Self Defense Myths

[Labion]

In my last post I cleared up some misinformation about traditional martial arts, combat sports, and mma. There is much more I wish to clear up but this post will focus on self defense and the many lies surrounding it.

As we all know, traditional arts, aside from spiritual ones, are designed to protect the user and kill an attacker if needed to. Traditional arts are indeed battle tested like in the case of many kung fu styles, muay boran, traditional boxing, karate, etc. They have no rules and pay much attention to detail. However the reputation of traditional arts is going down the drain. And in its place, people try to create new systems to fulfil the purposes of the old ones. This is where self defense comes into play

Self defense is not a particular system but a purpose. To protect, neutralize, disarm, and or kill. However, many people create their own self defense system and use it as a marketing scheme. They sell their system and get money from it. They make a good profit but a lot of advertised self defense systems do not work. Especially gun or knife defense.

With hand to hand combat in self defense, many people essentially use mma and create a fixed sequence of movements to use on a fixed number of attacks. Many people tend to get lost in creativity or flashiness instead of effectiveness. Quickly steering away from the purpose of self defense. In real life, nothing is fixed and everything is random unless you make it that way. No one will stand and allow you to do everything you wish to do. Especially someone with intent to do you harm. But again, many people don't know how much detail and how hard it truly is to create a functional unique fighting system. And at the same time what purpose is there? Why learn something someone just created about 5 years ago when there are actual battle tested arts from probably 500 years ago. In truth many self defense systems now are not very safe or effective.

Knife defense is a big issue. Many knife defense videos are bs. No one wanting to stab you will just half ass an attack and wait for you to do everything you need to. And getting a knife out of someone's hand is definitely not easy. There is indeed actual knife defense within weapon forms of traditional arts. In wing chun, the knife form can be used with any blade or empty handed since that's how wing chun was designed. True weapon defense comes from knowing how to use a weapon yourself. If faced with a knife the best thing to do is run. If you cannot escape then do what is the safest in that situation. Definitely don't get close to the knife like many videos teach people.

Gun defense is also dangerous. Your best bet at defending a gun scientifically is 7 feet away from the gun. Anything after that raises the potential of getting shot. But no one with a gun will let you take that gun away or reach for it. It's better and safer to leave any dangerous situation than to try and disarm someone if given the opportunity.

There is no truly safe way to handle a weapon. There are only safe decisions. Why deal with a weapon when you can run away? Or why try to trap someone's wrist when you can kick them from a distance and stay as far as possible from that person? Many self defense videos and information are extremely unrealistic and will not work. It takes one motion to stab or shoot. How then can a sequence of 5 motions beat that 1?

Please be careful when researching martial arts content online. There are many lies out There that can get people killed.


"Self-defence is only an illusion, dark cloak beneath which lurks a razor-sharp dagger waiting to be plunged into the first unwary victim." -WSL

Hail Satan

[Shael]

...

I like the way you write. Martial arts is a very interesting topic to me. I'll be keeping up-to-date on your posts.

[Jack]

In my last post I cleared up some misinformation about traditional martial arts, combat sports, and mma. There is much more I wish to clear up but this post will focus on self defense and the many lies surrounding it.

As we all know, traditional arts, aside from spiritual ones, are designed to protect the user and kill an attacker if needed to. Traditional arts are indeed battle tested like in the case of many kung fu styles, muay boran, traditional boxing, karate, etc. They have no rules and pay much attention to detail. However the reputation of traditional arts is going down the drain. And in its place, people try to create new systems to fulfil the purposes of the old ones. This is where self defense comes into play

Self defense is not a particular system but a purpose. To protect, neutralize, disarm, and or kill. However, many people create their own self defense system and use it as a marketing scheme. They sell their system and get money from it. They make a good profit but a lot of advertised self defense systems do not work. Especially gun or knife defense.

With hand to hand combat in self defense, many people essentially use mma and create a fixed sequence of movements to use on a fixed number of attacks. Many people tend to get lost in creativity or flashiness instead of effectiveness. Quickly steering away from the purpose of self defense. In real life, nothing is fixed and everything is random unless you make it that way. No one will stand and allow you to do everything you wish to do. Especially someone with intent to do you harm. But again, many people don't know how much detail and how hard it truly is to create a functional unique fighting system. And at the same time what purpose is there? Why learn something someone just created about 5 years ago when there are actual battle tested arts from probably 500 years ago. In truth many self defense systems now are not very safe or effective.

