Oh shit, a bell is going off and guess what, it is about my long practiced and personally important martial art that is being “dissed.” Yet, all that it is and all that I thought is was is false but true. There are some very important aspects to its practice, its training and most important of all, “its applications.”
My MA as previously practiced, trained and applied is not a SD system. It just isn’t because of a variety of reasons and those reasons are all provided, in a quick and terse manner so as to get the point across without writing a damn book on that subject, by a professional who has not only trained in MA but has lived a life where as a professional he has had to apply all aspects of the SD world while utilizing a more appropriate form of MA and other learned actions through experience to get the job done while maintaining the integrity of the social requirements and the legalities our society require and apply to everyone.
In almost all martial arts SD instruction I was exposed to and to those who were exposed to it when I gave instructions is based on both “fighting and combatives.” We tended to take the opposite end of that spectrum to teach when in reality we needed to be at the other end. Our MA effectiveness is based on the sport aspect and also the fighting aspect that is promoted as the best and greatest means of SD. Bullsh$#.
Am I angry that what I practiced, taught and believed is wrong on several levels? Nope, just glad as hell that someone finally put out information that is valid yet does not pretend to validate SD except in a more reality form thus waking up the mind to the truth of things before I find I have to defend my SD.
Example: many MA tend to “finish the guy off” type training when the true focus should be on, “Stopping the Threat.” This attitude is what gets folks who find themselves in a SD situation getting cuffed, hauled to jail and trying to dig up a good attorney and bond agent. Fist, none of these MA’s actually teach how to avoid in the first place. None even remotely approach the topic of emotional intelligence. They never discuss or cover such things as levels of force necessary to “stop the threat.”
Perceptions are important but the correct perceptions are critical, i.e. how you perceive the situation, the perception of that antagonist, the perceptions of the legal representatives where the first line is that officer questioning you about what happened, the perceptions of the district attorney who is taking a lead from the officer and so many other perceptions who would include all those righteous folks sitting in that nice wood enclosure with just enough room for twelve chairs and a special room where they get to discuss what a bad, bad, bad boy you have been fighting and all that stuff.
Knowing how one gets caught up in a conflict is important and that leads to avoidance. Lets not forget how one’s ego as in monkey brain can lead you by the nose right down the path toward a time in a small confined space with a lot of big, ugly and mean folks eyeing you like a piece of meat ready for consumption. Yikes!
What is this all about? Well, I just read a section in the book INoSD that speaks to MA and SD, i.e. the differences of what is most often taught as SD in MA vs. “stopping the threat.” Not just stopping the threat but doing so in a manner that directly conuters what is taught, getting the job done as soon as possible so perceptions are more in line with SD, not fighting (oh, yea, as previously stated time and again, fighting is illegal). Does your MA actually teach this and do your moves actually promote this and are they such that they keep you from applying things that are not adequate to stopping the threat vs. fighting?
You are going to have to do the work to find out the answers because I am not qualified enough to do so here in this post. If what I write here rings a bell and if you truly and seriously want to learn SD along with your MA and if you want your MA to be what it is and what it could be then do the work.
Personally, this is one of many things over the last ten years that has opened my eyes to things I was taking for granted. I am not displeased with the value of my MA. It is still what I wanted it to be but now I can temper it in practice and training so that I will make it valuable toward the why to my efforts with it and “NOW” if I am ever required to defend myself I will do so with the knowledge gained and act accordingly. I mean from the very first level of self-awareness through self-reflection to avoidance to the physical as a last resort and to those needs and requirements should it get that far to remain truly and completely within the SD square.
When you do the work you will soon recognize a lot of the words as the influence of the materials that will set the stage for “Reality-based Self-defense.” Oh, and that word reality has a lot more to it than what you may perceive from this simple yet incomplete posting. Yea!
Bibliography:
MacYoung, Marc. “In the Name of Self-Defense: What It Costs. When It’s Worth It.” Marc MacYoung. 2014.
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