Embracing Risk vs Risk Avoidance?

[Jared Traveler]

Do you find that martial arts training tends to lead to "Risk Acceptance" or "Risk Avoidance?"

Taking more chances? Like facing that bully, or staring back when someone is "hard eyeing" you? Or going to that location that others avoid?

Or does it lead to "Risk Avoidance" by avoid high crime areas, keeping your car and house doors locked? Or traveling in a group because there is safety in numbers?

 

[Holmejr]

My take is risk avoidance. Building confidence in skill, environmental/situational awareness, being humbled. Learning the moral, civil and criminal aspects of “defending” oneself. Depending on the school culturing a mindset of peacemaker and defuser rather than immediately proving ones MA physical abilities. Anyway at 67 after MA, tennis and rolling with the grandkids I’m to damn sore to fight.

 

[Anarax]

Do you find that martial arts training tends to lead to "Risk Acceptance" or "Risk Avoidance?"

Taking more chances? Like facing that bully, or staring back when someone is "hard eyeing" you? Or going to that location that others avoid?

Or does it lead to "Risk Avoidance" by avoid high crime areas, keeping your car and house doors locked? Or traveling in a group because there is safety in numbers?

I would say it's a bit of both. Overall, I try to avoid risk and confrontation when I can. Martial arts has made me more aware of certain dangers as well as how to assess/identify certain tells of a situation. However, there are certain situations and circumstances that a confrontation(not necessarily physical) is warranted.

 

[Jared Traveler]

To be clear from my perspective there isn't a right or wrong answer. As a policeman I specialized in embracing risk. So I don't think that embracing risk is bad, there are good and bad ways to embrace risk. They're also good and bad ways of doing risk avoidance.

 

[_Simon_]

 

[Jared Traveler]

View attachment 29580

You can have both, or even all four. Risk Acceptance with wisdom, Risk Acceptance with foolishness, Risk Avoidance with wisdom, Risk Avoidance with foolishness.

 

[skribs]

Ignoring a bully when they're picking on you, standing up to them when they're picking on someone else.

My Master had a philosophy that you yield 3 times. If it's some random person you're never going to see again, there's no point in letting a confrontation get physical because you had to be the next person in line, or whatever. But if it's the same person over and over again, then its time to stand up for yourself.