Knife defense is a big issue. Many knife defense videos are bs. No one wanting to stab you will just half ass an attack and wait for you to do everything you need to. And getting a knife out of someone's hand is definitely not easy. There is indeed actual knife defense within weapon forms of traditional arts. In wing chun, the knife form can be used with any blade or empty handed since that's how wing chun was designed. True weapon defense comes from knowing how to use a weapon yourself. If faced with a knife the best thing to do is run. If you cannot escape then do what is the safest in that situation. Definitely don't get close to the knife like many videos teach people.

Gun defense is also dangerous. Your best bet at defending a gun scientifically is 7 feet away from the gun. Anything after that raises the potential of getting shot. But no one with a gun will let you take that gun away or reach for it. It's better and safer to leave any dangerous situation than to try and disarm someone if given the opportunity.

There is no truly safe way to handle a weapon. There are only safe decisions. Why deal with a weapon when you can run away? Or why try to trap someone's wrist when you can kick them from a distance and stay as far as possible from that person? Many self defense videos and information are extremely unrealistic and will not work. It takes one motion to stab or shoot. How then can a sequence of 5 motions beat that 1?

Please be careful when researching martial arts content online. There are many lies out There that can get people killed.


"Self-defence is only an illusion, dark cloak beneath which lurks a razor-sharp dagger waiting to be plunged into the first unwary victim." -WSL

Hail Satan

What's your opinion on Brazilian jijutsu

[Egon]

You don't need to create multiple topics for the same subject otherwise they will just be lost. You can also post here if it interests you: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=513

[HP. Hoodedcobra666]

Post however you feel better. After all your posts could be assembled into a PDF. Martial arts has been a very important part of my life for years, personally. I really like your posts.

[Lunar Dance 666]

In my last post I cleared up some misinformation about traditional martial arts, combat sports, and mma. There is much more I wish to clear up but this post will focus on self defense and the many lies surrounding it.

As we all know, traditional arts, aside from spiritual ones, are designed to protect the user and kill an attacker if needed to. Traditional arts are indeed battle tested like in the case of many kung fu styles, muay boran, traditional boxing, karate, etc. They have no rules and pay much attention to detail. However the reputation of traditional arts is going down the drain. And in its place, people try to create new systems to fulfil the purposes of the old ones. This is where self defense comes into play

Self defense is not a particular system but a purpose. To protect, neutralize, disarm, and or kill. However, many people create their own self defense system and use it as a marketing scheme. They sell their system and get money from it. They make a good profit but a lot of advertised self defense systems do not work. Especially gun or knife defense.

With hand to hand combat in self defense, many people essentially use mma and create a fixed sequence of movements to use on a fixed number of attacks. Many people tend to get lost in creativity or flashiness instead of effectiveness. Quickly steering away from the purpose of self defense. In real life, nothing is fixed and everything is random unless you make it that way. No one will stand and allow you to do everything you wish to do. Especially someone with intent to do you harm. But again, many people don't know how much detail and how hard it truly is to create a functional unique fighting system. And at the same time what purpose is there? Why learn something someone just created about 5 years ago when there are actual battle tested arts from probably 500 years ago. In truth many self defense systems now are not very safe or effective.

Knife defense is a big issue. Many knife defense videos are bs. No one wanting to stab you will just half ass an attack and wait for you to do everything you need to. And getting a knife out of someone's hand is definitely not easy. There is indeed actual knife defense within weapon forms of traditional arts. In wing chun, the knife form can be used with any blade or empty handed since that's how wing chun was designed. True weapon defense comes from knowing how to use a weapon yourself. If faced with a knife the best thing to do is run. If you cannot escape then do what is the safest in that situation. Definitely don't get close to the knife like many videos teach people.

Gun defense is also dangerous. Your best bet at defending a gun scientifically is 7 feet away from the gun. Anything after that raises the potential of getting shot. But no one with a gun will let you take that gun away or reach for it. It's better and safer to leave any dangerous situation than to try and disarm someone if given the opportunity.

There is no truly safe way to handle a weapon. There are only safe decisions. Why deal with a weapon when you can run away? Or why try to trap someone's wrist when you can kick them from a distance and stay as far as possible from that person? Many self defense videos and information are extremely unrealistic and will not work. It takes one motion to stab or shoot. How then can a sequence of 5 motions beat that 1?

