How do you know that you are learning self defense? Are there characteristics of a dojo, a teching methodology, a curriculum that can tell you whether or not you are practicing self defense or sport or something else? Kobukai Jujitsu focuses on Self Defense! Read on to learn what it takes to learn real self defense.
The purpose of this article is to give you, the reader, a reality check. Many dojos claim to teach self-defense, but let’s put them up to a simple test to see if that is true.
There are three areas that must be addressed in order to determine if what you practice is self-defense or some other kind of martial art or martial sport. These areas are the Characteristics of Techniques; Characteristics of Training; and what I call “The Reality Check”. Let us look at each one of these deeper.
Characteristics of Techniques
Easy To Learn & Remember
A warning flag should go up in your head if the techniques you are learning seem overly complicated. Self-defense techniques must be easy to learn and quick, or you will not be able to execute them in a real life situation. Look for techniques that are “he does this – and you do this”. If your brain tells you right away – yes that makes sense and wow, that is so simple I should have thought about that on my own – then you are on the right track. You should be able to learn how to execute a technique in 5 minutes or less.
The concepts of the techniques are a distinguishing factor. In a true self-defense system, there are only a handful of concepts. From those concepts spring all techniques. And the concepts flow together. If your techniques try to embrace many concepts, then it is not an integrated system, and your mind will have trouble grasping it all. The same concepts should apply standing as well as on the ground.
Simple to Execute
After you have practiced several techniques for a while – perhaps a few weeks – they should become your natural reaction to the specified attack or attacks. If you can’t remember what to do when someone puts you in a side headlock (for instance), or you know a few components of the technique – but cant remember them all – WARNING – the techniques probably don’t make sense, and they are too complicated to execute. As an example – if an attacker throws his arm around your neck and attempts to strangle you from behind – your technique should be something like – grasp his choking arm so he cant choke you, lower your hips a bit, and bow forward throwing him over. This is simple. Doing something like stomp his foot, shuto his groin, put your left hand on his right hand, and your right hand on his elbow – step back and through with your left foot, execute a hammer lock, then………… well – you get the picture. Your attacker will have found 3 other ways to kick your ass by then.
Works Against Most Opponents
Your simply learned, easily remembered, quickly executed techniques have to work! And they have to work on almost everyone. Now – I am not going to extremes on either end of this “almost everyone” scale. So I will tell you – there won’t be much that will work well on a dwarf, or on a 350lb Olympic Wrestler. But – someone within 50 lbs of you – that is another story. You should be able to execute the techniques against attackers of varying size and strength. If many of your techniques are difficult to execute on someone stronger and bigger than you – you are in DEEP DOO DOO, because 90% of your potential attackers will be bigger and stronger than you. A self-defense technique is fairly useless if you can’t use it to defend yourself.
Works Against Most Attacks in Most Positions
Your self-defense system needs to provide answers to most of the attacks an opponent can come up with. Now that is not an infinite number of attacks – there are only so many ways to attack someone. The list should be self-evident and make sense. Common attacks are: punches, kicks, tackles, front and rear chokes, rear strangles, lapel grabs, wrist grabs, arm grabs, front hugs, rear hugs, full nelsons, front headlocks, side headlocks, pushes, pulls; fighting on the ground – someone on your chest, someone on your back, you on your back with them standing, knife attacks, club attacks, and handgun attacks. There are a few others, but you get the idea. If you find yourself asking, “what if the attacker does this or that?”, the old warning flag should go up again. Now give it a few months – perhaps even 6 months of training before you expect to have answers to most of the common attacks. But, if you are really concerned that something might not be covered – ask the instructor to show you the answer (on someone more trained than you) just to make sure there is one. And make sure you are attacked from all directions and in all positions – jammed in a corner, pressed up against a wall, standing, kneeling, on the ground, etc. Also – be wary of techniques that have you striking the opponent four or five times while he stands there frozen allowing you to strike him. Ummm – well, lets just call that unlikely.
Adaptable to Changing Situations
A real attack can change quickly. Your attacker is not necessarily a drooling idiot. He or she may very well be a tough, street-smart attacker, or a boxer, or a wrestler, or another martial artist. As you react to the initial attack, the attacker is probably going to change his attack in reaction to your reaction. Get ready for a scuffle. A real fight is not clean and fast like in the Saturday afternoon martial art movies. It is going to be messy, dirty, and painful. Your arsenal of techniques must be able to react to quickly changing situations. And you must have fought enough in training so that your mind has developed the ability to change quickly and adapt to the immediate situation. Your attacker may start by punching at your head, but when you attempt to duck and clinch, he may send a barrage of knees to your midsection and then attempt to headlock you to the ground. Well – that was three attacks in 3 seconds – wasn’t it? And you must react to all three with the correct answer. So it had better be simple, fast, and well practiced, or you are in a world of hurt!
