I once wrote an article titled,

“I’d rather fight a
trained martial artist than a street wise fighter” and this is quite true, the
street fighter doesn’t know that you are amartial artist and so he will not
be at all wary of your ability. He will come at you with such force and
determination that you will wonder what has hit you. And he will come
at you from any direction at any time with anything that he can use as a
weapon. So many times have I heard “But I’m a black belt! And I went
to pieces.” I think that one should have some sort of street experience
before a black belt is given. The street fighter doesn’t have any fighting
stance or wait and choose his moment; he just attacks and attacks, if
your method of fighting is not truly sub-conscious then you will lose the
fight. This of course depends on how street wise your attacker is, it
could be that he is just a relatively harmless drunk and in which case
would be relatively easy to take care of gently! But don’t allow that sort
of a win to give you great confidence, go and kick over a row of Hells
Angels bikes and then see how you go. Your technique must be ‘no
technique and totally dependant upon what your attacker does to you. If
it’s right to spit in his eye then do it, if it’s right to use a perfect kick to
his knee then do it but let it just happen. Only then will the t’ai chi principle
from the classics of ‘stick to and not letting go’ be adhered to.