 So you have fighting and you have self-defense. They're both the same thing except when they're not. You also can't have one without the other except when you can. Today we're going to take a look at the difference between fighting and self-defense. So there's different ways to approach this topic and it's super easy to get pedantic and technical about it. I mean, first of all, how do you define fighting? You know, is it a conflict? Is it a physical fight, a street fight, a verbal fight? How are we going to define self-defense? And also where the sparring and sports fighting come into this. For the context of this video today, we're going to keep it fairly simple. So when we refer to fighting where we're going to refer to more of a street fight scenario where there's two people, you know, faced off each other one on one, hands up in a ready position, and they actually have a street fight. So we're also going to include sparring and sport fighting into the same context, but we're going to come back to that a little bit later. Now for self-defense, we're going to define it as you are being attacked and it could be in a variety of ways. It could be, you could be being grabbed, you could be choked, you could be pushed, hit, threatened, or have a weapon pulled on you. Now there are a lot of overlapping concepts between fighting and self-defense, but the primary difference is consent. In a street fight, both fighters are generally consensual, and I use that term very lightly, but at some point, most of the time in a street fight, both fighters make the decision to face off, raise or fist, and fight. In a self-defense situation, however, that consent is not usually there. It's typically an attacker attacking someone against their own will. So very generally speaking, a fight involves two consenting combatants facing off against each other, whereas a self-defense situation is an assailant and a victim, generally speaking. In a fight, all things are usually equal, briefly, at the beginning of the fight. And when I say equal, I mean there's usually a moment where both people have some distance between them, hands are up, they're strategizing, and they're sizing each other up before the fight actually begins. In a self-defense scenario, however, that preparation is not usually there. You all don't always get the size of your opponent, and in many cases, you don't even see the attacker coming. It might be a complete surprise attack. Someone comes up behind you, grabs you by the hair, or they pull a weapon on you, or they pin you up against the wall, you can be blindsided. So typically speaking, in a street fight, there's some strategy that might be able to be applied beforehand, or in a self-defense situation, that opportunity might not necessarily be there. I mean, let's be honest, there's a big difference between this and this. The other perceived difference is the goal of the conflict. Generally speaking, in a fist fight, the goal is to knock out or knock down your opponent, or deal them enough damage or they don't want to fight anymore. Of course, there's exceptions, of course, there's extreme cases out there, but broadly speaking, the fight is over, one person is down, or they don't want to fight anymore. In a self-defense situation, the goals between both parties are incredibly different. The attacker typically wants something, whether it be money, or they want to violate you, or they want to severely injure you. The attacker typically has a very different goal, and that is to stop the attack and get out of there as safely as possible. Now, I understand that these are extremely oversimplified characterizations, and also because of so many overlapping concepts that one situation could lead to another one. You know, a self-defense scenario in which you are able to escape, and then you decide to stop, turn around, and face your attacker, now it becomes a fight. And vice versa, if you're in a fight, things might get heated to a point where maybe one person starts getting more aggressive and the balance shifts and becomes a little bit more serious and becomes a self-defense situation. Both things can happen. You know, these are not independent ideas of each other, but there are distinctions between the two scenarios. So why does it even matter to make this distinction? Well, for me, basically, based on my observations of this channel in the comments for the past three years, tell me if any of these sounds familiar to you. XYZ art would never work in the ring. How come I never see any footage of XYZ working? MMA is only a sport, not real life. A person will never stand there and let you do that to them. XYZ is designed for the street, not the ring. Honestly, all these comments are perfectly valid in the right context. I'm not going to point out any specific martial arts or any systems here. We've done that before and quite honestly, it doesn't really matter. What really matters is that the individual who's training understands that there is a difference between a self-defense situation and a fighting situation and that they prepared themselves adequately for both. So let's break down the fundamentals of a basic fist fight. First of all, typically speaking, it's one-on-one. Yes, multiple attackers are a thing, but to be honest, multiple attackers and weapons are a completely different topic and debate on their own. So let's say it's one-on-one. Secondly, most of the time, the fight starts with both people on their feet. Third, most of the time, at least at the beginning of the fight, there's an opportunity to size up and gauge your opponent. It might be a brief moment to kind of internalize how you're going to approach a situation, but