Earlier today I ran across a forum comment that caught my eye. The post title read: “Please, Stop Training For Self Defense!” Unfortunately, the discussion quickly turned into a flame war and name-calling session. But it did leave me with a thought:
Does martial arts training help improve self-defense?
The posts’ author ignorantly states
PUNCH AND RUN! There, all the self defense you’ll ever need to know, for free.
I think most of us know it’s not that simple, especially for women. But it did leave me wondering — how well traditional martial arts training does prepare someone for an unprovoked attack? I’ve seen many arguments on both sides over the years, but since I’ve never been physically assaulted, I’ve no idea how well my training would help.
Granted, there are many ways martial arts helps self-defense in non-tangible ways, such as:
- Developing self-confidence. A woman with an air of self-confidence is less likely to be attacked.
- Removing the fear of getting hurt. This is one thing even sport sparring can help with. A fear of pain — especially unknown pain — can paralyze people much more than the actual blow itself.
- Realizing the fight’s not over. Through sparring, a woman can learn that the first punch isn’t the end of the fight. She learns that it doesn’t matter who punches first — only who gives up first counts.
- Learning how to land an effective strike. If a woman does decide to fight back, she’s frequently never been taught how to land an effective punch or kick. Most women (from my very limited experience) tend to pull their punches without realizing it, so they have very little actual hurting power.
- Getting over being afraid of hurting him. Surprisingly enough, I’ve spoken to several women in the past who didn’t fight back because they were afraid of hurting their attackers. It doesn’t matter that their attackers are already in the process of hurting them; from an early age, women are taught that hurting others — physically or emotionally — is tantamount to a mortal sin.
What about you guys who have been in real fights — did your marital arts training help? Have you ever been attacked for real and how did you survive it? Please share your experiences.
Tags: Self-Defense
I did once, around age 20 (long ago), find myself in a dangerous situation that I punched my way out of. Specifically, I hit this much bigger guy in the solarplex and knocked the wind out of him and ran away. I did it after thinking about my choices and deciding that it was the safest way to go. I had no training but I had a lot of cool even though I was being grabbed and in a dangerous spot.
I would think that martial arts training is particularly important to women who have no experience wrestling or with aggressive physical contact. If you are not use to being touched/hit/grabbed, a person can panic. I think much of the martial arts training’s utility is avoid a panic response and be able to think about the possibilities.
My “training” at that point consisted of years of informal wrestling with my brothers and some friends so I was somewhat matter-of-fact about aggressive physical contact.
@BB@50: I think most boys get the informal “training” of wrestling and mock fighting, something girls almost never get. I agree — exposure to “combat” in a safe and controlled setting like a dojo/dojang would be invaluable training for any girl or woman. If I could set public school curriculum, self-defense training would be mandatory, along with training in what is and isn’t abusive behavior in a relationship.
Between age 21 and 23 I worked as a bouncer at a rough bar. I got into about one fight a week as well as several lesser incidents each week.
My self-defense, kata, and sport karate training is what made this a rewarding (at least to me) experience. I did not learn boxing and get into kick boxing until age 25.
You see when I was younger I liked to fight. I was mugged in the 7th grade and sought out “real” karate lessons. At age 14 I was taking Lima Lama lessons at the base karate club and at age 16 I started paying for my Tracy’s Kenpo Karate lessons (that’s the style that stuck).
So by age 21 I had already been fighting for years in the school and was winning tournaments already.
Regular bar patrons with “beer muscle” were no match for a trained fighter. They did not understand distance and could not even hit me.
By the way this is just a testament to formal karate lessons I believe. I don’t think I was anything special. I just had a hunger to learn, practiced and sparred every chance I got.
And you know what? I’ve only been in two skirmishes (that did not turn into fights) for the next 29 years. You see I avoid bars now for the most part and I don’t go looking for trouble.
So yes my karate training helped me.
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The only time that I was actually in a situation that called for self-defense predates my training by a few decades. BUT, I handled it effectively and calmly. I crossed hard to the solar plex and ran away while the big scary tried to breath for the next few minutes. In retrospect, it was easily manageable because I did not panic. Even when holding off a very big guy, I thought calmly about my choices and picked one.
I credit that to the years of informal wrestling with my friends and brothers.
I think for many women, who are unused to aggressively physical contact, the big breakthrough is when they master that initial panic reaction.
One of the older students at the Aikido studio said that if you wanted to win fights, you should buy a gun. Aikido was about something else. I think he’s right. Aikido will help you against untrained people. When a drunk woman tried to hit me in the face while I was on my way to work I just dodged and moved on for another ten steps before realizing what had happened, shrugged, and kept on walking. Perhaps Aikido training enabled me to do that? But people looking for a fight probably have had training in some martial arts, and I’m no fool: Better to stay out of trouble instead of hoping to find your opponents lacking in training.
Anyway, I’m practicing Aikido not because I hope it’ll help me in a real emergency.
Th punch and run-quote is good. Your six points are also good. Better actually.
But to be able to punch and run, most people need to be conditioned to do just that. People who sign up for a four-hour anti-rape course don’t get that conditioning.
Martial arts will give you two things: self-confidence(which is vital), and the will and skill to actually punch(or kick, or take someone’s eye out) if things get ugly.
Now, I’m a guy. And I’m an instructor. I’ve seen one thing with girls. They need to be nudged along a bit more than the guys, but their technique gets better, and they’re vicious in free-sparring. Girls learn to trust their bodies and instincts quicker and better.
I really wish more females got into martial arts. It suits them.