As martial artists, we are often faced with aggressive people who threaten us either verbally or physically. It’s important to know the difference between an insult like “F– You” and a threat “I’m going to b*at you up”.
Insults should be ignored but threats are more serious and are often an indication of incoming violence. That’s why we should deal with verbal threats very seriously.

John Hackleman, the head trainer at The Pit mixed martial arts gym, and coach of UFC legend Chuck Liddell and Glover Texeira, talks about dealing with verbal threats:

“Let’s talk about verbal threats. Let me just tell you something, if you ever get verbally threatened you need to take that very seriously and react accordingly. In other words, if someone gives you an absolute verbal threat,
when I say absolute I mean like there’s no conditions, like I’m gonna k*ll you, I’m gonna kick your a%s. Okay if they’re in range to do it and they say it, you need to react immediately because that’s the number one predictor of physical violence is a verbal threat.

If somebody says they’re gonna do violence, that needs to be taken very seriously, so if somebody’s close enough to you to hit you and they say they’re gonna hit you, then you need to hit them first or get the h*ll out of there really quickly. Don’t just wait there.

I don’t try to argue with them if they want to argue and talk about things that’s one thing and then if you feel their body language is a certain way then you should react physically but if somebody is close enough to hurt you physically, then their body language doesn’t really matter at that point unless they’re like with their arms crossed against the wall, but if they’re close enough to you and they say ‘I’m gonna p*nch you in the face right now’ then expect them to so whether you can get away if you want to or if you want to defend yourself by preemptively striking them, then do that.

In some cases, take the threats at their face value, like if it’s a little old lady or a drunk in a bar who says ‘I’m gonna slap you’ that’s one thing but if some guy or some girl that is able to hurt you expresses that an intent to hurt you which is a threat then please please take it seriously and act accordingly.”

On the other hand, here is a crucial lesson on how to avoid physical conflict by talking your way out of it using verbal Jiu-Jitsu.

Old school black belt Ryan Young explains very well why you rarely see bjj black belts pick fights or get into street fights. For him, lower belts still want to test themselves but black belts have aleady achieved a certain level and are more humble:

“If you’re a black belt and you’ve been around the road enough times or on the block enough times, you know that there’s always somebody bigger better faster stronger. You never pick on somebody. You’re always there to deal with a confrontation that could happen but you never go and start it…”

To me, when i’m watching and watch my friends who are now black belts and my students blue belt is when they tend to want to kind of test things out. They want to see if what they’ve been taught what is really true but at black belt you’ve already gone through purple, brown and you know that any guy comes off of the street into the studio, you can just kind of tell as you’re you know working with the guy training with a guy whatever that you can do anything you want to.  It’s not an issue but you also are humble enough to know that as a black belt that sometimes you get your *ss kicked. ”

From 7min42secs:

Fight Smart And Win As An Older Grappler With Tom DeBlass’s Guide To Beating Younger, Faster Opponents With These Key Details And Fundamental Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Concepts To Slowing The Fight Down And Keeping Control.

• Learn how an older grappler can use real technique and useful technique to simplify their Brazilian jiu-jitsu and slow down younger grapplers with Tom DeBlass’s help.
• Tom DeBlass is a UFC veteran fighter and a respected black belt grappling coach in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, as well as a BJJ Fanatics favorite.
• Tom shows how to work from top and bottom position with techniques and attacks that older grapplers can gain advantage with, including half guard, pressure passing, and more.