Fighting
Best advice I've heard on fighting is to not do it. If someone starts on you in a pub just look at them, say 'alright, outside, now.' and walk to the door. They'll do one of two things, either stop you and apologise then buy you a drink or they'll be really up for it and follow you to the door. If they do the latter, just run away when you get outside.

Advice from Geoff Thompson, a seriously hard man who did enough fighting to know it's not worth doing.

He runs a self defense class and was talking to a young lady once about a self defense class she went to elsewhere. She said that it had given her loads of confidence and that she used to walk home on her own and deliberately go the long way round a park when it was dark. After doing the self defense class she said she now had the confidence to walk through the park at night. He was dismayed as the best advice for self defense is to avoid the situation in the first place. She should have been taught not to go through the park at night at all.
(robbersdog, Tue 25 May 2010, 8:09, 8 replies)

Yup, it's about saving ass
not kicking ass!
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Tue 25 May 2010, 8:59, closed)

The guy who used to teach me karate
The first lesson I went to, he said "Right, I've got a test. I'm going to come at you and attack, and I want you to defend yourself as best you know".

He came at me, and I ran away.

He laughed and said "Yep, I can teach you."
(davywavy, Tue 25 May 2010, 10:55, closed)

That is genius

( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Tue 25 May 2010, 11:14, closed)

You should have shot him.
Smug martial arts types hate that.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Tue 25 May 2010, 11:45, closed)

Never walk to the door first.
You're back is then turned and you'll probably receive a hefty clack to the back of the head.
(oneinthepink is at your cervix m'lady, Tue 25 May 2010, 12:06, closed)

Hmmm.
The confrontation in the pub is almost always bravado. It's not so much about wanting to hurt you but about other people seeing that they've made you back down. Punching someone in the back of the head won't look good and frankly if you're up against the sort of person who will do this then there's very little you can do.

The walking to the door method, like any method, isn't perfect. But it will get you out of trouble more often than squaring up to the guy in the pub.

The idea is that as soon as punches are thrown you've lost. Even if it's you punching and them falling.
(robbersdog, Tue 25 May 2010, 13:30, closed)

"the best thing to bring to a fight is a good pair of running shoes"
I'm going to a Geoff Thompson seminar later this year. I'm anticipating it will be rather fun.
( Mockingbird Practitioner of SCIENCE, Tue 25 May 2010, 16:43, closed)

I bet it will!
Geoff Thompson is an interesting character and the only martial arts type person I've ever seen deal with the adrenaline dump that a proper fight brings. It's what makes martial arts pretty much useless on the street against people who actually fight regularly.
(robbersdog, Tue 25 May 2010, 23:01, closed)