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What's the difference between self-defence and a Martial Art anyway? And how useful was the short self-defence course I did a while back? "What is the difference between a wise man and a clever man? A clever man can get out of a situation that a wise man would have avoided." - From the Talmud Traditional training is only focussed on learning techniques and not enough emphasis (if any) is placed on how to handle the social/psychological aspects of self-defence. Here lies the difference between a Martial Art and Self-defence. What is the best technique in a given scenario? It's something of a hobby of mine to see martial arts instructors claim they teach self-defence when they only teach techniques and never try to inject real-world examples. The argument below applies to women and children but men also don't get the training they need. The social/psychological training needs for men are very different; what are the most likely attacks, and who can a man expect to face? There is more on the market for women (books, short courses etc.) than there are for men. I think there should be more for men given the statistics that men between the ages of 18 to early 30's are assaulted more often than any other group. (Young urban males are most at risk. The national Victims of Crime survey found that, of the individuals who had experienced at least 1 violent crime in 1997, almost a third were aged between 16 and 25 -- Crime in South Africa, ISS Paper 49, April 2001 It has been noted that some techniques would be useful. Certainly teaching techniques would at least satisfy the public perception of what a self-defence course would minimally do. Possibly it would, but we have to examine our motives. Are we trying to meet public perceptions, or help someone out in a self-defence scenario? As the line in the film went, "Best way avoid attack no be there." Good point. I agree completely. But how do you 'no be there' if the 'person' is your stepfather and you're 17 and you live at home and he comes into the bathroom after you've showered 'just to get something' and he likes to stroke your hair and wants to know what you and your boyfriend ''do' together, and he comments a lot on how you and your 14 year old sister are 'developing' . And he touches you a lot and when he hugs you his arm or hand always brushes your chest and now he's finding reasons to be alone with your sister. And he tells her to reach in his pocket and get a quarter. And he wants to come in your room at night and sit on your bed, just to talk, except he wants to see what you are wearing. And what you really wish this teacher at this martial arts self-defence class would talk about this stuff but you're scared to bring it up because he's a guy and maybe you're just making a big deal out of nothing, but you wonder if you're really in trouble here.... and you can't shake this creepy feeling in your stomach and you were hoping you'd learn something in this class cause you've got to go home tonight and your Mom will be working and your sister is away and you're going to be alone there with him*. * 63% of sexual offence victims know the offender by name. Only a quarter of sexual offence victims did not know the offender at all. 1997 national Victims of Crime survey -- Crime in South Africa, ISS Paper 49, April 2001 Welcome to the 'real' world....what 'technique' do you (the martial artist) offer? If you (the teacher) don't know what to do with this student, what are you doing teaching? If the students don't feel able to tell you what's really happening to them, how can you help them? The bottom line seems to be that most martial artists are just not equipped to deal with, let alone teach this kind of stuff. As most martial arts are tactical in nature, they focus on executing techniques that are directly related to physical combat (Don't even get me started on the difference between combat, fighting and assault... You didn't know there was a difference?). There is precious little attention paid to strategic issues. I have found, and I'm sure you will all agree, that the modus operandi of martial arts generally tends to focus solely on "combat", or on their understanding of combat. There is no "technique" available within the accepted martial arsenal for anything not directly related to combat. For example, you can't use a double-reverse jumping-spinning chrome-plated dragon trapping technique on anything but a violent encounter. And why should you not be able to? That's what the "martial" arts were developed for. So understandably, the large majority of martial artists are lost when it comes to dealing with intangible situations where easily recognisable forms of violence are not evident. That's not meant as an indictment, just a simple statement of fact. The key to dealing with intangible violence is prevention. The key to personal safety, is a combination of prevention (risk reduction) and harm minimisation (self-defence and post-event management). The answer unfortunately is quite complex. In fact, my experience is that most people find it all too complex. It is for that very reason that we don't see 12-24 month self-defence programs. The "victim" must learn the most important fact about personal safety management – and that is that an attack has occurred the instant the potential for it exists. For example, she was under attack from the time she neglected to lock the door! Think about it. Learning this single fact, you can begin to understand the steps necessary to increase your levels of safety. You must learn self-worth ("I am worth defending", "No-one has the right to touch me", etc.). You must learn Protective Behaviours, which include kinesics (body language), proxemics (human territoriality), risk minimisation (locking the door). You must learn harm minimisation (conflict resolution, physical self-defence [hard and soft]). You must learn post-event management (dealing with stress, guilt, fear and injury, etc.). You must learn who you can trust, and where you can go for help. You also have to learn what kind of threat you can expect to face. Amongst others, conflict can be dealt with via, strategic, verbal or physical methods. By the time even verbal methods are used, the battle has been raging for quite some time. (See the Five Stages of Violent Crime) However, words do not stop a flying fist once it's in motion. In any case, strategic, verbal and physical methods each have a limited effective range, and to maximise one's personal safety in all situations, each must be applied within its window of opportunity. In the dojo or self-defence class, at least some instructors MUST start to address these issues. Where else do people go? The art of strategy must be relearned, and then taught in a realistic context. I don't mean realistic as in deadly hand-to-hand combat. How do you defend against your own mother? How do you defend yourself in a night club without getting jumped on by the bouncers? How do you defend against police, without getting beaten or shot? How do you defend against your boyfriend/girlfriend? The authorities, (and bodies like the police, insurance companies, Neighbourhood Watch, etc.), offer safety tips like "don't park your car in dark places", "at night, travel in the train carriage nearest the guard", the list goes on. What if you have no choice but to park in a dark place?, what if you can't travel in the carriage near the guard?, What if there is no guard? Most women might agree, one of the most difficult things about defending themselves in public is that in doing so they risk "making a scene". To a woman, this is a very real issue that often prevents them defending themselves (or attacking someone pre-emptively when they feel threatened and possibly justified in doing so). This issue also must be addressed. We must provide them with the strategies necessary to deal with situations in a covert, yet highly effective manner. |
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