The 7 Most Common Attacks in a Street Self Defense Fight

Most martial arts work from traditional attacks from which you counter and defend. In reality, most of these just don’t happen in a street fight and it’s much more ‘difficult’. In street self defense we learn about the ways people actually attack and fight on the street and we learn short, sharp and effective techniques to deal with them.

If you watch a real street fight, you’ll see a lot of pushing, grappling, and swinging, not the formal punches that martial arts teach you how to handle. The most common attacks are:

1. One person pushes, hands to chest, usually followed by the attacker hitting the head

2. A punch to the head. This is not a boxer’s punch and it’s not pretty! Often, of course, the attacker is drunk, and even if his aim is off, there will be power in it.

3. A frontal grab of the clothes, with one hand, and a blow to the face. A martial art like aikido will actually prepare you well for this purpose. There are easier street self-defense moves that work just as well.

4. A front clothes grab, two hands, followed by a head butt. Very dangerous as an attack but actually very easy to counter.

5. A front clothes grab, two hands, followed by a kick to the groin area. Again, you don’t want to be on the receiving end, but countering him in street self-defense is easy.

6. A bottle, glass or ashtray to the face or head. We are talking about a serious attack now and you have to do it right. A fancy martial arts block gone wrong will get you into serious trouble.

7. A grappling style headlock. This is the messy, drunken brawl we often see. Necks can be prone to injury and we need a lane self defense move to get out of it as quickly as possible.

Don’t be intimidated by this list, I just want you to understand what it’s really like on the street. All of these attacks are easy to handle if you have some knowledge, techniques, and moves.