Archive for the 'Self-defense' Category

I have fond memories of kids trying to look mean when starting a fights. They would first call someone out and then they would get into some form of a stance with the mean look to intimidate the other kid. Well I have even seen kids run home to put on a gi or boxing shorts. Then there was the kids that would scratch a line in the dirt and dare the other kid to step across the line.

When the kids grew up they realized that all of the beginning antics were of no use. It did not make any difference what stance you picked, how mean you looked or what you wore before a fight. All that mattered is how got in the first good strike.

Well in this post I am going to talk about self defense stances that will not only surprise your attacker but may surprise you?

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I don’t know about you but if I could count how many bad karate movies I’ve seen where the good guy is surrounded by a bunch of bad guys and wins… It kind of almost shakes your faith in the martial arts. I mean because as presented – the only way the good guys could win is if the bad guys were inept! I don’t know about you but I do not want to depend on my opponent not knowing what he is doing as my defense!

Imagine you take a short-cut home through an alley and all of a sudden you see a couple of thugs in front of you but as you turn – you notice a couple more thugs materializing from behind some trash cans. You notice they have clubs and knifes and after you throw them your wallet they are still approaching? What do you do? What can you do when multiple attackers are closing in on you? More on this later.

I would submit what most karate schools (evidenced from all of the karate mass attack videos on youtube) teach is dangerous! When I was a kid I used to like watching Peter Pan and Batman and Robin but even back then I had an inkling that never never land was not real. Do we truly have to suspend common sense to take karate lessons?

In this post I intend to critique the seemingly common practice of teaching inept methods of mass attack to karate students and praise the schools that give students a realistic chance. Watch this video for context and note I am not inpuning the fighting ability of the style or participants but rather the concept/strategy employed to ward off a group of attackers. The first minute of this video has the mass attack.

You’ve all seen the ads – you know the ones about the 90 pound weakling getting sand kicked on his face. What did you think? I mostly think scam as the bigger guy/gal would take the skinny girl or guy right? Anyway a lot of comic books pushed this stuff when I was younger.

I thought if I bought the Ketsugo book or xray glasses or whatever – as a kid – it would really work! I mean all I had to do was buy the hypnotism book and I could sway people to my way of thinking… right?

Ok – reality check… something for almost nothing is mostly worth nothing but the ideas might have had merit. Today we have those xray machines to search people at the airport. Psychology has come a long way since Freud – counseling can actually have a positive effect nowadays. Any let me tell you about those skinny kids – some of them can really fight – but they have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get the advantage on a bigger, stronger assailant!.

In this post I’ll outline what is possible and some of what I’ve seen – contrary to what most people think. I’ll also give some insight of what it takes to achieve the self mastery to defend yourself (if you really want to… that is always the question).

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One of the benefits of getting older – you don’t need or want to impress anyone anymore! To what could I possibly be referring to? Well then I have been playing a game on myself for some time now. You see I turned 54 years old this year and I’ve been making a (albeit) slow comeback at the karate school.

Actually very slow as I have done some sparring and some jiu-jitsu training this year – maybe about six to eight times all told and you know what? I’ve injured myself four to six times (in addition to all of the regular injuries at home (that have been decreasing).

So by now you think this is my wa-wa post where I cry about getting older and how unfair it all is. NOPE! Done that already but in this post I will speak to how my training has been adjusting and where it is headed as I head into my “Golden Years.”

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I have fond memories of teasing my sister on my dad’s ranch as she befriended Gobbler, our Turkey. Luckily Gobbler never saw this video (and he was delicious!) and truthfully as big a propoent for self defense as I am – I hope no turkies see this video.

Most of my early childhood years I wondered how to defend myself! I had the normal amount of bully experiences and soon learned the hard way that one had to stand up to bullies. The first lessons on how to defend myself were from Batman and Robin. It drove my dad nuts to hear me talk about how their punches would really work!

Anyway after years of learning and eventually teaching karate – do we really do a good job of teaching basic self defense? I mean there is so much fluff in the martial arts… all of that philosophy about only fighting if there is no other way out and the stuff about forms and even basics. Who ever won a fight by practicing punches from a low horse stance?

Well in this post I’ll answer the question about how well the martial arts teach self defense for the masses (most kids have had a lesson or two) and if all of the fluff actually helps but most of all I would like to say how I would teach self defense and why I would not open up a school teaching self defense.

First for your perusal is the episode of Longstreet (an old TV flick of my day) where Bruce Lee did a guest spot helping the blind man learn how to defend himself.

Imagine that you have taken a year of karate lessons from your local dojo and you decided to take a short-cut home from school (through the park) because you are running late and it is getting dark. Oh yeah – you are a 15 year-old girl. You are confident because you hold a blue belt and have actually had some sparring experience – loved it but the other girl – not so much!

Well some other teen boys approach you as dusk falls – asking if you want to party. There are three of them and they are younger than you. You tell them no thanks and as you try to leave – they block the trail in both directions! Still talking they say that have some beers in a cooler nearby and how about having a bit of fun.

Your escape route is seemingly cut off and you don’t want to go with these boys for a “bit of fun” so what do you do?

More on this later but in this post I will examine what fighting spirit is and how it can help one make good self-defense decisions. Also I will talk about the lack of fighting spirit and the ramifications of that. In a nut shell the fight or flight decision in us sometimes has to be made in an instant for us to gain a momentary advantage. If we do not act when we have a tactical advantage – your chances of a good outcome diminish!

Take a look at this video to see what is possible as Dr. Ruthless so aptly demonstrates.

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