What is self defence?

I went to a charity martial arts demo showcasing 12 martial arts. They all claimed to incorparate self defence in there style. Now I'm not going to badmouth any one system or instructor but some were excellant,others completly shocking. How do you guys deal with the problem of explaining to prospective students why they should come to you when there is so much choice out there?By the way all the people I spoke to were convinced that there discipline was the "real deal" including a lot of the formal traditional arts.

I've said this before, but martial arts has very little to do with self defence, full stop. Self defence is predmoninantly about lifestyle choices, intelligence, strength of character and personality, and the ability to deal with the mental and emotional stress of an aggressive confrontation should one arise. If you have some well tuned physical responses should the need arise then that's purely a support system, but once its gone physical you are already in disaster recovery mode - that's not good self defence. So, anyone who said they were going to demonstrate self defence, and then kicked into an exibition of martial arts, has already lost my interest.

The vast majority of the people in my life have never encountered a violent confrontation, ever. The reason for this is that they are intelligent, confident, secure people who have their head screwed on and have nothing to prove. Conversely, virtually every martial artist I have ever met has been involved in several street fights and has encountered more than their fair share of violence and aggression. It begs the question - once we have implanted the indisputable need for self-defence in our own minds, do we then go desperately seeking affirmation of that need?

Sometimes I question who should be teaching who.

most martial arts self-defence is defence against martial arts!

The main reason I started the Self-Defence Federation UK (SDF) in 2000 was to propogate sensible self-protection and self-defence principles and methods

It has frustrated me since 1970 when (after 10 years training)I finallyrealised that nothing I had done or was doing related to self-defence

I wrote this very short article on this very subject quite some time ago.

I didn't go into the main area of self defence as fully as I would have liked - in my opinion, that being the protection of ourselves from ourselves - but yo uget my gist ni the article

enjoy

http://www.completeselfprotection.com/Article-What-is-Self-Defence.html

Good posts by all so far. Here are my article relating to all this:

Is your self defence training any good?

The parent to this page gives details on soft skills information from the Tueller drill to the Cooper Colour code.

All great self help gurus usually say something like:

“Start with the end goal in mind.”

Your final objectives will always mirror the process of self discovery within your journey. Always remember that within the semantics of self defence, self protection, reality based martial arts, personal protection, street survival and so forth, the system’s doctrine must look at – in-depth – the early, mid and late phase options of a contact. From my observations, way too many instructors spend too much time lecturing their students about the early phase of a contact and turn it into immature psychobabble- don’t be one of those guys who sits around daydreaming about what colour code of awareness they are in or what mental state they have just anchored. Self Defence is way more than just the early phase, or soft skill (I hate that name) components of a violent encounter.

Before anything else, define your mission- YOUR end goal. This will help to weed out the unnecessary and strip whatever it is that you do down to the generic essentials.

Joe

All great self help gurus usually say something like:

“Start with the end goal in mind.”

I couldn't agree more. The first article I wrote, published in aroudn 2006 about this subject and relating to children's self defence. Reality Training for Children Part 1: Why?Reality Training for Children Part 1: Why?

Great stuff guys!
I consider myself as one of a few people who train In MA for no other reason than having fun with like minded friends with the possibility that maybe, just maybe some skills will transfer to a violent confrontation. I myself have pondered Mikes theory of a self fulfilling prophecy in regard to practicing MA...I tell our students constantly that although we don't train to fight,we conversely become, I feel, more than capable to handle 95% of what's out there. I do believe we as a community need to re evaluate what our end game is, and also be truthful to ourselves regarding our true ability. Mike Wright is one of the most physically/psychologically capable men I've met ...and one of the nicest...
I'll leave you with a pearl of wisdom from Rick Faye regarding working in close protection, but I think really relates to self protection too. "Mick, as I unholstered my side arm, I asked myself 'how did I Screw up so much that this is my only option?' "
Mick x