3 Common Misperceptions About Self Defense Training
Self defense training, like martial arts, has inspired a wide variety of myths that surround it. While it's managed to avoid the 'mystic master' phenomenon (where children seem to think of black belts as Hadoken-throwing chi masters from another planet), there are still a few things that you might believe are true...that aren't.
The Ultimate Style
Many kids, teens, and even adults spend years searching their libraries, the Internet, and beyond looking for The Ultimate Style. You know, the one that will teach them how to best any opponent, no matter how powerful or exotic? Others pick a style and then decide that their IS The Ultimate Style, and that any further self defense training is unnecessary.
The truth is that there is no Ultimate Style -- in fact, most experts agree that most fights are won by an individual's attitude and condition more than his specific fighting style. Of course, there are styles that work better for certain people than others. A pro linebacker might be able to benefit from the study of sumo, to use a comical example, but a little old lady never will.
How tall are you? How strong? How focused? How confident are you in your ability to take a punch and keep fighting? What is your favored learning environment? The style that is best for you can only be uncovered by asking all of these questions and more. Instead of focusing on searching for The Ultimate Style, it's best to look for The Most Appropriate Style, and engage in whatever self defense training you are best built for.
Just 5 hours, once a month...
Don't get me wrong -- there are products out there that can take you from knowing nothing to knowing more than 80% of the population in a few hours. But that other 20% will utterly destroy you. It can take years to develop the kind of reflexive, easy grace that true warriors have in the face of aggressive attackers.
No matter what claims your product makes, truly meaningful self defense training requires a commitment measured by who the President was when you started training, not where the sun was in the sky.
These hands are Registered as Lethal Weapons.
Great self defense training can teach you to do a lot with your hands. Advanced techniques teach you how to disarm weapons, destroy joints, and knock out attackers with your bare hands. But in the real world, when the pin drops, nintey-five times in a hundred, you'll be better off grabbing anything -- car keys, a rock, your purse, even a pen -- and using it to give you that much reach, or that much smaller of a striking surface.
Self defense training that concentrates on unarmed combat is great for improving your confidence, your balance, your accuracy, and your poise...but don't leave out improvised weapons, because that's the core of on-your-feet, real-world self defense. If your self defense training regimen doesn't include weapons, find a new one, period.
The Ultimate Style
Many kids, teens, and even adults spend years searching their libraries, the Internet, and beyond looking for The Ultimate Style. You know, the one that will teach them how to best any opponent, no matter how powerful or exotic? Others pick a style and then decide that their IS The Ultimate Style, and that any further self defense training is unnecessary.
The truth is that there is no Ultimate Style -- in fact, most experts agree that most fights are won by an individual's attitude and condition more than his specific fighting style. Of course, there are styles that work better for certain people than others. A pro linebacker might be able to benefit from the study of sumo, to use a comical example, but a little old lady never will.
How tall are you? How strong? How focused? How confident are you in your ability to take a punch and keep fighting? What is your favored learning environment? The style that is best for you can only be uncovered by asking all of these questions and more. Instead of focusing on searching for The Ultimate Style, it's best to look for The Most Appropriate Style, and engage in whatever self defense training you are best built for.
Just 5 hours, once a month...
Don't get me wrong -- there are products out there that can take you from knowing nothing to knowing more than 80% of the population in a few hours. But that other 20% will utterly destroy you. It can take years to develop the kind of reflexive, easy grace that true warriors have in the face of aggressive attackers.
No matter what claims your product makes, truly meaningful self defense training requires a commitment measured by who the President was when you started training, not where the sun was in the sky.
These hands are Registered as Lethal Weapons.
Great self defense training can teach you to do a lot with your hands. Advanced techniques teach you how to disarm weapons, destroy joints, and knock out attackers with your bare hands. But in the real world, when the pin drops, nintey-five times in a hundred, you'll be better off grabbing anything -- car keys, a rock, your purse, even a pen -- and using it to give you that much reach, or that much smaller of a striking surface.
Self defense training that concentrates on unarmed combat is great for improving your confidence, your balance, your accuracy, and your poise...but don't leave out improvised weapons, because that's the core of on-your-feet, real-world self defense. If your self defense training regimen doesn't include weapons, find a new one, period.