Self Defence

Another one of my bugbears .......................

Martial Arts are for self defence.....

Course they are not. Martial Arts are there to kill the other person.

You may practice them for self defence, but that is not what they are there for.

I recently watched a stick fighting video by a prominant Japanese master. He had a hanbo (3ft stick), uke had a knife. The master said not to attack first as uke can catch the stick and thrust with the blade, so you wait until uke thrusts with the blade and you strike with the stick.

But if Uke has the same opinion ( and you would like to think he did) then the two of them would circle each other for hours waiting till someone attacked! unsure.gif

To many instructors teach their students to defend, forgetting to teach them how to attack.

Although we often us uke as a practice model to ensure we are able to study our kihon, surely training shuold encompass how you attack without putting yourself at risk of counterattack.

Watch some idiots fighting in the street. One will be really agressive and offensive and attack, the minute his opponent drops into a defensive posture, so does the attacker and they mill around trying to figre out who to hit each other without getting countered.

whew....got that off my chest LOL

Merlyn

totaly mate .
we teach the pre emtive strike , and the timing and phycological skills needed .
people have a strange idea of what self defence really is , especially instructors that spend their life in a chuffing dojo teaching theory , know i am a theorist , and love studying my theory , but also (even know) work the door most weekend , (3 nights this week) i have already had 4 confrontations this week .
and had to choke out one guy .
yep thats right not for theory or practice .
the stuff i teach , i use , for real .
self defence is a dodgy subject , the word defence does cunjor up a picture of a damsles in distress , which would phycoloigically give you a dis advantage .
i love my arts , they are my life , i love kata and learning long drawn out techniques , but i really do know what reality is , and the truth of it .
people need to understand the massive difference between art and suvival .
and many will dis agree , as i have said before , i know i'm safe , and have tried and tested it , in the ring with a ref and on the street when my life really has depended on it .
sometimes that white gi is a big cop out and a way to hide from it all ( no dis respect meant ).
life is safe and sound in the dojo , surounded by rules .
sadly there are no rules or ref's when some toss pot has randomly jumped you from behind and want to beat ya mobile phone out of you .
or for a lady the risk is higher .
it is easy to stay in a comfort zone (dojo) and teach ideals, and a clinical way to dis arm or disable an attack , trust me it's worlds away from the harsh reality of ramming some c*nts head into the wall to stop him glassing his girlfriend because the stupid little toss pot cant hold his drink .sound harsh ........well it is

very true mate i feel all enlightend myself now .
ho hum , going to teach till 10pm then on the door till 4 am .
cheers
matt

I have never and will never use my martial arts as anything other then a self defense.

I have nothing against striking first. We have several styles of defense in our Dojo.

sen no sen
sen sen no sen
go no sen

They mean, in layman's terms "Attack after having been attacked", ie block and counter punch. "Attack during an attack" ie evade and counter before the opponent's attack has finished, and "Attack when mentally attacked". That last one is the hardest to judge and yet the most effective.

Basically, if I see that another person IS going to attack me, if I can tell from their eyes or stance or some other body language, they've already attacked me, and I have no problem hitting them before they can hit me. Obviously this is difficult to judge for an outsider, and also difficult without years of training with people who are trying to hit you.

However, all of this is self defense. Just because you attack doesn't mean you're not defending yourself.

Secondly, Martial arts are NOT there to kill the other person, at least not in this day and age. They are there to get you out of the situation that you're in. What I mean is, they are there to get you to a point where the opponent can't hurt you anymore.

Now I agree that some of these arts have been developed to kill, as mine is one of them. An Okinawan farmer with no weapons basically had to kill or maim his opponent who would have been a Japanese warrior with a weapon with one attack. The point is, they HAD to kill to survive.

If some drunk fool comes up to me on the street and starts a fight, I can guarantee that I wouldn't have to kill him to get out of the situation, as I've been in that situation multiple times. The easiest way, if it comes to physical violence, is let them attack you and move. Half the time, they just fall over anyways.

To bring these thoughts together, the point is to use THE MINIMUM amount of force required to get you out of the situation. Otherwise, it is likely the law will cease to be on your side.

All of this aside, the greatest defense is a sense of humor, and the ability to avoid these situations all together. More then once, by telling a joke, or buying someone a cheap drink, I've avoided a situation where I would have had to hurt someone.

A true martial artist never looks for a fight, does all that is possible to avoid it, and when the time comes to defend his/herself, does it swiftly, precisely and with no more force then is needed. That is the true challenge of defending yourself. Anyone can beat someone else's skull in. Only a few can hit them once, and remove themselves from the situation while leaving the other unable to attack, but not badly hurt.


** Edited for clarity.

mortron