My teacher is a street fighter

More than often we can hear how some Kung Fu teacher has or had “street experience”, or was a famous “street fighter”. These claims are used as sort of proof of teacher’s fighting skills. Before we take this claims for granted and consider a “street” fighter a competent teacher let’s analyze what  being “street’  fighter actually means.

So who are “street”  fighters  and how do they gain “experience’. Adolescents  are more  likely to engage in a physical conflict  because of the nature of their developmental stage and psychological and social immaturity, of course his is not a rule and majority of young people do not want  have no desire and do not engage in acts of physical violence .For  average adult person fist fighting is probably the last thing in his mind. Yet , there are people who do engage physical violence on regular basis . We can distinct three different kind of street violence, “instrumental”,  “affective” violence and “bulling”. Instrumental violence is used as a means to an end – for example, in a robbery to obtain cash or goods. Affective violence is an end in itself, driven by emotion , as we see in cases of aggravated assault , bullying is a distinctive pattern of harming and humiliating others, specifically those who are in some way smaller, weaker, younger or in any way more vulnerable than the bully. Bullying is a deliberate and repeated attempt to cause harm to others of lesser power.

Research with high-risk, violent offenders indicates that low self-esteem, developed from a young age, can play a key role in triggering violent behavior. For example, a person may feel badly about themselves following a difficult, traumatic, abusive or neglectful childhood. Yet that individual may outwardly appear confident, even arrogant – scholars propose that this is a defense against inward feelings of shame, weakness, vulnerability and inadequacy. The theory goes that these feelings are so painful, that if the individual perceives that someone humiliates them or shows them disrespect, they are unable to tolerate it. A violent response restores a sense of self-worth and pride, while also punishing whoever caused that sense of injury or humiliation.

Bullies are made, not born, this behavior is typically fostered at a very young age. A difficult upbringing can result in low self esteem, which coupled with aggressive behavior can create a child who not only lacks communication skills, but feels the need to defend themselves constantly.

As we can see there is a lot of similarities between classical bully and dangerous violent attacker with poor impulse control. Actually young bullies usually advance to the stage of violent offender and these behavior is usually connected with criminal activities, although that is not always a case.

All three groups  are motivated to commit violence  as a mean of  gaining social status in their social circles and to satisfy their urges which they cannot control. Violet offenders   tend to anticipate feeling positive emotions after victimizing others. Such “happy victimizer emotions” are uniquely related to proactive aggression and as such may characterize attackers, who tend to initiate aggressive behavior as they focus on their own gains rather than the victim's feelings.These emotions come from the feeling of control and power over the victim.

All three groups will be very careful in selecting their victims. They will never attack anyone who may be endangered them in any way. Young, strong , fit , confident people are rarely victims of these attacks while smaller  obviously weak or sick people who show fear and insecurity are usual victims.

It is very rare to see “street” fighters fight each other , they know the other person is violent as much as they are and there is a great possibility of injury , also, they cannot gain anything on psychological level from the person who fights back.

As we can see , to become a ‘street” fighter person must have some psychological predispositions because normal , average people are not aggressive and they try to avoid violence .

So , there is a question to be asked , even if the claims of certain kung fu teacher and his “street” experience are true ( which are usually not) , is it wise to be associated with that kind of person? Other question is ,whether or not “street’ experience improve someone’s fighting skills? The answer is no , because there is nothing to be learned from fighting weaker , smaller people unable to defend them self. Only way to advance fighting skills is to fight against people with good fighting skills and competition fights re definitely the best way to do it. Teacher with good competition record will be much, much better than someone with “street” experience . 

Be careful when you choose your kung fu teacher , wrong decision  can affect your life in many ways .