Archive for September, 2010

There are a wide variety of difference self defense courses available, and they all seem to teach different strategies. However, every strategy can fall into one of the three basic self defense tactics that exist. Some strategies fit solely into one tactic, while other strategies may be a combination of these three tactics. Regardless of what strategy you choose to learn, at least one of these self defense tactics will exist within it. By understanding what these self defense tactics are and what they are trying to achieve, it will be easier for you to identify what type of self defense course is best suited to what you want to learn. Here is a quick overview of all three.

The first basic tactic prevention. Courses that primarily focus on this tactic will cover a variety of issues and strategies. This includes walking, talking, and moving with confidence. It also includes how to verbally and non-verbally communicate a position of power to your attacker, thus increasing the chances that they will either back down before a confrontation actually happens or simply looking for a different target altogether. This tactic also teaches visual prevention such as walking with your keys stuck between your fingers so that they can used as weapon. Visually, this tells a potential attacker that you have some idea of how to deal with a confrontation and attacking you may be more trouble than its worth. This tactic is usually taught in conjunction with one of the other self defense tactics because this tactic is 99% mental and only 1% physical, which means once an attack starts, prevention is no longer an option.

The second basic tactic is the quick escape. With this tactic, you will often be taught techniques that are meant to momentarily stun your attacker, thus giving you a small window to escape. Strategies that fall into this tactic often include quick strikes and misdirection. This will give you a small window in which you can escape the situation. Keep in mind that while you may momentarily stun your opponent and get the chance to escape, you will often have to exit the situation quickly and sometimes run several blocks or more to completely get out of danger. While this isn’t a bad thing, it is important to keep in mind.

The third basic self defense tactic is incapacitation. The techniques that involved with this type of tactic are often much more damaging to an attacker. For example, to stun someone, you might kick them in shins, but to incapacitate someone, you might kick their knees, which can create lasting damage. Essentially, the strategies that utilize this tactic will damage your attacker for an extended period of time rather than stun them for a few moments.

As you can see, each of these tactics focus on creating a single specific scenario. While strategies often use a combination of these self defense tactics, they don’t necessarily have to. If one of these self defense tactics seems particularly suited to your needs, then choosing a course that emphasizes that tactic over the rest would likely be a good fit for you. Remember, the three basic tactics are prevention, stunning, and incapacitation.

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It is really easy to get caught learning as many self defense techniques as possible in order to feel safer in your everyday environment. Unfortunately, this tactic rarely proves to be a good one. There is a reason that most hand to hand combat training methods focus on only few specific techniques that can be modified to be used in a wide variety of situations. There is also a reason that some courses are considered to be much more effective than others. It is important to broaden your view and instead of focusing on the minutia of every technique, spend a little more time looking at the big picture. Here are 3 things to keep in mind when learning self defense techniques.

The first thing that you need to keep in mind is that it is physically impossible to prepare for every potential situation that could arise. You never know who could attack you, where you could be attacked, or when you will be attacked. You don’t know how many attackers there will be or if they will have any weapons. You don’t know if you will have friends or family with you and whether or not they will be able to take care of themselves. As you can see, there are simply too many variables to allow you to effectively prepare for every scenario. That is why the most successful courses teach you techniques that can be applied to a variety of different situations. Instead of focusing on how you will use a particular technique, it is better to focus on general situations in which a technique could be used.

The second thing you need to consider is whether or not you really need to learn hundreds of different self defense techniques. Every successful self defense coach will tell you that it is much better to have 5 techniques that you can do extremely effectively than have 100 techniques that you can sort of do. This is because most techniques can be applied to a variety of situations with a little modification. Additionally, if you sort of know 100 different moves, then you will likely hesitate when you are attacked, because your body and mind is unsure of what move that particular situation calls for. On the other hand if you have a handful of moves that are all for different types of situations, you will immediately know that you have one or two moves to choose from, which means that you can take action faster.

The third thing to keep in mind is your endgame. One of the biggest problems that some hand to hand combat training programs have is that they do not really have an endgame in mind. When learning self defense techniques, you shouldn’t be learning 10 different moves that you can use in a row, but rather 2 or 3 moves that will allow you to get your endgame strategy. This could mean creating an opportunity to escape, disarming your attacker, stunning your attacker, or incapacitating your attacker. It doesn’t really matter what your endgame is. The important thing is to focus on learning self defense techniques that get you to your endgame as quickly and as safely as possible.

These 3 issues are very important to keep in mind when learning self defense techniques or going through hand to hand combat training. The problem is that these issues are very big-picture in nature and many people get too caught up in the details. It is always a good idea to consistently take a step back and ask yourself if what you are learning fits into your big picture plans.