Self-Defense Seminars

[wingchun100]

I don't know where this thread will go or what kind of response it will get. It was just an occasion of me wanting to think out loud, really.

At any rate, years ago I attended some self-defense seminars when I went to college. At this time I was just getting into wing chun kung fu so I didn't know a lot, but I DID know one thing: to be able to use the techniques to effectively defend yourself, you needed a LOT more than a one-hour class. You needed to train your reflexes every day, in many different situations and environments. It angered me to see these self-defense "Experts" running these classes as if everyone who left that night would be able to handle any situation they found themselves in. Well guess what? If you took that class in February and some guy tries to date-rape you in August, the skills won't be there.

It's always made me wonder: why couldn't people run the class honestly? Why couldn't they say at the end "you need to practice this over and over?" I know that's how I will do it. My plan for my wing chun is to teach a self-defense course for women where I will be honest about the work they need to put into it. Then, at the end of the class, I would upsell to my wing chun class.

I think it's because they know if they were real, people wouldn't pay. Who wants to come to a class where you shelled out a ridiculous amount of money but gained nothing? Meanwhile you are sending people out into the world with a false sense of confidence.

Sad, really.

 

[jks9199]

There are things that can effectively be taught in short order. There are things that take time. I can teach a useful self defense class in a couple of hours -- but the scope will be limited.

Many teach self defense classes to pull students into their program. Often, they really have little or no business teaching self defense (no matter their qualifications to teach MA). Others offer a self defense class following some incident... but again, don't really know what they're doing. And, there are plenty who will make the point that the skills need to be practiced more than the seminar allows... though it may be a brief comment or aside.

 

[Aiki Lee]

My sensei always opens his self-defense seminars with "You are never going to be able to effectively use what I show you today without consistent practice and correction. With that said, I'm going to show you some ideas that could help you escape."

I feel a lot of people go to self defense classes for peace of mind more than to practically learn anything. I feel many people like to know there is a ay out even if they can't do it themselves. I suspect people who take one hour or four hour or even a week's worth of self defense classes feel they will remember this kind of thing under stress, even though they obviously won't.

The main success in self-defense seminars are in the prevention of being attacked. That kind of stuff you can learn in an hour and it will help someone avoid a good majority of dangerous situations. When it comes to the physical stuff, I try to teach just one or two concepts. (1) Cause pain and (2) Seek space. They aren't going to learn effective movement in such a short time, so it's best I think to give them ideas on how to create some space to allow for simpler escapes.

 

[K-man]

It's always made me wonder: why couldn't people run the class honestly? Why couldn't they say at the end "you need to practice this over and over?" I know that's how I will do it. My plan for my wing chun is to teach a self-defense course for women where I will be honest about the work they need to put into it.

A couple of years back I was engage to provide SD training for a class of 15 year old girls. When given the brief I was told that two one hour classes a week for five weeks were available. So I planned for ten sessions. When I turned up the first day the brief had changed. My part was to be six sessions. A hasty rewrite and I delivered six sessions. Sure the most important part was the discussion to avoid problems before they start but the expectation was that at the end of the day I would turn out 20 lean, mean fighting machines and that just wasn't going to happen. To be effective in a physical sense you need more than six lessons, but to be effective in SD, six hours is probably quite ok as long as the expectation is not that the student will emerge as a physically competent martial artist. I'm sure Chris P will put his 2c worth in shortly and pretty much say self defence isn't about fighting. So what is honesty? You can deliver a self defence course in a short space of time but you cannot deliver physical skills to untrained people in a matter of a few weeks. Honesty is tied to expectation.
:asian:

 

[aedrasteia]

Good perspective K.

This is the most recent post on Rory Miller's blog.
I've been hoping he would get into this.

http://chirontraining.blogspot.com/

And from my experience, as a girl, as a woman in martial arts (judo)
and as an instructor w/women, major physical MA skills are
consistently the easiest for men to teach and the least important to learn
of those things vital for women and girls to acquire.

Rory Miller gets very close to what I'm talking about.
w/respect

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Awareness, Avoidance and the ability to Act are essential for self-defense. It is important that anyone attending any self-defense seminar understand that they need to take those skills and practice them so that they might have a chance of using them! Even better consistently train with a qualified instructor and your chances should improve. Of course in a moment of violence everything will depend on your ability to either to be aware, avoid or act!