What is the most important part of self defense?

[Gorilla]

I would say being able to take a blow and then make a good self defense choice.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I would say being able to take a blow and then make a good self defense choice.

Knowing what is and what is not self-defense.

 

[terryl965]

awareness is always the most important part of true self defense, knowing your surroundings and what is going on around you.

also the second thing is knowing how to disfuse the stituation without any altercation.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Survival.

 

[Gnarlie]

Lifestyle.

What you do, where you go, who you associate with and when.

How fit you keep yourself. How fast you can run. How sharp you keep your mind. How safe you make life for yourself. How much distance you put between yourself and potential sources of danger.

Lifestyle changes can do the most to minimise the likelihood of a physical confrontation being necessary.

Gnarlie

 

[Egon]

Understanding that in most cases, when it comes to physical confrontation, you already failed in your self defense.

If we are talking only about phyisical aspect of self defense, it's most important to have some really good practiced moves and not be afraid to try to use them..I can't think of anything better.

 

[seasoned]

Knowing what is and what is not self-defense.

There are so many great answers above it will be difficult to not repeat some of them.

This one that Bill M wrote sticks in my mind. "Knowing what is and what is not self-defense".

My Sensei, from the beginning felt that character building was very important and came first before techniques. Along with this was a sense of confidence with yourself and lastly your ability to fight. This is the way I was taught and also the way I teach students. The above progression leaves you with options as apposed to just getting physical right off the bat. The mantra, "learn to fight so you don't have to fight" was spoken often in the dojo and has served me well over the years.

True self defense comes quickly without warning at times, and is very violent. The best way to survive this kind of confrontation is to meet it in like kind.

 

[Cyriacus]

That depends on the person. To Me, the most important thing in Self Defense is actually doing something when the need arises, stopping when enough has been done, or retreat and escape become the better option, if retreat and escape become the better option.

The rest is all skills associated with that.
Actually doing something when the need arises could mean getting punched in the jaw, bending 60 degrees over to the side, recovering, and coming back and winning. Or it could mean talking Your way out of getting into the engagement to begin with. Or it could mean pre-empting the threat with an attack of Your own. There are too many possible scenarios to go with one particular response being Self Defense. Personally, I prefer to stroke with broader brushes, like that one.
Stopping when enough has been done could mean not kicking someones head into a curb, or coming to a halt when You realise Youve fled far enough away and arent being pursued. Or it could just mean stopping the attempts to defuse a situation if it ends up being fruitless trying to get out of it.
And also knowing that unless You suddenly have the advantage, the opportunity to bolt and leave might only show up once, and You should consider taking it if it does.

 

[Earl Weiss]

I would highly reccomend Peyton Quinn's "Real Fighting" and "Bouncer's Guide". Easy reads with good points vis a vis:

Awareness

Avoidance

De Escalation,

Strategic positioning

Eliminating the "Denial" Mindset

Setting the stage for legal issues and handling the authorities

Physical techniques.

 

[Kong Soo Do]

About 20 years or so ago there was a monster flick called 'Tremors'. It was about underground monster worms that would suck you down and eat you. Don't laugh, it was actually a pretty good movie with Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. There was a part where they were trapped on a giant boulder in the middle of the desert with the monster worm circling underground around them. If they stepped off the boulder they'd get it. The characters were 'Earl' and 'Vale'.

Earl - We need to come up with a plan.

Vale - I say we just run like hell!

Earl - Run! Running's not a plan...running's what you do when the plan fails.

It is the same with SD. SD starts long before the physical altercation. If it gets to the physical part...the plans failed.

* Have you layered the defense of your home i.e. proper locks, lighting, cut back shrubs that would hide a prowler, have an alarm, neighborhood watch etc.
* If you have a home firearm, do you know the safe 'lanes/zones' you can fire the weapon? Have you made/rehearsed a plan with family with reactions to various emergencies, exit routes, meeting places etc?
* If you have a weapon, do you REALLY know how to use it? I'm not talking running a box down range at the range. Do you know how to USE it? Can you clear a malfunction? Can you speed load? Can you chamber with one hand? Can you chamber with the reactionary hand? And can you do ALL of this under stress?
* Do you put yourself in 'iffy' situations?
* Are you WELL aware of your surroundings?
* Do you avoid problems? Does your alligator mouth overload your humming bird ****? Do you let your ego write checks your body/skill level can't cash?
* Is your martial art REALLY geared towards SD? Again, time to put the ego aside...is your MA geared towards keeping your **** alive in a REAL fight, with a REAL bad guy or guys, with NO rule set, who is determined, violent and wants to hurt you as much as humanly possible in as little time as possible?
* Have you ever been against a violent felon? How about your instructor...or his instructor. What is your confidence level in what you're being taught?
* Have you played the 'what if' game to think about possible situations and your response(s)?

