How many times do you have to let someone hit you before you can hit back?

Question

I was in a situation today that almost came down to blows, I will never throw the first blow of a fight as I am train in martial arts (though not a black belt yet) I was wondering how many times do I have to allow myself to be hit before I can fight back, I was thinking it was only one, my boyfriend, who is a black belt said that it was three, does anyone know? also is it different for black belts and non black belts, and can you block the attack or do you actually have to let the person hit you? I hope to never be in that kind of situation again, but I should at least know the rules so that I fight out of self defense

Answer 1

one insulting hit is all it takes. maybe i'm just insecure, angry inside somewhere, or have something to prove, but if i can help it, I wont take shiet from anyone, neither should you. (although one hit doesnt mean you should kill the person) haha. Just show them that you is a BOSS. And i know that they tell you to refrain from fighting in any martial art, but hey, we're all animals, and if a dog wants to fight another dog, the nice dog still will never back down for his rights.

Answer 2

if you are at highschool or something like that you may NEVER hit

just walk /crawl away

if you hit back you like the other person get kicked out of school

good luck

Answer 3

of course you should always block the attack, and never let anyone hit you.  and after they throw the first punch you could go ahead and fight back.

Answer 4

Aaron J gave you the best answer as for me I am not going to give you one as I cant figure out if you are serious or a troll or if you and your boy friend are a brick short of a load.

Answer 5

as soon as they run their mouth.u run them down

Answer 6

Aaron J has given you the best answer. 95% of the other answers are just stupid and wrong, and these people should not be allowed to answer these types of questons.

Answer 7

If the other person will not reason about a given situation and gets  violent and abusive I would tell them that I practiced self defense and will defend myself.

Regardless if this is in a class or not I say once.  Remember:

it's the first blow that counts and that can be a blow that renders your opponent defenseless or immobile.

Answer 8

if uve been bitchslapped then u deserve it

because u did something wrong

or else its 3 strikes and your out .

Answer 9

If you are talking about the law, in order to claim self defense you must be able to convince a jury or District Attorney that you reasonably believed there was an imminent threat of serious physical injury.  You don't necessarily have to let him hit you even once - if an attacker is charging you with his fists raised and shouting "I'm gonna kill you!", then you could hit him first.  If he takes a swing and you dodge or block it, that is also sufficient.  

However, the force you use in defending yourself must also be proportional.  If you are a trained martial artist and the attacker is smaller, weaker, and unskilled, and you proceed to break his jaw and three of his ribs, you could still be charged with a crime, even if he hit you first.  Also, if you seriously injure him, your attacker could sue you and win, even if he started it!  

If you are talking about a school situation, the previous answer had it right - you will always get in trouble for fighting, even if the other guy clearly started it.  

The best idea is always to walk away if at all possible.

Answer 10

None.

If you are in a self-defense situation its always recommended to do preemptive strikes.

If you are in training, you should evade or block. Try moving out of the line of attack. Watch for the body movement and predict the strike to avoid being stun each time.

Good luck

Answer 11

dont let no1 hit u defend urself thats what martial arts is bout defending urself

Answer 12

Well... Personnally, if they throw ONE strike at me, unless I know them. I wont help but to instinctively take them down, and painfully too. Saem with if they shape up to me, stand with there guard up, or get into a stance, if they are doing that, then obviously they arent waiting around to talk anymore are they? Dont think, just re-act to action instinctively, like a snake. More often than not, if somone strikes at me, I will just go POP! and hit them before there strike reaches me. But legally? Haha! After there floored. Run! Or you could let them hit you, wait till they draw a weapon, and then hit them. That works legally, but as previously mentioned, whoes to say the first hit wont take you out? ONe nice method I heard of was shout "He's got a knife!" Then kick there ***. Even if they dont. Makes witnesses beleive that he does.

Answer 13

There are two situations.

If you are alone with the attacker and no one is around and no  camera is around. If someone threaten you, stay out of his/her attacking range, stay at a range where they have to take a step to punch/kick you. As soon as they take a step toward you, once they are in range, bang, you hit them first and knock them down.  that should take them by surprise and you should get rid of the threat most of the time, because you have the element of surprised and first strike.

If you are in a clowned area with witnesses. Make sure you yell "stay back! don't come closer! " so people know that you feel threatened and you have warn the attacker to stay back. If they keep on coming, you can do the same thing as above.

If you see the attacker throw a punch, and if you see it early, evade their first punch, and counter straight away. Or counter after their first 2 punch combo.

If you have no time to evade, block the punch and hit them back at the same time if possible, else counter as fast as you can before the 2nd attacks come your way.

Don't take any hit. You could get knockout with the first..  Sorry to said this but your boyfriend does not know much. Talk to a lawyer or solicitor friend and they give you a better picture, or look up a law hand book in your state.  those who understand the law will always win in court.

There are 3 important factors that win fights. And there are in this order.

1. Intelligence, cunning.

2. power

3. Skills

You may be skill in martial arts but if you lack power and intelligence (fighting tactics), you can still lose. Or if you opponent have more power and cunning, you still lose. That is why martial artist sometimes lose to street fighters.

If you have power and skills, but your opponent is very smart fighter, and he/she can tricks you and best you by tactics. Eg, hit you when you are not ready. poke your eyes, or kick you in the groin. they can be very deceptive.

If you have martial art skills but your power is weak, you can be defeated by a very powerful opponent using pure physical power to dominate you.

skills alone by itself is not enough. Don't get over confident. Black belts losing fights are very common. Black belt without really fighting experiences is really a trained fighter who has never fight, never put under real pressure, untested..

