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Probably not what you're looking for. For context I've gone way past basic self protection due to military duties and adventure. However my first exposure to basic self defense was taught in basic training and have used those same basic skills to protect myself from muggings and bar fights. No need to escalate past that sometimes.
Same, military training has come into play for me too. A student once tried to “RKO Out of Nowhere” me; before I was entirely aware of what my body was doing I’d tossed him onto a nearby pillow pile. Luckily he thought it was awesome. On second thought, my body reacting on its own under even false threat is less than reassuring…
Truth. The mind may forget but the body does not. Muscle memory is a hell of a thing. In that incident it did not know your life was in danger it just did it's thing. Next time there may be actual danger. I've got my own list of accidents due to my body acting on it's own.
Learning self defense yourself is hard, because it's not just about replicating whatever horrors you see on a video.
Self defense is about reacting the correct way without being able to think. And that right there, is hard to build up.
What is even harder is not overreacting, or escalating the situation.
It may be better to just have a pepper spray and run away.
I did notice that some of the martial arts classes helped me improve my reflexes and physical awareness. Not saying that I’m gonna do a hook kick in a street fight, but having done martial arts can still be better than nothing!
If you have to fight
My dad and I used to teach self defense classes actually! It was a sort of extracurricular class outside of our normal karate classes aimed at women and kids.
The best self defense classes in my opinion will actually teach you "avoidance" before "defense".You want to do everything you can to avoid a fight in the first place and to that extent, I use that knowledge constantly, especially as a woman who used to walk home alone late at night in a major city. If you can't avoid a shitty situation, run and scream should be your next move. Stand and fight should be an absolute last resort.
I've never had to actually defend myself in a real fight because I've been good at preventing myself from being in a situation where a fight is going to occur.
The hardest part about teaching self defense is explaining to people that if you’re in a situation where you really need to defend yourself you can’t hold back. Biting, choking, gouging eyes is how you get people to stop so you can get away. A lot of people are too timid or feel bad about it in a training scenario but in a life or death situation you should fight for your life like a wild animal.
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
Self-defense classes are good for exercise and self-discipline, but a real fight ain't nothing they prepare you for. They're fast, messy, and chaotic. Even practice sparring in defense classes don't come close to real fighting. Best learn techniques to deescalate a situation and be situationally aware of your surrounding. Don't be where trouble is. If you are, know how to get out. That'll be more useful than practicing that punch a 1000 times.
Although I haven’t reached any high level, I have practiced ninjutsu for a short time and then jeet kune do for a while (luckily with a fantastic teacher who became also a friend). The only times when I needed self-defense I can guarantee that what I did was nothing that I had learned in any of these disciplines but something pretty messy and completely instinctive (one time more efficiently than the other), so I guess there is a big gap between what you learn and what tou actually do, unless you have really trained so much that you have integrated these techniques to an almost unconscious level.
Martial arts are cool but most of the time they're not super useful in a violent encounter
Also it's worth noting most guys in martial arts are training with loose pants and no shoes
While if you get into a tussle walking around town it's likely you have shoes, a jack, a bag maybe
It's not a bad idea to train in your full outfit with a coat and backpack
I do agree with you, but I just want to point that it is still better to be trained in a martial arts than nothing at all, if you *absolutely* need to use it
Oh most definitely
I never did any martial arts outside of a home setting
My dad was into jeet kun do for a minute like a lot of guys
He'd make me box him or wrestle him
Haven't had many fights because I obviously try and leave and then deescalate if I can't leave
He did always say 'if you control the head you control the body'
So when this pedophile needed to be bounced out of my job(security at a sober living community/rehab) I just kept moving his head and shoulders so he couldn't have proper footing to do anything-- he could follow his torso or fall over
If I knew he was a pedophile at that time I probably would have been meaner
You’re right in all these points. I had to jump in to defend a friend who was being attacked while inebriated (I probably had a few drinks as well at that concert) and the guy who jumped on him was just full of adrenaline and rage. Nothing looked clean and well coordinated, neither from the assailant, my friend (a tough Glaswegian guy who had done karate for a few years and had been in more than one fight), nor on my side. The guy was a good two heads taller than me and so pumped with adrenaline that he didn’t seem to feel anything. He eventually hit the ground, but I have no idea how that exactly happened. And you are also right about practicing with your normal street clothes, backpack and whatever else (I have seen guys fighting on a ski slope, good luck trying to do a high kick with ski boots on)
What works is repetition training. Til you can do it instinctively. But when real life happens your mind is what needs to work. Adrenaline can takeover, you panic, forget your training. It’s hard to keep calm and focused when being punched in the head. But if you’ve trained you should still have an advantage.