Works Against Fully Resisting Opponent
Common sense! Your attacker does not want you to win the fight. He or she does not want you to hurt them – they want to hurt you! It is only common sense that your attacker will resist everything you try to do to him. So you have to be able to do your techniques against fully resisting opponents. At first, as you learn, your partner shouldn’t resist much. By the end of a week’s worth of training on a specific technique however, you should be attempting to execute the technique against someone resisting 90%. I would not suggest that a training partner ever resist 100% during normal practice – because when he does, he is risking having the technique work really, really well, and perhaps injuring him severely. 100% resistance can come during fight practice.
So, you may ask – what does it mean if I can never execute a specific technique against a resisting opponent? More than likely, one of two things is happening. Either the technique isn’t all that good, or you haven’t learned what it takes to apply the technique in reality. Sometimes it is a matter of positioning, sometimes it is a matter of strategy. If the self-defense system you are learning is worth it’s salt, then these two issues can be resolved easily by your instructor.
And speaking of your instructor – can he or she execute the techniques being taught? You had better hope so. Give your instructor a break if he is like 75 years old going up against a 30 year old. But in general – a self-defense instructor (without major injuries) is in his or her prime between the ages of 35 and 60. So, that full array of warning flags should commence waving if you notice that your instructor can’t execute the techniques either.
Characteristics of Training
A Lot of Repetition
The response to an attack has to be fast. Not like Bruce Lee sped-up-movie fast – but fast enough to catch your attacker off guard. Speed comes from familiarity, not from trying to go fast. Speed is relative, and sometimes not even the most important part of the technique. What is important is that your brain unconsciously knows what to do when attacked in a certain way! This unconscious response comes from repetition. Hundreds of repetitions of attack and response are necessary in order for you to respond in a fight. Not just pre-arranged repetition either – you must fight in class so that your brain can “see” attacks in their natural habitat and respond in the middle of the confusion. The only way to make this happen is through repetition.
Training is Uncomfortable – It Hurts!
Yoga and Tai Chi can feel relaxing. Real self-defense is not. Karate sparring can be invigorating. Real self-defense is not. Pre-arranged martial arts techniques done well often make training partners say “hey – lets do that again”. Real self-defense usually makes training partners say “shit – I have to do that again?”
Self-defense, by its nature is painful. The techniques of self-defense cause pain in the joints from twisting them, pain in your neck from choking it, and pain in your body from striking it. But how can you get away from that if you need to know how to execute techniques that will cause pain to an attacker? You can’t. So embrace the pain. As long as you remain uninjured and able to train, pain is just a learning tool. You need to be able to gauge what it takes to execute a technique. Your partner’s tapping will let you know where on that gauge you are.
There is an Air of Danger
Self-defense is not for wimps! Your instructor is not there to make you feel comfortable, listen to your whining, or change the curriculum to suit your needs. If he is experienced (he or she had better be – or you are wasting your time), he knows what you need to know. When you see a technique demonstrated – you often should find your brain screaming at you from inside – “RUN – get out of here – now!”
Sometimes it takes feeling the techniques to appreciate it. After that first time being wrapped up like a pretzel; or feeling like you are being torn apart like a roast chicken; or waking up after a choke asking stupid questions like “has anyone seen my glasses”, or “where is my easy-bake oven”; you might be a little fearful the next time that technique is executed on you. GOOD! Real self-defense is scary.
You realize very quickly the frailty of the human body – namely yours. If you are a strong and muscular person, you quickly realize that, yes in fact, that 130 lb trained woman is kicking your ass – and you can’t stop her. THAT is scary. An Air of Danger should preside in your dojo.
You Have to Apply The Techniques
Many systems teach students how to demonstrate and execute techniques, but not so many teach students how to apply technique. Kata without an actual attacker has no place in real self-defense. Application is a second step in progressing in self-defense. Once you have learned how to execute the technique on a semi-cooperative partner, you have to learn how to make it happen in a fight. You do this by…..ummmm….fighting! It doesn’t always have to be full on – no rules – kick, punch, bite, scratch fighting. You can train just as well some of the times by grappling or responding to unrehearsed “street” attacks. But you WILL eventually have to practice that aforementioned nasty form too. You do not want to be on the phone outside the 7-11 gabbing to your girlfriend when a pistol is put against your back and your wallet is demanded by Crusher Kowalski – and you cannot actually make the defense work on him. That would be a really scary feeling. And as he stands over your body dumping out the pictures of your mom, and throwing your credit cards and condoms away, your life spills out onto the parking lot – and you don’t want to be thinking to yourself “but…but…I thought I could defend myself….why didn’t it work?”.
