Self Defense Myths

[Steve]

This seems like as good a place as any to post this.

Yeah, this makes sense to me. It's also how self defense shysters con the general public.

 

[Buka]

LOL. I really screwed that up.

It was talking about the myth of Stranger Danger. The gist being that teaching kids to mistrust all adults is actually a terrible idea, and that we should instead be teaching them to differentiate between adults who can be trusted and those who cannot. She also mentioned that, as is the case with sexual assault, most of the crimes involving the kids are done by people known and trusted by the kids and often also by the parents. Relatives, family friends, etc...

As a side note, I read your last paragraph and kept thinking about John Mulaney's stand up segment on stranger danger and how Detective J.J. Bittenbinder emphasized never being taken to a SECONDARY LOCATION.

J.J Bittenbinder, haven't thought of him in a long while. Glad to be reminded.

And, yeah, secondary location is seriously scary stuff.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I agree with much of what you wrote, outside a couple of places we've pretty much hashed out (to put it mildly). I thought I'd expound on this one:

Most fights go to the ground - Good points that we've heard before. But while it's true that the LAPD study doesn't support the claim that "most fights go to the ground" it also doesn't refute the claim. So, sure, we can say that it's not necessarily true that most fights go to the ground, but the reality is that we don't keep that kind of statistical data, so it's impossible to say either way. Simply put, most fights MIGHT go to the ground... or they MIGHT NOT. We don't really know beyond anecdotal information.

So, if you're basing your entire self defense training on the idea that all fights to go the ground, or the inverse, you're not doing so based on actual data. But that doesn't mean you're wrong or right.

We can be certain some fights go the ground and some do not. We can even say both of those things about fights that include two skilled people, two unskilled people and mixes. We can't know the proportions, but we know both are outcomes that happen often enough to be caputured regularly on video. Makes sense for anyone training with a self-defense orientation to either include both in their training in some manner, or at least acknowledge the gap they're leaving.

 

[Buka]

Speaking of Martial Arts myths.....when we were kids we all believed that if you were a karate black belt you had to register your hands as deadly weapons at the local police station.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Speaking of Martial Arts myths......

When I was 7,

- I had a MA book that taught me if I put a small rock among my 3 fingers and squeeze it daily, when one day I can smash that small rock into powder. I can dig my 3 fingers through my opponent's muscle and bone.
- My brother in law taught me to dig a small hole into the ground. When I can jump out of that hole from my chest level, I can jump to the roof top.
- If I rotate my body when I jump off from the roof top, I can land on the ground with little shocking.

After these many years, I still have not proved whether those MA myths can be right or wrong.

 

[Buka]

Also, as kids, we had always heard that if you had a black belt in Karate you had to warn anybody you were about to fight of that fact.

And we KNEW Count Dante was the deadliest man alive. There wouldn't have been those ads in the comic books if he wasn't.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Also, as kids, we had always heard that if you had a black belt in Karate you had to warn anybody you were about to fight of that fact.

And we KNEW Count Dante was the deadliest man alive. There wouldn't have been those ads in the comic books if he wasn't.

If you can’t believe comic books, then who can you trust?

 

[Buka]

If you can’t believe comic books, then who can you trust?

I know, right? And it wasn’t like he was only in Archie comic books, he was in Superman and The Hulk ones, too.

Those guys wouldn’t allow no Deadliest Man Alive falsehoods in their pages, everybody knew that.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

What I really wanted from the comic book ads but never got was the Polaris Nuclear Submarine. Who needs deadly fighting skills when you have one of those!

 

[Flying Crane]

No. I don't approach anybody. Not working and might not ever work again.

WHO IS GONNA HAVE SOUP AND SANDWICHES WAITING FOR ME WHEN I FLY IN TO MAUI???

 

[isshinryuronin]

Most of the funny myths seem to have been taken, so I'll post a serious one - one purposely disseminated by the Okinawan masters during the first half of the 1900's:

Kata was just blocks, kicks and punches and what you saw was all there was. That's what the Okinawans told the Japanese, and later, to an even greater extent, to the American military that brought karate back to the USA. This myth is still pervasive among many today.

Myth buster - The old guys did not so freely give up the fact that their art was close-in combat based mostly on grabs, twists, attacks to the legs and other stuff never seen in the longer range sport version of karate. The word is getting out now as we discover our true roots.

WARNING - Don't spread this around as should my master find out I have divulged this secret I will be honor-bound to kill myself. Thank you.

 

[Buka]

WHO IS GONNA HAVE SOUP AND SANDWICHES WAITING FOR ME WHEN I FLY IN TO MAUI???

I am, bro, you know that.

Next time some - as they say out here — broke da mouth eggplant parm, too.

 

[Flying Crane]

I am, bro, you know that.

Next time some - as they say out here — broke da mouth eggplant parm, too.

You are the master.