Why Martial Arts are NOT Self Defense

Thanks Damian for another well written and very informative article.
I read above that other members are interested in “Combative” books so may I recommend the following:-
Mikinosuke Kawaishi – “My method of self defence” – available as a free download.
Bruce Tegner – “The complete book of Jukado self defence”
Best regards,
Steve (Italy)

Martial arts is choreography. But if you like dancing, I think actual dancing would better build your balance and ability to move around.

For example, boxing is the “sweet science.” Because it’s choreography. If a guy throws that punch then you counter with this punch. On and on.

Think about it: There’s no such thing as a jab, right cross, left hook, etc. These are nonsensical concepts. In real life, I have to hit whatever’s open from wherever a convenient tool is at. There are a million types of punches and strikes. But you see how boxers and martial artists can’t see the forest for the trees. The forest is that I have to be able to strike to anywhere from anywhere. It might visually look like a left jabhookcross.

Martial arts is literally choreography. And that’s what professional fighting is. Professionals dancing with each other for money.

Violence is unbelievably simple. Literally, you can learn it in minutes. The real skill development needs to be in increasing your mobility and vision and awareness and mindset.

Sports – generally ANY sports – have all but one of those; they lack the mindset.

Sports are excellent for building your mobility/balance, your vision and peripheral awareness, etc. But mentally the problem is that you have a sport mindset WHILE utilizing these incredibly valuable skill sets.

Classic example: Any time you see professional basketball players fight, it looks pretty bad. Clumsy punches from gangly limbs swingin all over the place.

Why?

Because even though pro ball players ALREADY have the physical mobility and coordination to really wreak havoc and quite proficiently, when they get into a fight their MIND switches to this phantom boxing or martial arts mode. And they don’t practice boxing — they practice basketball — so they look stupid trying to box.

I see this with pretty much all pro athletes. These people should fuck others up WITH EASE! Why not? Because their BRAINS switch to this phantom fighting mode, which they’ve completely COMPARTMENTALIZED from their incredible physical skill sets, thereby negating ALL of their physical assets.

I mean, I personally find basketball footwork to be incredibly useful to the arena of violence. It’s basically a million drop steps. A good defender has incredible balance and grace and footwork. Likewise, a good ball handler. Look at The Professor on Youtube.

Now, all you gotta do if you’re a ball player in a fight is MOVE EXACTLY THE SAME WAY and strike a vital target. A good defender is always swatting at the ball. Trying to poke it out, intercept, etc. This is like striking at a really fast moving head!

I mean, for Christ’s sake, a pro ball player is like 98 percent of the way to extremely dangerous, but for a shift in their mindset.

This kind of shift is really what Jesus meant when He said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” In other words, change your perspective, because it’s staring you right in the face.

People have literally been programmed into incompetence with respect to violence, through TV and movies and fake, horseshit fighting leagues full of circus acts.

Think about a soccer player. They spend a good deal of time in grappling range with other players, kicking the shit out of a little ball. A minor shift in mindset — do you really want a soccer player kicking you anywhere? And soccer players have mastered the most effective form of close combat kicking anyway. I’d rather risk getting kicked by a Muay Thai fighter.

Except that the Muay Thai fighter at least is thinking in terms of a fight. A soccer player has completely sequestered a VERY DEVASTATING skill set in the tight confines of…sport.

But kicking is kicking. And soccer players are incredibly mobile. Just imagine a multiple attacker scenario where a psycho soccer player is shaking and baking like they’re on a soccer field, and breaking legs right and left. Totally possible.

Basically any sport that requires you to violently run around and have to change direction on a dime is INCREDIBLY relevant to the field of violence. This is like 95 percent of the skill and ability that you need.

I mean, if you can fake someone out so bad with a basketball that they fall on their ass, it would be CHILD’S PLAY to intentionally murder them with your bare hands while moving the EXACT SAME WAY.

As you may know, the assumptions from the system here regarding your potential attacker are that he (she or it) has intent to seriously harm you, has friends, and has a weapon.

Knowing nice techniques for hurting someone is like 5 percent of violence. Is there ANYONE who doesn’t know hitting someone in the throat is unpleasant…at best?

