From:	Marc Renouf renouf@********.com
Subject:	CC Martial Arts
Date:	Mon, 5 Jun 2000 12:01:08 -0400 (EDT)

On Sat, 3 Jun 2000, C J Tipton wrote:

> I've lost fights. I've won fights. If a fight is about killing or wanting
> to kill, I'd be dead Tig, not to mention being guilty of multiple
> homicides.

If you think that a fight, any kind of fight is not deadly
serious, you're an idiot (no offense). The fact of the matter is that
whether you intend it or not, it is alarmingly easy to cause serious,
permanent harm to the human body in a fight. The problem with real combat
is that there are too many variables. You can't control everything, and
if you're lucky and skilled you'll at maybe be *aware* of most of it.

> Fact is that in our world, fighting is more often than not about two
> guys who had too many beers demonstrating physical dominance.
> And my art is about Evasion,Control, AND Destruction. I don't wanna kill
> anybody. I just want the guy to drop the bottle. He don't wanna kill me.
> He just doesn't want to lose the fight his mouth got his butt into. True,
> he might kill me with that bottle. But it isn't what either of us want.
> which is why you wing a chair at him and hope the bouncers are their by
> then. Cause they don't want anybody to kill anybody.

Yes, he might kill you with that bottle. You might kill him with
the chair. Or break a jaw. Or crush an eye. You might not even be
intending to hurt him, just slow him down until the cavalry arrives to
throw you both out. But combat is by its very nature unpredictable, and
if you get into fights regularly and haven't been seriously injured or
injured someone else yet, you're just lucky.
It's not about punking out the drunk guy before he pounds you
down. It's about knowing what's at stake and realizing that even
unintended actions can cause lasting damage. It's about being prepared to
do whatever it takes to end a situation definitively and in your favor.
If that means walking into a bar, seeing that there are rowdy drunks
present, and leaving before you have your first beer, then you've just
understood your first lesson about real combat.

Marc