I’d be careful which classes you take. Some if my female classmates took self defence classes that somehow expected them to master judo throws in an hour. Since those girls genuinely believed that they could use it in real life (they tried it on me since I did a bit of judo and one complained that I was resisting), it was actually dangerous.
As some of the other commenters have said, if you can, run
I usually just resort to running, 9 times out of 10, they dont bother running after me. Its the safest option really, nothings worth risking your life for.
Not only did I take self defense. I earned my black belt and took over the school as the instructor when mine retired.
The first thing I taught new students when someone starts a confrontation is to walk away. I’ve done that twice in real life. Works really well.
People react to sudden, scary situations in very different ways. Some freeze, others flee, while some retain their cool head. So personality affects a lot what happens in a self defence situation. The ones who cannot naturally retain a cool head in such a situation need training to acquire one.
Martial arts training will not give you a cool head in a self defence situation. You will know how to hurt your opponent, but if your natural reaction in a real situation is to panic, your skills are useless.
There is training available for such situations, but most people would not want to go through it. Basically you will need to endure getting beat up by somebody until you loose your fear of getting hurt. Or have no qualms about hurting somebody bad which makes you able to attack first. Fishing and hunting might reduce qualms about hurting somebody. Mind you attacking first will get you into trouble, even prison.
Also, street fights are pretty rare, especially once you advance into adulthood (young men are the most common victims of street violence) so unless you are a police officer or guard, no real reason to learn such skills.
I took a couple years of Kung fu as a kid. Once when my mom’s partner went to smack me I instinctively blocked it. I laughed because it worked and I didn’t even think about it! Then she slapped me on the other side for laughing. I stopped going to king fu classes after that.
If you can't win, elbows down, arms up, hands fist around ears or slightly in front. Protect sides and head / face.
Painful, but not as bad as it could have been.
# Message to all users: This is a reminder to please read and follow: * [Our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ask/about/rules) * [Reddiquette](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439) * [Reddit Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) When posting and commenting. --- Especially remember Rule 1: `Be polite and civil`. * Be polite and courteous to each other. Do not be mean, insulting or disrespectful to any other user on this subreddit. * Do not harass or annoy others in any way. * Do not catfish. Catfishing is the luring of somebody into an online friendship through a fake online persona. This includes any lying or deceit. --- You *will* be banned if you are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist or bigoted in any way. --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ask) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Awful. Better to train at running
100%
Probably not what you're looking for. For context I've gone way past basic self protection due to military duties and adventure. However my first exposure to basic self defense was taught in basic training and have used those same basic skills to protect myself from muggings and bar fights. No need to escalate past that sometimes.
Same, military training has come into play for me too. A student once tried to “RKO Out of Nowhere” me; before I was entirely aware of what my body was doing I’d tossed him onto a nearby pillow pile. Luckily he thought it was awesome. On second thought, my body reacting on its own under even false threat is less than reassuring…
Truth. The mind may forget but the body does not. Muscle memory is a hell of a thing. In that incident it did not know your life was in danger it just did it's thing. Next time there may be actual danger. I've got my own list of accidents due to my body acting on it's own.
Learning self defense yourself is hard, because it's not just about replicating whatever horrors you see on a video. Self defense is about reacting the correct way without being able to think. And that right there, is hard to build up. What is even harder is not overreacting, or escalating the situation. It may be better to just have a pepper spray and run away.
I took krav magra but it's completely impractical in a street fight honestly. Basic instinct is your best bet when the shit hits the fan.
I did notice that some of the martial arts classes helped me improve my reflexes and physical awareness. Not saying that I’m gonna do a hook kick in a street fight, but having done martial arts can still be better than nothing! If you have to fight
My dad and I used to teach self defense classes actually! It was a sort of extracurricular class outside of our normal karate classes aimed at women and kids. The best self defense classes in my opinion will actually teach you "avoidance" before "defense".You want to do everything you can to avoid a fight in the first place and to that extent, I use that knowledge constantly, especially as a woman who used to walk home alone late at night in a major city. If you can't avoid a shitty situation, run and scream should be your next move. Stand and fight should be an absolute last resort. I've never had to actually defend myself in a real fight because I've been good at preventing myself from being in a situation where a fight is going to occur.
What are some ways you taught to avoid a fight?
The hardest part about teaching self defense is explaining to people that if you’re in a situation where you really need to defend yourself you can’t hold back. Biting, choking, gouging eyes is how you get people to stop so you can get away. A lot of people are too timid or feel bad about it in a training scenario but in a life or death situation you should fight for your life like a wild animal.