Mobility and balance and vision and awareness are the things that require DISCIPLINE and TRAINING. Knowing that I can hit you in the throat requires NO TRAINING.

But if I’m a lazy, unmotivated asshat, it’s probably going to be tough to pull that off under real stress, against multiple people. Who are shooting at me. With grenade launchers.

So, I think sports are great for training purposes if you think of them that way. And they also provide you a way to build real life fitness and mobility while having fun.

I would also add two more assumptions about your would be attacker(s): That they can feel no pain, and that they can read your mind.

Those might sound bizarre but they will greatly streamline your approach. To recap:

The bad guy…

Wants to hurt you real bad or kill you
Has a bunch of associates also with ill intent
Has weapons (and a drone overhead)
Can feel no pain
Can read your mind

Those last two are not jokes. If the guy can feel no pain, then you MUST do structural damage or worse. Structural damage I would identify as damage which IMMEDIATELY destroys balance. Or consciousness.

Second, you must remove conscious thought as much as possible from your actions and reactions. Another benefit to sport. The benefit of sport is MOVEMENT. Movement is 99 percent of the battle. The one percent is the throat strike. Or whatever.

But conscious thought is too slow, too open to doubt, too telegraphing…on and on.

This is why martial arts are choreography. Under stress and pressure, you can’t even consciously remember most of that shit, or pull it off effectively.

What you want to end up looking like is an unbelievably violent baby throwing a temper tantrum. I’m sure everyone has been accidentally poked in the eye at least once by a baby, or momentarily stunned in some other way.

Violence is easy. What’s really lacking from people is the will to do it, and the mindset to apply it. Because a lot of people — and definitely athletes — already possess 99 percent of the equation. But they’ve compartmentalized their physical assets in the realm of recreation, and they have this stereotypical-Hollywood-professional wrestling I mean UFC-martial arts concept of combat.

Combat is me hitting you in the fuckin head with a brick. And because I’m so gotdamn fast and agile there ain’t shit you can do to stop me. I could’ve been fakin you out with a basketball, but instead I decided to hit you with a brick. What if The Professor thought that?

Literally, all this requires is a shift of perspective. A lot of people have UNBELIEVABLY dangerous skill sets. The ultimate skill is balance and mobility, with respect to physical violence.

Especially in the context of multiple attackers. Because think: You want multiple attackers stackin up like a SWAT entry team. If the SWAT team is comin for you, you don’t want a firing squad — you want a shooting gallery.

If you’re not mobile, you’re fucked. If you got multiple guys, you gotta violently sprint at one of them on the end, going for the eyes or throat. You want to keep moving in such a way so that as they keep having to chase you they keep lining up as much as possible in a line, or running into each other changing direction.

A simple illustration: Ten guys come at you. You take off at a sprint. They chase but they’re not all equally fast. You string em out, then you turn around and sprint back directly at them at full speed.

That’s the basic idea of moving against multiple attackers. And the inferior force absolutely must attack the superior force first with extreme violence and speed. How are you going to do that if you’re just a fat fuck who watches videos? But a great basketball defender or soccer player or football player could absolutely do this. If they didn’t have this fake fuckin martial arts/boxing archetype in their head.

There is no magic to any of this. Just carefully honed psychosis. And great balance and mobility.

So, learn a few strikes. Great. But play a sport for fun and fitness. Workout and develop your balance and mobility.

Like, how many gun owners only practice shooting at a piece of paper that never moves? Wouldn’t you like to practice rolling across floors, and falling down the stairs and shit? That’s real life, baby.

By the way, another pet peeve of mine in addition to martial arts and MMA is anything involving the words “tactical” or “special forces.” Or “Navy SEALS,” who, for whatever reason, have been turned into a platoon of carnival barkers. Is there anything NOT endorsed by a Navy SEAL? Thanks asshole, I’ve already got the pushup down pretty good. Maybe next product. What are we up to now, like 28 Navy SEAL movies. I’m pretty much sick of these clowns.

And anything with the word tactical attached to it is for wannabes and losers. Want tactical? How about a fuckin hammer, or an axe? Will that suffice? Great.

