Dear nathan100,
I hope that this can be of some help...
Another thing to consider learning is "how to prevent from turning yellow while being intimidated". Martial arts schools teach fighting techniques but almost all of them don't give their students the experience of really being intimidated, bullied, bashed, electrocuted (some does this
), etc. to the point of break down or heart attack unlike in the Armed Forces. Naturally martial arts schools can't do this to their students or they will lose them and may face legal charges.
Fear and intimidation can break people up even without throwing a punch. Even when the person have good MA skills but has no full control of his fear while being intimidated can turn yellow. I've seen people who have cried, pissed, vomited and fainted when they were being intimidated and when the punches were flying, even though these people can be considered non-softies, they couldn't use their fancy fighting techniques because their knees turned jello.
If you had some military training, you will experience being intimidated/bullied by drill officers and will be pushed to the limits but as the training progress, you will notice that even if the officers slaps your face or shouts at your ear you will not be that scared anymore and you will notice that you now can hear their commands with perfect clarity even when you are running, climbing or even under more heavy stress situations. The reason for this is that you have promoted yourself from maggot rank to tiger rank.
Many organized thugs also use similar tactics to scare their prey. They will surround and bark at their prey so hard to the point that they break and can easily be manipulated.
Even from some organized MA competition, fighters use the "stare down" technique to break their opponents before a fight.
Street fighters are often good at this because they have experienced and learned the law of the street jungle. They may not be good fighters but they know how control fear and know how to best intimidate their opponents for their benefit. Bar security guards are good with this too.
One good example is my son. His upbringing was somewhat military like especially during his younger years. When he does something stupid I don't hit him but barks at him like a drill sergeant while he stands chin up, chest out and he drops and do push ups, squat trusts or make him run around. I don't do this now because he has grown up but my wife said that sometimes I still sound like a drill sergeant giving commands, hahaha! Our martial arts practice is full contact and sometimes we even slap/punch each others faces or a kick on the nut so he is not new to pain.
As he grew older, I noticed that he can't easily be intimidated during street fights even when he is being barked at. He stays very silent but very focused and enters what I call stalking mode and will just take their barking but when he gets pushed, he twists them and make their faces polish concrete. My son even told me that this helped him a lot to stay focused and cool headed and usually because of his training his opponent tucked tail and detached even before the fight. He knows how to intimidate his opponents by staying silent but pushes in plus giving them the tiger stare and showing that he means business and wont back down. I've seen him once doing this to a punk while we were having an afternoon walk (the punk thought that I was a teenager and not a dad because I am short, lol). The punk picked him randomly and wanted a fight but tucked tail. The punk kid couldn't control his fear that he had to support himself on his bicycle just to stand straight because his knees turned jello and I had to order my son to stop intimidating the kid or he may collapse because of fear. If the fight became real, the punk kid will will not be able to fight properly even though he is older, taller and bigger than my son because he turned yellow. The punk's mistake was that he knows how to intimidate but didn't do his homework on how to keep in control when being intimidated. Winning a fight is not always won by who has the best fighting technique but sometimes it is won by fear control and intimidation.
Remember that this is just a fraction of the game and you still have to have a good MA or fighting skills to be truly effective in real combat or fights. Learn how to control your fear and train more harder. Do lots of sparring and if you can, enter the military or asks your close friends to try to practice intimidating you just like on a street fight. Tell them to push you around, grab your collar, call you names, etc. and try to make it as real looking as possible. This may sound corny but with lots of practice, this may help you control your fear.
Next time make them jello okay
