Toughen Up Self-Defense Training Tips

Every self-defense situation, every street fight, every act of interpersonal violence is not a life-or-death encounter.

Quite often self-defense instructors get a little carried away and “pretend” that every conflict in life that turns physical, or has the potential to, should be considered a life or death situation.

They argue that to respond in a manner that is less-than-lethal is to dilute your fighting skills, expose yourself to unnecessary risk and compromise your “survival” in a street encounter.”

My main response to that type of advice is… “BULLSHIT!”  Give your head a shake “ninja-boy” and take a good hard look at the real world.

Sure, I don’t deny that there are situations in the real world of interpersonal violence that need to be taken very, very seriously.  They may even require a response that is likely to cause the death or a serious injury to your assailant… but then again, there are also a lot of situations that don’t.

If you take such an over simplistic view of life and lump ALL self-defense scenarios into life-or-death, do-or-die, kill-or-be-killed responses, you are going to get yourself in a heap of trouble.

If you have some time on your hands, fire up Google or your favorite search engine and run a search on “street fight video clips.”

You’ll come up with a list of sites that offer short video clips and market DVD’s that contain thousands of “real world encounters caught on tape” depicting people involved in knock-down-drag-out scraps.  Girls on girls, guys on guys, girls fighting guys, multiple attackers etc.

(we won’t even get into the adult-oriented “catfight stuff,” I’m just doing this to prove my point… bear with me)

Let me ask you this?  How many of those fights result in a death or serious injury?  How many of them end up with the loser being crippled or permanently disfigured?

Or, do  you notice that in most of these incidents, the combatants pick themselves up, dust themselves off and go their separate ways with not much more than a bruise ego, a fat lip, a shiner or a handful of hair missing?

How practical, moral or realistic would it have been if one of those combatants produced a knife and slashed their opponent’s throat?  Or perhaps gouged out an eye or slammed their opponent’s face into the curb?  Probably a bit excessive don’t you think?

Don’t get me wrong, there ARE some serious confrontations out there.  Threats so severe that if you don’t do something extreme and aggressive, somebody is going to get killed or seriously injured.  That too is a reality that you should include in your self-defense thinking and training.  The law allows for self-preservation and in those rare cases you are legally and morally justified to take a life to preserve your own or someone else’s.

Once again…  I’m NOT saying that deadly force is never appropriate or justified, because sometimes it is.

What I’m saying is…  if you want a realistic and functional self-defense skill set, you need to be able to respond to a variety of encounters.

Allow me to offer up three degree’s physical response for your consideration.  Which one you resort to will be dictated by your “Reasonably Perceived Vulnerability.” (I wrote an earlier post on this subject if you haven’t read it already)

Control and Restraint

This level of response involves subduing and controlling a resistive or aggressive individual who is not particularly threatening to you. Perhaps it is a drunken buddy or relative or a person smaller or weaker than you.

Control and restraint tactics include joint locks, holds and pinning methods that will restrain the individual for your safety and his (or hers) without busting them up or creating a serious injury.  You’d be surprised how often these types of scenarios occur.

Street Fighting

Although a street fight CAN be a life-or-death situation, in most cases they are not.  I consider a street fight to be a “scuffle or a scrap.”  It quite often takes the form of a punch-out or wrestling match but seldom escalates to something that is likely to result in death or a serious injury.

In cases such as these, you’ll probably find your most appropriate response is to neutralize your assailant with strikes, kicks, vascular chokes or submissions.  Hard strikes to nerve motor centers in the major muscles can cause cramps that will take the fight out of your assailant without a serious injury.  Stunning techniques can be applied to leave your opponent daze but uninjured.

Having response options that are suitable to the degree of vulnerability you perceive yourself to be in are safer because you will be less hesitant to bring the matter under control quickly and efficiently before it escalates to a more serous encounter.

Life or Death (Deadly Force Encounters)

Deadly force is justified when you reasonably perceive yourself or someone else to be in imminent danger or death or a serious, disfiguring or permanent injury.

As I said, sometimes, it is necessary to take a life to preserve one… but these cases are rare. I think “deadly force tactics” are an important part of a realistic approach to self-defense but you also need another skills.

Sometimes bones have to be broken, windpipes crushed, testicles “gripped and ripped.”  But ALL THE TIME?  Give me a break.

Note: If you’re interested in developing a strong foundation of “ballistic fighting skills,” I encourage you to check out my Toughen Up Training Guides at http://www.ToughenUp.com/

There is a balancing act between under-estimating and over-estimating the severity or threat potential of a physical encounter.  Responding appropriately will only happen as a preparation, common sense and a self-defense response suitable for the situation.

Please feel free to add your two cents (agree, disagree, challenge or call BS) in the comment section.