As a martial arts instructor, one of the things that “keeps me up at night” is making sure that what and how I am teaching gives my students a real fighting chance in a violent encounter.

I have known people in other martial arts that trained for years and attained high rank who had their asses handed to them when they were finally confronted with violence.  That worries me.  It makes me think about exactly what I am teaching and how.  I think about it all the time.  I think about each and every technique, and how we approach it.  I think about how I train people to do it.  I think about their ability to actually pull it off.

I also know that I have to be brutally honest to my students – sometimes to the detriment of membership.  I tell them that years of Jujitsu training will give them no guarantee that you can defend yourself in a real attack.  I can tell them that the knowledge and training will give them a much better chance of surviving than they had before training in self defense, but I cannot tell them what they – the individual – will or will not actually do in a violent attack.  I also repetitively tell them that taking on a group of thugs in a multiple attack situation is Saturday afternoon martial arts movie fiction. Mostly I tell them to avoid and evade.  But I feel I have to tell them this, because media, movies, magazines lead them to think that the martial arts make you superman.  And boy – from someone who has been in a few altercations – I can tell  you it just isnt so.  Yes – techniques will give you a better chance, but it is truly exhausting work, and a gamble at best.

So – with this being some of my main concerns – I am awfully worried about the training that is available and popular.  I am afraid that those lookiing to learn how to actually defend themselves from a violent attack may take up training methods that will get them hurt or worse. There are pure tradition arts that set up unrealistic kata for their students to practice.  They may even have attack and defense scenarios.  The problem is – nobody ever questions the scenarios.  Do they even happen?  Do they happen in that manner?  If they do – how violent and forceful are they?  There are competition based arts that show you how to score points, or cause someone to submit to a technique.  They too set up unrealistic situations for which many hours of training are spent, and students develop a false sense of ability based on their competative success.

Where the issue lies with these situations is that students are taught responses to things that rarely if ever happen in a violent attack.  I am not talking about a fight in a ring, or a match on mats, or an ego-filled fist fight.  What I am talking about is a gun to the back at the ATM machine, or someone who gets into your car at a stoplight and puts a gun to the side of your head, or a crazed person who walks into a convenience store and begins to stab people, or someone who enters your home and attempts to assault you, or the couple of gang bangers who corner you at the garage elevator.  These are the things that happen, and these are the things a real self defense school teach you to respond to.

More than just giving you a response however, is the need for the school to allow you to test the theories they propose.  After some training – I make sure that students have to respond to unplanned self defense situations.  “Attackers” can attack in any manner with any weapon and the student has to respond appropriately.  For more advanced students we do this in many terrains – on a trail, in the woods, in a pool, on a beach, in a park, in a parking lot, in a small room, in a car.  This is necessary for competent self defense skills.

More than that – I as the instructor have to let go of ego – and challenge my advanced students to challenge me, the teaching methods and the techniques themselves.  I have to research, read accounts of attacks, watch videos of attacks, and interview people who have been attacked to keep up to date on what is really happening out there.  It is my job!

So – in conclusion, I say – “Let’s Not Lose Our Way!”  No matter how cool the fancy multiple move technique is, no matter how cool the newest grappling move is, no matter what flashy knife fighting technique comes down the pike – dont lose your way.  Self defense demands hard training on proven techniques, appropriate for your situation, against well researched and forceful attacks, that allow the practitioner to escape the violent encounter, or protect others from it.