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.

An Article about Krav Maga

Krav Maga For Self Defense

If you are debating on a style of martial arts to choose that best suits your needs, then you might want to check out Krav Maga. I have personally tried a number of different styles of martial arts and I do have to say that this is probably the best place to start.

If you are looking to get into martial arts for sport, style or fines then I would say that Krav Maga is not for you. Bottom line this is a no BS self-defense system. It is the official self-defense system of the Israeli Special Forces and has been taught U.S. law enforcement officers, U.S. military special forces and thousands of civilians across the country.

Krav Maga pulls out all of the body movements that traditional martial arts would instill into you from day one. Krav Maga actually only uses moves that are practical and are extremely easy to learn and remember. In my opinion this makes Krav Maga the best self-defense system for anyone beginners to experienced martial artist.

Remember Krav Maga is not a martial art it is a self-defense system. Krav Maga actually teaches you with practical scenarios and exhausting stress drills how to react to real world situations that you might find yourself in on the street. The method of stress drills that are used are actually quite impressive. I've been involved in 3 styles of Karate, 2 styles of Kung-Fu, and also a little Brazilian Jujitsu, I also dabbled in Tai-Chi for a little while and I feel that this is the most effective teaching system that I have come across.

The main problem with all the martial arts that I have been a part of, is that they are very hard to learn and remember when you are in a real world situation. Regular martial arts takes years and years to even see an improvement and that's with constant training and practice. Krav Maga was designed for people that didn't have a lot of time to train and practice. It was also designed to be very easy to learn and remember.

So, when your doing your research on self-defense don't rule out Krav Maga.

By Josh Whitney

Want to get a head start in learning Krav Maga? click on the links and pictures below

Click the Picture below or here to learn more about Krav Maga and see self-defense expert's & student's opinion & testimonials on their experiance learning Krav Maga. 

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Women & Children Friendly

Experience for yourself too and find out how it would change your mindset about street security  & street awareness. People's life has been changed, they stay fit, healthy, stronger, more aware and most important of it all, SAFER.
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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!

Street Fight Zero Rules

What is going through your head right now?

Imagine yourself were forced in to this situation right now, what are things that are going through your mind? What are the noises you hear in your head, was it the aggressor yelling and screaming? or was it drowned by the noises of your own thoughts? Can you think fast enough to handle such situation or are your legs shivering that you couldn't even move an inch? Who's faces are you seeing at that moment, was it the aggressor with the weapon? or was it the faces of your loved ones?

Those are floods of emotions and questions you will feel upon the split seconds of you realizing that your life is being threatened. Some of you may have many years of Martial Arts on your belt and may think your way to diffuse the situation and......BANG! all the hard training & the emotions all gone in an instant.

In your eyes and in your heart are telling the aggressor that you "are going to Kung Fu your way out of this situation" and that is all the aggressor needs to pull the trigger on you.

STREET FIGHT ZERO RULES

Street Fight Zero Rules is a blog that will beat you with information into understanding the core reality of a Street Fight scenarios that may occurs anywhere and anytime, often times unprepared. Providing you important and straight-forward information on staying safe. We want YOU to be more aware of your surroundings, how situations developed into violence, and how to handle a serious confrontation when you have no other choice. No more of the 'i know kung fu to protect myself' that the misconception that Hollywood placed into us. Often times I come across Martial Arts or Self Defense schools that taught about the great techniques available, however it was at a safe environment and was not trained to handle real unexpected dangers.

Street Fight Zero Rules one goal is to bring an awareness of Self-defense Self-respect, all for the sole purpose of going back home to their love ones.