Self Defence Training for all Martial Artists

Training in martial arts has many benefits. Fitness, strength, competition success, surpassing plateaus etc, all of these things are great achievements that can be attained from years of vigorous effort. But we must not lose the fact that near the top of the benefit list should be to attain a high level of SELF DEFENCE SKILLS.

Its ironic, that nowadays not much actual self defence is practised at many martial arts schools. In a self defence situation on the street, it is not practical to ground fight, feel your opponent out with jabs until you deliver a knockout punch, try and defend yourself with a spinning roundhouse kick or attack with a stepping lunge punch. In many schools depending on the type of fighting concentrated on (striking or grappling) the majority of the class is involved in becoming a better fighter for competitive purposes in mind, with stronger techniques, and about 10 minutes at the end of the class is used for self defence training. Having said that, IT IS NOT LIKE THAT AT ALL SCHOOLS, but it is at many.

We can not lose the thought that maybe one day, our well being will depend on us being able to defend ourselves well, so having said that I think we should all (including myself) spend slightly longer in realistic self defence training, being more comfortable with things like, wild swings and unorthodox kicks, defending against two or more attackers, defending against realistic knife attacks, and learning how to read aggressive behaviour. Throughout my time with this blog, Im sure the following topic will come up in many articles so I leave you by saying, FIGHTING ON THE STREET IS VERY DIFFERENT TO FIGHTING IN THE GYM OR DOJO. PLEASE BE PREPARED...just in case.

Marks