Do we understand what SD training involves?

We can define self-defense as the strategies, principles, tactics and techniques to defend oneself and/or loved ones from and attack which can cause bodily harm, great bodily harm and/or death.

To begin with, most types of sport traing/competions revolve around some/most/all of the following considerations (be they TKD specific or a more general MMA).

• Has a referee that enforces rules that both parties are required to abide by for the match.
• The match is in a well-lit, dry, level, soft venue.
• The opponent is unarmed.
• The opponent is alone with no chance others will join in.
• Some sort of safety gear is usually involved i.e. cup, mouth piece, gloves etc.
• The opponent isn't trying to kill, maim or severely injure you.
• You get a break in-between rounds to catch your breath, get a drink, get some advice or a pep talk.
• If you've had enough, you can call a time out or tap out or simply quit and walk away.
• There is often an incentive or reward for competing and/or winning such as rank advancement, a prize or maybe cash.

As a comparison, self-defense training is for situations;

• Situational awareness i.e. be aware of your surroundings.
• Factors such as avoidance, evasion, escape and de-escalation need to be taken into consideration and trained for where appropriate.
• Where there is no referee enforcing rules.
• You are likely alone and/or at some sort of a place or position of disadvantage.
• There are no rules.
• There are no breaks, water, advice or anything to assist you.
• The assault can occur in a parking lot, elevator, side street, your car, your bedroom, in the woods etc. It will likely occur in dim light conditions in any type of weather.
• The attacker may be armed, and should be assumed to be armed.
• The attacker may have friends more than willing to jump in.
• There is no safety gear, but likely a plethora of person-unfriendly objects like broken glass, traffic, walls etc.
• The attacker is looking to cause as much damage to you as humanly possible in the shortest amount of time possible.
• To quit is to die (or something possibly worse i.e. rape, love one killed etc)
• The goal is survival, the method is whatever it takes and is appropriate to the situation.

When looking at the difference in training methodologies, consider for the student and scenario;

• Do they always 'go for the knock-out', for points, for a submission? Is so, they've limited there response options.
• Do they have the option and/or opportunity to avoid or evade the potential conflice. Or escape or practice an verbal de-escalation skills?
• Do they have the option of using an improvised weapon?
• Does there opponent have the option of pulling a weapon (planned or improvised)?
• Does there opponent have the option of having his buddies jump in to help?
• Is the student required to observe certain rules?
• Do your students always train inside the Dojang? Are opportunities provided to train inside a vehicle, stairs, elevator, hallway, small room, on grass, on asphalt, on a sloping or wet or slippery surface?
• Do your students always where their uniform? Are they familar with what it would be like to be wearing tight clothing, foot wear, shorts and a T-shirt, a dress etc? Tt is one thing to be warmed up and stretched out and wearing loose clothing in the Dojang. It is quite another to try it in a dress in high heels, a pair of tight jeans, with a handful of groceries, a duty belt etc when you're not warmed up and stretched out.
• Have they ever trained in dim light conditions?
• Have they trained with visual/auditory distractions?
• Do we always use a closed fist when striking at the head while wearing gloves and padded helmets? A blow to the head with a fist in a SD situation may not be the wisest tactic. The chance of injuring the hand on someone’s head is fairly substantial even with a well-placed strike. That is why boxer as an example tape their hands and wear gloves. I'll say it again; the chance of injuring your hand on someone's head/face is fairly substantial. If this occurs, depending on the severity of the injury, it could very well limit your options for further SD. Anyone here ever try to manipulate a weapon with broken knuckles? Or a cell phone, or car keys? I've broken a knuckle before and my range of motion in that hand was limited for an extended period of time. Given that manual dexterity is already limited while under duress, you've just made it even harder by busting a knuckle or two, or spraining your wrist on someone's face. And there is no way to know ahead of time whether or not he'll actually be knocked out.
  
