Self Defence Training

What is Your Self Defense Training Missing?

The first thing that anyone notices when they start to look into self defense training is that there are so many different schools, styles, and techniques that it's almost impossible to pick one on any kind of a knowledgeable basis. You might feel an intuitive draw to something like the martial arts styles of Aikido or the hand to hand combat training of MCMAP, but you can't learn enough to make the choice from a place of understanding.

Most people just go to whatever class is closest, cheapest, or has the flashiest-sounding name.

The truth is very disappointing to many would-be ninja: no matter what they say, there is no comprehensive self defense system. No one teacher -- in fact, no set of teachers, no matter how large, can teach you everything you need to know about self defense.

There are a lot of ways of categorizing the various kind of self defense training as well. Some people who learn martial arts break them into the classic Eastern set (hard, hard/soft, and soft), but even that primarily addresses only the striking arts. A better way to break them down might be into a two-by-two grid with striking and grappling as the columns and aggressive and receptive as the rows.

That gives you a very basic but essentially complete framework for your hand to hand combat training: you should learn a little bit about each section. Hard striking like boxing or Thai kickboxing, soft striking like T'ai Chi Chuan or Xingyiquan, hard grappling like Krav Maga or Sabmo, and soft grappling like Judo or Aikido -- each has a relevant application to self defense training. Whatever training you're currently taking, it is almost certainly not covering all four bases.

However, there is an even more basic, and very rarely used, method of classifying self defense techniques, based not on what actions you take to subdue the enemy, but how you respond to the enemy's actions. In any scenario in which you are the defender, before you take action yourself, you must first react to an attack. There are only four basic ways to do this.

• You can block, rather than evade, the attack. This puts you into a "taking charge" stance, and you must respond with aggression against his vulnerabilities to capitalize on your situation.
• You can back away, reducing his attacking options but also reducing yours as well. Unless you have a significant reach advantage, your only option is to attack the limb or weapon that you just evaded -- but that's often a good strategy regardless.
• You can move 'inside' the attack, stepping toward your opponent on the inner side of his attacking limb. This can open up a myriad of attack options, but it can also leave you vulnerable if your opponent is skilled in zero-range combat.
• You can move 'outside' of the attack, stepping at a 45-degree angle along the outside of your opponent's attacking limb. This opens up fewer striking options, but is an excellent technique for grapplers and leaves him very few options for a follow-up attack.

Few if any self defense training courses really capitalize on these split-seconds, right as you react to an attack. Pay careful attention to which are the most common in your own self defense training, and you might find a profound insight into what your training is missing.