Handling fear in a streetfight

[ispartakus]

Yeah I am similar OP.

If things start getting heated, my legs feel like jello and it's hard for me to think straight. Also when I throw punches they feel weak as hell. It's really situational though. If I'm mad at someone, then I can fight/think fine, but if someone is really confidently provoking me then it fucks with my head.
.

Same goes for me, when I'm relaxed, I start thinking of things that could possibly go wrong and then anxiety takes over and I won't be able to sleep and my head will be feeling like a pressurized tire. I had a brawl 3 weeks ago and the adrenaline that's supposed to help me get stronger abandoned me mid-fight and I was gasping for air and felt like about to passed out due to weakness while I had the guy headlocked and was trying to pin him down. Now the guy gets into my head whenever he's drunk, he's a neighbor so he won't go away!


OP, I posted a similar thread some weeks back about this drunk bully in my area who I had a fight with, and I feel good knowing that I'm not the only one with the same feeling as yours even though I've trained BJJ and Kyokushin years back.

 

[georgegreece]

 

[ITRDC5]

Its totally normal and I think you should be proud of yourself, you defended yourself and your girlfriend.

If you had gassed and then gotten the shit beaten out of you, I'd be upset.

 

[ITRDC5]

Same goes for me, when I'm relaxed, I start thinking of things that could possibly go wrong and then anxiety takes over and I won't be able to sleep and my head will be feeling like a pressurized tire. I had a brawl 3 weeks ago and the adrenaline that's supposed to help me get stronger abandoned me mid-fight and I was gasping for air and felt like about to passed out due to weakness while I had the guy headlocked and was trying to pin him down. Now the guy gets into my head whenever he's drunk, he's a neighbor so he won't go away!


OP, I posted a similar thread some weeks back about this drunk bully in my area who I had a fight with, and I feel good knowing that I'm not the only one with the same feeling as yours even though I've trained BJJ and Kyokushin years back.

By no means am I an expert but a headlock is a pretty intensive pin for the arms, its like a gullotine and can gas yoyr arms out.

Would KOB or mount have been easier to hold the guy down?

 

[ispartakus]

By no means am I an expert but a headlock is a pretty intensive pin for the arms, its like a gullotine and can gas yoyr arms out.

Would KOB or mount have been easier to hold the guy down?

There wasn't much space , we were standing on a hall 1 1/2 meter wide, so when I grabbed him by the shoulder to knee his gut, my instinct was not to let go and grab his head. There wasn't even a space to make kicks, but yeah, you're right, I think that was the main reason I gassed out, but not allowing him to escape the headlock, then pretty intense and fuck that adrenaline dump made me weaker that I've never felt before. I slipped and fell, and while he's throwing haymakers while I'm on my butt, I was able to grab one leg and mounted him.

 

[Foppa21]

I'll take OP's query as being serious....

If push comes to shove, if you gotta throw, you gotta throw. The fear as natural as while you've had experience in fights (competition), they've always been in a controlled environment. The lack of control and rules in itself is a huge reason for the fear and you are going into the unknown.

In saying that, where you can, walk away.

 

[mattemate]

Honestly if you're not just born with it I think it's something you have to get used to.

Nothing wrong with being scared but you certainly don't want to freeze up.

Have you ever visualized your own death? Have you really come to grips with your own mortality?

I think it comes down to something like that. Zen. Or stoicism. Or just realizing the death is inevitable in whatever way suits you best.

I think if you meditate on that a lot you'll find that when you end up in a confrontation with someone you're a lot calmer.

It's funny because the last several conflicts I've had with people, will do they escalated to the physical or not, I don't feel like I actually got scared. Certainly my blood pressure raised and I felt some adrenaline, but no fear. I DON'T necessarily think that's a good thing lol.

Fear is your monkey brain telling you to get the hell out of there.

 

[shunyata]

The fear is normal, they key is to not be overwhelmed by it.

In my experience with my own body and Adrenalin, I've had the same response to fights and emergency situations and it basically goes like this

1) there's a wave of something, fear, anticipation, whatever, you can feel the Adrenalin surge

2) things slow down, in retrospect it will seem like "it happened so fast" but in that moment for me I feel like slow time sets in just long enough to analyze the situation and make a decision

3) you then have to go with that decision.

It's not a matter of "NO FEAR" but more "KNOW FEAR". Rational fear can save your ass, irrational fear can get you killed.

As said above, do not freeze. You get a fraction of a second to make a decision then you act. Even if that action is merely keeping movement going, controlling the range, and drawing the danger away from the other members of your party.

 

[Dirty Holt]

I have fought professionally and have been forced to fight in situations irl that I had no option of de-escalating or moving on. I have witnessed trained MMA fighters get in street fights.

I have also seen guys who have gotten in many street fights decide to try MMA.

In many cases including my own, I have noticed the guys who go in knowing what to expect fare far greater than those that do not.

I have watched more than a few street fighters enter MMA fights and completely wilt under the pressure, where when they were street fighting, they were fine, even tough. I have watched 2 get to the cage door and back out. These were guys who had a reputation for being tough.

When I have been attacked or jumped, I got very nervous and scared because almost every time, I had to recover from a complete blindsided sucker punch and then disable whomever was across from me. Thats scary shit. Add in multiple people fighting at the same time and I really got scared. Like you, after getting rocked, I kind of froze for a second. The other guys seemed less scared because they initiated it, and they kind of knew how it would play out. Luckily for me, I could wrestle and grapple long enough to get off queer street then end the altercation without taking any more damage, and having enough restraint to not kill or seriously damage someone who just tried to do the same to me for no reason.