And Fighting is not Self-Defense

Part 3: The Flip Side of the Coin: School-Yard Fist Fights are not Self-Defense

Self-Defense is not a bar fight, nor is a bar fight self-defense.  More dangerous than teaching over-reaction is the Industry teaching massive under-reaction to real violence.  Most traditional martial arts are teaching adults how to fight like children on a playground when their lives are in real jeopardy in a violent criminal encounter.  They are teaching people kickboxing against a guy with a gun.  Or how to grapple with a dozen guys, because the UFC convinced them that Brazilian Jujitsu is the greatest system of fighting ever devised.  Teaching adults how to fight instead of how to apply lethal force in truly dangerous situations leads to both more unnecessary, hot-headed physical violence and to less understanding and preparedness for actual life-threatening criminal violence.  Violent crime is not school-yard bullying.

Let me be very clear, I started studying martial arts as a juvenile, and I loved it.  I think that is when it is appropriate.  That is when the school-yard politics are real.  The threat of adult prosecution makes fighting inappropriate at bars and traffic lights or anywhere but a ring as an adult.  Again, fighting is not self-defense.  That is one thing that the “reality based” systems actually get right.  But most traditional martial arts don’t even acknowledge the difference between fighting and defense against criminal violence.  Fighting when you need to be killing is more physically dangerous than the legal dangers of the over-reacting described previously.  It is suicidal to try to apply some traditional martial arts fighting moves to punch and kick or grapple your way out of a situation where self-defense (justifiable killing and maiming) are called for to prevent grievous bodily harm to you or a loved one.  The karate guys, the guys that train kids to fight in the school-yard, tragically continue to train adults the same exact things.  So, when a truly violent criminal comes up with real intent to do real Damage to somebody, the victims starts kickboxing like it is some sort of competition on a mat or a ring.  That will get you not arrested and prosecuted, but killed and buried.  So instead of teaching you to be way too violent in a fake self-defense situation, they are teaching you to be not nearly violent enough in a real self-defense situation.

Once again, think about what they are teaching you.  Are they teaching you how to punch and kick?  Or, are they teaching you where to punch and kick?  If it’s the former, they are teaching you how to fight, which is competition not self-defense.  That’s great if you are a competitor and participate in tournaments, and that is your goal for studying martial arts.  But, it’s worthless in a real violent situation where somebody wants to cause you grievous physical harm or death.  In a truly violent criminal encounter, you need to know how to efficiently defend yourself.  For example, the WIDTH principles I have talked about at length in the past can be used to efficiently kill or maim a violent criminal trying to do you grievous bodily harm.  If it is truly a self-defense situation, where you are legally justified in using lethal force, then there is no reason not to use a knife or gun or a weapon of opportunity at your disposal.  Most martial arts are teaching you to believe that the ten step technique they have had you (and me, by the way) practice a thousand times is going to somehow protect you from a violent predator, when instead you could have just stabbed him in the throat before he stabbed you.  So, what traditional martial arts are really doing is trying to teach you to be some sort of pacifist warrior-monk that will never truly harm somebody in a permanent way, which is not surprising considering the origins of traditional martial arts.  That mentality will get you killed in a situation where it is the predator or the prey that survives.

Again, past the age of 18, I do not believe that traditional martial arts are a useful thing to study, unless you are going to dedicate yourself to, as Luke Holloway says, “self-perfection not self-protection” through the mastery of the art.  By “traditional martial art,” I mean a style or system that is teaching you to get into a kickboxing match; a system that is teaching you how to hit, not where to hit.  If you are studying the same techniques at a McDojo that somebody is teaching ten year olds, and you expect to survive a violent criminal act using those fighting skills, you are insane.  We teach kids how to fight, we teach adults how to defend.  To “defend” is not a word that means I can block a punch and counter-punch/kick or slip him into an arm-bar and “win” by hurting him a little bit more than he hurts me; that’s a competition.  Calling that “self-defense” is the myth that martial arts dojos have told people for a half century.  Self-defense is really the legal determination that I was justified in using lethal force (killing or maiming) against somebody who was trying to do me grievous bodily harm.  That's not trading punches and crescent kicks.  Just like a bar-fight isn’t self-defense, conversely, an armed robbery is not the school-yard political struggle.  Using tactics designed for the school-yard or the competition ring will get you killed in a true violent criminal encounter.

Self-Defense isn't a bar fight, and a bar fight is not Self-Defense!

My caveat: The only adults who should be learning to fight instead of learning self-defense are cops, bouncers and security guards.  They have a professional responsibility to not apply lethal force to non-lethal situations, while at the same time stopping violence.  They have to know how to control physically aggressive people without maiming or killing them.  If you are not in one of those positions, and are over the age of 18, learning how to wrestle with somebody in a violent crime situation will get you killed.  Notice I did not include military personnel, because I think we have done a huge disservice to our military by teaching them a bunch of non-lethal bull crap instead of how to kill an enemy with their bare hands the way our grandfathers learned in World War Two and Korea.

Next up: True Self-Defense