Please be careful when researching martial arts content online. There are many lies out There that can get people killed.


"Self-defence is only an illusion, dark cloak beneath which lurks a razor-sharp dagger waiting to be plunged into the first unwary victim." -WSL

Hail Satan

I agree with you here. I think the same about the current fancy names for the different kinds of mma.

In war you need to be practical
But also on the other side if you get defeated, to fall without injuring yourself is important too.

actually this was also mentioned in a video on the shaolin temple that I shared.. I think.

That during war times things would be more practical rather than fancy moves from times of peace.

[Labion]

In my last post I cleared up some misinformation about traditional martial arts, combat sports, and mma. There is much more I wish to clear up but this post will focus on self defense and the many lies surrounding it.

As we all know, traditional arts, aside from spiritual ones, are designed to protect the user and kill an attacker if needed to. Traditional arts are indeed battle tested like in the case of many kung fu styles, muay boran, traditional boxing, karate, etc. They have no rules and pay much attention to detail. However the reputation of traditional arts is going down the drain. And in its place, people try to create new systems to fulfil the purposes of the old ones. This is where self defense comes into play

Self defense is not a particular system but a purpose. To protect, neutralize, disarm, and or kill. However, many people create their own self defense system and use it as a marketing scheme. They sell their system and get money from it. They make a good profit but a lot of advertised self defense systems do not work. Especially gun or knife defense.

With hand to hand combat in self defense, many people essentially use mma and create a fixed sequence of movements to use on a fixed number of attacks. Many people tend to get lost in creativity or flashiness instead of effectiveness. Quickly steering away from the purpose of self defense. In real life, nothing is fixed and everything is random unless you make it that way. No one will stand and allow you to do everything you wish to do. Especially someone with intent to do you harm. But again, many people don't know how much detail and how hard it truly is to create a functional unique fighting system. And at the same time what purpose is there? Why learn something someone just created about 5 years ago when there are actual battle tested arts from probably 500 years ago. In truth many self defense systems now are not very safe or effective.

Knife defense is a big issue. Many knife defense videos are bs. No one wanting to stab you will just half ass an attack and wait for you to do everything you need to. And getting a knife out of someone's hand is definitely not easy. There is indeed actual knife defense within weapon forms of traditional arts. In wing chun, the knife form can be used with any blade or empty handed since that's how wing chun was designed. True weapon defense comes from knowing how to use a weapon yourself. If faced with a knife the best thing to do is run. If you cannot escape then do what is the safest in that situation. Definitely don't get close to the knife like many videos teach people.

Gun defense is also dangerous. Your best bet at defending a gun scientifically is 7 feet away from the gun. Anything after that raises the potential of getting shot. But no one with a gun will let you take that gun away or reach for it. It's better and safer to leave any dangerous situation than to try and disarm someone if given the opportunity.

There is no truly safe way to handle a weapon. There are only safe decisions. Why deal with a weapon when you can run away? Or why try to trap someone's wrist when you can kick them from a distance and stay as far as possible from that person? Many self defense videos and information are extremely unrealistic and will not work. It takes one motion to stab or shoot. How then can a sequence of 5 motions beat that 1?

Please be careful when researching martial arts content online. There are many lies out There that can get people killed.


"Self-defence is only an illusion, dark cloak beneath which lurks a razor-sharp dagger waiting to be plunged into the first unwary victim." -WSL

Hail Satan

What's your opinion on Brazilian jijutsu

I was intending on making a post about grappling soon but i can give you an answer here. As a sport bjj is very good. As a fighting system, it lacks much detail. Any grappling art generally is not safe when it comes to fighting other than a mat or indoors. Even a hard floor can pose as a problem and very uncomfortable for all parties grappling. In my opinion judo is safer for the user and also very effective. The reason being is bjj has weight classes. You will not be able to put someone in any hold or guard if they have more power. I personally saw a bjj guy attempt an arm bar on someone pretty buff, and the buff guy was able to lift him with ease. With judo, you're able to use angles and manipulate weight to throw. As I said before you cannot lay everywhere you stand. But I feel as if bjj is doing good for exposing fake artists. However it also further shows that martial arts in general are not being trained properly and have much misinformation.

[Labion]

Post however you feel better. After all your posts could be assembled into a PDF. Martial arts has been a very important part of my life for years, personally. I really like your posts.

Thank you hphc. That is a good idea:)