Dasher
White Belt
As I am I'm always careful not to get into unnecessary violence or fights so I don't have many "War Stories" but I thought this was worth sharing.
I was 16 and it was Saturday. Me and about 5 or 6 others had began drinking, so far it was still early in the night so we had only gotten through maybe 2-4 cans of beer. Bavaria if I remember right. I fuzzy on some of the details because I'm now 25 so this was years ago.
We started drinking at our normal spot but got a message that a bunch of others were meeting up maybe 15 minutes walk from where we were. So as we were about halfway to the meetup were walking on a backstreet behind a pub. I'm eating a bag of chips and my remaining cans are in my pockets.
Suddenly this guy comes storming around the corner, to this day I don't know what he was so angry about or if he was on drugs etc. He came right up to our group and started getting stuck on one of my mates. Not really any talking or deliberating just straight up shoving and threatening. As I said I'm not one to attack people in the street because someone always ends up getting hurt and that's always ****. Bad if it's you bad if it's them, it's a lose lose situation. At this point however I could see this was only going two ways, I could run and let my friend get his head kicked in or I could fight. The rest of the group weren't going to do anything and this was obvious to me at this point.
So I put down my chips and cans and marched straight in. With someone to counter his aggression the guy turned to me and as I wasn't really any good at striking we locked into a wrestle. Also because I was tipsy it was very difficult to orientate myself properly, I had little to no real fight training at this point. He managed to rip out of my clinch and swung a heavy punch that caught me pretty solid in the jaw. I reeled for a second and my hands found his body again and I fell bringing him to the ground with me. We struggled on the floor and he bit my cheek which was ironically the most painful part of this experience during the fight. We grappled for a second and to my own surprise I managed to get the upper hand. I can't remember what I did, either I struck him or choked him into submission, then being the fool I listened to my friend who was pulling my jumper and simply got off him and began to walk away. My situation awareness was low 1 because of alcohol and 2 because as I said "Foolishness". As we walked away I heard the guy swearing at me, I turned around thinking if he needed another submission he'd come to the right guy. What I didn't know was that he had found a Hurley on the floor (For those who don't know a Hurley is about the length of a baseball bat, made of wood its carved flat at the top, used in game of hurling obviously). He swung the Hurley as I turned and caught me in the right side of my head. About 6 fingers behind the temple at the top. I don't have any recollection of the next 10 or so seconds as I was knocked out cold, something I didn't actually know till I talked the story over with my friend. Anyway I collapsed and hit the pavement with the other side of my head on the way down.
I got up what felt like immediately to me but the guy was nowhere to be seen. I grumbled about being sure I was going to beat the **** out of him next I saw him (I was not in a clear state of mind obviously) and we walked off. The rest of the night was a nightmare but that was the end of the war so to speak.
If this story can help any martial artists out there the basic advice would be stay clear and grounded, if your drunk it's hard as love and you have very little control on the situation. Even if you're winning, as I was, impaired judgement will get you a long dark time in hospital. Fighting those who are coming down on you like a tonne of bricks is better avoided, but if that's not possible then hit hard hit fast and get out of there and don't rely on anyone else not even close friends to help you because fear makes people do strange things.
I was 16 and it was Saturday. Me and about 5 or 6 others had began drinking, so far it was still early in the night so we had only gotten through maybe 2-4 cans of beer. Bavaria if I remember right. I fuzzy on some of the details because I'm now 25 so this was years ago.
We started drinking at our normal spot but got a message that a bunch of others were meeting up maybe 15 minutes walk from where we were. So as we were about halfway to the meetup were walking on a backstreet behind a pub. I'm eating a bag of chips and my remaining cans are in my pockets.
Suddenly this guy comes storming around the corner, to this day I don't know what he was so angry about or if he was on drugs etc. He came right up to our group and started getting stuck on one of my mates. Not really any talking or deliberating just straight up shoving and threatening. As I said I'm not one to attack people in the street because someone always ends up getting hurt and that's always ****. Bad if it's you bad if it's them, it's a lose lose situation. At this point however I could see this was only going two ways, I could run and let my friend get his head kicked in or I could fight. The rest of the group weren't going to do anything and this was obvious to me at this point.
So I put down my chips and cans and marched straight in. With someone to counter his aggression the guy turned to me and as I wasn't really any good at striking we locked into a wrestle. Also because I was tipsy it was very difficult to orientate myself properly, I had little to no real fight training at this point. He managed to rip out of my clinch and swung a heavy punch that caught me pretty solid in the jaw. I reeled for a second and my hands found his body again and I fell bringing him to the ground with me. We struggled on the floor and he bit my cheek which was ironically the most painful part of this experience during the fight. We grappled for a second and to my own surprise I managed to get the upper hand. I can't remember what I did, either I struck him or choked him into submission, then being the fool I listened to my friend who was pulling my jumper and simply got off him and began to walk away. My situation awareness was low 1 because of alcohol and 2 because as I said "Foolishness". As we walked away I heard the guy swearing at me, I turned around thinking if he needed another submission he'd come to the right guy. What I didn't know was that he had found a Hurley on the floor (For those who don't know a Hurley is about the length of a baseball bat, made of wood its carved flat at the top, used in game of hurling obviously). He swung the Hurley as I turned and caught me in the right side of my head. About 6 fingers behind the temple at the top. I don't have any recollection of the next 10 or so seconds as I was knocked out cold, something I didn't actually know till I talked the story over with my friend. Anyway I collapsed and hit the pavement with the other side of my head on the way down.
I got up what felt like immediately to me but the guy was nowhere to be seen. I grumbled about being sure I was going to beat the **** out of him next I saw him (I was not in a clear state of mind obviously) and we walked off. The rest of the night was a nightmare but that was the end of the war so to speak.
If this story can help any martial artists out there the basic advice would be stay clear and grounded, if your drunk it's hard as love and you have very little control on the situation. Even if you're winning, as I was, impaired judgement will get you a long dark time in hospital. Fighting those who are coming down on you like a tonne of bricks is better avoided, but if that's not possible then hit hard hit fast and get out of there and don't rely on anyone else not even close friends to help you because fear makes people do strange things.
