Use of Force Options

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

I was reading Mr. MacYoung’s wall, i.e., read it HERE , when it occurred to me that in martial arts do they teach, “use of force options?” I understand that some will teach force options but do they actually teach the use of those force options in self-defense. 

You would think so but it occurred to me that use of force options as it was once thought of in my studies may actually extend beyond those force decisions and options I have studied to date. 

When I think of it as a subject of self-defense I think beyond “Technique Based” self-defense training that seems to be the mainstay of most SD courses. Do they actually teach how to choose and apply the various levels of force options available to practitioners toward self-defense? I think of, “Force options as awareness first and foremost leading to avoidance leading to escape-n-evade leading to deescalation leading to the actual physical levels of force to apply in stopping damage leading to the actions one takes when all the other options are exhausted. 

It can be argued that what I present are not actually force options but I tend to think one of those force options is to determine whether “Force as in Physical Force” should be used. This is where this article is headed, i.e., “Do the martial arts or self-defense models in general address these aspects of force options?” If not then we are limiting a practitioners options to those that rely almost exclusively on physical force options and applications. 

One of the recent idea’s I have written about in my articles is, “Multiple Methodologies [actual tactics and attack methodologies of impacts, drives (pushes), pulls, twists, takedowns/throws and compression, etc. are best for stopping a threat].” This concept of multiple methodologies is a principle I added to physiokinetics because it involves any and all techniques that would accomplish the principles toward the use of impacts, drives, twists, etc. It is about not relying on just a singular tool that may or may not prevail but any method of attack/defense that would get-r-done. 

This is why I wanted to consider extending what may or may not be understood as regarding force options and decisions that go beyond mere physical force used appropriately to restrain or stop attacks. Teaching “Use of Force Options” seems to me to include a type of force that does not yet require a physical force level appropriate to any physical force applied in an attack. 

In self-defense you want to not just use your fists, for karate-ka, but other options that are better suited so in our creation of a proper mind-set and mind-state we need to think, consider and utilize our minds to the extent that our use of force options include the non-physical application of a type of force that promotes what I wrote about in this article above. Look at it as using a more psychological form of force to get-r-done (“The force be with you!”).

Bibliography (Click the link)

Why "Technique based" training is not sufficient to staying in the SD Square. “Don’t assume that we are talking about one culture being better than another. Don’t believe that this mentality, of completely destroying an opponent, means that Japanese martial arts are the ‘real thing’ any more so than any other martial or combat art. Different arts address the differences in cultures and countries, circumstances and histories. There is no point in making comparisons.”  - Dave Lowry, “A Perfect Strike in the Japanese Arts (Black Belt Magazine)”

“Karate is not a martial art, as we have discussed before. It was not practiced by a martial class. It was not created to kill instantly, to devastate. It had different goals and a different approach. When it was introduced to mainland Japan, it’s early pioneers there worked tirelessly to make it respectable and accepted, and that meant making it ‘Japanese.’ That is how we got ideas like ikken hisatsu, or ‘killing with a single strike,’ which were not a traditional part of Okinawan karate.” - Dave Lowry, “A Perfect Strike in the Japanese Arts (Black Belt Magazine)” 

“Karate tends toward one option, the fist. The fist not being the best tool even for karate, empty hands.“ - unknown