How Long Should a Fight Last

Hello,

Today I would like to talk about how long a fight should last. A lot of people ask me this very question and I say "make that fight as short as possible!" In the movies, and in sport fighting such as boxing or tournament fighting we see these fights go for a long time; sometimes up to an hour of fighting to determine who the winner of the contest is. When we watch fighting in martial art movies we are looking at unreal fighting sequences. Not only because of the duration of the fight scenes but because of all the strikes and kicks that are delivered during the fight.

This conditions us to see fighting as this continuous, back and forth exchange of strikes until one person surrenders. When I learned Kung Fu San Soo I quickly discovered that what I had seen in the past was basically theatrical in nature. In a real street fight there are no rules and your adversary is trying to hurt you quickly.

So, how long should a fight really last? Well, if you have serious intent and you know that your opponent is trying to hurt you quickly a real fight should last no longer than 2-5 seconds. To do this you will need to learn to strike the most vulnerable targets on the body as well as learn to strike with maximum power and you'll need to learn how to position yourself to move at the most beneficial angles to close the distance with your adversary quickly.

It took me about 3-5 years of training in Kung Fu San Soo to become confident in what I've stated above. At this point (14 plus years of training) it has become second nature to do these things and it is amazing to know when to move and where to move to give myself the best chance of ending a fight quickly.

Until next time, happy training!

Tony