Self Defense: Keys to Effective Training

Where you practice martial arts is an important factor in determining if what is taught as self defense would actually work. Some styles and schools have a focus on the artistic and traditional aspects of martial arts, whereas others focus on sport and competition. Even though some styles and schools do in fact focus on self defense, what they are teaching may still not be effective.

Some styles make no separation between these different aspects of martial arts. In doing so they may teach techniques that are effective in a certain areas as something that could effectively be used as self defense. For example, a style that relies on traditional training (such as forms) and one step sparring to be effective in an attack situation may actually be putting their students in a more dangerous situation. This might also be true for those who would rely on sparring techniques as effective self defense.

Some styles teach self defense as one step movements where one person stands still after an attack and receives a series counter movements. Others teach choreography that is full of flashy movie type movements that take the effort of both participating individuals to complete. Neither of the previous while providing some benefits and building certain skills would actually prepare some to fight for their life.

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How self defense is practiced also makes a difference. One step sparring may be a good practice in memorizing vulnerable areas of the body but doesn't address the importance of real time movements or the aggressor's ability to continually act at the same time as the defender. This is where live sparring may be very helpful in developing techniques that may work as self defense.

In live sparring you can develop real time techniques without having to wait or take turns. But sparring has its limitations as well. Depending on the style it my develop skills that may or may not transfer over into a self defense situation. At the same time you may still be training you're self to be at a disadvantage simply because there are no rules when comes to self defense.

Sparring and sport competition however relativistic is still based on rules and fair fighting. Competitive martial arts, in terms of self defense, also does not account for environmental and awareness factors among other things.

As a competitive fighter you know exactly when and where you will have to put your skills to the test. Those factors alone may give an attacker a decisive advantage.

There is often a debate of which types of martial arts are the best for self defense. There are many ways that different martial arts are similar or dissimilar. Martial arts are often broken into two categories: Striking and grappling.

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Which is better for self defense? Again this is all circumstantial. You may have heard sayings such as "all fights eventually end up on the ground" or "whoever lands the first hit will win." There is certainly truth to statements like this but it doesn't prove that either striking or grappling would be more effective as self defense.

A grappler may be able to take advantage of a situation if they can successfully take someone down. Vice versa, a striker may have an advantage if they could stay on their feet. In a self defense situation how you attempt to defend yourself may play an important role in your survival.

Grappling may be very effective in a one on one scenario, wrestling away a blunt weapon, or when you have to overcome a larger attacker. If there is bladed weapon involved or more than one person, grappling may not be the best choice for self defense. Trying to grab or hold on to someone with a blade is likely to be a death sentence, and grappling one person is like to leave you open for free shot from another person when more than one is involved.

In either of those scenarios staying on your feet may give you a better chance of survival. It would be important to be skilled in many different areas of martial arts so you would have a better chance of reacting correctly in different situations.

So how do you know if what you are practicing in you martial arts training could help you defend yourself? Hopefully you are training at a school that has realistic views on what aspects of martial arts their style addresses, and realistic views on what self defense actually is and is not. Additionally, you should use many types of training to prepare and know how they relate to real self defense.

An attack scenario will be nothing like what you are used to in sparring or one step sparring drills. You may in fact have that biggest advantage if you are not a martial artist and actually trained on the streets or in prison. If you know how to distract and take advantage someone and at the same time are willing to hurt them by any means necessary then you might not need any martial arts training at all. This might be the biggest difference between your every day thug and everyday person. Not to mention the martial artist that has not be trained in the reality of survival (self defense) situation, and has preconceived notions of a controlled fight setting made into habit through years of training.

There is no reason that in this day of information that a martial arts school should not have the ability to teach real self defense. But quite often this is not the case. Martial arts may be effective in preparing someone for self defense or it may be a hindrance if done ignorantly.

This article was written by Master Morales of Albuquerque and Corrales NM | Pride TKD