Martial Arts Training

Martial Arts Training – The Body as Weapon

The fundamentals of martial arts training is to teach you how to utilize your body as a weapon. There are a lot more potential weapons on the human body than many people realize. By focusing on the two most common areas (the arms and the legs) there are a large number of potential striking points. One of the most important aspects of self defense training is that you learn how to use your surroundings, which in many cases is only your body. Let's break down the two main areas of emphasized in self defense videos and see how many weapons we can find.

Let's start with the legs because they are considered by many self defense training videos as the most powerful weapon on the human body. One of the largest benefits that using your legs as weapon provides is that this area of your body is the hardest to injure, which makes it a safe choice. In military self defense, the feet are used quite often because of boots that are worn by soldiers. Marines will use the balls of their feet, toes, and insteps to attack an opponent. They will even use the cutting edge of their heels to stomp on an opponent. Another potent weapon on the legs is the knees. Knees are ideal for close range strike where extending your entire leg is impractical. It is recommended in several military manuals to strike an opponent in the groin with your knee and as they bend over, you can also use your knee to deliver a strike to their face, which can potentially break bones, but at minimum take them to the ground.

Along with the legs, using your arms and hands is often considered a primary strategy throughout most martial arts training. The hands can be used in a variety of ways. The most well known is simply to make a fist to target soft tissue areas. The edge of the hand can also be used against soft tissue area. The palms, because of their extra padding, is used for a variety of tasks including striking and blocking. Finally, the fingers can be used to rip, gouge, and even tear at soft tissue areas (specifically the eyes, throat, and groin).

With so much emphasis place upon the hands, it can be easy to overlook how useful the elbow is as a weapon. Marines use their elbows very similar to the way that they use their knees. They are striking weapons that are to be utilized during close combat.

As you can see, even when you focus on only the two primary areas, the legs and arms, you can still find a wide variety of potential weapons. Many types of martial arts training will teach people ways to use all of these weapons and more. If you ever find yourself in a position where are being attacked, it is important to remember that you have a wide variety of weapons available to you, and that is only counting different parts of your body and not the surrounding environment.