Please take a look at Articles on self-defense/conflict/violence for introductions to the references found in the bibliography page.

Please take a look at my bibliography if you do not see a proper reference to a post.

Please take a look at my Notable Quotes

Hey, Attention on Deck!

Hey, NOTHING here is PERSONAL, get over it - Teach Me and I will Learn!


When you begin to feel like you are a tough guy, a warrior, a master of the martial arts or that you have lived a tough life, just take a moment and get some perspective with the following:


I've stopped knives that were coming to disembowel me

I've clawed for my gun while bullets ripped past me

I've dodged as someone tried to put an ax in my skull

I've fought screaming steel and left rubber on the road to avoid death

I've clawed broken glass out of my body after their opening attack failed

I've spit blood and body parts and broke strangle holds before gouging eyes

I've charged into fires, fought through blizzards and run from tornados

I've survived being hunted by gangs, killers and contract killers

The streets were my home, I hunted in the night and was hunted in turn


Please don't brag to me that you're a survivor because someone hit you. And don't tell me how 'tough' you are because of your training. As much as I've been through I know people who have survived much, much worse. - Marc MacYoung

WARNING, CAVEAT AND NOTE

The postings on this blog are my interpretation of readings, studies and experiences therefore errors and omissions are mine and mine alone. The content surrounding the extracts of books, see bibliography on this blog site, are also mine and mine alone therefore errors and omissions are also mine and mine alone and therefore why I highly recommended one read, study, research and fact find the material for clarity. My effort here is self-clarity toward a fuller understanding of the subject matter. See the bibliography for information on the books. Please make note that this article/post is my personal analysis of the subject and the information used was chosen or picked by me. It is not an analysis piece because it lacks complete and comprehensive research, it was not adequately and completely investigated and it is not balanced, i.e., it is my personal view without the views of others including subject experts, etc. Look at this as “Infotainment rather then expert research.” This is an opinion/editorial article/post meant to persuade the reader to think, decide and accept or reject my premise. It is an attempt to cause change or reinforce attitudes, beliefs and values as they apply to martial arts and/or self-defense. It is merely a commentary on the subject in the particular article presented.


Note: I will endevor to provide a bibliography and italicize any direct quotes from the materials I use for this blog. If there are mistakes, errors, and/or omissions, I take full responsibility for them as they are mine and mine alone. If you find any mistakes, errors, and/or omissions please comment and let me know along with the correct information and/or sources.



“What you are reading right now is a blog. It’s written and posted by me, because I want to. I get no financial remuneration for writing it. I don’t have to meet anyone’s criteria in order to post it. Not only I don’t have an employer or publisher, but I’m not even constrained by having to please an audience. If people won’t like it, they won’t read it, but I won’t lose anything by it. Provided I don’t break any laws (libel, incitement to violence, etc.), I can post whatever I want. This means that I can write openly and honestly, however controversial my opinions may be. It also means that I could write total bullshit; there is no quality control. I could be biased. I could be insane. I could be trolling. … not all sources are equivalent, and all sources have their pros and cons. These needs to be taken into account when evaluating information, and all information should be evaluated. - God’s Bastard, Sourcing Sources (this applies to this and other blogs by me as well; if you follow the idea's, advice or information you are on your own, don't come crying to me, it is all on you do do the work to make sure it works for you!)



“You should prepare yourself to dedicate at least five or six years to your training and practice to understand the philosophy and physiokinetics of martial arts and karate so that you can understand the true spirit of everything and dedicate your mind, body and spirit to the discipline of the art.” - cejames (note: you are on your own, make sure you get expert hands-on guidance in all things martial and self-defense)



“All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.” - Montaigne


I am not a leading authority on any one discipline that I write about and teach, it is my hope and wish that with all the subjects I have studied it provides me an advantage point that I offer in as clear and cohesive writings as possible in introducing the matters in my materials. I hope to serve as one who inspires direction in the practitioner so they can go on to discover greater teachers and professionals that will build on this fundamental foundation. Find the authorities and synthesize a wholehearted and holistic concept, perception and belief that will not drive your practices but rather inspire them to evolve, grow and prosper. My efforts are born of those who are more experienced and knowledgable than I. I hope you find that path! See the bibliography I provide for an initial list of experts, professionals and masters of the subjects.

Street-Fighter

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

The next term used to try and demonstrate the superiority of one form of fighting over another, i.e., the street-fighter vs. Amateur MMA Fighter. Not really able to determine what it is they are trying to prove but a good guess is an attempt to show that an amateur MMA fighter is superior to a street-fighter.\

Well, lets try to find out what a street fighter is. When you try to define that term, i.e., street-fighter, you come up with defining sites for a game. If yo separate the two words you get more of the same. Apparently the game industry has a monopoly on that term as far as Google searches are concerned. I also have a feeling I am one of the few in the world to attempt to find a definition that works for what self-defense often calls street fighting. 