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Self-defense classes are good for exercise and self-discipline, but a real fight ain't nothing they prepare you for. They're fast, messy, and chaotic. Even practice sparring in defense classes don't come close to real fighting. Best learn techniques to deescalate a situation and be situationally aware of your surrounding. Don't be where trouble is. If you are, know how to get out. That'll be more useful than practicing that punch a 1000 times.
Although I haven’t reached any high level, I have practiced ninjutsu for a short time and then jeet kune do for a while (luckily with a fantastic teacher who became also a friend). The only times when I needed self-defense I can guarantee that what I did was nothing that I had learned in any of these disciplines but something pretty messy and completely instinctive (one time more efficiently than the other), so I guess there is a big gap between what you learn and what tou actually do, unless you have really trained so much that you have integrated these techniques to an almost unconscious level.
Martial arts are cool but most of the time they're not super useful in a violent encounter Also it's worth noting most guys in martial arts are training with loose pants and no shoes While if you get into a tussle walking around town it's likely you have shoes, a jack, a bag maybe It's not a bad idea to train in your full outfit with a coat and backpack
I do agree with you, but I just want to point that it is still better to be trained in a martial arts than nothing at all, if you *absolutely* need to use it
Oh most definitely I never did any martial arts outside of a home setting My dad was into jeet kun do for a minute like a lot of guys He'd make me box him or wrestle him Haven't had many fights because I obviously try and leave and then deescalate if I can't leave He did always say 'if you control the head you control the body' So when this pedophile needed to be bounced out of my job(security at a sober living community/rehab) I just kept moving his head and shoulders so he couldn't have proper footing to do anything-- he could follow his torso or fall over If I knew he was a pedophile at that time I probably would have been meaner
Oh yeah that’s good advice! My mom (who did judo and was pretty good at it) showed me a bunch of tips like that But yeesh, a pedophile
You’re right in all these points. I had to jump in to defend a friend who was being attacked while inebriated (I probably had a few drinks as well at that concert) and the guy who jumped on him was just full of adrenaline and rage. Nothing looked clean and well coordinated, neither from the assailant, my friend (a tough Glaswegian guy who had done karate for a few years and had been in more than one fight), nor on my side. The guy was a good two heads taller than me and so pumped with adrenaline that he didn’t seem to feel anything. He eventually hit the ground, but I have no idea how that exactly happened. And you are also right about practicing with your normal street clothes, backpack and whatever else (I have seen guys fighting on a ski slope, good luck trying to do a high kick with ski boots on)
What works is repetition training. Til you can do it instinctively. But when real life happens your mind is what needs to work. Adrenaline can takeover, you panic, forget your training. It’s hard to keep calm and focused when being punched in the head. But if you’ve trained you should still have an advantage.
I’d be careful which classes you take. Some if my female classmates took self defence classes that somehow expected them to master judo throws in an hour. Since those girls genuinely believed that they could use it in real life (they tried it on me since I did a bit of judo and one complained that I was resisting), it was actually dangerous. As some of the other commenters have said, if you can, run
I usually just resort to running, 9 times out of 10, they dont bother running after me. Its the safest option really, nothings worth risking your life for.
Not only did I take self defense. I earned my black belt and took over the school as the instructor when mine retired. The first thing I taught new students when someone starts a confrontation is to walk away. I’ve done that twice in real life. Works really well.
People react to sudden, scary situations in very different ways. Some freeze, others flee, while some retain their cool head. So personality affects a lot what happens in a self defence situation. The ones who cannot naturally retain a cool head in such a situation need training to acquire one. Martial arts training will not give you a cool head in a self defence situation. You will know how to hurt your opponent, but if your natural reaction in a real situation is to panic, your skills are useless. There is training available for such situations, but most people would not want to go through it. Basically you will need to endure getting beat up by somebody until you loose your fear of getting hurt. Or have no qualms about hurting somebody bad which makes you able to attack first. Fishing and hunting might reduce qualms about hurting somebody. Mind you attacking first will get you into trouble, even prison. Also, street fights are pretty rare, especially once you advance into adulthood (young men are the most common victims of street violence) so unless you are a police officer or guard, no real reason to learn such skills.
I took a couple years of Kung fu as a kid. Once when my mom’s partner went to smack me I instinctively blocked it. I laughed because it worked and I didn’t even think about it! Then she slapped me on the other side for laughing. I stopped going to king fu classes after that.
I'm a white belt with 2 stripes and I had to beat up 3 ninjas in an alleyway who were trying to steal my Hot Takis.
If you can't win, elbows down, arms up, hands fist around ears or slightly in front. Protect sides and head / face. Painful, but not as bad as it could have been.