Tag Info

Sam Harris wrote a good article on the principles of self defense. In summary (quotes are from the article linked): Principle #1: Avoid dangerous people and dangerous places. “What are you looking at, asshole?” “Sorry, man. I was just spacing out. It’s been a long day.” De-escalate and move on. Principle #2: Do not defend your ...

Yes. If you are in a kata-based art, practice your least-favorite kata until you start noticing it pop up in your daily life (opening doors a certain way, stepping to dodge someone in a crowded area just like in the kata). You pick your least-favorite because it is most likely to move you out of your comfort zone. Don't force it though. As you practice, ...

Some great answers here already, but I'll just add that where I used to train, we had a set of "self defence" techniques. Self Defence #1: Run away. It's the first thing all students were taught there. So the answer to your question would be: run away at the first possible opportunity.

There are a lot of good answers and advices for the cases when you already are in trouble. I think martial arts develop an extra sense for danger, which you should use to avoid problems. The best case is that you never need to defend yourself with force. Unfortunately you can always find yourself in bad situation, no matter how careful you are. I follow ...

I have completed the following drills before sparring. I can say that they work very well to put you in a more creative mode of thought. Repeat these drills before sparring. Take a partner and a tennis ball (or anything you can throw to the other person). Face each other at a distance of about 1 metre. The first person throws the ball and calls "left" or ...

Fixation is a natural part of the way we train new techniques and new forms. When you practice, you say, "Okay, I'm going to work on XYZ kata." or "I'm going to train ABC technique now." We then proceed to drill the technique repeatedly. This is good training at a very low level, but it's something that needs to be abandoned at a point. In my estimation, ...

Trying to come up with a checklist of when you should run away is impossible. By myself is one situation, with my 16 year old son another, my girlfriend with bad knees is another, with my 75 year old mom that is out of shape is still another. Then where am I? How many people do I know I'm facing? Each situation is unique and has to be approached as such. ...