Fight/Fighting

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To fight, fighting, is used as a placeholder for about every form and meaning that spans much, like as follows:

• An encounter, with blows or other personal violence, between two persons.
• take part in a violent struggle involving the exchange of physical blows or the use of weapons.
• a violent confrontation or struggle.
• displaying or engaging in violence, combat, or aggression.
• quarrel or argue.
• a violent confrontation or struggle.
• also be referred to as bullying, fighting, or battery.
• take part in a boxing match against (an opponent).

It is of interest that even when searching out legal definitions the only one that actually provided some guidance is the reference made on just one legal source referring to fight/fighting as a “physical altercation.”

I quote that source, “A physical altercation is generally a confrontation, tussle or physical aggression that may or may not result in injury. Physical altercations are distinguished from verbal altercations by the use of physical force or contact. It may also be referred to as bullying, fighting, or battery.”

In the professional community, one that works with aggression and violence, they will often say that if one is in a fight or is fighting they are breaking the law. If the fight is a mutual participating one then it is not self-defense therefore, “illegal.” If you fight, you can go to jail. 

There is only one definition that would seem to allow fighting as a legal process of mutual aggression and violence, i.e., one that is created and controlled so that grave harm and death are not a result. Sport fighting as in boxing along with the martially oriented sports fights that are labeled as, “MMA, Cage Fighting and others.” 

That is why sports fights are mandated, controlled and managed by rules, regulations and safety requirements such as the use of gloves in boxing. In the dojo when a fight is on, such as in sparring or what is termed as “kumite,” the combatants face off with one another with approximate ability, rules to govern the altercation, and other safety requirements. It is the only legal allowance to fight that I can find. 

The use of fight and fighting is often a generic one meaning an altercation involving the physical use of hands, feet, and other body parts like elbows, etc. It can also be misused and misunderstood when it is applied to explaining the self-defense defense industry through martial arts and karate models. 

I make the distinction because when teaching, training and practicing those models and methods to self-protect it is important to make sure our mind-set/state is such that when in the effects of the adrenal stressors found in self-protection realities we can articulate that what we were doing falls under the umbrella of legal self-defense rather than saying we were in a fight that we thought of as self-defense or what I refer to as self-protection that just happened to go physical. 

Terms used in training and practice are critically important because what we use in that arena will naturally bleed out into the arena of self-defense defense in the legal system that will follow. 

For instance, using self-defense without its legal meaning along with the actions and ramifications that occur before we apply the physical stuff, during the application of the physical stuff and especially AFTER the physical stuff is a lot more than what is currently defined as self-defense. 

When it comes to fighting, we tend to misunderstand and mistake what we are doing as self-defense when in truth compared to the full spectrum of the complicated and complexities of self-defense in the legal system is way different. Failure to understand that fighting is illegal except in very narrow circumstances can lead to grave harm, costly health and legal requirements and finally prison time. That is just the tip of the iceberg too!

Know, understand and use terms such as fighting in appropriate circumstances and venues so that when you have to articulate to the first responders what you were doing was actually self-defense and when you have to sit up in front of an adversarial system that looks at you being there as indicative of criminal you must be able to articulate properly your legal requirements as well as those terms and phrases appropriate to what you did just to survive. Again, that is just the tip of the iceberg as well!

In a nutshell, “fighting is illegal, avoid fighting!” If attacked, “avoid, escape and evade, defend and articulate!” Remain in the proverbial (MacYoung saying) self-defense square!

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