Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
Something we should strive to avoid if at all possible. You can imagine as martial artists who fully understand and visualize often the methods of one's discipline are meant to cause harm and to cause harm requires a certain amount of force to be applied by any number of methodologies. To avoid the use of force and to avoid causing harm, grave harm or death we really have to consider appropriate alternatives.
Avoidance: the action of keeping away from or not doing something. Making the effort to avoid dealing with a stressor. Coping refers to behaviors that attempt to protect oneself from both physical and psychological damage. It comes in many levels and to avoid means to understand and deal with those levels.
Use the lower level non violent kind to train and practice avoidance skills. Avoidance, in this meaning of self-protection and training in martial arts for self-protection, also includes the ability to escape and evade stressors, i.e., an attacker in this example, so that one does not require the use of force levels that result in grave harm or death, the high end of self-defense, the legal kind.
Your avoidance strategy should be such that you actively avoid conflicts that lead to a need for self-protection through physical force that would result in harm, grave harm or death. This does not mean one should avoid all conflicts especially since all of us in martial arts are already aware that the gradients of conflict range from a benign, often psychological in nature, like an argument with another person up to the very use of force levels that will result in grave harm or death. Humans, naturally as you already understand, deal with conflict of all sorts every day of one's life and to avoid means one makes a choice once the appropriate triggers inform you that something is amiss so that you can orient and then decide on appropriate actions with avoidance at a higher priority. After all, somethings a certain level and kind of conflict is necessary while even, in rare cases today, the physical manifestation of force can be required and socially acceptable ... in some rare cases.
Avoidance means a person has the knowledge and understanding of the above and many more concepts and aspects so that one can achieve greater speed in working through the OODA so that the action taken can be as simple as turning and walking another way or to talk to a certain possible threat in a manner that deescalates so that one can walk away or escape and evade the physical conflict.
It comes to mind, as you can imagine from your vast experiences, that avoidance is an art and science that stands on its own much like the styles of karate we practice today. It doesn't require a style in and of itself and as you are already taking into consideration for implementation, it is something that must be taught throughout all phases of martial arts disciplines practiced for self-protection through self-defense.
Think ego, status-seeking, hierarchal needs, social realities and the mind; focus on one's own mind and its monkey dancing aspects because it is those that lead most of us into conflicts where grave harm, death and legal/social ramifications begin.
Consider the price one pays physically, legally, economically and socially when they apply force that causes harm, grave harm and death. Is it worth it? Would it be better in the long run to avoid or escape and evade? In the martial arts, as you already know, tend to take force and its applications for granted. Our training often instills in us a false sense of safety simply because of the safety requirements of the sporting aspects. It is easy to assume once facing a grave and potentially harmful situation that our sport-oriented training program will be sufficient to stay within the social and legal parameters of self-defense, the legal term, but that is not so because those sport-oriented concepts are not appropriate to the non-sport social/asocial criminal activities we would encounter, out there ... on the proverbial streets.
Be wary, be aware, understand and train the concepts and triggers that allow for avoidance. As one professional stated, there are definite road signs leading to violence and you only have to allow them to trigger your natural survival instincts to flee, i.e., flight, rather than fight, fight is only if cornered and left no other choice.
For reference and sources and professionals go here: Bibliography (Click the link)
No comments:
Post a Comment