I was reading an article about self-defense. Now, I am not a professional but I do have some knowledge of self-defense. I am a practicing martial artists as well and have been studying, practicing and teaching since 1976. I read the entire article but as to this post didn't go beyond the first section, three paragraphs, when I came across the following quotes that left me saying, "This isn't self defense as I understand it."
First quote, "... define a precise course of action for each confrontation ..." and this bothers me because it left me with the impression that there are, apparently, defined courses of actions for both attacking and defending. I suspect this statement comes from a course of self-defense that promotes specified actions of an adversary with a set response, etc. This is not how conflicts go, there are not set patterns that will always be there for your patterned responses. Even this written response is lacking because self-defense of conflict and violence is staggeringly complex with no set answers for anything. I could go on-and-on-and-on about this but simply access Marc MacYoung's website, www.nononsenseselfdefense.com site and you will begin to get the "entire picture."
Second quote, " ... walk away from any confrontation." Well, here again I seem to feel that this promotes only a small part of self-defense. What about avoidance. If you are in a confrontation you already failed self-defense. Detecting social or asocial situations to avoid entering into conflict of any kind is where you begin your self-defense. In order to "sell a product" with a title of self-defense course you can't really sell a study program that helps detect conflict at its earliest stages to avoid it altogether, right? Again, see Marc MacYoung's site to get that sense of self-defense completeness.
Third quote, "Certainly, we all realize that walking away is not always an option. This is especially the case when a person either grabs you or strikes you and is not going to stop until they are disabled." Well, here again I wonder what mistakes were made that exposed this person to actual hands on violence. This quote seems directed toward a more socially violent situation and if that were true then the signs were all there but just ignored or missed entirely that one finds anothers hands on your person situation. This sucks. If this were to speak to a more asocial situation then that is another matter. An asocial situation speaks to making yourself a victim. Your actions, etc. apparently resulted in a predator to feel safe enough to take you out and put you down for what ever reason. Walking or running away is still an option provided you can overcome the freeze, the chemical (adrenaline) dump and the fear not to mention that you are probably locked into the OO part of the OODA loop due to the intense pounding you are experiencing. Regardless of the type of conflict and violence involved if you are hands on by an adversary you may have the option to still run away provided you can handle the initial attack well enough.
Again, I go into this tirade because I am more sensitive to what self-defense is and that it is best to teach someone how to avoid getting into such situations from the start. Waiting till the fight is on is just plain ludicrous - stupid, stupid, stupid.
Note: The title is a redacted version to hide the original article so as to not disparage the article or author directly. I am sure they all believe wholeheartedly that what they do is good, but, is it?
I really wish there were some clear cut answers to handling conflict, I truly do. It would be so much easier to teach and apply. It isn't all that easy and the hurdles you have to endure are often way past being worth the efforts. The before, during and most of all after of conflict is often more devastating than the fight itself. This is worth thinking about, don't you think?
Note: I did read the article and I didn't find any additional information that supported the quotes in some other context that may actually be correct in that context but I didn't see it.
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