrained thugs. That's exactly what sevral martial arts are about, like jujitsu (what I used to do) none of the techniques require you to be bigger and stronger than your oponent, they are made so smaller guys can take on big guys in close combat grappling. Ofcource, if you're a 150 lbs guy against someone whos 250, you're kinda screwed, unless he doesn't know how to fight at all, and you're very good.

Of course you can use it in real life. That's why you train and drill the techniques over and over...so they become second nature. Anyone who says it makes little difference is foolish. Strength and size are definite factors in fight, but certainly not necessarily the determining factors.

I also have to disagree that rage will make you win a fight. This only works if the opponent is unskilled and your antics scare the shiat out of him., in fact if you go against a skilled person it will work against you because you will make mistakes. Why do you think boxers trash talk so much...they know another fighter isn't scared by talk, but they might get mad and be less technical.

As far as the most devastating place to strike I'll have to quote my old Kenpo instructor's father (who by the way beat the hell out of 3 guys who tried to rob him when he was in his 60's) "I've hit a lot of men and I never had one get up after I hit him in the throat."

I don't think so. There's a lot of self confidence involved in boxing. If you suffer a small defeat there, show a bit of weakness, a fake smile, a weak comeback, a bit of doubt creeps in, that takes the top of your performance.

It's like 2 rival males of any species, they're going to size each other up, play tough, parade around. Most of the time, they decide based on this who is tougher and the underdog just walks away. I think humans get the same psychological reaction, but the difference is boxers are forced to fight, and we're not completely victim to our instincts. But those instincts are still there, and the trash talk and posing just might make the difference between who has to battle that "you're gonna lose and should just get out of here and let him have the females" feeling.

It's a lot more about establishing a sense of superiority than trying to make someone mad.

You're free to disagree with me

Atleast with the japanese/okinawan martial arts, "all that flashy stuff" exists because it was useful to the practioners. If you arent able to utilize it in a real fight, you are not doing it right or havent practiced enough or do not have the proper conditioning.

Most traditional martial arts ended up the way they are because of social evolution. Though there was considerably less b*tching about how long something took to learn and be good at back then.

Yesterday at goshuku (a full weekend of karate!) my sensei's sensei (Master Kobayashi) showed exactly how a new kata I had recently learned (Seiyunchin) was supposed to be executed by having some of the blackbelts attack him at full speed. Very quickly you realize that "all that flashy stuff" is very useful if you practice, practice, practice.

Martial arts is not a pistol. It will never do brilliant things. What decent martial arts can do you for you is present a series of study that will allow you to transform your body and attitude so that you can do brilliant things. A fat and slow martial artist will still be no match for some lean boxer type until they put in the work to condition their body.

I will not sit here and boast confidently that I am fully prepared for a real-life fight and will kick the other guy's or guys' ass(es) or whatnot, but I will say taking up MMA has given me some real, valuable skills that I can use as well as helped me in my confidence a lot in case something like that came up. I definitely believe I need more training (I guess you're never done really but you know what I mean -- iron out the basics and all that) but even having a little training is better than none.

Some schools don't teach you things you need to know. In a lot of martial arts schools, the reason the martial art seems to be "useless" in a real-life fight is because the school teaches it based on TOURNAMENT rules. For example, in taekwondo, you're not allowed to punch to the head. So guess what? You're not gonna learn a whole lot about head shots and blocks at a lot of taekwondo schools. For an even more obvious example, in a lot of disciplines if both fighters fall or go to the ground, such as in karate, the fight is returned to stand-up. In real fights, there IS head punches and ground fighting.

Even with all these cool things I'm learning, I know real-life fighting is different than sparring. There's concrete and asphalt, not mats or boards (like the floor of rings), guys can pull weapons, there can be multiple attackers, people are allowed to bite and eye gouge, etc., so I can't do EVERYTHING the same as I would in training and I might have to think quickly to react to certain situations that can't really be simulated inside the school. However, having this kind of training definitely doesn't hurt. When you fight full-contact, minimum-rules (like UFC fighting), even if it's just sparring, you still can get used to being hit hard on most parts of the body and get the general experience of some guy trying to "kill" you. At the very least, the guy may have more street experience than me but generally speaking brawlers lose out to guys who have real, hardcore training in all aspects of fighting, including beating hit, which if you're not used to can really cause you to get panicked. If he tackles me and gets me to the ground, I'll at least be able to get out of the bottom and on top, and I'll at least be able to know how to give a good roundhouse to his thigh if we're standing up. An MMA school may not simulate a REAL, real-life fight where there's no referee stopping the fight and where's there's absolutely NO rules, but it is pretty damn close to real fighting, as close as you can get at least.

People who say martial arts don't work just haven't seen someone with the right kind of training. You think a street brawler's gonna know how to defend against a muay thai clinch? Think again. He'll be eating knees.

MMA training is quite good in giving you some good fighting skills.

I used to do muai thai, and my ground game is weak, but stand up fighting I do well.

Then I tried Krav Maga, which is focused on self defense. And tbh, while I was certainly much better prepared than untrained individuals, the ring fighting focus isn't that good for a street fight. Krav Maga, we were doing drills teaching you to line up multiple attackers so you only get to fight one at a time. Every technique we trained, each time you finish by scanning the area behind you and running away. When training techniques, instructors or other pupils would at random attack you from behind. Their ground fighting techniques won't work against a skilled fighter, but an unskilled one will be hurting and off you instantly and you're on your feet and running. All of the stuff that'll get you home safely instead of knifed in the back while you're beating the first guy soundly with your ring fighter skills.

Even as a trained fighter, a few months of Krav Maga will improve your self defense skills as much as your first few months of MMA.

that's pretty much how my self defence jujitsu class was. The trainers would attack us from behind if we didn't remember to look back, etc. very cool stuff, it's extremetly important to look around you after you've finished one off.