You sprint through the tress, knowing that every second your pursuer is gaining on you.  You know you must do something drastic, fast, or you'll die running away, a coward.
You turn around, and brace yourself.  Feet planted firmly on the ground.  It takes all your courage to do so, but you charge at your opponent.  The last thing you see is him nimbly jumping around you... and then the respawn screen.  What did you do wrong?  How can you step up your game next time?

PVP Tips
PVP.  We all know about it.  We all have memories of it, good and bad.  
PVP stands for player versus player.  It's one of the simplest activities in Minecraft, or most other games for that matter.  In a brief summary, you face off against an opponent, and you fight, or do some other game/activity.  It's pretty simple really.
 Then it gets more complicated.  Countless PVP games and plug-ins have been created for Minecraft over the years.  Hunger games, battle dome, skywars, kit pvp, and much, much more.  The purpose of this blog is to help you with a normal fight.
Strategies
You've probably heard many of these strategies before, so hopefully you learn something new.  Now, let's get started.

1. Knowing your gear.  In order to be successful at PVP, you must know which gear is the best, and which is better left in that chest.  (Hooray for rhyming!)  We'll start with armor.  In order from worst to best the different kind of armors are; leather, gold, chain, iron, diamond.  Full iron armor is usually the best you can get in a PVP.  Whenever you reach a chest make sure nobody's hunting you, then switch out your armor if you need to.  There are also weapons.  The order for weapons (worst to best) is; wood axe, gold axe, stone axe, gold sword, wood sword, iron axe, stone sword, diamond axe, iron sword, diamond sword.  Weapons should say how much damage they do, so you can just go by that.
   
2. Arranging your hotbar.  A well organized hotbar is key to a successful PVP match.  I'd suggest having your best weapon, a bow, (if you have one) some food, and any other items that would assist you in combat (TNT, cobweb, lava, etc.)  If you don't already, it would probavly be beneficial to start switching items with the scroll bar, instead of the number keys.  This lets you whip out your sword quicker, and you still have your hands free to run around.
   
3. Juking.  Finally, an actual strategy.  Juking is a rather simple concept, but can be very challenging to master.  When you and another person are charging at eachother, try to slip by them so you're hitting them from the back.  They can't hit you if you're behind them, so even if they turn around, you've got the obvious advantage.
   
4. Running :D.  Not the most courageous of strategies, but at least it will keep you alive.  If you're getting demolished in a fight, you know it's time to run.  Turn your back to your opponent and sprint off.  Sometimes they will hit you again, boosting you away from them.  Run in a straight  line, or they'll be able to take shortcuts toward you.  If you have to turn, start running for a bit, then go back the way you came.  Your opponent will have to turn around and start chasing again.  If you can hide, that's great.  Even better if you can get in a building, wait for them to come in, then ambush them.  Useful tip:  If you're under a block that's right above your head, spam the space bar.  You'll run faster.  Just make sure you don't jump into a tree or something.
   
5. Using a bow.  Bows are extremely useful in PVP.  If you let an army of arrows fly at your opponent before charging them, the damage will really add up.  However, if you're not a sniper, it'd be good to practice.  It can be good to go on a superflat world, put a ton of spawners around, and then snipe the animals.  Or you could download an archery map, or play some minigames that are based around archery like Turf Wars.  Get a feel for the bows physics and gravity, and before long, a bow will be a key part of your arsenal.
   
6. Common sense.  This is a huge part of PVP or any other game.  You need to know when to run, when to charge, when to open a chest etc.  Say you see someone in a chest.  Even if they have some better armor than you, you can ambush them, and usually come out at least alive.  Also, if you someone with full irno armor and a diamond sword, when you have gold and a stone sword, it's best not to risk it.  As you do more PVP, you'll do these  things aoutomatically, and be able to win your games.
   

Well there you have it, PVP Tips.  I hope you enjoyed.  If you did, feedback and a diamond are greatly appreciated.  Happy PVPing!

-Jermiik