  This also doesn't touch on the possibility of blood borne pathogens the bad guy may be carrying. And now you've put yourself in a position of cutting your knuckles on his teeth or 'bleeding' him from the mouth or nose.

Is the student (or the instructor) well versed in the state statutes of force and deadly force? In consideration like bodily harm, great bodily harm and/or death? Subject factors? What a reasonable person would do in the same situation? Are you required to retreat in your state? Does your state have a 'Castle Doctrine'? An instructor doesn't need to be an attorney, but providing the resources for the student to check into it and touching on some of the topics during class time.

Is the student (or the instructor) well versed in the O.O.D.A. loop? Fight or flight? Flinch resonse? Adrenaline responses such as tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, loss of manual dexterity in the extremities? Considerations can include;

• Even powerful strikes in non-lethal areas can fail.
• A situation which starts out at less-than-lethal levels can quickly escalate.
• A proper joint lock, at the appropriate time, 'can' immobilize even an EDP (emotionally disturbed person) even if strikes fail and if properly applied.
• Be as patient as possible for the situation, look for openings.
• The attack will probably take place at the most advantageous time to the attacker and the least advantageous to us. We may be tired, sick, distracted etc yet still be forced into a situation.
• Some of these predators come in packs which backs them bold. And even being physically big isn't always a deterent.

Physical conditioning is also helpful during training, or at least encouraging it. Being physically fit can help us in several areas of a SD situation. It can also help if an injury has been sustained.

Rather than perhaps being one 'most important' aspect of SD, we can seek to understand SD in its entirety from the pre-attack stage (planning to avoid/de-esculate/escape) to the best way to survive an assault to the aftermath of the attack i.e. legal, injury etc.

 

[Gorilla]

Wow all really great posts!!! Thank You!!!! I can see that those who have posted have allot of passion and expertise around this subject!

Bill Matlock said knowing what is and what is not Self Defense. Bill could you elaborate. I would also like everyone's thought on that statement. I think that we all agree with it we may have different applications and expectations.

Kong Soo Do....I loved that movie!

I agree with everyone that prevention is the best plan! I had moved passed that and was thinking about the physical altercation.

It brings me back to about three years ago when I was in Mexico and had put myself in a bad situation and was ambush attacked. The only thing that saved me was that I was ble to take the initial blows and react with out fear!

 

[chrispillertkd]

I'd say the most important thing, as a means of preventative action, is not going to stupid places with stupid people and doing stupid things.

A close second is cultivating a habit of awareness so you always have a sense of where you are, who is around you, what kind of area you're in, the general layout of the area, and what are some easy exits to get to.

An even closer third place is being courteous to people. I've personally been able to defuse a couple of situations that were close to becoming physical simply by being courteous to someone.

There's no silver bullet that will be a one solution solves all problems kind of thing, but those three are going to go a long way. If they fail just make sure you've put the hours in on the training floor.

Pax,

Chris

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Bill Matlock said knowing what is and what is not Self Defense. Bill could you elaborate. I would also like everyone's thought on that statement. I think that we all agree with it we may have different applications and expectations.

First, know the law where you live, work, and visit. That's one aspect, knowing what the law considers self-defense and what it does not consider self-defense.

Second, avoid places, people, and situations which historically tend to place people in positions where they will have to engage in self-defense. All self-defense is risky; when you raise your fists there is always a chance you will be injured or even killed. So the first part of self-defense is knowing how to avoid having to use it by staying out of bars where fights are common, bad areas of town, walking down the street with money hanging out of your pockets, etc. It might be legal self-defense if you have to defend yourself from a drunken brawler in a bar fight, but it wasn't defensive thinking that put you in that bar in the first place, it wasn't defensive thinking that kept you from simply walking out when things got iffy, it wasn't defensive thinking that made you square up against the bonehead instead of trying to avoid the confrontation. If he swings, is it legal to defend yourself? Probably; but it wasn't thinking about self-defense that put you in that position in the first place.

