I've mentioned a few times before that when I ran a gym, I took advantage of going to a few starter sessions for some of the martial arts skills - none for long enough to gain any actual skill, mind you
But centuries ago when I was bouncing, if I was asked to work a new/different door, I was always most pleased to hear that we either had a boxer or two, or someone who was good at judo - they always seemed most effective people to have around when it kicked off. I never got tired of seeing that surprised look on the drunk guys face when he's suddenly sitting on his ass a split second after pecking towards a judo guy
Just my tuppence worth...
When I worked as a bouncer for bar and shag security between 2006-2008, I was always too nice to deal with ruffians [or whatever you call them in England - and what do you call England in England? England? Britain? Great Britain? The UK?].
I found literally close to 99% of people were fine, when you have 300 to 1,000+ coming through a bar [pub] through the course of the night, you're going to get 1-10 troublemakers, like clockwork, every time.
I'm nice until I'm not - and one time I really lost my mind at one guy who bit a bouncer while being expelled, who I let in through the back door I was watching, because he claimed to be working with the hot dog guy.
I was then told to go home for my mistake, and sought to redeem myself in the mind of my boss - and bouncer friend who was bitten. I sought to personally remove him myself while exiting the building myself, and while I commenced that, he stood his ground. I wasn't going to allow that in my pursuit for redemption, and bedlam pursued.
I threw that piece of s*** through every liquor bottle stand there, and...jk.
I grabbed him to drag him out, he shoved me, and a local coke dealer who was friends with him grabbed him and removed him himself, and I went on my way...
At the time, I was strong enough to do that job...but I just didn't have the heart to do it, until people got me angry enough.
Ultimately, that's why I was placed to watch the door - I'd stand around and talk to women all night, and watch their drinks as they went to the bathroom. I was a pretty big hit just chatting with people, and I feel it was a good position for me.
Years later, a friend of mine who owns another bar and knows I lift, offered me a job at his bar, but at that time I really didn't want to. As it turns out, you by then needed something called a "Smart Serve" license to work as a bouncer in Canada [typical Canada - regulating everything], and that's what I used to end that discussion.
Is it really worth it to get beer bottles smashed in your face, or...get bitten, to be a bouncer?
I enjoyed the status it brought me with the ladies at the bar...but it was ultimately not for me.
I was also 195-lb at that time, and at least had some size to make the average John Q. Public drunkard think twice before starting anything:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CY13C1ZPW_K/^ I could be that size again rather easily, but at 40, I'm literally a petrified hypochondriac now. Plus my weight class is u-80kg [179-lb, because they give you a 3-lb weight allowance for clothes], so I stick around there.
If contest season is cancelled AGAIN, I think I will go back to that size for the summer.
But again - being a bouncer was not for me.
Taffin - aren't you 6'4"? I think holding the size you had is much more suitable for the job. It's not that people don't take manlets seriously - they just take large men much more seriously!