Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Avoiding Trouble

A few weeks ago I was talking to someone after Krav Maga class and we were discussing the need to lose the ego. Doing self defence training makes some lads think that they can take on the world when the sensible thing to do most of the time is simply avoid the trouble. Don't go to places where it might kick off. If you are in a bar and something feels wrong, just leave. I think that is something you learn as you get older.

Often drink exaggerates the problem. With a couple of pints you might feel like Bruce Lee but in reality you will be more like Bruce Forsyth.

Not wanting to sound like Kenny Rogers but usually it is the sensible thing to avoid trouble

Doug McGuff's recent post got me thinking about this again.

He works as a doctor in what we in the UK would call Casualty / or the Accident and Emergency part of a hospital and was commenting on dangerous activities that kill people. His Dirty Dozen included:

5. If you are walking down a sidewalk and are approaching a group of loud and apparently intoxicated males, cross to the other side of the street immediately. If anyone tries to start a fight with you, the first step should be “choke them with heel dust”.


The other ones are good to reflect on too, e.g.

1. Drive the biggest vehicle you can afford to drive. Your greatest risk of death comes from a motor vehicle accident. Despite all the data from the government on crash test safety, I can say unequivocally that in a 2-car accident, the person in the larger car always fairs better.

11. If you are in any personal or professional relationship that exhausts you or otherwise causes your recurrent distress, then end the relationship immediately.

4 comments:

Methuselah said...

I like these - although number 11 is of course easier said than done for people where it is a blood relationship causing the recurrent distress. Cutting ties with a recalcitrant teenaged daughter would cause as much stress as keeping her in the house. In those cases presumably the best thing to do is concentrate on 1-10 and 12 so to minimise the damage!

Asclepius said...

I know of a VERY highly decorated kickboxer in Sheffield who recently got a serious shoe-ing whilst out on the town.

He had advised his adversaries inside the bar of his 'pedigree' but underestimated his own level of intoxication!

He was followed outside the pub later that evening by a small gang and soundly beaten.

This guy is undoubtedly "bloody hard" and if he had been sober then I am pretty sure he would have won (even if his assailants had been sober) - but two or more drunks are always going to beat a solitary drunk in this situation! Titles count for nothing.

.^ said...

This and the other post today ("The Martial Art") strike a chord with me because I've been thinking about these things a bit lately. I've been renting a lot of "action" videos and the fight scenes are laughable in terms of the outcome. I mean I know you couldn't show real-life results because in a real fight someone usually goes down pretty quickly and that would not be very entertaining, but I mean ... after twenty kicks and punches to the face, head-butts and being thrown through a window the hero maybe has a little cut on his lip. His hair isn't even mussed. And when he eventually wins, the bad guy is always unconscious (if not dead) whereas he'd just as likely be moaning pitifully with broken bones in his face and hands.

You could still have exciting fight scenes where most of the strikes miss or are glancing blows and when either party gets hit you see it HURTS. I think Casino Royale was probably the best I've seen in this regard.

But having said all that, I realize that - entertaining or not - it's all fantasy, and a real fight is an unpleasant and painful event and likely to lead to serious and perhaps permanent injury.

Probably watching the TV series "ER" takes a lot of glamour out of violence. The episode where Dr Greene gets beaten in the mens room was particularly harrowing.

Doug McGuff, MD said...

To All,

Just to lighten the mood a little, I experienced the reverse corolary of Rule #1 (Drive the biggest car you can afford).

I parked going into work the other day, and as I was walking in I heard a loud "crunch". I had left the car in gear and it rolled backwards into one of the other doctor's brand-new Mini-Cooper.

Even trying to prepare for a Black Swan can bite you in the ass.

Doug McGuff