If someone does start the first swing at you, a fairly fool proof way to counter is to push kick him in the balls, then throw your strike. A push kick is like a front kick but instead of trying to kick upward or kick super hard, you're lifting your lead leg and pushing your foot forward on top of his groin/lower stomach area with a shoving motion. If your legs are equal distance apart, pick the leg that would be in front if you were in a fighting stance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wBQs-l7yss The point is not necessarily to injure the groin but to disrupt his punch and fold him over so he can't counter your punch easily. Your leg is probably longer than his arm. Best to do some Muay Thai training once a week if you want to really get the idea but this is a common counter attack in Muay Thai. In sparring it's done more to the stomach area but the street application is the groin, since it's harder to catch and hurts more. Muay Thai has a lot of good attacks that hurt like hell but don't leave marks, like a leg kick with the shin that you see in UFC fights. It looks like nothing in the fights because they have been taking leg kicks for years but most people will drop when leg kicked. It feels like a baseball bat hitting your leg, makes you want to puke if you're not used to it.