Martial Arts - Basic Self Defense Concepts

Should one train for self-defense?

For most men, if their main concern is safety, then probably not. For women and the LGBT community it's probably not that simple, and requires more thought.

If one is really interested in staying safe, there are things that one should do before training in martial arts that will have a much larger impact on one's safety than any sort of martial arts training.

• Maintaining a basic level of situational awareness: Merely being actively engaged with one's surroundings and aware tends to make one a less appealing target. If your attention is on your phone, it's not on your surroundings. If you have headphones on, and can't hear your surroundings, you are not engaged in them.

• Maintaining a basic level of fitness: If one thinks that an environment is potentially a bad one, it pays to be able to move quickly and leave. Sprinting is under-rated as a defensive technique. Think about it, Brave Sir Robin survived the quest for the holy grail because he ran away. Bravely.

• Staying away from dangerous people/places when possible: This is tough because depending on various factors, one may have no choice, but being in the wrong place is the first part of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and if we are honest with ourselves, quite often we know when we should not go somewhere or be around someone.

Unfortunately, it's a sad fact that statistically for women *everyone* is a potentially dangerous person, so they may not really have the luxury of not training for self defense if they want to be safer. Similarly the LGBT community suffers a higher than average rate of assault.

Another factor is that one's home or work may place them in a dangerous location, and finally like I did in the 90's, one may choose to work in nightclubs which are not only more dangerous than an office job, but put me in the position of traveling home at 4am on public transportation, which is statistically much more dangerous than the same train at noon.

In the end the decision to train or not is a personal one, based on perceived risk, and is worthy of serious thought. One thing to consider is that while most people start training due to a desire to learn to defend themselves, people who stay in martial arts rarely stay for that reason. They stay because they enjoy the training, the community, the exercise, and the act of pushing their own limits and learning more about who they really are.

For those who decide that they, in addition to the above steps, also want to train for self-defense, then I suggest training in Judo, Boxing, and Firearms. Other striking or wrestling can be substituted as the most important thing is knowing a particular range (standing, clinch, ground) as long as the training is alive and with resistance.

Typical Self Defense Situations

As I started to get involved in teaching martial arts over twenty years ago, I became very interested in any footage of actual assaults; I was after all teaching people how to defend against such attacks.

Over the years, with cameras being increasingly present, I have been able to observe some common themes:

• Sucker punches: These are very very common, so situational awareness is very important in preventing such attacks. These often end the fight with the victim being knocked out or too dazed to fight back.

• Punches: These happen when two people are squaring off and talking trash. Most of the time this leads to nothing, but sometimes violence starts with a punch from here. These also often end the fight the same way as sucker punches. Verbal and non-verbal de-escalation techniques can very often solve these confrontations before they become violent.

• Grabbing/Clinching: The violence starts with the victim being grabbed and struck or thrown/dragged to the ground. This usually ends any fight from the victim as they are beaten and/or robbed. Again situational awareness can go a long way to preventing such attacks.

• Firearms: In violent situations where one party deploys a firearm, that party usually "wins" the fight. Unarmed defense against a trained person threatening someone with a firearm is best left to the experts, and it's a low percentage, last ditch move even for them.

Basic goals

This is not advice for an elite bodyguard or soldier, they get situation specific training that is beyond the scope of basic advice. This is for your average person looking to not be a victim, the person who can train 1-3 days a week on top of their family and work obligations.

In order to defend oneself during an attack effectively, one needs to be comfortable with what it feels like to be put into one of the above situations (essentially being struck, or grabbed.) One needs to spend enough time training in that range to not be distressed to find oneself there, and a lot of that training needs to be "alive" training, with resistance in order to gain that comfort level.

In simple terms, in order to learn to fight, you are going to have to fight. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds.

For more information on the concept of "alive" training, check out Matt Thornton's blog.

Why Judo?

Many people wonder why I am such a proponent of Judo for self defense, after all it's very sport oriented as martial arts go, it has no striking, and BJJ has more developed ground work.

My thinking is that Judo requires a lot of time doing randori (sparring for lack of a better word) which is live training, i.e. they are not being compliant, but are really trying to throw each other.

In practical terms that means that people are going to grab you, jerk you in various directions, and try to throw you to the ground. You will do this so much that when someone grabs you, you body will immediately feel at home, and know what to do, rather than tensing up and going into shock. You will be able to use that training and apply it as well as the situation allows, where someone without Judo or wrestling would likely be in shock, allowing the assault to continue unimpeded.

Another way of putting it is that Judo makes one learn to stay relaxed and calm in very uncomfortable positions, which is a very valuable life skill even outside of a self defense setting. In fact Judo has taught me that when I am in an uncomfortable position, if I stay calm and focused, and work on small achievable goals, I can work myself out of that position and into an advantageous one.

Here's a video of randori at the dojo I train at, obviously if you are in NYC and want Judo I suggest training with us:

When considering effectiveness, realize that those falls would hurt a lot on concrete, or a hard floor, and if the landing was not skillful, could result in serious injuries. Training against other Judoka who know the techniques and defenses is a lot harder than throwing an untrained person in the street (for the most part, as size and strength always matter.)

