Am i well prepared to defend myself by taking Martial Arts/Self Defense courses? NO!!!

Would you know what to do?

A colleague of mine asked me if they learn a few tricks in Martial Arts/ Self defense classes would prepare them enough to defend themselves against any assailant? My answer is always  "well...that depends but mostly NO!"

In all of my previous blogs I've always stressed the importance of the teaching syllabus & the importance of learning from the right instructors. However by having those is only half of the equation, the other half is of course............

Obviously YOU!!!!! 

Think of this as if you are learning how to cook for the first time. A 1 1/2 hour session is not going to prepare you to make the perfect spaghetti bolognese. You need to practice & practice, trial & error, study the flavors. You need to learn the cooking techniques and timing, sometimes even looking at ethnicity styles of all the above. And above all else Learn some more. Then with all the understanding will you be able to have the confidence to even start serving this to the public.

That goes the same for learning Martial Arts/Self Defense courses.
Ever heard of the term....

(Amongst many other Martial Arts)

"Martial Arts is the way of Life"

Surprisingly not many actually understood the meaning of the above. Some may confuse it to be a new "mystical life" they are entering. Which to some may devote their entirety of their life in pursuing the meaning behind it. Strictly my opinion it is essentially a commentary of yourself and your everyday 'way of life'. If you slack on your training, chances are you are slacking on other activities you say you would do. like.....going to the gym to loose weight.

You do what you do, you put the effort into perfecting your craft, you follow through with your heart or through rationale mind thinking. You do the things you say you will do or you are just a slacker are all reflected in the way you train in your Martial Arts/Self Defense...or any other craft.

"How you do anything is how you do everything" - T.Harv Eker

So if you learn a technique to defend yourself and not review it and practice it and going through trial and error, chances are a 1 1/2hour course on escaping from chokes is not going to prepare you for someone with a knife. 

So to followup on more useful tips which i think maybe useful to my colluges to prepare themself of a situation is to understand the importance of the vital points or specifically where its going to hurt the attackers when you try to escape an attack.

*Disclaimer - the video below is just for educational purposes in understanding human anatomy. The information is for to be used on SELF DEFENSE purposes only. By no means should anyone purposefully strike these weak points other than to escape life threatening assailants/attacks. No one (me included) will take responsible of any legal damages other than the person doing the strikes.*

Take the info above as you will. Understanding such fundamentals can help in situation in many tense situations. So with constant reviewing, practices trial and error and gain as much common sense knowledge as possible, then that will answer the question whether you will be well prepared to defend yourself on the streets.............. Maybe.

Martial Arts - in Street Fight Situations

Now don't get me wrong, Martial Arts are fantastic. I personally am trained with a number of other various styles of Martial Arts of different cultures.  However often times we tend to see the one-sided patriotism and egos coming from practitioners believing their styles is stronger or better than others. Of course this is not the fault of the practitioners because it comes down to the history/origin of where the Martial Arts came from and for what purpose during that time. So early practitioners are trained through a specific teaching methods for their specific purposes. Some examples below...

Capoeira - developed to disguised as a dance and designed for the purpose to fight off Portuguese to liberate them-self from slavery
Muay Thai - developed to fight in wars and later become a ceremonial sports for money/fame/glory
Aikido - originated from the killing arts of Japanese Swordsmanship later developed into a non-aggressive art of peace philosophically for self defense.
Wushu - originated with many forms of kung-fu and due to schools rivalry back in history the teaching doctrines revolves around which martial arts school can get the most students by being the Best.

Shows that all Martial Arts styles are trained with various doctrines and philosophy in mind.

Aikido Founder, Morihei Ueshiba

So the question is how they fare in a Street Fight situation? It all depends on the instructors & their teaching methods. Many of the more contemporary schools teaches some self-defense techniques however its only a small portion of their curriculum until they are back to teaching horse-stance/ hitting lifeless targets.

In my opinion what Martial Arts Instructors failed to protect their students from danger is the fact that they maybe teaching some great techniques for self-defense, but they did not teach the importance & understanding the directness of the techniques to get the job done and (god forbid) the importance of running away for their LIFE. Too often people encountered in the situations where they have to THINK back what techniques to use.

Street Fights is not about Karate punches, Animal Wushu forms, or Tae Kwan Do flying kicks. Street Fights is all about pushing, hair pulling, gouging, biting, stabbing and smashing.

Self defense is not a step by step procedures of turning, twisting grabbing then punching, Self Defense is the idea of Self-Respect and instinctively project the intentions by moving without thinking and run for your life

Although different in conception but both share the most important idea.

THE CONCEPT OF SURVIVAL!