skribs
Grandmaster
After training BJJ for a couple years, I've adjusted my plans for a self-defense curriculum based on the way BJJ is taught and what I'm learning there.
In my experience with Taekwondo and Hapkido, the typical self-defense strategy is that when you are attacked, you eliminate the weapon and break the assailant as quickly as possible, while remaining standing in order to deal with the next assailant or run away. I believe this is a superior strategy than what you'll learn in a lot of combat sport gyms, which are focused on systematically dismantling your opponent over a certain time limit, as opposed to dealing with the threat ASAP.
However, it does run into issues regarding move percentage (high-percent vs. low percent of success), and it typically doesn't train for what to do if your initial attempts to defend yourself fail. It also misses a key element which is how do you control a situation where you don't want to break the assailant? For example, if a teenager is throwing a temper tantrum and you need to control them until they've calmed down.
I also want to address what I think is an issue in how self-defense is taught at the schools I've trained. It's typically either A) an afterthought (where forms and/or sparring are the main focus) or B) it's taught in a restrictive by-the-book curriculum. On the one hand, it's good to have a set of defense sequences that you drill over and over again. But I think that too much focus on those specific sequences and you gloss over the concepts that make them work, and you lose the ability to be creative or take what's in front of you.
With that in mind, I've come up with my latest plans for self-defense when I open my school:
I plan to have two tracks of self-defense. The TKD/HKD style, which will focus on what I described above: there's an attack, you eliminate the weapon and break the assailant. The second track will focus more on techniques and concepts drawn from BJJ, including: how to control someone (without hurting them) and how to escape from pins and other controlling positions. The nice thing is that (like with positional training in BJJ) I can teach how to pin and how to escape pins by teaching the yin and yang of the same concepts.
With both tracks, I plan to move away from the "here's your #1-#5 for your next test" approach that's very common in TKD, and move towards a "move-of-the-week" approach that's very common in BJJ. I plan to place guardrails on each belt group (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, [names are a WIP]) to define the difficulty and complexity of the defense sequences for the TKD track, and to set the specific position for each class in the BJJ track. And then at black belt the guardrails come off, and the instructor can teach based on their background.
And speaking of names, the two tracks are broken into three sections in my curriculum, "Defend the Attack", "Escape the Pin", and "Control the Situation".
I feel this approach fixes a few other issues I've had with TKD, namely that it's difficult for a drop-in to get much benefit (which I've made a thread on), and that it can be difficult for an instructor to come in from another school and be able to add value to the new school (a problem I've both seen and experienced). This is also guided somewhat by the discussions I've had here, although it's mostly derived from the frustrations I've had in finding a new TKD dojang and then the positives I've seen and experienced from joining a BJJ gym.
For testing, my plan is to have the first test in each group be to dynamically demonstrate Escape the Pin (for that class's situation), and then the second test in each group to demonstrate defense sequences for Defend the Attack and/or Control the Situation.
Looking for thoughts and feedback on this, including the overall design, as well as names for topics or classes. Other than "just open the school already", I still have a couple of things I'd like to accomplish before I do, namely reaching 4th degree (which I'm on my last attempt to find an option that doesn't involve self- or internal-promotion), and I'd like to find a day job with a more consistent schedule.
In my experience with Taekwondo and Hapkido, the typical self-defense strategy is that when you are attacked, you eliminate the weapon and break the assailant as quickly as possible, while remaining standing in order to deal with the next assailant or run away. I believe this is a superior strategy than what you'll learn in a lot of combat sport gyms, which are focused on systematically dismantling your opponent over a certain time limit, as opposed to dealing with the threat ASAP.
However, it does run into issues regarding move percentage (high-percent vs. low percent of success), and it typically doesn't train for what to do if your initial attempts to defend yourself fail. It also misses a key element which is how do you control a situation where you don't want to break the assailant? For example, if a teenager is throwing a temper tantrum and you need to control them until they've calmed down.
I also want to address what I think is an issue in how self-defense is taught at the schools I've trained. It's typically either A) an afterthought (where forms and/or sparring are the main focus) or B) it's taught in a restrictive by-the-book curriculum. On the one hand, it's good to have a set of defense sequences that you drill over and over again. But I think that too much focus on those specific sequences and you gloss over the concepts that make them work, and you lose the ability to be creative or take what's in front of you.
With that in mind, I've come up with my latest plans for self-defense when I open my school:
I plan to have two tracks of self-defense. The TKD/HKD style, which will focus on what I described above: there's an attack, you eliminate the weapon and break the assailant. The second track will focus more on techniques and concepts drawn from BJJ, including: how to control someone (without hurting them) and how to escape from pins and other controlling positions. The nice thing is that (like with positional training in BJJ) I can teach how to pin and how to escape pins by teaching the yin and yang of the same concepts.
With both tracks, I plan to move away from the "here's your #1-#5 for your next test" approach that's very common in TKD, and move towards a "move-of-the-week" approach that's very common in BJJ. I plan to place guardrails on each belt group (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, [names are a WIP]) to define the difficulty and complexity of the defense sequences for the TKD track, and to set the specific position for each class in the BJJ track. And then at black belt the guardrails come off, and the instructor can teach based on their background.
And speaking of names, the two tracks are broken into three sections in my curriculum, "Defend the Attack", "Escape the Pin", and "Control the Situation".
I feel this approach fixes a few other issues I've had with TKD, namely that it's difficult for a drop-in to get much benefit (which I've made a thread on), and that it can be difficult for an instructor to come in from another school and be able to add value to the new school (a problem I've both seen and experienced). This is also guided somewhat by the discussions I've had here, although it's mostly derived from the frustrations I've had in finding a new TKD dojang and then the positives I've seen and experienced from joining a BJJ gym.
For testing, my plan is to have the first test in each group be to dynamically demonstrate Escape the Pin (for that class's situation), and then the second test in each group to demonstrate defense sequences for Defend the Attack and/or Control the Situation.
Looking for thoughts and feedback on this, including the overall design, as well as names for topics or classes. Other than "just open the school already", I still have a couple of things I'd like to accomplish before I do, namely reaching 4th degree (which I'm on my last attempt to find an option that doesn't involve self- or internal-promotion), and I'd like to find a day job with a more consistent schedule.
