Not sure if theres another place for this but i thought i would share what happened to me last night after work and my kung fu knowlege helped me. First my backround: im a 26 year old who has been taking kung fu for the last 1 and a half working on 7 Star Preying Mantis as well as Xingyiquan and long fist which is the base for 7 Star.

I met a few friends at a local bar, they were having an ugly christmas sweater night so everyone looked ridiculous accept me as i was coming from work so i had on my typical button down and dress pants.

anyways i was there for about 2 hours when a routy, loud group of guys came in. There were 4 of them around 21-26 i would say. They came in yelling and screaming trying to be funny but proving to be more annoying then anything else. Anyways they were drunk and ran up to the bar and pushed their way in the middle of another group of people to get beer.

Me and my friends just ignored them as they kept being more and more vulgar to the point where the bartender who is a good frien of mine had to yell at them to calm down. After about 20 minutes they looked over at my group of friends and kept yelling about me not wearing an ugly sweater like everyone else and began trying to insult me. Im very anti aggressive so ignored it and kept talking to my friends. The group i was with had 4 girls and 3 guys me being one of them. I was talking to my friend Kim who is a very very attractive girl i have known for many years. Well one guy kept yelling to her saying that his sweater was the ugliest and she should come over and talk to him. She just laughed and ignored it. He kept interupting us and finally came over and tried to pull her over. She got mad and said back off. Then i stepped in and told him to go, that she doesnt want anything to do with him. Then he gets up in my face, i tell him to leave us alone. All his friends began screaming saying that i wanted to piece, which clearly i didnt want anything to do with this but it was making my friend kim very uncomfortable. The guy was my size, about 6'3" around 250 pounds and he swung. i stepped back and went right into 7 Star Stance. i used both hands to grab his arm as i side stepped. Once i had his arm i swung up with a cranes head strike to his elbow. I heard a pop and he screamed. I struck him very hard possibly breaking his elbow i dont know, i then stepped forward and punched (the Pi Strike from Xingyiquan was all i could think of at the moment) and hit him in the head knocking him to the floor. His friends mouths where wide open and didnt say a word. One guy was trying to push through but his friends held him back and the bartender at this point was on the phone with the cops and the guy that swung at me was now on the floor yelling about his arm. They tried to leave but everyone stopped them from leaving till the cops got there.

The cops asked me what happened and even the morons friends said that i was just defending myself. Im not sure whats going to happen to me as i am a martial artist but it was caught on camera and i did not attack or even start with him and backed off after the first strike. The cops said i was ok and i didnt have to leave or anything but they would be talking to me today so we will see what happens. ill keep eveyone up to date but i thought i would share my story as i am grateful for my teachings and knowledge in kung fu even though its very limited at the moment only training less then 2 years.

My teacher hopefully will be proud of me as i used what he taught me. i am greatful for this art and will continue to learn as much as i can.

My congratulations to your teacher: even though Xingyi-quan and Qixing-tanglang-quan are among the most "immediately practical" gongfu styles, Chinese arts are painstakingly subtle and usually require more study time than that for the student to gain the ability to use them practically.

Hopes it comes out okay with the law.

it was a sitr of the moment thing. honestly it was all that popped into my head. after i hit his arm and he stumbled back it kind of popped into my head. i have been training Xingyi hard because of how devistating yet simple it is and i love it. I talked to my teacher and he is very proud of what happened. As for the law i had to take my lunch break and speak to an officer that came to work to ask some more questions and set up a time i might need to go to the station. He said it might not be necassary because of the bartender and everyone else voicing for me as well as it was caught on tape. but i do appreciate the words of luck.

Well done. Looks like you did everything you were supposed to do and your teacher probably will be proud of you. I'm sorry you were in such a situation, however, given that you were, and handled it well, the experience will now serve your continued training. You've learned how short a real fight can be and how your mind works and perception of time changes.

Nothing for nothing (playing devils advocate here), you might want to get a copy of the video and show it to an attorney. If you broke the elbow and it is "Life Altering" and he decides to take legal action, you will want to know what your legal stance could be. I don't trust it when some one says "You were just defending yourself", it doesn't mean squat! Remember, O.J. was found "Not guilty" of murder, but guilty of wrongful death in a civil suit. Know your rights!

VDJ

I have to admit , and I apologise completely if I am wrong , but the scene sounds a little like BS to me. Having personally been involved in well over 100 of real life violent encounters (nature of my job over a few years) I doubt you reacted as you say (again if I am wrong I apologise). certain things just don't ring true to me.

for eg. you have time to step back into a specific stance, side step and grab the arm after he initiates his swing. dude how slow did the guy throw his punch from my experience you would barley have time to step back let alone do all three actions. particularly as he was in your face. You also provide a little too much information, much of it too specific and unnecessary to the story.it sounds like it was a fairly crowded bar so I doubt you heard any popping. and with the adrenaline I doubt you would have been able to take in as much detail as you provide.

like I said I could be wrong and I apologise if I am, but there is enough cues to alert any forensic Psychologist to suspect at least exaggeration.

thought I'd better add I don't know the techniques you said you used ....whether that would make a difference or not...?????????

I hope so too and glad you came out of it alive.

VDJ: i am way ahead of you there. just incase i spoke to my family lawyer about the situation and i have gotten a copy of the tape as well as the police reports. I am ready if he tries anything. From what was said i didnt break the elbow, i guess it was jsut a fracture of some kind. im not honestly sure as i was asking the police officers about it the other day when i was down at the police station and thats what they told me.

drgndrew: i could understand you thinking it is BS and i will explain in more detail if you like. First of all the thing you brought up about me grabbing his arm. I was able to do so because of him be intoxicated and after i confronted him about grabbing my friend i figured something was going to happen. The detail was becuase i was able to watch the video and described it from what i saw there, including what was going through my head. When it happened the only part i can honestly remember my crane strike to his elbow. The step punch (Pi) was what i saw in the video. Like i said the bartender was a good friend of mine and showed me the video after the cops left and such so i could see what went down as i was afraid it might be used against me if he took me to court. I remember his friend trying to push through because i wasnt sure if they were all going to attack me and i was ready to be attacked by more of them. As for the pop sound i dont know if that was elbow, it could have been something esle. The bar wasnt that crowded and it was very easy to hear everything that was going on around me, so the sound i heard could have been anything maybe even may own wrist (as i broke my left wrist years ago and since whenever i drop my hand down like in a crane's head i can hear a very loud and noticable cracking. The parts where i said he was about my size, i used my own height and weight to guess, i dont really know specifics of him. He was in my face yes, but when he swung he did step back hence why i was able to "catch" his attack. As soon as he stepped back (i would assume to get a better angle at hitting me) i was anticipating an attack.So when he swung he was not directly in my face, he was an arms length away from me at that point.

I can understand you questioning me about the whole thing as it sounds like you might be in law enforcement or something along those lines. This was my first real life fight otuside of school and i hope it will be my last. i do not enjoy fighting. I do appreciate you not flaming me and calling me a liar and you were very polite about questioning me. I have no problem answering anything else you might have. I can see where some people might be living in a fantasy world and trying to have the "im a tuff guy" story or something but i assure you i wouldnt tell a story like this if it wasnt true.

Your response is kind of confusing. A "Fracture" IS a break! You broke something else and NOT the elbow? or you just "Cracked" something?

VDJ