Self Defense Should Train You For Self Reliance.

Does Your Approach To Self Protection Make The World A Better Place?

The martial arts are full of zchools and training programs tht promise to train you to defend yourself.


On examiningthem cosely you'll find thatnost fall veryshort oftheirpromise.

Keeping It Simple.

Why is it important to keep self defense training simple. Well for starters self defense training should be synonymous with simplicity for the reason that in any high stress situation you'll want to revert back to the easiest options available to you. When in a high stress situation the more decisions you'll have to make, the less effective and efficient you will be at making them. Not to mention your body will naturally go into a state where gross motor movements will be easier to execute when stress hormones kick in.

So how do you best go about keeping things simple?

Practice high percentage moves that apply to many different attacks.

By practicing a few techniques that employ gross motor skills and apply if the attacker is grabbing you or punching you, you greatly increase your odds of successfully pulling those moves off when under high stress.

Here's a great idea for creating a moving target bag.

Never Risk Your Balance For Technique

One of the most critical aspects of effective self defense is maintaining balance.

This is essential for everything from being able to generate force to staying on your feet so you can control distance or get away if you have to.

It's important to train with this in mind. You should never sacrifice your balance for technique. because of the chaotic nature of violence, you might be put in a situation where you'll need to get away as fast as possible and placing a more important role on technique than balance can unneccessarily place you in danger of being taken down or taken off balance where your power or ability to run might be sacrificed.

Practicing maintaining balance in a hostile setting be it through Judo training or just trying to stay on your feet while a group tries to throw you down are both very useful training methods that will take you a long way.

Remember, you should never sacrifice your balance for technique. Balance should always come first.

The True Purpose Of Self Defense Training; Living In Peace...

When thinking about self defense and personal protection I think it's important to be really clear on what your objectives are.

Too often we attempt to rationalize that we will have to develop the mind set to expode in a rage to take out a violent attacker without first breaking down and analyzing what we are really after and what the likelyhood of certain events is as well as the awareness necessary to often avoid those events.

Personally, I feel that inner peace is the formost priority on my mind.
I therefore do everything in my power to become a force for peace by taking an objective look at my surroundings and especially situations that arise.
If ever involved in an emotional situation I find it's best always to not get emotionally involved in the situation and try to maintain a calm but strong demeanor.
This is especially true early on in an altercation and serves to de-escalate or prevent the situation from escalating.
By refusing to take an emotional part in an altercation you can be the stronger force.

Keep in mind that violence rarely occurs spontaneously and usually has a build up, the only real exception to this is is you are ambushed which is very rare and can usually be pre-empted if you keep a strong awareness of your surroundings.

It's important to also write out a checklist of what a self defense altercation will look like.

Anything you can walk away from is NOT self defense.
In other words, If you can walk away from the situation then any violence that transpires, you are taking part in and NOT defending yourself in the eyes of the law.

A self defense situation is one where you truly have no choice but to be violent against someone in order to protect your physical safety, that violence can only be enough to stop the violence from the other party, that is to say, when the other person is no longer capable of inflicting damage, you have to do your best to get out of the situation or alert authorities. Anything else can be seen by the eyes of the law as you assaulting someone else.

I think anyone thinking about complete self defense needs to think about these factors and develop the inner qualities necessary in self protection, and that has alot more to deal with then just fighting mindset.

Misconceptions On RBSD, Part 2

On Ultimate Techniques;

Eye gouging, although a sound and effective strategy in RBSD is an often misunderstood tactic by many martial artists and critics alike.
I've heard it said numerous times that this is an overated attack for self defense and that because it can't be fully practiced, it's effectiveness is questionable.

In reality, it's effectiveness can easily be proven.

If you look at MMA events, one of the most common fouls, that result in a fighter being penalized and a fight being called in time out so the hurt fighter can be checked out is very commonly because of an accidental eye gouge.
Regardless of skill and toughness, a finger to the eye results in a fighter being momentarily incapacitated.
So much so that he is given time to recuperate because of the unfair advantage his opponent would have without him being able to see clearly.

This is mostly not the result of an eye gouge but the result of fingers slighly poking the eyes.

AM I saying that this is a be all end all technique?, Absolutely not!

What I am saying though is that its' proven effectiveness at distracting and providing an unfair advantage can't be denied.

The majority of realistic self defense practitioners would easily understand that the eye gouge is used to set up something more devastating or as a distraction to enable someone to escape and get away.

Again, there are practical and effective tools, not undefeatable tactics and that everything is used as a part of a combination. There are no ultimate tools.
They're all dependent on the situation, as well they are to be used as a part of a greater whole.

It's important to make the distinction between the false notion of individual responses to common attacks that some RBSD systems may be guilty of but the most effective ones know better.
The majority of RBSD systems espouse tactics that can be used in a majority of situations.

In other words yes look at what the majority of attacks might involve so you can prepare for the most common and most dangerous attacks however train tactics which apply to many attacks.

This is how you can realistically apply tools and not buy into undefeatable techniques.