How To Win A Fight In The Street (With Ease)

I am sure you will agree, it is never nice when you realise that someone is about to punch you in the face.

Sadly, fights are a part of life and as a result we need to learn how to deal with them and make sure we come out on top.

So, in this article I am going to teach you exactly how you can win a fight with ease and in the process reduce the risk of anyone attacking you again.

Ready? Let's do this.

The Difference Between A Street Fight And Street Attack

If you are reading this you might be asking yourself, "so what is the difference between a street fight and a street attack?"

The answer has everything to do with intent.

Imagine you are in the street and someone shouts abuse at you.

If you go up to them,  all angry and want to punch them in the face, and after a few words you both start to fight because you want to kick the crap out of them...... well that is a street fight.

If someone comes up to you and YOU don't want to fight and then you have to defend yourself, that is you acting in self defence.

I was once told by a 'so called self- defence expert' that street fights shouldn't happen because a skilled person should walk away.

What utter nonsense.

We are all human beings and as such we are prone to react and in a lot of situations we don't want to lose pride/ status and also people shouldn't be allowed to get away with everything.

Fights happen daily, from road rage incidents to neighbours scrapping. 

To ignore they take place would be to ignore a major part of self-defence. However you should be vary wary of 'set ups' and be wary of weapons. 

But your desire and intent to be in the fight is the key difference between a street fight and a street attack.

If you are using your skills to protect yourself and others, that is self-defence, if you are using them to get some kind of moral justice......that is a fight.

How To Spot A Threat Early

I have talked about awareness before and why most self-defence instructors are way off in their methods and how THE THREAT SCANNING METHOD is by far the best way to spot a potential threat early.

In a nutshell, the only way to spot trouble early is a 3 stage process.

1. You need the knowledge of how attacks happen and this can be learned by watching real fight CCTV videos on YouTube.

2. You need experience that matches reality and this is undertaken through scenario training.

3. You need use your vision to scan the environment for threats.

Only when these 3 components are met you are able to spot threats early.

However I know you want to leave here with some tips so here are some signs.

Target Locking

Target locking happens when someone is staring at you, they have locked in on their intended target and are mentally rehearsing what they plan to do/ how it will feel once they have achieved their actions.

You can spot this easily, when a person keeps staring at you.

Clenched Fist

The clenched fist is a sign of a potential threat, so look at the hands of a potential attacker.

Verbal Aggression

Pretty obvious but if someone is going to attack you then they usually tell you in advance.

I don't want you to overthink things because we aren't talking about a street attack here, the dynamics are different but I recommend reading about the Threat Scanning Method.

The Initial Combat Phase: How To Stack The Odds In Your Favour

I have never publicly talked about this before and as far as I know, outside of studies around 'The Fence', I have seen little talked about the importance of the 'pre fight' phase I call the ICP: The Initial Combat Phase.

The ICP is where you can greatly stack the odds of winning any encounter in your favour by the use of words, body positioning and tactic selection.

The ICP could dominate an entire course, so I can't cover it in depth here.

However, what I will say is that how you enter the fight will ultimately determine your success. This is where you might need to use a preemptive strike to increase your chances.

However you could also be struck first and if this happens, how you follow up (if you can) is important.

However I am going to suggest you need to act first and by far one of the best techniques is something I call 'The Zombie' (don't get too excited, it is just a combination of two very well know and simple techniques)

The Zombie is essentially a 2 stage process that involves the following..

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Let's look at the head push first and the follow up after.

It is deceptively powerful and I intend to release a video instruction on YouTube soon, but for now I just want you to imagine having a basketball in your hands at chest level and passing it to someone.

It is a simple move which requires gross motor skills and will rattle the opponent. 

But the aim isn't to knock them out, the aim is to get you closer to them and for them to be in shock as you enter the next stage of a fight.

The Main Combat Phase: How To Win A Fight In Seconds

Once the fight goes physical with the first strike, you are in what I call the MCP: The Main Combat Phase.

​​You are in this phase until the physical aspect of the fight are over and to make this happen as fast as possible you are going to use part 2 of the Zombie which is hammer fist strikes.

