Street Fighting and Martial Arts

Whenever a person finds out that you do a martial art their immediate response is to joke about you as a trained killer. Fair play, if you have no interest in such things, it's a difficult conversation to engage with. It is however, quite untrue. Actually, I would raise an argument to say that martial arts training can reduce your ability to defend yourself for the following reasons:

1. You may believe that the sparring in some way resembles fighting - it does not
2. You will be used to a fixed pattern of responses from your opponent 
3. You will be used to producing fixed responses yourself - not eye gauging, joint breaking etc
4. You will be used to one opponent
5. You will be used to using protective mitts which make you hands bigger and protect them from the inevitable injury that comes from hitting hard things
6. You have probably never been frightened to the point of incapacity during a training session
7. You will be used to a timely warning prior to engaging your opponent
8. You don't spar with weapons - even if you do they are probably not live or sharp or used with serious intent
9. Most dangerous of all, you may have the self confidence to expose yourself to risk because of your limited training

I could go on, but you get the idea. Street violence is fast, unfair, unpredictable and nasty from the little I've seen of it. Use your training to avoid it at all costs. If you can't, do the best you can and remember - there are no rules anymore.