Can you defend yourself without hurting someone?

[Andy Moynihan]

Well there aren't many points I'd have brought up that Daniel already has in his own inimitable fashion

Is it possible? Yyyyyeah, but I'm gonna call it the kind of "possible" like a person being struck by lightning is "possible" if you know what I mean.

 

[Steve]

One poster wrote his motivation for studying the martial arts was to be able to defend himself without hurting someone. And this was echoed to some extent by an Aikido practitioner I met who told me that in Aikido he was taught that if you have to fight you have already lost. Is it indeed possible to avoid hurting an attacker without being hurt? Well, if you can run faster I could see that happening. Could you somehow dodge, evade, move out of the way of blows to cause somebody to give up in frustration? Could you perhaps put somebody in a wrist lock or some such restraint and stop the attack through restraining someone? Well, I would say it depends on the situation. I don't personally believe in every situation one could defend himself without hurting the other person, that indeed, doing moves that would hurt the other person would be necessary at times, perhaps the vast majority of the time. What do you think, can you defend yourself without hurting your attacker?

I think it's important to distinguish between "hurting" someone and "injuring" someone. Any grappler, whether it's BJJ or Aikido or whatever, learns to inflict pain without injury.

I would say that it's very possible to learn to defend yourself without injuring someone. Royce Gracie did that very effectively in 3 of the first 4 UFC events (the ones without rules). I don't think anyone even had a bloody nose.

 

[Thems Fighting Words]

Depends on how you define an "attacker", how you define "hurt" and how you define "defending yourself". Some idiot doing some chest beating and me walking away could count as me "defending myself" from an "attacker" without anyone getting "hurt". But that seems a pretty convoluted and manufactured scenario.

 

[Twin Fist]

"defend yourself without hurting the bad guy"

screw that.

i dont have to defend myself unless they touch me, and someone touches me un-invited? they forfeit their right to walk correctly or chew solid food.

 

[Gordon Nore]

So, it CAN happen...but it doesnt' always happen. On the street, I garauntee your average aggressor is going to ahave a fair bit more on the ball than my average client...and you probably won;t have the same level of back up (other staff) to help.

Absolutely.

If I'm defending myself, my primary responsibility is to me. There is no guarantee that I can do that and not injure my attacker. Nor is there any guarantee I will not be injured myself. In a perfect world, I would tie him up like a pretzel and wait for the police. In the actual world I live in, I don't know if my attacker has people backing him up, other weapons, etc.

The next part of the equation is that I am in fact defending myself and not enacting retribution on my attacker for invading my space. The sense of outrage one feels at being violated can easily prompt feelings of revenge.

 

[searcher]

Hurt or injur? It is possible to not injur someone while defending yourself, but not hurt them? It is possible, but as Bill stated, why would you want to? If I am having to defend myself, then they need to remember that I defended myself. I suppose I could defend myself by pulling my carry gun and not having to fire it. But if I pull it, it has come to no other option and I am in dire need of an equalizer.

I suppose you could block and evade so you don't have to punch, knee, elbbow, or kick them, but even if I block them they are going to hurt. And as good as my body movement is, I don't think I could move fast enough, for long enough, to make them give up without feeling pain. Trying to keep it realistic.

 

[KenpoTex]

The amount of damage they're going to sustain is going to be determined by the level of threat they present. The threat will be met with the appropriate level of force. That may mean evading a wild punch from a guy so drunk he can barely stand. It may also mean putting a few rounds into the face of the guy who just pulled a knife on you.

Just as I'm not going to deliberately escalate beyond what is necessary to end the encounter, I'm not going to go out of my way to not hurt the guy. In other words, I'm going to do what needs to be done in a dispassionate manner. If the other guy isn't happy with the results...well, he brought it on himself.

Training (and I use the term loosely in this case) with the specific goal or intent of somehow being able to fight for your life without causing any injury to the person who is trying to injure or kill you is unrealistic.

 

[Joab]

Depends on how you define an "attacker",
Joab: "Attacker" is defined as somebody who physically attacks you by punching, kicking, putting you into a bear hug, choke hold, etc.

how you define "hurt"
Joab: I don't know how the poster defined "hurt" I will say hurt is defined as a bruise, or worse.

and how you define "defending yourself". Some idiot doing some chest beating and me walking away could count as me "defending myself" from an "attacker" without anyone getting "hurt". But that seems a pretty convoluted and manufactured scenario.

