Poll: Have you ever punched anyone?

[alandavidson]

Yeah, I've been in a lot of fights, throwing lots of punches. I've never started anything, but I've finished a lot of fights.

 

[Radoh]

As a matter of fact, yeah I did. So now Story time.
Riding home on the bus as usual in like fifth or sixth grade getting picked on again by that guy who's name I don't remember. No big deal, he's lost his effectiveness since I've grown callous to his stupid. Then he finds a glue stick on the floor and puts the whole thing in my hair.

I don't actually really remember hitting him, but I was standing over him with blood all over my hands and shirt and his lip was sagging into his face where some teeth used to be.

Not something I'm proud of, but the bullying stopped when they found out Radoh is a psychopath who'll break your face. The weirdest part is I never got in trouble.

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

Yeah, I have. I used to get into fights when I was a kid. I did intend to hurt the other one, but it usually ended before anyone got badly hurt. I stopped fighting as I got older.

 

[Thyunda]

Outside of playfighting or sparring, no, I have not. In moments of real combat, I tend to go with grapples, hits to pressure points or good old fashioned trips, followed by pinning the opponent down.

 

[AngloDoom]

I'm not talking about baby taps and dead arms and stuff here, but real blows with the intent to cause damage. Personally I find it a difficult thing to do, though I have thrown a few in my life. Each time I was really enraged and lost control of myself. I've never thrown a punch in defense, or even desperation. My rational mind just won't allow it.

ED: if anyone finds a missing poll, send it this way.

I had quite a 'laddish' childhood, which people often find strange considering I'm well spoken, quick to apologise, and have the face and hair of a fluffy puppy. I got into lots of fights when I was young and that reflected on my high-school years too. I went to an area where people were convinced it was rough, but a fight in school was extraordinarily rare. When I arrive and people starting bullying me, I just assumed a punch was coming and so I just got there first.

I didn't get bullied 'up close' as much from that point, and it's the last time I've had to punch somebody outside of a martial-art or playfighting, thank crap. I've been punched a couple of times then, interestingly more by women than men.

Weirdly, since moving around a lot more it surprised me how very few people have gotten into fights: I used to live in the type of area where everyone went around fighting people of different ethnicities or parts of the street because no-one had any idea what else to do- kudos, world.

EDIT -

Well, I did Karate for about five years, so yeah I punched people alot there.

I misread this as "Well, I did karaoke for about five years, so yeah I punched people alot there" and it made my day".

 

[Atmos Duality]

Way too many times...though in particular, I half-crushed the throat of a kid who stabbed me with a pen-knife (he couldn't breathe for a good while, but fortunately, he managed to vomit hard enough to reopen his larynx).

Though I can't claim it was a punch; it was an elbow.

I won't claim to have been a total angel growing up (far from it), and I'm not proud of what I did to him, but I will say that the little psycho earned it. It was the last time anyone from my grade openly fucked with me, that's for sure (aided by the fact that I moved away less than a year later...natch).

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

OT: No and there are basically no circumstances wherein I would consider punching anyone.

Well hey, you learn something new every day. Suppose i'll have to go for a gut shot next time. Thanks man.

You can cause internal bleeding and kill someone by hitting them in the stomach. There are lots of solid organs down there which can be damaged from blunt force trauma and cause someone to bleed out and die in very short order. There are also a variety of symptoms that you can't account for, for instance an appendicitis that has not manifested itself painfully yet can still be popped by you punching them. If it pops it will spread infection through out their whole body and they will have between 1-3 hours left to live.

You should never punch anyone ever unless you are willing to accept the possibility and consequences that you could very well kill them in doing so.

 

[Aureliano]

Nope. Been doing martial arts for years, and if there's one thing you learn pretty early on it's that you have probably made a whole series of bad decisions if you actually have to try to hurt somebody with your fist. I try to be more careful than that.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Yeah. It's a colloquial greeting around here, from time to time. If you can't make someone wince, then you're not feeling well. Beyond that, there was a dude messing with me on a bad day in the ninth grade, and I popped him one in the stomach that winded him. That put a stop to that, really.

 

[Chancie]

Nope. The closest I've gotten to a fight is yelling at people. I'm one of those that would probably break my own hand (or at least hurt myself) in the process of punching someone. So, I wouldn't really try. I'm not a physically violent or angry person. I'd rather just yell, say my piece, and then I'm good.

 

[Davih]

Few people tried to bully me in school, turns out they don't like it when you fight back.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Yes. But then again I'vde found just about every occasion to be justifiable

 

[thejackyl]

Once out of anger, and SEVERAL times in self defense (though, I usually got hauled to the principal's office ALONE for it)

I wasn't a popular kid in high school. I was the nerdy kid that everyone and their dog picked on. That was made doubly true when my dad came out of the closet and, since I live in a small town, everyone knew about the next day, and homosexuality being much more taboo than it is today, I ended getting the flak for a LOT of bullshit (though I am straight myself). So... you can see how that worked. I was beaten up, pretty much daily. I got tired of it, and started fighting back, and became a VERY angry/depressed person in High School.