Aside from the fact that a lot of these assholes are considered “special” and yet apparently train in MMA and Jujitsu for “combat” training (what planet are we living on here?) just because a team of spec-ops guys does things a certain way, doesn’t mean that you should. You need to think for yourself, because sadly a lot of these characters even if legit are still actors.

As an example, a team of guys is clearing a house. They go in and basically a team operates like a defensive line in football. That is, everybody’s got a lane and an assignment. So maybe each guy’s covering like 45 degrees of vision, depending on the space. Basically, it’s an assassination squad. Easy to keep looking thru your sights like that. It’s fuckin three in the morning, and you’re about to shoot a guy who’s sleeping cuz someone ordered you to. Great reason to kill.

But, see, I think, what if I’m the guy they’re comin for? I certainly can’t use their tactics. I can’t walk around like an idiot lookin thru a sight like that. I’ve got 360 degrees to cover — in a fuckin sphere no less. Up, down, everywhere.

I recently read some pro-shooter guy’s summary of how to clear your house like a SWAT team. Unbelievably nonsensical horseshit. All the usual “tactical” gibber blabber bullshit terms. Slicing the pie. Blah, blah…I finished reading it holding a brick for some reason.

Look, if there’s a guy hiding in your house WITH A GUN, and you go looking for him — YOU’RE GOING TO DIE! There is NO way to clear your house in such a manner as to avoid a guy with a gun who’s waiting for you from shooting you dead at his leisure.

I’ve about had it with the clown circus that is tactical special forces Navy SEAL Spetsnaz bloobedy blah. I run from anything remotely associated with this horeshit. I don’t even want to use ACTUAL special forces tactics. Because I’m me and not them, and they’re professional wind up toys and I think for myself. A whole helluva lot better.

Again, though, what they are is guys who are fit and mobile. And who can shoot accurately and play with high tech shit. Not impressed. If all you do every day is shoot and play with high tech shit and run and workout, then you’d better be in shape and competent. That’s not an achievement. That’s called doing your fuckin job. Don’t expect congratulations.

This idol worship is over the fuckin top. But it’s right in the same vein as martial arts and MMA, etc, etc. I accidentally typed “marital arts.” More appropriate actually.

Anyway, to finish the one brief example: If there’s a guy – or worse, multiple guys – waiting in your house with a gun, or guns, it would be suicide to try to clear your house in ANY manner. And let’s not forget that you’d be trying to clear a house made out of fuckin BALSA WOOD! There is NO cover ANYWHERE! Jesus Christ.

But even if you’re in an old 1920s bunker like we got here in Detroit and outside Detroit in some areas — back when they built real houses — you still face the same problem, although you have more options.

What you’re going to need in that situation is patience and deception. What makes a clearing attempt suicidal for YOU……also makes an EXIT attempt suicidal for THEM! See where this is going.

Instead of walking into their trap, you have to reverse it and set your own. Patience is one of the greatest attributes you will ever master. And you’ll never master it.

Also highly beneficial in a fight. Because sometimes you want to stop moving completely to better time a move. Great running backs sometimes come to a complete stop — WHILE being chased. Patience requires mental…balance. Physical and mental balance are the real skill sets to never stop improving. Ever.

So, just a hodge podge of examples illustrating how many people have a really fucked up concept of violence and they have this cartoon archetype in their head of a fancy martial artist, and they think they have to throw out all common sense and turn into this mythical creature to deal with or to deal out violence.

Action movies are basically like police state and CIA propaganda flicks. Got it? The requirement for joining the CIA is extreme narcissism, not crazy hand to hand skills. Jason Bourne would get brutally murdered in real life. This is all horse shit.

Violence is incredibly simple, direct, and uncomplicated. What separates the practitioners is their will to employ it, their mental and physical balance, and their vision. You don’t need to learn more techniques. A handful will do. Balance and vision can ALWAYS improve, and so I think people should work on these in different ways that they enjoy and can maintain.

Movement is movement. Whether you’re playin ball or striking someone. Basically, sports ARE martial arts. ALL sports are martial arts.

Cuz the original sport was WAR! But you know…there’s a body count involved… So they basically just started compartmentalizing the idea of moving around and called that sports.

It’s all just moving around. Moving here..OH…now I’ll move there. OOPS…I think I’ll move neither here nor there… Where then? Maybe in a cage!