Why Learn Self Defense?

[AdventureMarc]

Why learn personal defensive tactics (self-defense)? Because learning methods of protecting oneself should be a Basic Life Skill. Like knowing how to swim for one’s personal safety, it is something every person should learn.

Modern Basic Life skills, like knowing how to brush your teeth, iron your clothes, cook a meal, read a map, drive a car, etc. are assumed to be necessary skills everyone should learn. This is because the average person in the modern world needs these skills to survive and thrive in our society. Since there is a 1 in 3 chance a woman will be assaulted in her lifetime, and a 1 in 5 chance a man will be assaulted during his lifetime, then learning basic techniques to protect oneself is within the very definition of a necessary life skill.

Many people look at the term “self-defense” and somehow interpret those words as really meaning “Ninja Assassin Training”. They believe self-defense is some kind of “fight” training, like boxing, wrestling or martial arts. Men often visualize fighting for their “honor” in some way, i.e. fighting another man that has insulted him or his wife. Women often visualize fighting off potential “muggers” that want their purse, by using kicks, strikes, groin strikes, etc. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. Real self-defense training is not fight training. In the real world, a violent assault is far, far different than a “fight”. Therefore self defense training is not anything like martial arts, boxing, jiujitsu, MMA, etc.

Modern Fighting/Martial Arts/MMA styles are “Sport” fighting. They have rules, they have judges who can approve or disapprove of techniques, they have moral and legal constraints on what can and cannot be done. There are very clear and distinct parameters by which participants in these sports abide by, such as weight classes and what determines a winner or loser. This is by it’s very nature, contrived and controlled. Sport fighting is defined by humans and humans have agreed to these rules. Violent assault is NONE of these things. The only rules violent assault follows are the rules of physics, and true self defense follows those rules as well.
A real world assault is not a fight in virtually any sense of the word. In the real world, assaults are rarely from the front of the victim (most often victims are attacked from behind), being more of an ambush than a fight. The assaults are never static, meaning that the assaulter is pushing, pulling, lifting or driving the victim to the ground. He is ALWAYS much bigger, stronger, and faster than the victim. He is usually armed. He is usually not alone. It is never a fight. The assaulter has no interest in fighting his victim. If he thinks that a fight is even possible, he will bring more people with him to assist in the attack. Or he will bring weapons. Or both. It is NEVER a fight. It is never fair. A real world assault is structured in a way that if the victim fights in the traditional sense, the victim will virtually always lose. The violent assaulter is not looking for a fair situation, he is looking for or to create situations where he has the upper hand. Thus, he will ambush, he will surprise, he will use any tool/weapon/extra person/circumstance to increase his odds of success.

While any training is better than no training, most people seem to sense that systems like traditional martial arts, sport fighting, etc. do not contain much of a reality-based self-defense component. In the real world, self-defense will train you to PREVENT being kidnapped, physically assaulted, or sexually assaulted. Self-defense protects you from losing something you are NEVER willing to give: your life. Self-defense training keeps you alive in the case of a real world assault. Losing or giving away personal property is an acceptable loss. These things are replaceable, and not worth losing one’s life over.

True Self-Defense techniques are twofold. First and foremost, gaining awareness: simply learning how to become more tactically aware of dangerous situations and how to use posture, voice, stride, eye contact, etc. to reduce the possibility of becoming a victim. Prevention is the best medicine! Second, learning actual physical techniques that are strength and size neutral, giving the trainee a better chance of escaping, evading and surviving an assault.

Good personal self-defense training does not depend on strength or speed. It is strength and size neutral, focusing on “anatomical advantage” (a method that puts an attacker at a physical disadvantage regardless of strength) and “the element of surprise”. This means that high quality self-defense training educates trainees on a method to escape, evade and survive a violent encounter using techniques that will work no matter how much stronger or faster the assailant may be.

When we assume that the assailant is much bigger and stronger, most regular “fighting” strikes will be mostly ineffective. Most people understand this concept as common sense. For example, in “fighting/combat sports” like boxing or MMA, heavyweight champions are not allowed to fight lightweight champions. Even though they are equal in skill, physics dictates that the heavyweight has an insurmountable advantage. The rules in these Sport Fighting styles have been created to allow for competition, equally matching competitors so that they are judged on their skills and athleticism. In the real world, there are no such rules, only the rules of physics. On the street, when one’s life is at stake, whatever technique that works fastest and most efficiently is better than one that looks pretty and shows off one’s athleticism.

Skilled self-defense instructors also understand this and would never teach techniques that would require striking and kicking that matches equally the strength and size of an assailant. These strikes & kicks also take guidance, accuracy and lots of practice to properly employ. But when we look outside the rules of these “Sport Fighting” styles (i.e. No eye gouging), we can see there are many, many techniques that require no strength, no specialized strikes and kicks and can still improve the outcome of an assault. The rules of physics can apply in a beneficial way to equalize injuries to human beings. The same force applied to slap and injure a human eye can be applied by a very skilled martial arts technique, or by accident when playing with a small child. Self defense takes these rules of physics and applies them to our knowledge of anatomy. No matter how much someone gains strength and size, their eyes are still incredibly fragile and important for perception. The eyes and self defense techniques that target the eyes are a strength and size neutral technique.
But knowledge of anatomy alone is not enough. Of all the misconceptions out there regarding self defense techniques, the “groin strike” may be the most valid. Incredibly, many people that are exposed to movies and television are led to believe that it is quite easy to resist a physical attack by a large male. All one has to do is strike the man in the groin and he will be totally disabled. In reality, this is not the case.

It is extremely difficult to strike a man in the groin. Men instinctively, reflexively, protect their groin via years and years of evolution. Further, direct frontal strikes to a man’s groin are not particularly painful and do nothing to disable an attacker. Finally, most attackers attack from behind, are moving quickly in a pushing or pulling fashion, and are wearing clothing including long coats, etc., which can make groin strikes very difficult to employ. Reasonably, after knowing that 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men are successfully assaulted, does anyone believe these victims simply forgot to strike the attacker in the groin? It makes no sense.

Of course, movies and television also often depict victims kicking men through the air ten feet or through plate glass windows or jumping on their shoulders and whipping them to the ground using their legs and body weight. This also grossly misrepresents reality and can mislead people into believing this type of thing can be accomplished in the real world, which of course, it cannot.

Finally, self defense training must be realistic in how and when it it is applied for the average person. When people see training that is based only on strikes and “fighting skills”, it often does not resonate as being useful everyday. The average person with self defense training will be using awareness to find ways to escape, evade and survive assaults 10 times more in their everyday life than actually using the physical techniques. Additionally that same awareness will benefit them in being able to see other things in their everyday lives.

Even with personal self-defense training, nothing guarantees a good outcome. Empowering oneself with these life skills increase the chances of evading and escaping violence, but nothing works all the time in every situation. Wearing sunblock is not a guarantee against skin cancer, but we use it to give ourselves the best chance at preventing skin cancer. Personal self- defense skills are much the same.

• This topic was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by AdventureMarc.

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