The most important thing is to train regularly and to train hard as if your life depends on it. So when you are threaten, give it a go, that is the only way to test how you perform under really pressure. You will discover weaknesses that you need to work on, or you may discover your strengths that you were not aware of.  If you lack in confidence, train hard!! If you are unsure, train hard!! Most top masters/fighters train around 3-4 hours per day.  If you don't have time, a minimum of two hours per day is needed. Strength and power training in the morning and skills training at night. If you are a woman, you need to train a lot harder to match the guys. You need to increase your hitting power from your speed and you need to be extremely skillful and cunning  to overcome their power. Ask your instructors about fighting tactics and read some books about it.

Answer 14

Check out Pre Emptive striking. If you know someone is going to hit you, why wait around and get hit. You hit first. Although you struck the first blow, you defended yourself.

You dont have to be a genius to know when youre about to be hit so you get in there first.

http://markstraining.com Fighting and Training Methods for Unarmed Martial Artists.

Answer 15

Lawfully and ethically you do not have to let anybody know who you are or what you do. Their own actions are based on their own ignorance of how the world works. All "rules" governing Martial Arts in the fighting world are just gossip rules.

If you are frightend by somebody and put in a position where you CANNOT escape you have every right and sometimes the very NEED to strike first and hard with COMPLETE conviction. It is when you fear your health is a direct risk of the situation with no way out.

In many cases if you are dealing with somebody in a matter that could quickly turn violent you shouldn't mention "I do MA, so you'd better watch out." That's exactly what it sounds like to an agressor who will most likely say "prove it".  There you will have an issue in court as a potential provoking action. I know it sounds crazy but its happened before.

So, don't EVER LET somebody hit you in a negative manner before defending yourself. Don't warn them that you could beat them up. Just tell them you don't want to fight, you want to go on your way and be left alone. If they don't let you go... Strike first, fast, and hard.

Answer 16

uhh your trying to act mature in a situation that doesn't need to be. It doesn't matter if your a BB or not if somebody puts their hand on you you have the right to beat the c**p out of them.As far as blocking the attack I had an instructor for kickboxing that said he who gets of first wins. This means if you know they are posing a threat and it will result in blows HIT THEM FIRST not the best advice law wise but self defense wise. If you get off one good punch and theyre stunned in a street fight they dont have time to recover as long as you stay on them.

Answer 17

If you're talking about honor and a fight in a dark alley somewhere, then my advice is to throw the first punch. It's about survival in a street fight, honor doesn't count in it. Martial Art training or not. Groin kick is my best attack.

If you're talking about law with witness around you then it depends on many thing.

If you're a tee totaler and your opponent is drunken, I can guarantee the law will side with you when it comes to the fight. Any verbal threat and movement to you can be intrepreted as an imminent threat and you can defend yourself.

If you're in a school ground, then by all mean run away and call your Headmaster. The fight isn't worth the trouble afterward justified or not.

Outside school ground, it's a whole different story.

The number of times you can allow someone to hit you is ZERO. It just the need to establish your opponent desire to attack you and your need to defend yourself.

-. Never talk too close to a person you have argument with this is prone to you getting sucker punched.

-. Warn them that you want them to stay in their place (at least 1,5 meter away from you) and that you don't want to fight but will defend yourself if the person move any closer.

-. Any body contact such as shoving or even laying finger on your face is enough reason to defend yourself.

But there is a difference between being a black belt or not.

There are two thing about being Martial Artist though when it comes to court proceeding.

1. If you can, don't let them know you practices MA

2. If you're established as a MA, do stop attacking when you get upper hand and try to just restrain the person or even try to run

It's mainly because some judges have this fantasy view of Martial Artist black belt as these flying guys that can wave his hand and everybody else got swathed like flies.

They expect that if you're a MA practitioner your body is a weapon and you should be able to defend yourself with minimal harm to your opponent.

Believe me I know one such judge

Answer 18

OK STOP ALL OF YOU. i will clear up the doubt.

There is always confusion as to what self defense is. SELF DEFENSE is preventing bodily harm to yourself. hence "defending yourself.

If you see the punch coming you can go ahead and either push the punch away or punch them first. as long as their punch was on its way TOWARD you first. hence you defended yourself. but if someone hits u and u didnt react quick enough, and they have already stopped after that first punch, u shouldn't do anything. they are taunting you and the damage is already done. It doesnt matter how many times he hits you, if they hit you 3 times or whatever but stops before you could react ("hit back"), then you taking further action is no longer self defense but rather "getting even"

So the next time you get into a conflict, do what is necesary to prevent self bodily harm. That could mean taking action BEFORE the aggressor's first punch. Stop when they stop, go when they go, and keep in mind what is "SELF DEFENSE"

The one or three punch rule for self defense was put there for children who can't fully understand the concept of what is self defense. You are 20 and someone who can understand what self defense is.

Hope this clears up any doubt and help YOU decide your actions in the future. Then again, ARE you trying to defend yourself? if not, just let them beat up their face on your knuckles!!!

Answer 19

Defend yourself. What if the first blow takes you out? You have the right to defend yourself in any situation.

Answer 20

The Bible says when someone hits you on one cheek, you should turn the other cheek and let em hit you there too. So basically, it says they can only hit you twice unless you have a third cheek or consider also offering both cheeks on your behind : P  But seriously, if someone tries to hit me, the first thing on my mind would not be "How many hits do I allow him before I start to hit back?" Instead, I'd be thinking "Where's the exit?" If you are trained in martial arts as you say, then you should at least know how to duck and avoid getting hit and depending on whether you can, then try to make a hasty exit, or defend yourself until you can escape.  As the late Mr. Miyagi said: "Best way to avoid getting hit is to no be there" : )