if you get in a fight?

Question

do your instincts take over and do you rember what you have trained

Answer 1

The human response is fight or flight, either you walk away from the fight or go battle, either choice is instinct. If your training is realistic, you might use it depending on how much muscle reflexe you've developed, but sometimes pure instinct will dictate a completly different response from your training.

Last year I got into a fight with a drunking mad fool who was arguing with a lady friend of mine during a party, he was about to get phisical with her so I had to get involved, I trained Karate for over 3 years, and I've trained kickboxing and muay thai for over 4 years, and the first thing I did when the guy try to punch me (after I ducked) was to grab him, pick him up and throw him to the floor. It was pure instinct as I had a couple of beers in me. Ironically this is what I do during muay thai when my training partners get too excited during sparring.

Summary, it can go either way, the more you train the better chances there are you will remember your training when instinct takes over.

p.s. When I had the guy on the ground I punched him a couple of times, and we got separated, training does help, as he never had a chance to even hit me back, I didn't brake his face which was good, as this guy turned out to be and ex-cop.

Answer 2

Watch any tournament, whether it's kickboxing, MMA or even boxing. What you will see is a lot of flailing around. Haymaker punches and roundhouse kicks . Most of the time, instinct takes over. All that time and money on training wasted. Great fighters have a game plan and they stick with it. Of course, that is competition and not the 'real world', but it's the same way. If you train like you fight, and fight like you train then your training becomes your instinct.

The short answer is your instincts ALWAYS take over. The key is to make your training become instinct.

Answer 3

Everyone is wired for fight or flee, that is the basic instinct. All animals have it, believed to be controlled by the medula ...
When people talking about fighting with the reptile brain, this is what they are referring to. Hopefully you can use your training. If your training is realistic and full speed, this helps. A lot of times in real life the fight or flee is kicked in at the wrong time. Examples: arguements where people fire back verbally (fight) or one withdraws by reading, moving, ignoring, or just simply agreeing even if they don't (fleeing). Stepping above that is higher order.
Military trains gross motor movements for a good reason... they are also easier when tired which you typcially can become in a bad situation. I can safely say, instincts took over in a few instances and not to long ago, my training came into play.

Answer 4

If you go into a Ring or Cage for a fight, an Experienced fighter will be able to control the Red Mist that descends. Stick with a game plan and adjust a game plan if it isn't working well.

If you are not experienced and you are competing, maybe the first few times, game plans will go out of the window and the Red Mist will take over, but this will calm with Experience.

If you are fighting on the street it is a totally different matter.
Depending on how much training you have put in, will depend on the outcome. If you have trained so hard that techniques come naturally, yes you will use your technique to a certain degree. But if you haven't, the Red Mist will take over and Haymakers will be flying!!!

Answer 5

If you are trained, your training will take over for better or for worse. This has been proven again and again. There is a well documented incident from many years ago where a new FBI agent fresh out of the academy got into a gunfight. He empited his gun and just like he was trained at the academy, he started picking up his empty brass. It got him killed.

If you train to socre a point in the ring, and get into a real fight without the ring, without being in a uniform with safety gear and all, you will still mostly likely try to score a point with a little tap to your opponents chest. I've seen it happen.

Answer 6

For a beginner, no, for someone with experience, I hope so. Its never going to be picture perfect, but with practical applcations as opposed to fancy moves, and reality training, the answer should be yes. Will it be is the problem. Some people, if they have been in real situations and know not to panic will be fine. Others may have a tendency to freeze up. A streetfight is totally different from a dojo, or boxing ring. There are no mats on the floor, no one calls foul, the space your in may be much more confined,and anything may become a weapon. I don't care how good a tournament fighter, or sparring champion may be , a streetfight is totally different.

Answer 7

No they do not, your experience does.
That was the point the UFC showed. Many skilled martial artists with no experience got tore up. Lots of know how, just never applied it themselves. Made alot of great systems look bad as in Asia the fighters of many systems had alot of actual experience in the US many martial artists had never even been in a fight.
BJJ and skills as this train in reality , that is to an unwilling opponent, with out this training, well Street fighters have Instinct, please go to Bullshido.com and look at some of the Felony fights, you'll be amazed at the facts.

Answer 8

The way I train my techniques are instinctual.

I disagree with the above poster about MMA and kickboxing matches where you see a lot of flailing. Most of the time that is from less experienced guys, or guys who aren't trained in stand up.

Because of countless competetions and hard sparring, I find I do things without thinking. Any person who has seriously competeted in Judo can tell you they have throws that they do simply on instinct. (Person is in this position, I throw this throw) etc.

After training MMA for a while, and training it hard I wondered if I had gotten to that point. I found myself working at a bar bouncing and fighting a good bit. I will never forget the first real fight I had gotten into after the MMA stuff started.

The guy cold ****** some guy in the back of the head, I grabbed him up and choked him out. He came to, and came after me. I took him down with a throw (Soto Makikomi) and instead of pinning him (years of Judo) I stepped right over into mount and started raining down blows on him.

That was when I knew that my MMA training had become as instinctual as my Judo training.

Seriously, it can get bad when you wrestle with friends and they step into a zone or move in a way that you throw without thinking.

(This happened once when I was "Play wrestling" with a girl I liked, I accidently foot swept her just from natural instinct and she went flying, needless to say she never "play wrestled with me anymore, nor did I ever get any play from her lol.

So for me, and a lot of guys with the right training, drilling, sparring, tournaments, etc. You develop muscle memory and you don't have to think about it, you just do it.

Answer 9

I have found that instincts just take over and there is no time to think about wha you have been trained to do unless you have trained for many many years and have encountered many real-world situation that try you when you least expect it.

Answer 10

Your instinct have to take over, you won't have time to think. If you are properly trained, you will use what you learned.