the worst night of my life =\ what would you do ?

[Kacey]

You were there; we weren't. You were in the situation and had the chance to assess it; we didn't. Nonetheless, given the option, I will always avoid situations where such things might happen whenever possible; when not possible to avoid such a situation, or when my foresight fails, I will leave as soon as possible. Money and possessions can be replaced - so if I need to cough up either one as a means of facilitating my exit, I will; luckily for you, money was all you lost.

 

[MA-Caver]

Agreed, with slight modification of the part I bolded. If you are dealing with multiples, it should be deadly force from the beginning due to the disparity of force.

Overall, I can't really say that I fault the actions of the OP. Who's to say that his willingness to engage didn't save him from worse damage? Aggressiveness is not a trait to be discouraged, just applied with discretion.

Well you gotta also remember that he was admittedly drunk at the time. Judgment, eye-hand, muscle control, accuracy, strength are all impaired at this moment. Much more so than if he had only 1 drink and was feeling a pleasant buzz as it were from it.

To me a good MA-ist knows their limit and sticks to it, a good MA-ist knows their limit and stays just under it for expecting the unexpected. You can still have a good time with the buds without being drunk.
If you're wanting to get drunk, then do it at home or in a much safer environment than a bad street with a bad reputation. Common sense should prevail here.

 

[Ahriman]

Well, I'm a slow runner. And I'd surely hate to hear that some thugs I ran away from attacked someone else who couldn't run. So running is not really on my list. (especially as you can't really run faster than a bullet - or a thrown knife for that. Even if the knife doesn't hit with the point, a quickly moving hard object colliding with the back of your head is not the best thing in the world and surely affects your running speed) Being aware, avoiding bad places, practising communication skills, being almost always armed, not being drunk in a public area and recognising "must comply or I really die" situations are on that list.
If you aren't sure that you can settle things, it's better to comply. Even if your cooperation is a method to make them lower their guards. If they are armed with anything do what you want to do with much, much, MUCH care. You can survive a punch to the head, you have much lower chances of survival if you get hit by a knife or a heavier/well-swung stick.
...
If you are drunk, you most likely won't be able to properly settle things no matter how low their guards are. Damn, I nearly broke my wrist in a drunken training fight due to serious fist misalignment - which is very scary as when NOT drunk I can dish 1.5 mm steel plates with my fist for about a hour without any problems other than bleeding.



Bottom line. Avoid problems as much as you can. If you know that you are drunk and alone in a bad area, call someone to pick you up. It's not weakness or anything - you can't be lucky at all times and in this case it was luck above all else. As I've said it elsewhere having unarmed attackers is luck, nothing else.
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Edited to add: joining the "never get to the ground" group.

 

[Omar B]

Don't even give 'em anything , don't even stop to pull out any money just split. Hard.

The longer you stay in their presence the worse your chances of escaping unscathed get( who knows what the other 4 may have been maneuvering around to do while the "mouth" of the group was distracting you). Good thing they were unprepared for a resisting mark.

If they chase, the one good thing is they won't chase all at the same speed, they'll string out in a line so if they catch up you may get to nail the closest real good and keep going before the rest catch up, and keep distance that way.

If you are trapped in the midst of all of them, pick either A) the weakest looking one in the circle or B) the one acting as "Mouth", and go for THAT one and get out of that circle.

If you cannot escape the circle or are forced onto the ground it is killing time because the "boot party" is where 90-plus percent of all unarmed homicides occur. If you have not picked up techniques which are high-percentage for this kind of threat, pick some up.

Better than all this would be to give up drinking and nightclubs, or at least confine drinking to a safe location where you know you'll be spending that night and not going out.

Quoted for truth!

 

[KenpoTex]

Well you gotta also remember that he was admittedly drunk at the time. Judgment, eye-hand, muscle control, accuracy, strength are all impaired at this moment. Much more so than if he had only 1 drink and was feeling a pleasant buzz as it were from it.

To me a good MA-ist knows their limit and sticks to it, a good MA-ist knows their limit and stays just under it for expecting the unexpected. You can still have a good time with the buds without being drunk.
If you're wanting to get drunk, then do it at home or in a much safer environment than a bad street with a bad reputation. Common sense should prevail here.

Did he say he was actually drunk when the incident ocurred? Regardless, your point is well taken. I don't often drink and if I'm doing it in public, I don't drink more than one or two for this very reason. I don't want to impair my ability to fight, drive, or think clearly if an incident such as this happens.

 

[chinto]

It's 10:21 A.M here in the UK and the first thing I thought when I woke up was I gotta put this on Martialtalk lol.

Still a bit drunk though so bare with me lol.

In my city we have Queen Street which is full of shops and no bars, so it's packed in the day and near empty in the night, and St Mary's Street which is full of bars and clubs and fast food so it's the other way around.

I wasn't allowed in a club because apparently I was under age, and they took my I.D off me saying it was someone else's but it was mine, and said I had to ring in the morning and they would mail it to me, so I walked off pissed off and all my mates were in the club.

I made the dumb mistake of walking down Queen Street alone, it was literally empty, and as I was walking some kid came up to me and said "got any money mate?" I said "nope none mate sorry " and he came right up in my face and said "give me your ****ing money " i said "please buddy I ain't got anything" and pulled like a bit of small change and a £20 (aorund $40) note was visibile so he said "give me that now or ur getting it" and his shoulder moved as if he was gonna swing for me so I elbowed him in the chin and dropped him and he was bleeding and his friend looked so shocked lmao you could tell they do it all the time and no one does anything. Anyway there was five including the one on the floor so the four were chasing me and I turned and swung wildly with the worst punch I've ever thrown but it dropped another one and after running a bit more I had to sort of dodge a bin and another one was right behind me and would have caught me so I turned and dump tackled him but the fourth dude and the fifth one I originally elbowed caught up to me and caught me on the lip and the back of the head, took the £20 and sprant like little bitches. Luckily some dudes on bmxes saw everything and hit a few of them aswell but didn't manage to get my money back and another dude who saw everything paid for my taxi home.

I dunno why I'm telling you this in so much detail, but I've been doing martial arts for about 18 months and this was my first real self defense situation so I just wanted to know did I do the right thing? Or should I have just run ? I'm pretty proud I dropped three out of five but they still got my money so maybe that doesn't really mean anything =\

multiple attackers like that, I would have looked to cripple the first as badly as I could .. preferably very spectacularly.. at least after the elbow I would have stomped his nuts! I consider any such confrontation to be a deadly force issue. there are 5 of them, and they are committing a felony.. here in the USA or there in the UK. I would say a strong arm robbery by 5 on one is a deadly serious situation, and so would have looked to put one down very hard and spectacularly with the idea that the other 4 might decide it was not worth it... and if they did think it worth it, that number 1 there would not be a threat any more.

 

[Logan]

In a self-defence situation things happen in an unexpected and often unpredicted manner. The fact that you reacted at all is a good sign - many martial artists, particularly as they get higer grades, would freeze in a similar situation because they delude themselves in their training. So kudos to you for that.

You said something like "the worst punch I have ever thrown" or similar. That should highlight to you the effect that hormones, fear and everything can have on your technical abilities. Not to digress to a self-defense rant but you have to keep it simple, execute it quick. All those combination things people do at gradings are about as useful as.....well you can guess.

Unless we had CCTV footage or similar nobody can really comment that you did the right thing or not. You are alive and relatively unscathed, so that's the main thing. If it were me, I would just trust my gut. If someone enters my comfort zone, then I would probably assume it is on and react accordingly. However, if you walk in a dangerous area, on your own and drunk, then you might not be so lucky next time.

 

[Grenadier]

People can't read each other's minds, plain and simple. You have no idea what they were thinking, or whether they were the type who would have taken your money, and then killed you.

In those cases, you do what you need to do to save yourself. It's better to overestimate the danger of the situation, and fight for your own survival, than to underestimate the danger, and end up dead.

You're still alive, you still have a roof over your head, electricity power your computer, food in your refrigerator, petrol in your vehicle, and an intact body, so I doubt that this was the worst night of your life.