The hammer fist can be thrown in a variety of ways an each system has their own unique take on it, but tests have proven time and time again that the hammer fist is by far a more powerful strike than a punch.

Remember, the aim of this article is to teach you the way to win a fight as quickly as possible and this is how you do it.

You repeatedly hammer strike the face of the opponent until they either turn their back and admit defeat or they are unable to defend themselves (this is when you cross into the realm of assault).

What You Don't Want To Do In A Fight

The method I have described above can be boiled down into a push to the face and repeated hammer strikes.

But don't let the simplicity of this fool you.  It is classic shock and awe and brings to the table a fast way to defeat your opponent.

Sadly we romanticise violence in Martial Arts to such an extent that we need to prove our systems work in reality.

The classic manifestation of this would be a grappler trying to take their opponent to the ground when they are surrounded by friends of the person they are fighting (dumb move) or a kick boxer trying to throw a high kick while in a bar.

Too often our styles dictate what we do, when in fact we need to train for the task in hand and this is ending the fight asap.

So, there are some things you want to avoid and these are simply grappling, knee strikes and kicking.

Grappling will make the fight drag out and anything that involves you taking one of your feet off the ground is a risk you don't need to take.

I am not saying that if the fight doesn't go to plan you won't use these techniques but that is not how you end a fight with ease.

How To End The Fight: The Final Combat Phase

If all goes to plan, very quickly your opponent will be in a severe mess, battered and you are stood unchallenged.

Well, the fight isn't over there.

Because if they are seriously injured they need help and you need to call for that help.

I am not going to gloss over this part.....it is highly likely that by being involved in a fight you have committed at the very least a public order offence, after all we can't have people fighting in the street.

But if they are seriously injured or even die, you are now in a whole world of issues and you need to do what you can.

This is what the FCP: Final Combat Phase is all about, getting you home safely and with the best possible chance of legally justifying your actions.

Now, I want to be clear IF YOU CHOOSE TO FIGHT SOMEONE YOU COMMIT A CRIMINAL OFFENCE.

​​​​But, as with everything there is some grey areas of the law.

Let's imagine you are out with your partner and some arse wipe starts saying things like 'what are you looking at?' and then starts to insult you.

Well, a key component here is how you act.

I know this might sound strange but what you say and do completely transcends the situation from a fight to a situation of self-defence.

Do you recall when we talked about the difference earlier, it was all based on you intent (if you want to beat him to gain some sort of justice).

There are things you can do and say that will help you to justify using force, but that is not the subject of this article.

So, back to the example, if you are out with your partner and someone is abusive or insulting, this doesn't give you the right to hit them.

That would be an assault, no matter how justified you think it is.

If you say things like "OK mate, let's go outside" you are getting involved in a fight.

In such incidents, very often the one who shows or threatens aggression first, loses their legal protection of self defence. 

And having investigated thousands of fights in my role as a police officer, all evidence is examined closely including CCTV footage, often frame by frame.

I don't want to 'nanny' you, just be aware of the fine line between a fight and a self -defence situation. 

How To Train To Win A Street Fight

OK so you might be asking, 'How Do You Train this?'

The answer is as if it were a sprint.

But in reality there are 3 core methods.

1. At home on a punch bag

2. On the focus pads with a training partner

3. In shadow boxing style

I don't think I need to explain all 3 but what you do need to do is go full power with your training.

You can usually tell if you have done this correctly because it is exhausting.

Should You Train Other Skills?

Yes.

This article was designed to show you a practical way to win a fight with ease......but things rarely go to plan.

But I 100% believe that you should be investing time in developing your gross motor fighting moves...whatever they are.

You don't need to use this simple combination of a push to the face and hammers.

You could use a push to the chest followed by a Wing Chun straight blast, or straight rapid punches of any style, be it boxing or Karate or Krav Maga.

The point is you you shock them and then batter them with repeated, hard and fast strikes.

Conclusion

So there you have it......the tactics and techniques to win a fight easily and effectively.

This isn't the only way of course but I think this gives you by far the best options and if done right will get you the victory in the street/ self-defence situation.

The Zombie is just a combination that works really well, but as always you are the one fighting, so choose what you think is best for you.

Thanks for reading. 

Andrew Holland