Mistake #1: Lack of Situational Awareness – Situational awareness means you see the “orange alert” signs of suspicious and dangerous-looking behavior by suspicious and dangerous-looking people.

Solution: You must trust your “gut” instinct. When you feel that something is wrong or not right in a strange environment, pay attention to those feelings. Don’t ignore the furtive-eyed guy wearing the thick wool coat in the middle of a hot August summer day with his hand in his coat pocket.

Mistake #2: You don’t look for objects in your environment that can be used as weapons. Forget the nunchucks, shiroken stars, bo staffs and kung fu swords that many sifus ridiculously teach to use in kung fu schools. This is not people from ancient China! You’re not walking around with any of these ancient weapons. One, the law won’t allow it, and Two, most of them are too complicated to expertly maneuver and use. How many times on America’s Funniest Videos have you seen someone demonstrate the use of nunchucks and then end up banging on the “family jewels”?

Solution: If you see a bottle of ketchup in a fast food restaurant, (or any hard, easy-to-grip object), if you have to, grab it and use it. If you have a cup of hot coffee (or a cup of any liquid), throw it at an assailant’s face unexpectedly, then kick hard several times in the shins and follow up with other blows.

Mistake #3: Allowing an obvious aggressor to strike first. This is a judgment call, but there is a point where the situation goes from a gray area to jet black. If someone talks to you, but just yells and yells while standing in the same spot, this is usually a sign that they’re not a real threat, but just letting off steam. Now, if that same person starts to clench his fist, he starts moving aggressively into his personal space even though he’s backing away; now is the time to use a preemptive attack.

Solution: Strike first and fast in a way and in an area that will devastate him and stop him in his tracks. Best first hit? Kick him hard in the shins a couple of times, and follow up with an eye rake, tiger claw, fingers curled inward up and down over the eyes, or a knee stomp at a 45-degree angle at close range .

Mistake #4 – Not continuing the attack after committing to the first strike – In street combat, it’s a dangerous mindset to simply want to “control” the situation or set up the attacker. I know of one case where a kung fu brown belt got into an altercation with an individual whom he quickly and thankfully managed to knock to the ground with a high round kick to the face (the kind of kick I wouldn’t recommend in a situation like this). street fighter) anyway, to make a long story short, when the guy hits the ground after that kick to the face, he pretended to be more hurt than he really was. As the brown belt leaned down to “talk” to the guy to calm him down, and while explaining how unnecessary it was for them to fight, the guy on the ground quietly grabbed a brick and slammed it into the brown belt’s skull. , knocking him unconscious and giving him a concussion.

Solution: Once you commit to hitting someone with the first hit, make sure it’s a hit that counts, and don’t stop hitting until your attacker is fully subdued or knocked out.

Mistake #5 – Trying to do high overhead kicks instead of low line kicks – Forget Bruce Lee. Forget Jackie Chan. Forget Jet Li. Forget the movies. This is the real life. You’re not trying to fight pretty, look cool, or feel like an action hero. This is not a sports fight. This is not a fighting tournament. You are, in many cases, fighting for your life or the safety of your loved ones.

Solution: Fight to survive. Fight low and dirty. Kick the pimples. Kick your knees. Kick the muzzle if you have a clean shot. But never kick higher than waist level. Save that for the Hollywood movie producers. Your job is only to save your life.