subject: Defend Yourself! You Have 2 Choices When It Comes To Self Defense - A Chance, Or No Chance At All! [print this page] When it comes to self defense, there are basically 2 perspectives. On the one hand, you have the folks who believe that you should learn to defend yourself. On the other, you have those who believe that it will never happen to them. But, in a self defense situation, regardless of whether or not you believe that it will ever happen to you, there is the reality of the situation.
But, before I talk about this reality, I should probably tell you why I think that I'm qualified to do so. That way, you can come away from reading this article with more than one guy's opinion among many.
You see, I used to be a police officer.
And I worked as everything from a uniformed patrolman to an undercover black market and drug suppression investigator. I have even worked special duty in executive security - as a body guard.
What that means is that I have not only seen violence, but I have experienced it first-hand. My experience with violence has been from both sides of the fence - both as a witness to the effects of violence on the victims that I tried to help, and as the target of violence from everyone from the street criminal to the battered housewife-turned-attacker when we had to take her abusive husband into custody - and everything in between.
Add this to my years of growing up in the inner-city, watching and being the target of violence - the reason I became a cop in the first place - and you can see that I have more than ideas and beliefs about the subject.
Now, I'm not telling you these things to impress you. I'm telling you these things to impress upon you two very important things:
First - I know what I'm talking about. And...
Second - Violence is not something that happens to "other people."
And, while there were people that I've met who became the victims of attacks because of what they did, who they associated with, or even because they were violent themselves, by and large, the vast number of victims that I met in the line of duty all had one thing in common.
Do you know what that was?
It was the belief that "it wouldn't happen to them."
So, they were unprepared when the violence erupted.
Does this mean that all untrained or unprepared targets of violence lost? Probably not. But it has been my experience that those who survived, did something that martial artists and self defense students train to be able to do. And, while not everyone that I encountered who studied martial arts or self defense was successful, most of them did this thing that I'm alluding to.
Now, you might think that I was going to say that the 2 choices that you had were to study self defense or not study. But, in reality, that's not it at all.
The reason I say that isn't it is because...
...there are a ton of people who supposedly "study" self defense, when what they really do is read and maybe watch videos about it. Saying you study self defense would be like saying you "study" quantum physics because you read a book on the subject!
And remember, I said earlier that some of those who survived an attack had never studied martial arts or self defense before - and that some martial artists failed, not because of lack of training, but because...
They failed to act!
And this is the choice that will give you at least a chance to defend yourself - regardless of your skill level. This is the reality of the situation that I mentioned earlier.
It isn't what belt you have, or how many techniques you know - although having well-developed skills and the tactical knowledge and strategic thinking that will allow you to use them effectively will give you one hell of an advantage over the guy who knows nothing...
It is your ability to think and act under pressure - in the moment when the shit is hitting the fan - that will determine your fate, destiny, or whatever you want to call it.
Because, if you fail to act - even if you're a 10th degree Ninja black belt - you will have no chance at all!
