Defending Yourself

I was bullied at my primary school (4-11) but wasn't good at standing up for myself. My father's advice was to hit them harder than they hit me, but I didn't take it. In later years I stood up for myself verbally.
 
I don't know if I've ever really stood up to anyone. I've always been the type to find a way out of a touchy situation. Either by trying to be funny or just give in. I have had a couple scuffles as a youngster but did not fair so well.
I do find, in my older age, that I do tend to be more outspoken to people who are rude. At this point in my life, who needs them around?
 

I started leaning martial arts when I was 6, courtesy of my brother, because there were a few kids bugging me in class. I started formal classes at 12 when I was being mugged in junior high and within six months I was giving some payback.

I made a career out of teaching others how to defend themselves.
 
SifuPhil said:
I started leaning martial arts when I was 6, courtesy of my brother, because there were a few kids bugging me in class. I started formal classes at 12 when I was being mugged in junior high and within six months I was giving some payback.

I made a career out of teaching others how to defend themselves.
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Wish you had been around when I was growing up. I know a couple guys I would have loved to give a good old whoop-ass kicking to.:mad:
 
Pappy said:
Wish you had been around when I was growing up. I know a couple guys I would have loved to give a good old whoop-ass kicking to.:mad:
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I think the majority of kids go through some sort of trials, whether at school or in the neighborhood - that's just the way it's always been. For me it was the junior high thing that really got me ticked off - every day a gang would push me up against the cement wall and go through my pockets. When I tried to resist they'd beat the bejeesus out of me. Then they started after me in the classrooms as well - it just became too much.

So I told my MA teacher and he accelerated my training in self-defense. That did the trick, and they left me alone after that. Problem is, nowadays one of them would probably just pull out a gun and shoot me. But I still think that kids that are being bullied should have some kind of access to self-defense training, if only to preserve their sense of self-empowerment and self-respect.

Unfortunately, now the schools have these policies that both parties in a fight are disciplined, which to me is unrealistic, unfair and condones just standing there and taking a beating - something that NO ONE should ever have to do.
 
First time I finally stood up for myself was freshman year of high school. Smacked a girl in the head with a literature book. She didn't bother me after that. LOL
 
SifuPhil said:
I started leaning martial arts when I was 6, courtesy of my brother, because there were a few kids bugging me in class. I started formal classes at 12 when I was being mugged in junior high and within six months I was giving some payback.

I made a career out of teaching others how to defend themselves.
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Hence theSifu, I started martial arts at aged 9 it taught me self discipline and gave me a way of life.
 
I don't actually remember this incident, I was told by my mother that as a small girl, I came in crying because a boy had hit me. I was told to hit him back. A short time later, she heard a howl. Then I came in and said, 'I got a stick and hit his back'.
 
My uncle apparently broke some kind of record when after attending the first day of his secondary school aged eleven, and the following day about a dozen parents of other boys came to see the headmaster the next day to complain, because this new boy, my uncle Len had thumped their son, (no bullying, just uncle Len was the one who seemed to fight like Mohammed Ali, before "the greatest" was born).

My dad who was a couple of years younger said it was like being kicked by a mule, but within two years uncle Len was laid low with Tuberculosis, and he spent six months on his back in an outside sanatorium bed, somewhere on the Wirral, in Cheshire, UK.
However in saying all that, and admiring my uncle for standing up for himself in spades, the point I wish to make is that people in this world are not meant to be the same. I've probably been the polar opposite of my uncle in the way I've behaved, (though not a complete push over I hope. :) ).
 
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The first time I defended was not for me, but for my sister, 5 years older. She was a shy girl and was picked on; I was always bold. It was Irwin, not 'our' Irwin here, but Irwin, a big bully who made fun of her. I kicked him hard in the knee and ran away.

I've been sticking up for other people ever since. The underdogs.
 
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When I was in 9th grade I was still rather smallish. I didn't hit my growth spurt until grade 10-12.
My dad was a light heavy weight boxing champion in the Navy during WWII.
He taught me the fine art of pugilism. I never needed it not talked about it as I was afraid some "Big Kid" would try to prove something. At a new school in 9th grade a larger bully type had an issue with me and wanted to "fight after school"
at the end of each school day I ran to my locker and left the school as fast as I could. After a couple weeks of doing this a group of kids grabbed me and dragged me out back of the school. Everybody though I was going to get pummeled. I quickly found out that fighting a lout with no skills was easier than I thought. The fight lasted about 1 minute before the dean broke it up. However I landed every jab, uppercut, and a few rights to his head. He was such a bloody mess in sixty seconds! I never had an issue the rest of my years in that school.
Getting much larger the next few years helped a lot too!


"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."
 
When I was 6 or 7, playing hopscotch with my friends, Nancy Coyne came out with her jump rope and started jumping all over our hopscotch. She wouldn't stop so I pushed her down and then the fight started. My mother came out and separated us, but told me I did a great job, LOL

Nancy ran home crying.
 

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