Train for realistic combat

For more than forty years I've studied the martial arts seriously. Not for competition but for self-defense. There are many good martial arts available for study. There are many things that I see that I see practiced often that really should be done differently. I say this not because the methods used are incorrect, but rather because I see good martial artists do some really risky and downright foolish things. To illustrate my point, consider this generic situation...... Two martial arts students are practicing self-defense techniques like this. The defender successfully responds to the attack in a way that causes the attacker to fall or be thrown to the ground. Then the defender steps back and assumes a defensive posture in case the attacker should try to attack again. This really makes no sense if you think about it. In a real situation you should never give the attacker a chance to attack again. The concept should always be, "Neutralize and Control". In other words if you come into control of the situation, keep control of it. If you are faced with a life threatening situation, don't risk your health by allowing the attacker another chance to harm you. Think about it this way, If you successfully stop an attacker and then allow the attacker to attack again you have just given them another chance to kill you. If on the second or third attempt the attacker kills you, you might as well have been killed by the first attempt. You have gained nothing by defending yourself only to become a victim. As martial artist we need to constantly look at our training from a different perspective. Often we get into routines that just don't make sense. We train hard to learn to defend ourselves. By stepping back and taking a good look at what we are practicing you may find that you are doing something that could put you at risk. Get out of the practice of defending and then moving back into a defensive position. Instead defend yourself and then continue to control the attacker until you are certain that you won't be attacked again. How you accomplish this depends on the situation. Remember having good self-defense skills are not enough. You also need to use good judgment and good common sense. Only in this way can we be truly prepared to defend ourselves.