The only time I hit someone preemptively, was when some ass was talking shit about my girlfriend (at the time. I tend to agree with him now, in hindsight). But I decked him right then and there surrounded by his friends who just kind of watched in awe as someone about half his size just decked him and knocked him on his ass.

 

[Dogstile]

OT: No and there are basically no circumstances wherein I would consider punching anyone.

Well hey, you learn something new every day. Suppose i'll have to go for a gut shot next time. Thanks man.

You can cause internal bleeding and kill someone by hitting them in the stomach. There are lots of solid organs down there which can be damaged from blunt force trauma and cause someone to bleed out and die in very short order. There are also a variety of symptoms that you can't account for, for instance an appendicitis that has not manifested itself painfully yet can still be popped by you punching them. If it pops it will spread infection through out their whole body and they will have between 1-3 hours left to live.

You should never punch anyone ever unless you are willing to accept the possibility and consequences that you could very well kill them in doing so.

Depends on how hard you're willing to hit them. If you don't throw a massive punch into the stomach the chances of actually damaging an organ is pretty low. I'd also have to be extremely unlucky if I managed to hit someone with, say, your example of appendicitis.

I'm fully expecting a scoff as a reply, but its perfectly possible to wind someone safely. That being said, in my edit of my first post, I did say I seem to find myself in less and less situations where its needed that I hit someone. I'd rather avoid it if I can.

 

[kommando367]

I punched A few people. I prefer kicking and choking someone when I have to fight them though.

 

[Aeriath]

Yeah, I was in a few fights when I was in highschool. My upper body strength has always been abysmal so when I have punched someone it hasn't done much damage. I thankfully haven't been in a fight since I was 15, not sure if the assholes in my part of the world mellowed out or maybe I'm just better at avoiding them now.

 

[redisforever]

Yes. I have. It was in self-defence, because the guy had me in a head-lock, so I punched him in the ear. And that was the end of that.

 

[brainslurper]

No, it's inefficient, it hurts you, and I could have them on the floor faster then I could punch them. I don't really fight though, I can run very fast and usually jump around with my hands up in the air yelling "come at me bro" over and over when someone is actually trying to fight me.

 

[NastoK]

I can't remember it myself, but a friend of mine did insist that I once pushed a kid to the ground, jumped on him with my knees and proceeded to hit him with a sort of hammering motion with both arms. I was 5 at the time, allegedly.
*shrug*

Oh, you just reminded me! Aww, nostalgia. I was, what, 3, 5, not sure, I just moved to a new neighborhood, and the kids there didn't really like my 3 years older brother, for some reason. Now, I don't quite remember if this one kid, same age as my brother, attacked my brother or just made fun of him, but what I do remember is charging at him (I was half his size, though I was fat so I had mass ), slamming him to the ground, and as I sat on him I threw a flurry of blows to his face. He went of crying. Such a sweet memory ^_^

Also, at that age, I was somewhat known for having strong punches, and I hit a couple of other kids in the stomach because they literally asked for it.

Other than that, no. I can't bring myself to hit people with the intention to hurt or cause damage. If provoked enough, I guess I would defend myself, but I've known to take a couple of hits without retaliating. I've trained ninjutsu a couple of years back, for half a year, and the first thing I was thought was to avoid fights if it's possible. Though, I'm more likely to attack someone if they're picking on someone else. I can't stand bullying. Insults are less annoying than flies for me, though, again, I might do something if they were directed at a loved one.

 

[Lurklen]

I first really punched someone in grade 1 so I was seven or eight. He was this grade six kid who at the time seemed huge but probably wasn't and another kid in my class had sort of sent him after me. First the boy from my class kicked me in the crotch with these steel toed cowboy boots which hurt a lot. Then the grade six kid held me up against the chain link fence by my neck. I was a little kid and I was pretty sure I was gonna die so I flailed out with a few wild punches, I remember that he wasn't very impressed, then I got really angry the way little kids get with their faces all screwed up like they're gonna cry and I gave him a jab in the throat.

The look on his face, I'll never forget. His eyes went really wide and he let go of me immedietly. Then he started making this gross noise kind of rasping and wet, then he grabbed at his throat just sort of looked at me and ran away, the kid from my class went running after him. I got really scared after that, I found out later he was okay but in that moment I thought I'd killed him. And I could have by accident killed some kid, at seven. I've always tried to avoid fighting if I could after that. It just never seems worth the trouble and there are always concequences or there have been for me.

The only other time I got into a serious fight where I really wanted to hurt someone was in highschool when these two guys jumped me at a bus stop and I threw one of them into oncoming traffic. He didn't get hurt, only because the car stopped in time. So that whole staying out of fights thing hasn't always worked.