Practice focus at home

Question

I have found from some past street fights that I go blind when I am angry.

Let me explain:

• I am 5'8" inches tall,
• 80 kg or 176 pounds,
• 33 years old and
• I am not fat, not so fit (I can run for 15 minutes and cover 2 miles on a treadmill).
• Software Engineer by profession, spending on average 10 hours everyday on laptop.

In the last 5 years, I have had 3 street fights (not planned, but defending myself in road rage). I lost one and won two (meaning I dominated).

In every fight I had in the last 5 years (or before that), I couldn't see the other person swinging or moving in front of me. I could only see a blur, moving here and there. So if I want to hit him in safe place (on muscle not on bone) just to disable him or not draw blood, I couldn't. I know the spots but I couldn't hit correctly, which meant I hurt myself (ripped skin on my fist) or hurt the other person badly. A few days ago, I experienced the same blurring while chatting to a person who had made me furious/angry. I had to wait and calm myself down to get proper vision/focus back; when you are defending yourself, even 10 secs time could result in serious injury.

I have often heard these phrases in movies: "I saw that punch coming a mile away", or "I didn't see that coming, you were too fast". This shows these boxers have very good focus and can dodge a fast boxing jab/punch. Not the case with me; I am getting slapped repeatedly and I couldn't see even one coming, then I just pushed the person, he fell over and then I gave him a few blows, on teeth, on concrete, but not on the right place.

So, how I can fix this? Are there any techniques that martial artists use to prevent this sort of blindness?

Answer 1

Learn to walk away…

Your problem is that you get angry: stop doing that.

Anger management classes and/or techniques should be your first step. Your second step should be to learn about de-escalation techniques. Finally, a trip to no nonsense self defence is needed -- especially the notes on "street fighters". All these will help you not get into those situations in the first place.

It will help you not getting hurt, prevent hurt to others, and potentially ending up in trouble with the law¹.

Martial arts sparring

Any martial art that does sparring (of any kind) will help you focus. It will give you the adrenaline rush in a controlled environment. Rules are there so you and your partner do not get seriously hurt so you can spar again.

You cannot develop this at home. You need a gym, a coach, and some willing participants. But this is a good thing™. You get to get fit, to meet new interesting people, and to stop working ten hours days!

Look around where you live and visit clubs and do not focus on style or school. Look for one where you think you will have fun and that does sparring.

The trick here is more practice.

Hitting anything fancy (falling water, paper clips, butterflies, or whatever other crazy thing) is utterly useless unless your aim is to impress gullible people… Bags or pads are useful for developing power, precision, and endurance. They do not hit back and thus are useless at preparing you to not lose your calm in a fight situation. The only thing that can do that is sparing.

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^{_{1: ⚠ I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV… That said, if you continue beating someone who is prone or cannot defend themselves you become the attacker and could get prosecuted for assault. Do not take my word for it: talk to a criminal attorney where you live.}}

Answer 2

Try to deflect any confrontation until it seems absolutely inevitable, e.g. the other person is set on fighting/threatening etc. Then strike first and fast, and legitimately try to end it right there. As Mike Tyson says, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." Also it sounds in your case you might have to stay clear headed enough not to pound on them once their down...so like the other poster said, anger management.