You Do A Lot of Unrehearsed Self-Defense
One of the best ways to train for self-defense situations is to train in self-defense situations. Your partner puts on some fingerless fight gloves, and proceeds to try to beat you senseless. He doesn’t try to execute self-defense techniques on you – he tries to beat you up. Punches, kicks, chokes, headlocks, wrestles you to the ground – etc. You execute the correct self-defense responses on your partner. If you don’t do it quick enough or effective enough – he changes his attack immediately and tries to get you another way. This is the correct way to train once you have accumulated a decent amount of techniques.
The Reality Check
140 lb Person Has Difficulty Defeating a 240 lb Person
When martial arts like Ju-Jitsu and Judo first came to the U.S., the Americans, in their usual self-promoting manner made statements like, “allows a 110 lb man to defeat a 200lb attacker”. This fallacy was continued over decades and became ingrained in the psyche of the general martial arts community. It has always been the fantasy of the weak that they would find a secret way to beat the strong. But reality often sucks. It is unlikely at best that a person will easily defeat an attacker who weights 60, 80, or 100 lbs more than them in any situation. Physics are simply against them.
In over three decades, I have seen only a handful of these weight inequity scenarios where the small man won. In my own dojo – I have personally been able to defeat an untrained person who weighed more than 60 lbs more than me in a fight. But I have over 3 decades of training! I have seen a man in my dojo, who weighs 150 lbs, able to keep a 200 pounder off him. The 150lb man has trained for two years, the 200 lb man for 4 months. And, of course, we all know about Royce Gracie, who at 170lbs defeated many people over 240lbs. However, again – he has been training to fight for real for several decades. The reality is that without A LOT of training, and training in real fights – your chances of defeating an attacker with significant weight and strength over you will be very difficult to say the least.
You Can Rarely Win a Multiple Attack
And now a mandatory note concerning multiple attacks. Martial Arts teachers are notorious for convincing their students that with a few spinning kicks, and a couple of flips, they can defeat two or three attackers. Unless you are fighting “Timmay” from SouthPark, you are dreaming!
It is already a given that you need to train in special techniques in order to defend yourself against ONE attacker who is bigger and stronger than you. Defending against, or defeating two or three attackers moves into the realm of highly unlikely. It is not to say it cannot be done – but it is unlikely that you will be able to severely hurt one attacker enough that he will be unable to continue to fight, while at the same time avoiding an attack from thug #2, and then coming back to take him out too. If you have any doubts in this statement, I challenge anyone to have two normal sized, normal strength men attack them SIMULTANEOUSLY with full force and win that battle.
You Only Have a 50/50 Chance Against a Weapon
Weapons have been the great equalizers for more than a few hundred thousand years. Ever since a caveman was motivated (by a giant black monolith) to pick up an old femur bone and smash another caveman on the head with it, weapons have been used to allow weaker people to defeat stronger people. Weapons provide an attacker with a significant advantage over you. The human body alone doesn’t have the ability to slash you open, or poke a hole in your head and scramble your brains. But a knife or a gun wielded by a person does. Because of the ability for a gun to fire a piece of lead at supersonic speed into your body, or the microscopically sharp edge of a steel knife to separate your tissues and allow your blood to run out, or a club to increase the applied force per square inch by many times that of a fist as it bludgeons you – your chances of defeating an opponent who wields a weapon is fairly low. Add to this scenario the element of surprise, and the odds are even lower. At this point you might be asking – so why even try for God’s sake? Because you have no other choice – you must win and survive or you will surely die. Survival is a primal motivator within all of us. Specific self-defense training against weapons is necessary.
The characteristics of weapon defense techniques must follow the same rules as mentioned before. They must be easy to learn and remember. They must be easy to execute and very effective. More than that, weapon defense demands one more aspect than unarmed defense. In unarmed self-defense you can avoid a strike and clinch, with a weapon, especially a gun or knife you have to also control the weapon. An attacker can change his weapon from hand to hand and can manipulate it in any direction his wrist and arm bones will allow. All of that must be controlled. SO…when your instructor teaches you a technique, ask yourself “could I simply change hands here?”, or “can I pull my arm away and just shoot him in the head?”. If any of these answers is “yes”, you are in big trouble my friend.
Know that at best, you have about a 50/50 chance of defeating an attacker with a weapon. The percentage is better against a club and decreases significantly as you move to knife and then gun.
