It's not about fighting
Please read this disclaimer before reading this post.
I'm very serious here. I'm talking life and death stuff. And fighting isn't life and death.
Drunks, boxers, and kickboxers fight. (But drunks don't do it very well. Temporary loss of coordination and judgment will do that.)
Soldiers aren't trained to fight, though we may use the word in a sloppy verbal shorthand. They're trained to kill.
Cops aren't trained to fight, though they will become involved in physical altercations with people who don't want to tickle them. They're trained to subdue.
I'm not interested in any of that, except for the lessons that can be learned from how they do it.
What I am interested in is surviving an encounter that for all I know could leave me dead.
That's what self defense is about. Survival.
And this is how you do it.
You avoid situations where someone wants to hurt you. If you can't, you talk your way out. If you can't, you decide what course of action will give you the best shot at survival and take it.
You may decide that resistance will likely get you killed. So you choose to do what your assailant wants you to do. There is no shame in that. Anyone who criticizes your choice is a fool.
You may decide that even going along with your assailant's wishes will get you killed. So you choose the appropriate moment and run. If a moment doesn't present itself, you make one. Whatever you do, you do not stand and trade blows. Ever. That's how you get dead. You run. If you can't run because your escape route is blocked or you're being held or you're being attacked, you immobilize your assailant and then you run. Immobilization isn't complicated. Take their mobility, their breath or their vision and they cannot chase you.
If that's what you have to do, that's how you have to train.
Which is why it annoys you when someone, upon finding out you 'know karate' raises their fists and maybe even throws a half-hearted punch or kick at you. Because now you have to bite back your training so that this person doesn't annoy you further by screaming in pain.
I'm very serious here. I'm talking life and death stuff. And fighting isn't life and death.
Drunks, boxers, and kickboxers fight. (But drunks don't do it very well. Temporary loss of coordination and judgment will do that.)
Soldiers aren't trained to fight, though we may use the word in a sloppy verbal shorthand. They're trained to kill.
Cops aren't trained to fight, though they will become involved in physical altercations with people who don't want to tickle them. They're trained to subdue.
I'm not interested in any of that, except for the lessons that can be learned from how they do it.
What I am interested in is surviving an encounter that for all I know could leave me dead.
That's what self defense is about. Survival.
And this is how you do it.
You avoid situations where someone wants to hurt you. If you can't, you talk your way out. If you can't, you decide what course of action will give you the best shot at survival and take it.
You may decide that resistance will likely get you killed. So you choose to do what your assailant wants you to do. There is no shame in that. Anyone who criticizes your choice is a fool.
You may decide that even going along with your assailant's wishes will get you killed. So you choose the appropriate moment and run. If a moment doesn't present itself, you make one. Whatever you do, you do not stand and trade blows. Ever. That's how you get dead. You run. If you can't run because your escape route is blocked or you're being held or you're being attacked, you immobilize your assailant and then you run. Immobilization isn't complicated. Take their mobility, their breath or their vision and they cannot chase you.
If that's what you have to do, that's how you have to train.
Which is why it annoys you when someone, upon finding out you 'know karate' raises their fists and maybe even throws a half-hearted punch or kick at you. Because now you have to bite back your training so that this person doesn't annoy you further by screaming in pain.
