Bouncing

[INDYFIGHTER]

They notice me. 6', 145lbs

 

[Adept]

Manged to pick up a neat little scar on New years eve.

I live in a small coastal town that suffers a population explosion over the summer. Every year there is an open air music concert put on to entertain the crowds.

This year, since the Club was closed, myself and four other crowd controllers were working at the concert. I was stationed to the left of the stage, monitoring the front of the crowd, two guys were inside monitoring the back of the crowd, one guy was on the gate and another was taking care of the area between the gate and the road.

Towrds the end of the night, a guy jumps out of the crowd, climbs up on the stage, and grabs a music sheet stand. I'm heading towards him, but before I get there he falls of the stage and lands on his back. We're pretty relaxed at this event with regards to intoxication, so my initial thought was to help the guy up, tell him off, and put him back in the crowd.

As I bend over to help him up, he starts swinging around crazily with the music stand, catching me on the right eyebrow, and opening it up pretty good. I try to grab the stand off him, but he seems pretty keen to hang on to it. So I apply a RNC (he was still on the ground, with his head towards me) and he quickly loses interest in the stand. A few seconds later the other security guys appear, and together we get him up and herd him out. The guy was a real A-hole. Abusive, aggressive, damaging property on his way out...

The police caught up with him later and arrested him though, so all ended well.

Luckily I didn't need stitches. The first aid people had a tent set up, and they managed to close it up with medi-strips.

Mistakes?

I didn't control the weapon as soon as I should have. He wasn't deliberately swinging it at me, and I wasn't expecting it, and it caught me completely off-guard. My bad for not being wary enough.

 

[INDYFIGHTER]

Great post! Thanks for sharing that experiance. Sounds like a big event! Sounds like a fun event! If the guy had just left the stage he would have had a lot less problems but he had to be a jerk. It's amazing how no matter how prepared we are it only takes a moment for something to slip by us.

Glad you were alright!

 

[Nanalo74]

It's amazing how no matter how prepared we are it only takes a moment for something to slip by us.

That's so true. Anybody can get sucker-punched. Sounds like you handled it ok. The most important thing is you were ok in the end.

Good job.

Vic
www.combatartsusa.com

 

[INDYFIGHTER]

I got swung on working at the bar Saturday night and it went off like a drill in class. Three years of being at the dojo must have paid off!
Money well spent!

 

[Grenadier]

You came out of it in one piece, no injuries. I'd say that was a pretty good day at work.

Stay safe.

 

[Shirt Ripper]

What is the point of all that muscle and not an ounce of courage or backbone?

Maybe that is the point, eh?

 

[arnisador]

Can you deduct the training costs?

 

[samurai69]

Just found this web site.....dont know if its usefull to any door staff

http://www.stormpages.com/handtohand22/page61.htm

 

[FearlessFreep]

I got swung on working at the bar Saturday night and it went off like a drill in class. Three years of being at the dojo must have paid off!

Wasn't there are thread about 'why years of training'?

 

[fullkontact]

I bounced for 2 years, bartended for 2 years, and worked casino security for 4 1/2 years. I loved the stuff when I first started, couldn't wait for a fight. (definitely the wrong attitude). I'll tell ya though, it get's reaaaalllly old, really fast. I was always diplomatic, even studied the verbal judo stuff. It works great. But after a while you get tired of being a glorified hall monitor. Not to mention the enemies you make by merely doing your job.
ps. I did like talking to the girls though.

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

I bounced for 2 years, bartended for 2 years, and worked casino security for 4 1/2 years. I loved the stuff when I first started, couldn't wait for a fight. (definitely the wrong attitude). I'll tell ya though, it get's reaaaalllly old, really fast. I was always diplomatic, even studied the verbal judo stuff. It works great. But after a while you get tired of being a glorified hall monitor. Not to mention the enemies you make by merely doing your job.
ps. I did like talking to the girls though.

I became a bouncer for two reasons:

1. Needed money for a track moto; and,
2. I wanted to see if I had the jingle-bells necessary to handle myself in a street scuffle.

I was able to accomplish both. Your demeanor is really little more than a reflection of the type of establishment you're working and said establishment's mission. The place I worked changed ownership a few months before I started and went from the local watering-hole to a hip-hop oriented night club. The transition met various levels of ruffians-and-riff-raff; and for the first year I worked there, removing someone without warning was not out of the scope of normal crowd control. When the place cleaned up, it became a much different situation, and a lot of the old school guys--myself included--thought the job just became boring.

As a bouncer, you don't beat people up, quite the opposite, in fact; you are there to mitigate liability and damages. For a while there was about 1-3 fights a night, Friday and Saturday, and 1-3 parking lot brawls a month; that said, only about 5% of what I did was actually fighting. Most of it was spent establishing a relationship with the patrons, so that you could ask them to not do something, without it causing tension. I helped them out, and they helped me out.

