Can You Learn to Protect Yourself From An Attack Without Spending Years Studying Martial Arts?
People often automatically assume that they must train for years in martial arts in order to learn to defend themselves against an attacker.
But is that true?
No. It’s not.
I know this from first hand experience.
I spent 15 years training in and teaching a variety of martial arts.
But, when it comes to teaching personal safety and self-defense, to individuals, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies for over 10 years, I’ve taught them something very different.
Here’s why…
MARTIAL ARTS
At its core (and yes, I know that there are differences between the different disciplines), martial arts is a blend of tradition and sport.
In America, the martial arts business model and marketing is geared towards parents of younger children. Studying martial arts teaches children to focus and to listen better. It also teaches them discipline, respect, coordination, and how to stop a schoolyard bully.
Is martial arts successful at these core missions?
Yes. Definitely.
I started my son in martial arts when he was 4 1/2 years of age precisely for those reasons.
He learned all of those skillsets, plus the invaluable life lesson that keeping on when faced with a difficult challenge is critical to learning the power of perseverance.
But did all of the years he trained in, and also taught, martial arts teaching him how to protect himself from an attacker?
Kinda. Sorta. Maybe.
The most effective self-defense that you learn when studying martial arts is at the beginning of your training.
But, as you progress you start learning more complicated techniques (progressing students through belt levels is a good way to keep them attending for the long haul). And those complicated techniques are not valuable when it comes to self-defense.
And often, you stop practicing the basic stuff which might work.
Why? Because complicated doesn’t work. They may look cool. And they may require expertise.
But under the stress of an attack, the less complicated the better.
And, most martial arts do not teach you how to defend against a weapon until you’ve trained to a pretty advanced level.
Many attacks include weapons, so you’re kinda S.O.L if you face that type of an attack during the earlier years of training.
Which brings up the final point about martial arts. It takes years of training, not weeks, to be able to protect yourself.
PERSONAL SAFETY AND SELF-DEFENSE
Personal safety focuses on avoiding an attack, and de-escalating aggressive behavior BEFORE an attack is launched.
And self-defense focuses not on fighting, but on lessening your risk of being hurt by creating an opportunity to exit. That's a very different goal.
As a result, with personal safety and self-defense, the overall concept is to LIMIT ENGAGEMENT with someone who is a threat to your safety to as little as possible.
The longer you engage with someone trying to harm you, the more likely it is they will succeed.
So, the safest thing you can do, is to create an opening to exit quickly, BEFORE you engage for any length of time.
So quick and simple is the rule. Not the exception.
In addition, the self-defense I teach, was literally designed to be used by women and men, who literally had a very short period of time to train (they were being trained to infiltrate nazi lines to work with local resistance groups to sabotage infrastructure. And they had to cache their weapons since those would give them away). So perfecting techniques was not their focus.
The self-defense that I teach uses simple strikes (palm strikes, hammer fist, elbows, and knees). Those types of techniques do not require months or training to learn to do. You can be proficient at them in weeks.
Further, they’re designed to be used up close. Because when an attack is launched, the attacker is right there so that he can contact you.
I’ve got a free on-demand video training for personal safety and self-defense. You can watch and learn at any time by signing in below.
