Welcome to Gaia! ::

i dont know...i dont think i would ever actually want them to attack. There are stances that look pretty casual, if you didnt know that they were stances you wouldnt know the person was in them, so i would probably use one of those to direct the potential attack to where i would want it to be. If the person was coming right in my face i would be keeping my distance from them (i tend to way over do that in sparring so i imagine in a real fight it would be huge) and then if they kept coming towards me i would probably do something pre-emptive. Not sure if that counts as making the first strike, maybe it does.

Ah see, now you're getting it. I've seen it a million times, some drunk idiot getting right in someones face and acting really aggressively. Bam, one punch out of nowhere and the person goes down. Idiot then starts kicking them on the floor.
Now in a perfect world, you stick your hands up and back off to keep them at distance. But where this sort of thing often occurs, there is very limited space. You cant back up, and they are pushing against your hands.
Basically they are putting you in a situation where you have to act pre-emptively. Maybe not hitting them, but at least pushing them. Or something else, but you have to take the initiative or you are basically letting them beat the crap out of you if they want to.
And I didn't really mean wanting them to attack like generally, avoidance really is the best policy. But if they are going to anyway, you want them to attack you in a way which you can control.


Longlived - What about the situation I've just described? When someone is far too close to see "the arm twich."
When someone comes right in your face and starts screaming, you are at a disadvantage in a couple of ways. Firstly, because they are so much closer you cant see much of their body so its a lot harder to read them. Any punch they throw, you will only notice coming with your peripheral vision. When you are in a high stress environment, like having some nut case screaming at you from six inches away, a whole shed load of adrenilin surges thru your system. One effect of adrenilin is tunnel vision. You lose your peripheral vision, or much of it anyways. Adrenilin also makes you stupid, making it a lot harder to make clear informative choices.

Being female obviously will effect things. And I'd say the above situation is far less likely to happen, than to a guy. But it can still happen.
And yes you should argue that. But its important to note that the term "reasonable force" really comes into play here. If someone is pushing against your hands and being aggressive and you turn around and break their face and several bones. You will be charged. You have to use the minimum force necessary to essure your own safety.
When I was younger I heard this thing that if you were trained in martial arts, you had to warn any potential aggressor that you were or if anything happened, you'd be charged. This is bullshit, but if you are involved in something like the situation we're talking about, in many places it will be expected that as a martial artist you should have the control and ability to end it without causing massive harm to your opponent. And if you do end up beating the hell out of them, it will stand against you in court.

I would only fight in a necessary circumstance, as morality is one of my beliefs. :nod: I would not fight someone for no reason at all, but if someone was in danger then I probably wouldn't hesitate to beat him up. smile

I have a large knowledge base on countering and defending, but almost nothing on attacking first. ._.

Although if I saw someone being attacked who couldn't fight back, or I got really pissed off (as in Hulk-level angry), I'd probably throw the first punch.