Now, when searching street fighting, with the “ing,” you get, hand-to-hand combat in public places, between individuals or groups of people. Unlike sport fighting, a street fight might involve weapons, multiple opponents or revenge and has no rules.”

A pretty good site to check regarding this term is the “No Nonsense Self-Defense” site created and maintained by Marc ‘Animal’ MacYoung and Dianna Gordon MacYoung. http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/streetrat.html

The following quote comes from the site at No Nonsense Self-Defense, it is well worth the effort to read the entire article. “ … a street fighter, it means that I was a vicious, self-centered, misbehaving drunken, stoned thug among other vicious, self-centered, misbehaving drunken, stoned thugs. We were the worst kind of savages. Man to man, mano y mano was bull. Numbers and weapons were always used to increase our odds whenever possible. Once you realized the other side could and would shoot back, you did everything in your power to make sure he never got the chance. You always stacked the deck in your favor. You hit first, you hit hard enough to make sure he didn't get up. You ran as often as you hit, and you hit from behind as often as you could. The blood, the bullets and the knives were real. In the streets, life and death were determined by whims, pride, intoxicants and sheer stupidity. It's a way of life (and often death), and it's constant. It's living with being the hunter and the hunted every day and night.“

My personal thoughts on the matter are as follows:

First, there are various levels of what I would define as a “Street Fighter.” It is a full range or a gradient between the most extreme that I would classify Mr. MacYoung at then there is the opposite end of that spectrum that is at its most opposite. It would be hard-core to that level of soft-core with many levels or gradients that flow across that spectrum.

Hard-Core: Look to Mr. MacYoung’s quote above then read the following and it should give you an idea of what a full-fledged all-out street fighter would be, i.e.,:

"I've stopped knives that were coming to disembowel me
I've clawed for my gun while bullets ripped past me
I've dodged as someone tried to put an ax in my skull
I've fought screaming steel and left rubber on the road to avoid death
I've clawed broken glass out of my body after their opening attack failed
I've spit blood and body parts and broke strangle holds before gouging eyes
I've charged into fires, fought through blizzards and run from tornados
I've survived being hunted by gangs, killers and contract killers
The streets were my home, I hunted in the night and was hunted in turn

Please don't brag to me that you're a survivor because someone hit you. And don't tell me how 'tough' you are because of your training. As much as I've been through I know people who have survived much, much worse. - Marc MacYoung"

In my mind if you can claim that you have lived and experienced the above then you are a street fighter. But, when you start to look at what most actually believe are street fighters then you begin to see why there is such a disparity.

Folks who have had a couple of fights in the local school yard tend to think that is street fighting. Then those who have had a couple of fist fights in their neighborhoods because it occurred on or near a street think they are street fighters. Those monkey dances in local sports bars when too much alcohol is consumed and testerone rises and two guys go nose-to-nose they assume they are street fighters. Well, actually bar-fighters but that as well is far from reality and that is why some seem to refer to those encounters as the “Monkey Dance.” 

I believe that at the hard-core level and a few gradient levels below that, no where near the balance point of that spectrum, you can say a participant is a street fighter. When you get to the other lower levels, not so much. Fighting out in the street does not make one a street fighter. I consider the title one that you would attach to someone who lives a life where conflict and violence are in integral part thereof where they have to fight for survival. 

All the media drama monkey oriented forms we see today referred to as street-fighter are actually sport oriented endeavors where the use of the term is simply a sales tool that also works as a self-soothing form of making ourselves feel something that we can only feel if we lived a life of conflict and violence, etc. Remember for a street fighter there are no rules and anything goes to remain alive and to survive. 

Now, to make sure my readers don’t mistakenly assume I am a street fighter, I am NOT. Yes, I have had a few fights in my life and yes, I have experienced a very, very small amount of violence but most men do at one time or another - THAT DOES NOT MAKE A STREET-FIGHTER!

Most males in these modern times are doing the monkey dance. A form of fighting that involves attack postures, attack indicators, a LOT of verbal violence and a LOT of indicators that say, I will get physically violent if you don’t I will attack but in reality even if the attack comes it comes from the use of hitting and getting hit, and that is not the end all violence we all assumed it is or was. 

When I originally read a post on a FB Wall about a competition between a “Street Fighter” and an “Amateur MMA” guy I immediately thought, “Who says the guy is a true to life real street fighter? How would they or could they know? Are they using the media driven version of what it is to be a street fighter as depicted by sport oriented labeled street fighter crap or the video games also labeled the same?” 

From where I sit today, NOT even close. When I watched the actual video and didn’t observe a predatory like attack by the labeled “Street Fighter” against the Amateur MMA guy, I kinda figured it was a media oriented drama-esque type effort to gain our attention and to sell something effort. 

Come on reality, where are you?


Bibliography (Click the link)

No comments: