Hey, LtCol Al here:
There are lots of folks these days talking about “violence”. They speak of it as if it were some new or exotic thing.
But violence has been with us since Cain slew his brother Able and there’s no indication it’s going away anytime soon.
There are also those who “rightly so” point out the obvious and that is that there is a time when violence is warranted, necessary and even the noble thing to engage in.
Violence is violence and one thing that I have learned in my years in the Marine Corps is that no matter where you go in the world, people generally respond to violence pretty much the same way.
Bad guys pretty much behave the same way. The reason? Because we’re all human.
When it comes to dealing with violence I can tell you as a self-defense expert I’m always bombarded with questions of what if the bad guy takes a swing at me how do I block it. What if they have a gun? What if they have a knife?
Or the usual, how do a deal with a guy like this or a guy like that? Usually referencing some sport fighter like a professional boxer or MMA fighter.
All legit questions but, believe it or not the at the root of comprehending the problem is a total misunderstanding of the nature of real violence that visits people every-day.
While there are numerous books, tapes and programs dealing with violence there are a number of truths that once you understand them, you can begin a more realistic approach toward self-defense training.
10 TRUTHS ABOUT REAL VIOLENCE
1. It doesn't matter whether you know one technique or a thousand--YOU CAN NEVER PREDICT EXACTLY HOW YOU'LL BE ATTACKED. It also doesn’t matter who you are, what you know, or what you think you know, if the bad guy gets the drop on you you’re done. AWARENESS IS THE KEY!
2. Ask any cop or soldier who's seen real mayhem: once engaged in physical conflict, all contrived overly choreographed counters go right out the window. No plan survives initial contact, which is why you must be able to adapt.
3. If your training does not focus on instinctive, adaptive responses, your self-defense will FAIL if the attack changes by even one inch from the way you've trained. Your unrehearsed response will be your only response.
4. Combat is fluid, ever-changing, and an attack in progress can CHANGE in an instant. You must train for this reality as if your life depends on it because it may.
5. Believing that there is some "Magic" Technique that will work against numerous methods of attack is a suicidal myth. IT IS FAR BETTER TO DEVELOP THE ABILITY TO IMPROVISE ANY STRIKE FROM ANY POSITION SPONTANEOUSLY WITH POWER, ACCURACY AND FOCUS THAN TO RELY ON CHOREOGRAPHED TECHNIQUES.
6. Real self-defense is about developing instinctive responses of IMPROVISATION, ADAPTING, OVERCOMING and WINNING the fight by ending it with ruthless efficiency.
7. Real self-defense deals with the reality of taking on MULTIPLE ASSAILANTS and developing tools to realistically deal with them.
8. Real self-defense should work even if you're NOT a Navy SEAL, Marine or SWAT Team member etc. The point is your self-defense should not require you to be an Olympic athlete for it to work. If it does then it is not for real.
9. There’s no such thing as a “fair fight”, fair fights are for suckers, losers and the dead. Real violence is ugly, unpredictable and CHAOTIC by nature. Your attacker obeys no rules and neither should you. So why spend years and thousands of dollars practicing contrived techniques based on a reality of fighting that doesn’t exist when you may be fighting for your life?
10. Violence is neither “good” nor “evil” but merely a tool, and the moral implications of it are in the intentions of the wielder of violence. There’s no way to sugar coat it, in order to deal with real violence, you need to learn to visit violence on those who would attack you and do you and your loved ones' harm. Protecting your loved ones and the innocent in your life is a moral obligation. To shirk from this responsibility is to possibly condemn them and yourself to death. No matter what the situation, sometimes you just have to fight and that’s all there is to it. As a law abiding citizen you have an inherent right to self-defense and no one can take that away from you. You must learn to exercise this right with “Moral Certainty” and boldness of action.
Self-defense is “Life-Defense” - not a sport or what you see in the movies.
Now…
▶︎ Maybe you’re a person that has always had a desire to study a martial art but for one reason or another you just never felt you could devote the time necessary to become skilled.
▶︎ Maybe you’re a person who because of the popularity of certain arts never felt you were athletic enough to train in a martial art.
▶︎ Then again, maybe you’re a martial artist who has trained for years. Yet you’ve always had that “nagging feeling” in the back of your mind that, while you felt skilled at the moves, you weren’t confident you could pull them off against an unwieldy attacker.
The question is:
What do you want to do?
Save Time — Train Wisely
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