you do have a split second at least to size up your opponent. Fourth, in many cases, before the fight starts or as it's starting, you have the ability to close or gain distance as you see fit and strategize to do so. Five, both fighters are in activated mode. They're both ready, hands are up, they're both engaged in the situation. And finally, the fight typically ends when one person is unwilling to fight anymore or unable to do so. In a self-defense situation, the context is radically different. Engagement is usually started by one party. Now it might be a complete surprise attack, or maybe it's a situation that escalated to a point when one person decided to get violent. Two, distance is limited and often controlled by the attacker. Maybe you were blindsided, you were punched, you were shoved, you were grabbed, you were pushed out to the ground. You don't always have that opportunity at the beginning or that advantage of distance at the beginning of the situation. But once their hand is on you and it might be a surprise attack, you might not even see it coming, but once those hands are on you, you have to act immediately because if you don't, they will. And also, the big difference here is usually the aggressor is not going to stop because you've called it. They've started the situation. They're not likely to stop until they've gotten whatever it is that they're after. You know, a self-defense situation stops either when you successfully diffuse or escape an attack, or you've dealt them enough damage where they decide to abandon the effort, or three, they've won. Now it should be said that in both the case of self-defense and the fight, if it's arising from a situation that's escalating, there are usually opportunities to try to de-escalate, diffuse it, talk the person down, try to escape before a fight happens or get mediators involved. A lot of times the best self-defense is not even allowed in a situation to get to the point of violence. Now, we could continue to break this down into many finer levels, but in the end, why is it important to make this distinction? Primarily speaking, because there are completely different strategies to address in each one. Now in the street fight, you know, a one-on-one fist fight, honestly, an MMA fighter or a sport fighter is probably more equipped to handle a situation like this. They are already well-versed and well-trained in the concept of gauging distance, sizing up your opponent, precision striking, and even setting up combos. In a self-defense situation, a person should be well-versed and trained in being grabbed or choked or pinned or surprised attack or thrown to the ground and the focus is generally on anatomical responses and dirty fighting and the goal is to inflict serious damage to allow yourself to escape. So fights are more focused on reading your opponent and speed and power. You know, finding your opportunity, executing a quick but powerful strike or combination of strikes. When it comes to self-defense, it's more reactionary based on position recognition and disruption. Knowing what options you have in your given position and then using the knowledge of anatomy and reaction, you disrupt their attack. It could be something like buckling out a leg to compromise their balance or delivering a pinch or shooting an elbow or something painful to loosen the grip or manipulation of a limb to break and cause serious injury. So regardless of what martial art you train in, if your objective is to be able to fight competitively and or defend yourself, then it's important to understand the difference between a fight and a self-defense situation. A boxer and a fist fight is going to be able to deal some serious damage and hold their own just fine, but they might not react as quickly as they should if they are surprised or grabbed from behind, unless that training is there. And the vice versa is also true. A keratika might be great at countering grabs and throwing someone over the shoulder, but if they haven't trained for it, they can easily get creamed in the stand-up street fight. So my advice to those of you out there who want to expand your knowledge and skills to be able to address both scenarios. Anyone taking self-defense, spar. We've said this a thousand times on this channel, spar, spar, spar. Sparring is just practice for a competition and a competition is just a safer version of a street fight, but it's going to give you that real time on the spot training to be able to strategize and work your timing and engage a real live resisting opponent and making sure your material works. And for all you competitive guys out there, most of the times MMA and BJJ will help you just fine, but if you really want to enhance your self-defense, spend some time in an art that teaches counters from surprise attacks and teaches you more scientific anatomical reactions and different scenarios other than just the person in front of you with their fists raised. Look, for the most part, we all have the same body parts. The real difference comes into knowing what to use in what context. To be a well-rounded martial artist, it's more than just having a ground fighting set and a stand-up fighting set. It's also important to know the difference between a fight and a self-defense situation. So I would love to hear about your observations or any experiences you guys might have on this topic. Are there any particular techniques that you've encountered that you feel work better in one situation versus another? Any insights you can share, please share your experiences down in the comments below. Guys, thank you so much for watching. Be sure to like, subscribe, and we'll see you again next week.