John Hackleman is the legendary longtime trainer of UFC Hall-of-Famer Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell as well as the founder of The Pit MMA gym in California. The Pit is not your typical MMA gym though as it teaches the art of Hawaiian Kempo as well.

Hawaii is one of the few places out there where street fighting and ‘scrappin’ is pretty commonplace. You would think that living in paradise would make people more relaxed but that’s not the case in Hawaii.

Perhaps it is related to the surfing culture somehow as surfing was invented in Hawaii and in surf culture getting into fist fights on the beach is pretty common too.

This culture of street fighting in Hawaii also may have helped produce great Hawaiian fighters like BJ Penn, Max Holloway, Travis Browne, Kendall Grove, Cabbage Correira and many others.

In the following video, John ‘The Pit Master’ Hackleman gives us some advice on how to not get beaten up while in Hawaii and if there’s anybody who knows best it’s this guy.

John’s first tip is to not stare anybody down, or ‘stinkeye’ as the locals there refer to it as. This is pretty common sense and John further advises to not stare at the ground either as it could show weakness.

According to Hackleman, if you ever find yourself in a situation the best thing to do is show friendliness, but if that doesn’t work you must quickly and efficiently take off your flip flops (what else will you be wearing in Hawaii?).

This is so you don’t trip over yourself as flip flops aren’t the best foot wear for fighting. Believe it or not, bare feet is superior when it comes to both kicking and moving around.

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And lastly, The Pit Master’s final piece of advice is once you get into a fight, you should fight to win and throw hard. Though Hawaiian’s are a scrappy bunch, respect is very important in their culture and if you get their respect you’ll be alright regardless if you win or lose.