Judo is also quite good for general conditioning, and has more than enough ground work for most self defense situations, where getting up from the ground is a main priority. Last but not least, Judo teaches what may be the most practical lesson of all; how to fall without injury. Many people go their entire lives without a violent encounter, but we all fall down, and the difference between falling poorly and well can be the difference between some bruises and a broken wrist, arm or hip.

Here's a fantastic example of both Judo being used in a fight, and what a lack of "ukemi" (Judo breakfall techniques) can result in. The woman is able to throw a larger stronger opponent, and because he doesn't tuck his chin and fall properly, he takes the impact on his face, most likely being knocked out and/or badly hurt:

Why Boxing?

Boxing has long been an American staple for self defense, and with good reason. Boxing teaches how to punch effectively, how to take a punch, how to move, how to maintain distance. It effectively covers all the punching situations that I outlined above.

Some might ask why Boxing over Kickboxing, or Muay Thai and to them I would say that those would both be fine for the person who wants to pursue them, but kicks are generally less practical in a street fight than punches (unless one is a very highly trained kicker) and in most places it doesn't matter who started it, if you go full Muay Thai on someone and smash their face with elbows, and then put your knees through where their nose used to be, like Anderson Silva does to Rich Franklin in this gif... That's going to look excessive and you're going to jail. I hope it was worth it.

Boxing (real boxing at a boxing gym that has real fighters training there) builds the required skills with a combination of drills and exercises usually done on a rotating basis using timed rounds under the direction of a coach. Things like skipping rope, hitting the heavy bag, hitting the double-end bag, pad work, abdominal work, sparring, etc.

One attractive part of this is that it is relatively cheap (usually a low priced membership with the gym, and then a fee for the coach's time.) Another is that the timing is often flexible (i.e. show up when you can, check in with the coach and get started, as opposed to regularly scheduled classes.) Also for those who want to know if they're getting any good, there's always the chance to spar with the more advanced fighters in the gym, which is good for an ego-check.

Here's some beginner sparring at a good boxing gym:

Here's footage of a boxer using all the skills developed in drilling and sparring to keep distance and defend himself against multiple opponents. Notice his footwork, and how his hips remain under him. Watch how his attackers are off balance and how their punches have little effect, while every time he lands a punch, the person hit is knocked back or down.

I am not suggesting that it's a good idea to fight against multiple opponents, this guy is both skilled and lucky, because if he was taken to the ground, those guys would have beaten him badly, but I find it interesting to see the difference between trained punches and movement versus untrained ones.

I can personally vouch for the program at Mendez Boxing in NYC, but really any gym that has fighters should be fine.

Why Firearms?

One of the most important lessons that Boxing and Judo teach is that size and strength matter. Technique can overcome power, but there is a point where it will fail. The bigger, stronger more athletic your opponent is, the larger gap in skill you need to handle them. Judo and Boxing make you acutely aware of your limits. Also as we age, our ability to use Judo and Boxing will diminish but we will be able to depend on firearms much longer.

Firearms are an equalizer when it comes to fighting against a larger, stronger opponent, and are a necessity if one wants to defend against an armed attacker. Across the US, people who witnessed increased civil unrest throughout 2020 decided that they would feel safer if they owned a firearm for home defense, many of them people who would never have considered firearms ownership in the past.

Firearms are a controversial topic, and many people simply do not want to use them, which is fine, but it's important to realize that avoidance will leave one essentially defenseless against them.

For better or worse, more Americans have recently become firearms owners, or are currently considering it, for them I offer this advice:

If one decides to own firearms, then one has a responsibility to train with them under qualified instructors, to clean and maintain them, and to store them safely. Buying a firearm and not training with it is a huge mistake, and won't help at all. It's the equivalent of taking a single Judo or Boxing class and thinking one was ready for anything.

Firearms training for self defense must be done with the same goals as other martial arts, with regular, realistic training that progresses to situational and decisional training. I can vouch for the training at MDTS, PFC and Gun For Hire.

Training Balance

Do I really suggest training in all three? Well, to some degree, yes.

I think that anyone serious about training for self defense needs enough training to be comfortable in all the areas outlined above, which isn't that difficult if one has access to decent training programs. At the very least I would expect a prepared person to have done some hard contact boxing sparring, some clinch and ground work, and unless they are absolutely opposed to it, some basic firearms handling skills. First aid and basic survival training are of course also a good idea but outside of the scope of this blog post.

Many people find that they fall in love with one or more of these disciplines and end up pursuing them further. For me that has been Judo and firearms training, as I just feel like I have taken enough punches to the head at this point in my life.

Closing wisdom from some experts

Why listen to me? What do I know? If you want good advice on this topic from experts, I present my Judo sensei, Shintaro Higashi's podcast on the topic of Judo and self defense,

and this excerpt from Jocko Willink's podcast: