Real fights are messy, full of uncertainty, sloppy, falling down and scrambling up, feints, lucky shots. Street fights are quick and aren’t run over several rounds like an arranged fight.
.
If you know for sure another person is going to attack you and is cornering you, you’ll be at a major disadvantage if that person reacts first. You’ll have no time to prepare. An encounter usually just lasts seconds.
.
The first to throw a punch or make a move usually gains on advantage. Drunks and those on drugs are much more dangerous, as they may not feel any punishment you are able to give out. Some martial artist’s are just not prepared for the fury, speed and viciousness of a real encounter.
.
By the time you realize you are in a fight, it is already half over and you’ve taken three or four solid shots to the face, and your tee-shirt has been pulled over your head, rendering you blind.
.
The experience is jarring, unfiltered chaos, blurred vision in one eye from an errant thumb poke, a ringing eardrum from getting punched in the side of the head, the taste of your own blood, swallowing a tooth. It is disorganized, violent, confusion, and your heart rate is skyrocketing with buckets of adrenaline dumped into your body.
.
You hold your breath as your body goes into shock and when it’s over, you throw up from exhaustion. The whole thing lasted less than 30 seconds. You’re battered, bruised, or worse.
.
An actual fight is about survival. Fights do not happen in safe, closed environments. Any time that you have to think, is about the same amount of time it will take for your attacker to break your nose, or worse.
.
The martial arts that you practice in your school are in a vacuum…… and then there is being in a real fight. These are two very different things. You don’t know how ill-equipped you actually are against an attacker that really wants to do you harm, until you are brutally exposed in a life threatening encounter.
.
A fight is a visceral, primal experience and when you are fighting for your life, you have a split second to make the right decision.
.
If you get into a street fight and win, and you need to be clear what you mean by ‘win’, you’re still going to lose. If you get into a street fight and lose, you’re going to lose a lot. You could lose your job, family, your freedom, or your life.
.
Unfortunately, finding a good school that practices self-defense is hard. Many instructors tack on the ‘self-defense’ title as if it’s synonymous with martial arts. It isn’t.
.
Don’t get into a fight if your life or the life of others are not in jeopardy – it simply isn’t worth it. You are not as prepared as you think you are……. Here is the bottom line: You DON’T want to get into street fights. 
.