So I generally just read with interest. A few recent posts got my attention, as they are around a subject very close to heart. So now I am posting, hence an intro, and a warning. Of course this is just my opinion, but it is grounded in reality believe me.
Long ago I used to box in the UK. Got out before I got punchy, and with a decent sheet. I'm a black belt in TKD. I trained in the US, with my kids - a great decision, a great sport and time well spent with family. I'd recommend it to any parent.
I believe self-defense is very important, and that few martial artists, and more importantly masters who run programs in MA have ever faced real life-changing threats in the street - yet many still claim to teach self-defense.
As such, if you wish to learn to defend yourself, IMO you should supplement any MA training with real SD training. Ask detailed questions of your mentor or trainer, understand what they have done, for whom and judge for yourself whether they can impart to you knowledge which might really save your life. See through the stories. If a defensive move is a complex, many-step process, it's likely never been used to save a life - and if it has then only by someone very cool under pressure. Is that you?
As for telling stories of what your training can do, if you have never used it to save yourself, or worse you know they are just stories - know that this simply puts other people's lives at risk. Don't do it.
When I was 15 a friend of mine used a "cool" defense technique to turn a knife on his attacker. The attacker died - from that single, unlucky strike which penetrated the femoral artery. The technique was never a safe technique to teach a child, someone who could not understand the ramifications. It was most likely easily applied as the 'attacker' was probably only trying to scare people with his knife - judgement a kid is going to have a hard time making.
Had he just learned a simple disarm, some form of immobilization and the ability to run fast he would have never been jailed as a minor, nor seen their family fall apart - ultimately losing their brother to suicide, and mother to alcohol. If you have training, and are bigger than your attacker you will have a hard time convincing a jury what really happened. A really nice guy and family, destroyed by his confidence and poor training.
The whole sad story was avoidable - but a 'clever' instructor who had probably never faced a knife in the real world - taught a 15 year old a technique which cost three lives, four if you count a directionless adult who lost their hope before they reached maturity while in juvenile detention.
Stay safe, enjoy your art - and if you are going to learn self-defense, learn it from someone who knows what they are doing. You have no idea how you will behave under pressure and a real-life attack, so stay fit and remember - you only have to be able to run faster than the other guy (or girl), not the bear!
Long ago I used to box in the UK. Got out before I got punchy, and with a decent sheet. I'm a black belt in TKD. I trained in the US, with my kids - a great decision, a great sport and time well spent with family. I'd recommend it to any parent.
I believe self-defense is very important, and that few martial artists, and more importantly masters who run programs in MA have ever faced real life-changing threats in the street - yet many still claim to teach self-defense.
As such, if you wish to learn to defend yourself, IMO you should supplement any MA training with real SD training. Ask detailed questions of your mentor or trainer, understand what they have done, for whom and judge for yourself whether they can impart to you knowledge which might really save your life. See through the stories. If a defensive move is a complex, many-step process, it's likely never been used to save a life - and if it has then only by someone very cool under pressure. Is that you?
As for telling stories of what your training can do, if you have never used it to save yourself, or worse you know they are just stories - know that this simply puts other people's lives at risk. Don't do it.
When I was 15 a friend of mine used a "cool" defense technique to turn a knife on his attacker. The attacker died - from that single, unlucky strike which penetrated the femoral artery. The technique was never a safe technique to teach a child, someone who could not understand the ramifications. It was most likely easily applied as the 'attacker' was probably only trying to scare people with his knife - judgement a kid is going to have a hard time making.
Had he just learned a simple disarm, some form of immobilization and the ability to run fast he would have never been jailed as a minor, nor seen their family fall apart - ultimately losing their brother to suicide, and mother to alcohol. If you have training, and are bigger than your attacker you will have a hard time convincing a jury what really happened. A really nice guy and family, destroyed by his confidence and poor training.
The whole sad story was avoidable - but a 'clever' instructor who had probably never faced a knife in the real world - taught a 15 year old a technique which cost three lives, four if you count a directionless adult who lost their hope before they reached maturity while in juvenile detention.
Stay safe, enjoy your art - and if you are going to learn self-defense, learn it from someone who knows what they are doing. You have no idea how you will behave under pressure and a real-life attack, so stay fit and remember - you only have to be able to run faster than the other guy (or girl), not the bear!
