Reasons Your Self Defense Techniques Aren't Working

Ever tried making a soup sandwich? Quite screwed up, right? That is how most of the self defense trainings are, a soup sandwich! You will certainly find good self-defense training out there, but comparatively, there Is more bad than good. We are going to mention some categories below, and these are where most of the so-called defense training fall into.

1. Understanding the limits and applications of the techniques
2. Understanding defense
3. Performance evaluation under stress
4. Knowing how crime and violence happens
5. Planning ahead
6. Agendas (more than just self-defense)
7. Marketing something that is not a part of self-defense

There is a major part of the self-defense instructors who teach you techniques that are more likely to get you in trouble than get you out of it. We’ll let you in on the reasons why your self-defense training doesn’t amount to anything.

You Only Learned Open Hand Slaps or Palm Heel Strikes

Straight to the real issue. There are instructors who say that they don’t teach you how to punch because the hand could easily break, or they say that a slap is more efficient than a punch. That may be true but to a certain extent. Human punch is literally a projectile weapon. If you are able to apply a good amount of speed and power to this weapon, you have an instant method of defending. Your question is probably: What if the hand really does break? Throwing punches can cause minor hand breakage, but what’s better? A broken hand or broken nose, jaw, and teeth? Next, the palm heel strike. You can still grab on to your assaulter and punch him a bit more with broken knuckles, but with a broken wrist, what’s the most you can do other than writhe in pain. Hence, what you really need to do is build your hurting strikes. These can be your punches, elbow or hammer strikes. You need your strikes to be able to hit so hard that your attacker is rendered disabled. Yes, it takes time, but that is the reason why self-defense training is difficult. If you got out easy in your self-defense training, then you haven’t really learned anything.

Did you walk out of Your Training as Fresh as You Were When You Stepped In?

Have you been one of those who went to their self-defense training class, and came back out feeling fresh? Are you sure you went in for SELF DEFENSE? Or was it some tasting convention? Defending oneself is a complete act of effort, because of that you shouldn’t be leaving the session feeling perky, but really tired. There are several self-defense trainers out there who believe that self-defense is all about awareness, not fitness. However, you need to be fit enough to fight as well. The self-defense training needs to be as real as possible. If you learned self-defense and it was all fun and games, that is the reason why you haven’t been able to defend yourself effectively.

Talked A Lot In the Class?

You might have been to self-defense class where there was a lot of talking. That was your downfall! Your instructor may have been in love with himself and just kept talking about how good he is and how you can teach yourself by just focusing on his words. However, no one can learn self-defense by just standing around, listening. For self-defense to be effective, there should be a warm-up session of footwork, body mechanics, and shadow fighting. Then after a five-minute stretch, a twenty-minute session of technical work at least, which can include striking games, grappling, practice with a resistant partner. In the end, you can finish up with a super circuit that involves burpees, press ups or squats. Before, you leave your session you should cool down and talk a little about the awareness. This is how your self-defense session should be like. But if all you have done is talk, then you are failing at your self-defense.

Has Your Instructor Ever Faced an Angry Man?

Can someone teach bike riding if they don’t even know how to ride a bike themselves? Ever been taught driving by someone who doesn't know how to drive themselves? Seen a brain surgery being performed by a surgeon who hasn't performed a brain surgery? Just like that for someone to teach self-defense, they need to have a certificate in SELF DEFENSE. Can you believe it that majority of the people teaching self-defense have never even used their skills in self-defense? It isn’t necessary to have been in a fight to be a good self-defense instructor, but the person should have at least learned it from someone who has tested it all in real! The reason you may fail in self-defense is that you have never had the training based on the real-life situations. Your instructor has to be good at training you to fight if he wasn’t then now you know that you need to find a good instructor and get yourself back into that self-defense training session to ensure your safety.

Eye Gouges...Is That All There is to Self Defense?

The BIG question: What would you do if you are grabbed from the back? Most favorite answer of (majority) instructors: Gouge the eyes! But an even bigger concern:

Have you ever gouged someone’s eye out before?

Gouging someone’s eye has its advantage, it causes pain, blindness or even severe trauma. However, what instructor don’t talk about is the “intent”. Was your intent to cause damage to the eyes? It is quite simple, but can you even justify it? In rape or murder it may be justifiable, but in other cases how are you going to justify it? Even if you manage to gouge the eyes, but there will be hell in the legal battle after. But there comes another question: “Could you even gouge the eyes of the guy in such a situation?” It’s not like eyes gouging doesn’t work, but the whole self-defense cannot be based around just that. If you have been given lessons where eye gouging is the crucial part, then you need a new self-defense training. This type of training is most likely to have you fail in self-defense.

Personal Safety or Self Defense?

Confused? So were we! However, self-defense and personal safety are two different entities. Personal safety can be classified as soft skills, whereas self-defense can be classified as physical training. In personal safety, you talk about awareness, breakaways and verbal skills etc. But the focus of self-defense is on the physical skills, where you learn to defend yourself. However, defending should not be confused with fighting either.

What is Fighting?

Headbutting a man Biting someone’s ear or nose Kicking a man to the ground These are some fighting techniques people use, and these are nowhere near being defensive.

What is Self Defense?

Self-defense is the way in which one learns the physical techniques and tools for defense, i.e. punching, kicking, knife-defense, grappling, takedowns, hammerfists, limb destruction etc. It all falls down to the intent. This is one misconception that will probably get you in trouble when you need to defend yourself. Hence, get over this misconception.

Conclusion

We have identified the causes of failing self-defense. Now it is up to you about what you are going to do with it. The sad reality is that there are several self-defense instructors out there who do not give much thought to your defense and are just busy making money for themselves. Hence, here are the questions that you need to ask yourself:

• Do you have the common knowledge of avoiding trouble?
• Do you train yourself daily to get better in the areas we have identified above?
• Can you make a decent strike?
• Do you know how to grapple?

If your answer to all these questions is Yes, then you are all set, if not then you need to get going and figure the best route for yourself and your defense. Make it count, because your life may depend on it!