Most of all – don’t forget that anything can be a weapon! Many people have been beaten to death with chairs, flower vases, rocks, shovels, baseball bats, chains, wrenches, etc. The concepts of your weapon defenses better work in many situations, or they are not worth the time practicing.
The Potential Attacker Pool Is Trained
In 1930 your chances of being attacked by a person who was anything more than a street thug was very small. At the most, he may have some wrestling experience or some boxing experience. You may have been robbed at the gunpoint of a revolver. But mainly, it was big people beating up small people. If you didn’t hang around the wharfs or seedy bars in New Orleans, you would probably live your life without ever having an altercation with another person.
Welcome to the 21st century! The Americas are violent. But, not THAT violent. Only about 5% of the population will experience a violent attack. Of that percentage, most attacks take place in the home. Most attackers are known to the victim, though women tend to be attacked more by people they know than men. Alcohol is often a contributing factor. Males are most often attacked outside, women inside. Not only that – but a larger and larger portion of the society is training in some martial art or sport. Violence is also becoming a more “acceptable” means of solving conflicts between individuals. You likely will defend yourself against a wrestler, a boxer, a soldier, or a martial artist. Hopefully your self-defense training is geared toward these realities.
Surprise Attacks Are Just That – A Surprise
Here is something you cannot train for. Many attacks come as a total surprise. You may get smacked in the face and be dropped to the ground before you even know you are being attacked. A real attack is not like facing someone in the ring. You rarely get a chance to “face off” with your opponent. You could be defending yourself against an attacker, and his buddy comes along and kicks you in the head while you are wrestling on the ground. More police officers have been shot and stabbed by the wife of the person they are trying to arrest – for beating up on their wife – than you would believe. You must just get yourself mentally prepared for a surprise attack. Know it can happen. Don’t be freaked out by it. Know you may get knocked down before you realize what has happened. But keep fighting.
Everyone Panics and Freezes
It has been known since warriors entered the very first battlefield that nobody knows how they will react in a real life and death situation. The mightiest warrior can fall apart under the pressures of battle. The wimpiest soldier can become a hero. The general rule is – everyone panics and most people freeze – at least momentarily in a real attack. It feels like a cork has been pulled out of the bottom of your stomach and all your strength is rushing out. It happens to almost everyone. Expect it! That is what the terms “experienced” and “battle hardened” mean. Those people have gone through that feeling, fought, and survived. The next time around it was less. The time after that even less, until eventually the fighter can keep a presence of mind and maintain all his strength during battle. How can you get there? Make sure your self-defense instructor makes you fight! I tell my own students “You do not want the first time you are hit in the face to be in a real fight!” You must get through the panic and the fear and the freezing up in your training, so you don’t experience them to such a significant level in the street. But remember the title of this section. Embrace it. Because no amount of training will stop that panic feeling you will get the first time you are in a real fight.
Belts Are Meaningless – Only Experience & Ability Counts
Ask your self-defense instructor (if he uses a belt system) what the various belt colors mean. The answer you are looking for is “Nothing – they are really irrelevant.” A good self-defense instructor will tell you that only experience and ability counts in a real self-defense situation. A belt system is fine – it is not a self-defense faux pas, but it must be used with a sense of reality. If the belt system is used to show the difference between those working on beginner techniques and those working on more advanced techniques, fine. But if you are told that they reflect ability on the street – warning, warning, danger Will Robinson! No belt can reflect your ability in a real fight. No teacher can tell you it does! Nobody can guarantee that even with 10 years of training you are not going to get your butt handed to you on a platter in a real self-defense situation. It is all up to you.
Then you may ask – “So what the heck does a black belt mean?” It means many things to many people. But in general – I think everyone would agree that it at least implies the holder of a black belt can defend himself. Yet – this is often not the case. Only a small percentage of black belts in the martial arts have ever actually fought. Oh sure – many have sparred, some even gone to the Olympics in their respective art. Some can do amazing gymnastic movements. Some can even break cement with their bare hands. But, unfortunately, this is all utterly meaningless. Only the ability to stop someone from successfully attacking and injuring you counts. Everything else – your belt, your style, your uniform color, your patches, your trophies, your medals, and your diplomas are all meaningless. Often, that is so very hard to accept.
The saddest part of all – a person who can really, actually defend themselves – shows no outward sign of such ability. Nobody will know it when you achieve that level. Your attacker will have no idea you can defeat him. And neither will the girl or guy you are trying to impress. Nobody will know, it is a completely egoless place. So don’t go looking for the trappings of success. If your self-defense system uses a belt ranking method – fine. Just make sure that black belt MEANS something; it means that you can actually, truly defend yourself. And that is truly the answer to the question this article uses as its title. What is Self Defense? And now you know if you are learning it or not – don’t you!
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