What do you really know about self-defense?

 What do you really know about self-defense? Most Martial Arts are set up to fight “12^th century Koreans”.* Other Martial Arts are designed to help fight in a ring with a referee. Both have there place, both have advantages and disadvantages. But the question remains, what about self-defense? The survival mindset is sometime very difficult to teach in a class room setting, even more difficult to teach in a ring. The real question is, what is your attitude towards self-defense. Do you believe you can over power an attacker, out maneuver or even escape? “If you believe you can or you believe you can't, your probably right”, this a very true statement. Techniques alone can not give you what you need to survive an attack. Attitude is the key. What you know about self-defense is what you know about yourself, you are confident or not.

When I teach a class my goal is to go beyond technique and show principals that allow students to think for themselves. It is important for a student to own a principal not a set of techniques that are derived from the principals. It is also important to empower students by building confidence to over coming personal fear. Attitude/confidence is developed form positive reinforce training not by technique alone. What do you really know about self-defense? The answer is, what do you know about yourself. If you have had some training that was empowering, you are on the right path however if you have been bullied or taught inferior techniques you probably are already defeated.

*Allen Shelton