How realistic are our 'real-life' applications?

Training again last night! It went much better thank you.

Tonight was interesting for its variation away from our typical classes. It opened up with a 'what-if' scenario. At first I though it a bit of a one-in-a-million scenario until everyone voiced that something similar had happened to them.

The scenario: Road rage in a carpark.
While you're exiting and locking your vehicle an aggressive individual strides up actively, arms pumping as if they're power-walking around 'the bays' and their face having left Red behind in favor of a raging purple.

It seems we've all been in a situation where, in the process of obtaining a carpark, we've inadvertently (or not so inadvertently) done something that has caused a person to experience rage. Perhaps you had the right of way but the other person had been waiting for quite a few minutes and you just happened to be the catalyst for rage. The cause of these situations sits purely in your own hands, where as having someone attack in a carpark can seem out of your hands, but if you're prepared you could save yourself expense, damage and embarrassment. (Embarrassment being the least of your concerns, and something to consider once the situation has been dealt with).

So what do you do if, while you're parking your car, Señor Rage-On decides he's going to attack you and show you what-for?
Firstly, keep in mind that the behavior of Señor Rage-On is en par with a bully and their mentality. It's about feeling in power and having people react to you. The more fear and dismay the bully sees on their victims faces, the greater their personal pleasure.

In real-life it can be shocking and disconcerting. Your first reaction is usually something akin to, "WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?" Quickly followed by, " why are they pushing me and swearing?

If you hear/see them approaching you, you have an opportunity to access the situation and act accordingly.
Get into a fight-preparatory position.
Put something in between the two of you such as a car, a shopping trolley, a group of people, anything physical that will delay their reaching you. The longer you stay away from them the LONGER YOU STAY AWAY FROM THEM!!

The best defence is distance.
The second best defence against is bridging the gap in both the physical and psychological sense.

Potential Scenario: The aggressor approaches you in the carpark for whatever reason. They're screaming blue-hell at you, calling you names to a degree where expletives are the gel that holds the tirade together. What do you do?

The moment you emulate their momentum, meaning the moment you start back-peddling and retreating, you are at a disadvantage.
You may not know what's on the ground behind your feet.
The stepping back is usually accompanied by a look of terror, or dismay, which will have the aggressor half barred up and his internal process checking system is telling him to "move forward! This chump will fall!"
This is the physical side. Accompanying this is the psychological aspect, which initially is designed (these days) for flight...not fight, and this is your instant terror. The psychological side, at least in your head, will slow your reactions. It will lock up your muscles, or at least slow them, and you will be on the defensive retreat.

My approach is to mirror.
Which is to reflect their instigation of aggression with aggression.
To those not used to it, this can seem like a bad idea as often I've noticed people think this will lead to an actual fight. I've found this to rarely be the case.
A bully does not expect resistance and thus falls into a typical behavior with a sense of, 'this has always worked before, I'll do it again'.
By initiating aggression you can break the aggressors programming, causing him to activate his brain and hopefully influencing his behavior with an ounce of logic. Such as, 'ah fuck...they're not backing down, what do i do now? I don't actually want to fight', giving you a great opportunity to subdue the aggressor either physically or verbally etc. This would be when there's still space between the two of you and there's time and opportunity for a thought to enter their head.

In the case where they get close enough so that  you only notice them as they, or just as they, push you. Lets ignore for the moment that you should've been aware of your environment and heard the yahoo strolling up spout expletives.
As they push you you need to defuse the force of the push so that you're not off balance, and you're ready to react.
If you retreat too much you will give your opponent too much room to gain a comfortable position and keep you in a reactionary position.
The moment they touch you it's on. They've assaulted you. After the fact you can decide whether they were really going to potentially hurt you. But in that moment you don't know what they know, what skills they have, what their ultimate intention is, or even what they're on.
Until you know better, your life is on the line. This doesn't mean to kill your opponent, it means saving yourself.

1. Be prepared
2. We aren't Tae Kwon Do. When we're attacked our response is to attack. The best defense against a punch is to punch back. In this case this means to react in a fashion which disrupts your opponents intent/programming, and putting yourself on better footing. An analogy for this may be to 'gain the high ground', or a better defensive position.
3. End it as soon as poosible. You don't want to tire yourself out, and if you don't see any it doesn't mean the aggressor doesn't have compatriots about. Finish each interaction asap and prepare for the next.
4. Use only the force required. If the aggressor is all talk, fine. Ideal. Call the cops, security, other Joe Public's, anything. If they continue to attack you, take them down. Control the situation and have the cops take care of them. If they pull a knife, get the fuck out of there...you're standing by a car, get in it. Get on it. Get around it. Shout.

In class it went a little different.
Some few students were feeling funny about 'acting' in front of their classmates. This harkens back to the concept of actively engaging in the encounter, applying yourself to the training to hopefully be better prepared.
It can be difficult when 'expecting' the attack, however in that moment there's still a surge of adrenalin, and regardless of how "the-shit" you feel, you always end up looking odd.
I advanced on the aggressor to push them away when they attacked. This left him on bad footing, and on the retreat. However I was unbalanced and instantly angry. Add an angry, "Fuck off!!" certainly helped put the bully/attacker on the back foot, And gave me a greater feeling of control, despite being out of control.

The world is getting bigger.The total pool from which stats are gathered is getting greater.
In a small village the likelihood of being attacked may be 0.07% (an arbitrary value I've made up to make a point), or 7 chances out of 100 people. This seems remarkably small, and may entail all variations of aggression from harsh words to full on physical attacks.
However, in a world of 7 billion people, this leaves 490,000,000 potential events. That's enough potential events to make me weary.
On top of that, if you consider the potential for specific situations...such as, the more you visit parking lots, the more likely you are to have an encounter. The more you're in the city on a friday night, out drinking with friends, the greater the potential for running into drunk aggressive carry-on.