An interesting situation I witnessed on NYC Subway
In this article, we’re going to do a New York City Subway fight analysis. This is meant to guide you on what to do when involved in a situation that could go haywire pretty quickly.
A couple of years ago, I was on an NYC subway station when I witnessed a fight. There was this guy, who had his friend with him, who was eager to fight. Their opponent was a man who wasn’t too keen on going gung-ho. Yet, he was forced by his opponent’s posture to get serious.
At one point, the over-enthusiastic person succeeded in baiting his not-so-enthusiastic counterpart into a fight. The duo squared off and went for punches. Fortunately for the guy who wanted no part of the fight, police intervened before matters could escalate any further.
Before moving ahead, check out this video. This will help you understand my analysis better.
New York City Subway Fight Analysis
There are three lessons I learned from analyzing this fight.
Lesson #1: When in a fight, adopt a defensive posture
One of the two fighters (the one who didn’t want to fight) was too reluctant to maintain a defensive posture. In his mind, he was probably thinking that this would dissuade the fiery guy from escalating matters any further.
However, that is not how it often turns out.
When you lower your guard in a fight, the other person always looks at it as a sign of weakness. He thinks that you’re too scared to fight. This realization, in turn, convinces him to start launching attacks on you, probably allowing him to catch you off-guard.
So whenever you’re in a fight, the first thing you should do is adopt a defensive posture.
Lesson #2: Never turn your back in a fight
At one point in the video, the guy who didn’t want to fight turned his back on his opponent. He was probably doing it hoping that this would signal the opponent that he has no stomach for any fight, hopefully convincing him to go away.
However, as we’ve explained in countless videos, turning your back in a potentially explosive situation is a recipe for disaster. If the goal is to defuse a haywire situation, use verbal defense. But never turn your back when your opponent is ready to strike you.
Or else, things could get out of hand pretty quickly.
Lesson #3: Always try to avoid fighting
If you’ve seen the video till the end, you’d have noticed that the police arrested the shirtless guy. His friend, who was earlier trying to stop him, was standing away, probably fearful that the police might arrest him as an accomplice.
And what about the guy who wanted no part of the fight? The police didn’t lay a finger on him. Want to know why? Because they already had the man who was making things difficult for everyone in that subway station. This was enough to calm the situation.
For this reason, we always tell our readers that you should never be the one to initiate a fight. Who knows where things could lead from one moment of madness.
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Recommended reading: The effective way to learn self defense.
Thanks for sharing and stay safe.
Patrick Viana
Code Red Defense