FAQs - Social Confrontations and How to Deal With Them

By Eby M

In what follows, an expert and fully qualified martial arts practitioner will answer some questions on social confrontations.

Where do social confrontations typically occur?

In the vast majority of cases, alcohol is usually involved. By definition that means that they typically take place in clubs, pubs, discos and in their immediately surrounding areas, as people are coming or going to these venues.

Less commonly, they can happen in the street or on public transport when, for whatever reason, someone or a group of people start to behave aggressively towards others around them.

What are the causes?

There is an almost infinite number of potential causes, although alcohol and so-called "recreational drug" use are often common denominators in unacceptable social behaviours.

Assuming we discount things such as feuds and settling of outstanding grudges between people, most spontaneous confrontation tends to occur in situations such as:

a male is out to try and prove something about what he believes to be his "virility" by challenging another man in the vicinity;

again, typically a male has interpreted the actions of another man as being unacceptable and is over-reacting. Examples there typically include things such as "don't look at my girlfriend mate";

a trivial problem (e.g. accidentally knocking someone's drink over) results in someone losing control due to them having fundamental behavioural problems such as anger management issues;

sadly, there is some evidence to suggest that certain individuals just simply enjoy fighting, bullying and intimidating others - and they will seek to do so under any circumstances whatsoever. They need no justification before starting.

Are these situations always ones that involve men?

Although confrontation with the threat of violence is far more commonplace when males are together in public places, it is by no means restricted to them alone.

Although once considered, possibly incorrectly, to be extremely rare behaviour in females, physical and threatening confrontation in public places is now much more commonly seen in women than was once the case.

Don't such social confrontations almost always result in physical violence?

No.

The good news is that there are techniques that can be adopted that will help to defuse such situations and stop them spilling over into actual physical violence. They're very frequently successful.

However, the bad news is that such techniques don't always work. An angry verbal confrontation can switch into violence with virtually zero notice.

Should I just walk away from a confrontation?

It is extremely difficult to give specific advice in a general context here. For example, there is a very big difference between spotting a potential confrontation before it arises and finding yourself being confronted.

In the former, walking away is a very smart idea.

In the latter, a lot more depends upon your assessment of the situation. In some situations, it might still be possible to quietly walk away but in others, that may simply be an invitation for the other party to attack you.

There are certain positions and body postures you can adopt once you are already being confronted, that are typically not interpreted as challenging to the other party but which show you are not likely to be a pushover should the other person be considering violence.

Why do so many people advocate martial arts self-defence training?

However much we may intellectualise this subject and wish the world were otherwise, it is a fact of life that there are people out there who are violent or have a strong conscious inclination towards being so.

There are also even larger numbers of people in life who struggle to control their temper and anger, with the end result being that they are liable to uncontrolled acts of aggression.

It's critically important to recognise that you cannot always control the circumstances under which an initial confrontation becomes violent. Some people are perfectly capable of resorting to violence with absolutely no provocation on your part whatsoever.

In such situations, reason and discussion suddenly have no place in what happens next.

If you are forced to try and defend yourself from a physical attack, it's best if you have some form of martial arts skills and training in order to ensure that you and those with you are not injured. Note this is not about "winning" or defeating the aggressor - it's about keeping you and those you're with safe.

That is why there is such emphasis today on martial arts training for self-defence purposes.

Sometimes we caught in critical and violent situation, where we are forced to defend ourselves from a physical attack. WAIMA is one of the best institute in Western Australia who provides    self-defence classes and    martial arts classes for kids and adults.