Thoughts on "Self-Defense Classes"

I had a student ask for a recommendation for “self-defense classes” recently during my pistol class.  I didn’t know how to answer the request.  For one thing, she was learning armed self-protection, which is far more useful than unarmed self-protection.  Secondly, as I have said repeatedly, the only purpose of any unarmed system of self-protection should be to get armed.  And lastly, she was looking for a recommendation for martial arts; martial arts are not very good at teaching self-protection.  Some are good at teaching some physical skills that are somewhat useful in self-protection, but almost none of them teach the mentality necessary for effective self-protection. 

Having said that, I felt bad that I did not have a good answer for her.  I have said repeatedly that I think traditional martial arts are good for teaching young people kinesthetic sense, specifically how to use their bodies more fully in a self-protection scenario.  That should be the goal of studying martial arts, to learn how to use your various hard body parts, like knees, elbows, fists, heels, et cetera, as weapons.  There’s also utility in learning about Torque through some of the grappling arts, how to do throws, breaks, et cetera.  Be cautious with learning the “self-defense techniques” many martial arts teach.  A few are good, most are bad, some are patently idiotic. 

So, if the primary goal is to learn to use the hard parts of your body as weapons, the most useful art I would recommend is kickboxing.  Real kickboxing does not incorporate any “self-defense” techniques into its curriculum.  All it teaches is punching, kicking, knees and elbows.  That is a great foundation for learning the kinesthetic sense needed to use those parts of the body as weapons.  The problem with kickboxing is that it teaches "fighting," not self-protection.  But, having the flexibility, balance and physical intelligence to fight can easily be adapted into self-protection. 

The secondary goal of learning unarmed systems of combat is to develop skills inflicting what I call “Torque.” Torque is applying circular motion and utilizing gravity for throwing and breaking bones, which is best learned through grappling arts.  Without getting into the debate about whether Brazilian or Japanese Jujitsu is better, I would recommend either for learning throws and grappling, or even Aikido to learn throws!  I know a great deal of MMA practitioners are totally anti-Aikido as lacking practicality.  They aren’t wrong, but the holy grail of MMA, Brazilian Jujitsu, also lacks practicality in an actual self-defense situation.  All martial arts do.  However, any of the Jujitsu disciplines, or Aikido’s throwing techniques, can teach some important lessons in body mechanics that can be applied to actual self-protection.  Avoid martial arts that incorporate “self-defense techniques” into their grappling training (like Hapkido and Kempo/Kenpo, or “Ninjutsu”) as they train “bar room self-defense,” at best the techniques are effective and they get people arrested for hurting, maiming or killing drunk guys who are not actual threats, or more frequently, they train completely useless crap that gets the practitioners hurt, maimed or killed. 

So, if you can only study one, study kickboxing to learn how to strike with a variety of anatomical tools.  Once you feel comfortable with the striking, then incorporate a grappling art that teaches throws and breaks—from the standing position—and maybe some ground-escape techniques.  Once you have one or both sets of skills that martial arts can teach you, then you must learn what marketing people in my line of work call “the self-defense mindset.”  Good martial arts teach that mindset, but then they teach you to use it at the absolute wrong time, such as a bar-fight.  Bad martial arts don’t teach the mindset at all, they teach sports, competition or even just a useless art.  None of those are inherently bad, they just have nothing to do with defending yourself from a violent predator trying to maim, rape or kill you. 

So, what is “the self-defense mindset?”  Basically, it means that if you had a gun, you would use it, or use a knife.  It means you must mentally be willing to use your unarmed body as a tool of lethal force, just as if you had a gun or a knife.  It is not a bar fight, therefore, nor is it a competition ring where there are rules and trophies.  Which means that everything I have written above in this blog is pointless if you are smart, because unarmed combat is dumbass combat!  The first rule of unarmed combat is, always has been and always will be: DON’T GET INTO IT!  Arm yourself with something, and almost anything can be used as a weapon.  To me, the only valid purpose of unarmed combat is to fight to a point where you can arm yourself and get into armed combat.  Any martial art that teaches that mentality, is probably a pretty good one.  Just like shooting, which is, to me, the most important martial art, because it means I finish self-defense situations with just my trigger finger instead of my fists and feet.

Soule (Easy 6)

www.Easy6training.com