Third, know what a physical threat is and when it ends. A man who calls your wife a nasty name or flips you off is not a threat (unless he also does something else that is physically threatening). Yet people punch out guys who call their wives names, or burn the flag, or carry a placard in a public demonstration that they don't agree with, and they call it 'self-defense' all the time. It isn't. Likewise, when the threat ends, so does your right to defend yourself from it. That means no shooting at fleeing burglars, for example (although I have posted several links to news stories of people doing exactly that).

And finally, self-defense is physical defense of self against the threat. Waving a gun around? Not self-defense. Firing a warning shot? Not self-defense. Firing blindly out of a window because you heard someone breaking in? Not self-defense. And yet, these things happen all the time, and people claim they engaged in 'self-defense'. They didn't.

There are those on MT I've crossed swords with over these issues in the past. Some feel that I advocate groveling, pleading, or being a victim. I do not. Some feel that I would never defend myself. I disagree. Some feel that I have some feeling for the poor bad guy; this is not the case.

But I see the term 'self-defense' if a very narrow light. It is literally physical defense of the body against attack; and nothing else. It is not punching out the guy who insulted your momma. It is not getting up in the grill of the drunk guy in the bar and offering to give him a guided tour of the parking lot on his face. It is not getting blind drunk and acting like a fratboy with an allowance from daddy. Self-defense does not mean continuing to beat on someone once the threat has been ended, because I want to 'teach them a lesson'. So when I say know what is and what is not self-defense, this is what I mean.

If you know what self-defense is and when you may and may not engage in it, and you find yourself in the position where you must defend yourself, do so immediately and with all your power and skill, and do not stop until the threat is ended. But if you are not in that position, using violence is probably not wise and often not legally self-defense either. Engaging in risky behavior that you didn't have to engage in is the opposite of self-defense; it's self-destructive behavior.

 

[ralphmcpherson]

1.de escalation - it really is quite easy to talk your way out of most potential confrontations. 2. dont hang out in stupid places doing stupid things with stupid people - adhere to this and you will most probably never get into a fight your whole life. 3. general fitness and physical well being. Someone in good physical condition has a big advantage if push comes to shove, even if you have to run, I know I can run about 20 klms before I even start to tire, whereas there is a good chance that the average guy picking fights will be puffed out before the 2klm mark as he's chasing me

 

[ralphmcpherson]

Oh, and another one - take your german shepherd out with you when ever possible In all seriousness, my shepherd (and my previous one) have both saved me from an unwanted altercation. The most recent was only a few months ago.

 

[WC_lun]

Bills post on this is excellent. I would add that a person should also understand what thier training is actually for. If you train for sport, some of that is not going to be effecient on the street. If you don't know which is which, it could cause a lot of trouble. If you must fight for your defense, it is very quick and brutal. What you use must be very effecient and to the point.

 

[Josh Oakley]

Bills post on this is excellent. I would add that a person should also understand what thier training is actually for. If you train for sport, some of that is not going to be effecient on the street. If you don't know which is which, it could cause a lot of trouble. If you must fight for your defense, it is very quick and brutal. What you use must be very effecient and to the point.

Also, if you win, the tactics you use in sport could land you in jail in the street.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[Gwai Lo Dan]

Oh, and another one - take your german shepherd out with you when ever possible In all seriousness, my shepherd (and my previous one) have both saved me from an unwanted altercation. The most recent was only a few months ago.

That's a story I'd like to hear - please give the long version!

 

[StudentCarl]

Kudos to all of the above--many great points. Two ideas that relate to the physical training come to my mind: 1) Have experience with being hit so you don't go into shock and also learn to absorb/cover to minimize damage. This doesn't protect you from everything, but it's an edge. 2) Train your flinch follow-up. The first moves are somewhat instinctive but can be enhanced with training. However some people stand and some 'get off the X'. Do all you can to prevent and avoid, but train for the possibility that the attacker knows how to beat your radar. Last, role play/situational training is important if you're serious about S-D because people sometimes focus on training physical techniques and don't train the mindset that must be there too. I see many people who practice punches and kicks but cringe at the idea of actually hurting someone. Learn not to be a sheep.

 

[Manny]

I would say being able to take a blow and then make a good self defense choice.

Th emost important thing about self defense is not to be there. Alertness and awareness are the most important things, in other words we must be on yellow condition everytime, if you see something wrong leave, if you feeel som,ething wrong just leave.

Manny