Nevertheless, there was more than one occasion where my boss said that famous line from Casino: I want you to go over there, pick him up, off his feet, and take him out side; and I want you to open the door with his head. I think he just liked the saying.

P.S.: Talking to chicks on-shift while I'm running the door means you get a fish zip-tied to the under-carriage of your car; or package of LEO zip-ties fastened to your drive-shaft. If it's slow enbough for someone to be shooting the bull with chicks, it's slow enough for us to play a practical joke on said person.

 

[fullkontact]

I remember coming down off the adrenaline rushes. We always tried to resolve problems without fighting of course, but that's not always the case. At the casino, the police were ALWAYS called if we had to get physical. the times that were the worst was when we almost had to get physical, then the po po's get there and took over. I don't know about you guys, but when my body is getting ready for a fight, then doesn't get to, I get the shakes. Gotta take 5 to get my head straight again.

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

I remember coming down off the adrenaline rushes. We always tried to resolve problems without fighting of course, but that's not always the case. At the casino, the police were ALWAYS called if we had to get physical. the times that were the worst was when we almost had to get physical, then the po po's get there and took over. I don't know about you guys, but when my body is getting ready for a fight, then doesn't get to, I get the shakes. Gotta take 5 to get my head straight again.

Our local cops let us work. Much easier to file a response report that says: we showed up and the altercation had already been neutralized. Also, if memory serves, altercations with intoxicated individuals mandates a report to the ABC, which goes down on our file. So many equals a fine, and so many more equals a revocation of our liquor license. So, my boss was not all-that-eager to call the cops unless the situation was really bad. Most cops got used to working with us, and we'd call them just to get someone to leave; mostly the threat of calling the cops would work, and sometimes the cops would make an appearance just to motivate them to leave without incident. Plus, it's legally our property, so the cops are liable under certain circumstances on private property, public business or otherwise. I had to explain that to a drunk, off-duty federal officer, who was harrassing a couple girls one night. I think he was BLM or something.

Moreover, cops collect the city's largest fines from DUIs; we were the prime spot for that, despite our best efforts. There were a couple other crappy bars in our immediate vecinity, so, reasonably, the DUI couldn't be pinned on us. But even if they could, the cops were more likely to let it go and not report it to the ABC, because the city and the county (and, inadvertently, the state) make a ton of money off DUIs and lucky deuce fines/fees; they want to keep that revenue, and that wouldn't happen, realistically, if they were making their best attempts to shut down every bar that produced drunk people.

As you can tell *cough*from my handle*cough*, I'm a bit if an adrenaline addict. I usually didn't get to bed until around 4am. That made getting up at 7am to rail our bikes around the backroads a little sketchy sometimes. :ultracool

 

[evenflow1121]

When I was younger I bounced at acouple of clubs on South Beach. I am not that big either, rather thin, and about 5'9. However, after a few years of that, I realized it wasnt worth the hassle, but the stories one has to tell are priceless. I am glad you are having fun, be safe.

 

[Adept]

but the stories one has to tell are priceless.

Ain't that the truth!

 

[fullkontact]

I will admit that it was nice to get some real world fighting experience, even though striking was frowned upon, I got to use a lot of Aikido, and BJJ. I didn't have to worry about going to jail, and if I couldn't handle it by myself, there was always backup.

 

[INDYFIGHTER]

St. Patty's day went off with out a hitch. We did record numbers and even after being short a man after he went home sick we still managed to keep it under control. Then at 3am I'm walking towards the front door getting the last few patrons out when the bartender points at a guy with his back to me and says "He's got to go right now!". He was already heading out so I just started following him close behind. About ten feet from the door he stops to turn around and I placed a hand on his right shoulder from behind and said "Let's go man". He jerked away then jerked the other way then started to come around ( elbow raised ). I got him above the elbow and the other hand on his waist started pushing for the door. We went out together right past my door guys where a LEO pulled me off thinking I was a patron. He quickly relized his mistake and let me go and I went inside and started cleaning up. As I came in the rest of the security were standing with they're jaw's open. Someone asked "what was that?" and I said " I dunno, he had to go. Let's get cleaned up and have a drink." . Wasn't till twenty minutes later another bouncer said "Can't believe you threw out the owners son!" ...:shrug:

 

[scottcatchot]

"Can't believe you threw out the owners son!" ...:shrug:

Any backlash from ejecting the owners son?

 

[INDYFIGHTER]

Any backlash from ejecting the owners son?

Well after I found out who he was I went outside to talk to him. My cousins girlfriend is a bartender and his friend and was telling him I was just doing my job. He said it was cool but I could tell he was still pissed. The next night he came back sober and apologized to me. He'd bounce there for awhile and understood. We did a shot of Crown and made friends so I guess it's cool.