Again, I'm writing about a physical attack not a verbal threat. They can say all they want and it won't constitute a physical attack. Thanks for all the contributions from everybody. Again, this is not about the desireability of not injuring the attacker, rather whether it is in fact possible to defend yourself without injuring the attacker. Please keep this in mind.

 

[Guardian]

Can one defend themselves without hurting someone?

That's a good question, I do suppose there are some out there that could do that, they are just that good. Myself, I'm not that good, never wanted to be that good to be truthful. So in my view, there going to get hurt to a point. If there crazy as pointed out here, I'll try and keep their hurt to a minimum, but that's about it personally.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Again, I'm writing about a physical attack not a verbal threat. They can say all they want and it won't constitute a physical attack. Thanks for all the contributions from everybody. Again, this is not about the desireability of not injuring the attacker, rather whether it is in fact possible to defend yourself without injuring the attacker. Please keep this in mind.

Well, since 'hurt' has now been defined as not injuring the attacker, yes, I believe that it is possible, though a lot depends upon the nature of the attack. Some attackers will break off once they realize that you are not as easy a mark as they had hoped. Others will break of once they perceive that they have what they're after (money, valuables, whatever).

But there are some who, either once they initiate the attack or once they have the goods they have demanded, desire to hurt of kill you. The only way to really end the attack is to escape, which may necessitate injuring them, or to injure them badly enough to end the attack.

Daniel

 

[Aiki Lee]

To do so would require an extremely high level of skill. Not impossible, but not very likely.A commited attacker will likely struggle against your technique which will result in him injuring himself. It's hard enough to keep the attacker from hurting you, so I wouldn't recomend trying to be compassionate druing the fight. Be compassionate before he starts swinging, and after you knock him down. You can show your kindness by helping him pick all his teeth up off the ground.

 

[Thems Fighting Words]

Again, I'm writing about a physical attack not a verbal threat. They can say all they want and it won't constitute a physical attack. Thanks for all the contributions from everybody. Again, this is not about the desireability of not injuring the attacker, rather whether it is in fact possible to defend yourself without injuring the attacker. Please keep this in mind.

I guess if the attack wasn't perticularly serious or the person attacking you was a drunk friend or something similar, it would be possible to restrain them without injuring them (serious injuries that is) as they wouldn't be going all out to seriously hurt you. It also relies a lot on the opponent's skill and thus your ability to effectively restrain them. If their skill level is commensurate with your own and their intent is serious, restraining them without injury is not going to be much of an option.

 

[Joab]

I guess if the attack wasn't perticularly serious or the person attacking you was a drunk friend or something similar, it would be possible to restrain them without injuring them (serious injuries that is) as they wouldn't be going all out to seriously hurt you. It also relies a lot on the opponent's skill and thus your ability to effectively restrain them. If their skill level is commensurate with your own and their intent is serious, restraining them without injury is not going to be much of an option.

I agree it depends on the situation. When I worked with the intellectually disabled, those that were violent often didn't have the motor skills to do much. One fellow was incredibly quick straight puncher and low kicker, and I'm sure he never took Wing Chun and had so low an IQ he couldn't even talk. Thankfully, as quick as he was, he had no power behind his blows, even though he was quite strong.

If the fellow is drunk, really drunk, it wouldn't be all that difficult to defeat him without hurting him because his motor skills would be shot. He would also be very loose, the reason why so many drunk drivers don't get hurt in accidents they cause. A determined mugger,especially working in pairs or larger numbers...your going to have to take them out really quick and efficiently, I don't think you could refrain from hurting them in that situation. So, it depends on the situation. Thanks for all the contributions to this thread, your responses have mostly been quite good.

 

[K-man]

My Aikido teacher explains it this way. If you are in a fight and you manage to win and in doing so you injure the other person, that person will probably forever harbor a grudge. If the opportunity arises at a later time he may well take to you, either alone, with mates or with a weapon. Winning the battle is not always winning the war.
He was involved in a road rage incident. Two guys came at him and he caused them both to fall to the ground without injury. They could not understand how it happened and both apologised furiously, quickly got back into their car and drove off.
BTW, my background is Goju. I train with this guy because he can perform techniques like no-one else I have ever come across. I still have so-o-o much to learn. :asian:

 

[chinto]

No! not if its a real self defense situation. If its a real self defense situation you are in real danger and you need to end the encounter fast. If you do not you will be injured, very possibly badly.

So no, at that point its stop that attacker fast, and worry about his injury's or even survival after you are safe.