As talked about in an earlier post, I believe one of the reasons people choose to train in martial arts is for a purpose of self defense. Kendo is a weapons-based martial art and is therefore “impractical” as a form of self defense. I believe this way of thinking is flawed.

My perspective is that no martial art is inherently good at training people in self defense. The ability to defend oneself successful doesn’t start with physical ability. It starts with your ability to be aware of your environment.

Consider for a moment the number of people who are mostly unaware of their surroundings. Thanks to modern technology, people walk to and fro, eyes glued to their mobile devices and their ears filled with sound from their headphones. You can’t be aware of your surroundings when you’re attention is mostly focused on a handheld screen.

Even if your attention’s not being sucked away by a screen of some sort, many people are still largely unaware of their environment. Or, they unwittingly put themselves into more potentially dangerous situations by making poor choices. Walking alone at night. Parking far away from well lit and/or populated areas of parking lots. Frequenting areas of town that are known to have higher personal crime rates. Being aware of your environment and making better choices about how to interact with the environment and the people in it is where self defense starts.

I’m using the word “environment” a lot, but of course, if there were no people in the environment, it’s not likely you’ll be accosted by a lamp post asking for your wallet. Self defense means defending yourself against another person, or against other people. Recognizing there are other people in your vicinity is important. Being able to suss out whether those people pose a potential threat to you is even more important. Being able to “read” people is the next line of defense in your self defense strategy.

If you are accosted by another person who may mean you harm, your ability to talk your way out of a situation is your next line of defense. De-escalating the situation should be your first priority. Example: if you’re in a bar and your eyes linger too long on someone and their partner takes offense, you can probably talk your way out of a confrontation. Perhaps your strategy may even be to purchase the couple a drink. $20 is much less expensive than a fight by any reasonable measure in my opinion. Social skills can get you out of many situations, or at the very least, can hopefully buy you some time while you figure out what to do or get someone else (like a bouncer) to intervene in your favour.

One karate sensei I know said “It’s all well and good to know how to kick and punch, but when the drunk guy at the bar throws a chair at you, running is a better choice.” Retreating from a situation that has escalated to imminent violence is a very reasonable approach. Some martial artists would say you shouldn’t have to run away from an aggressor. Frankly, that’s stupid, and it’s probably a contributing factor in a number of fights. I think some martial artists have an inflated sense of confidence in their abilities. When someone pulls a knife, broken bottle, bar stool, chair, table, pool cue or firearm, you’ve likely missed many opportunities to avoid and/or de-escalate the situation.

The reality is, once a fight breaks out, you have failed at self defense. Now you’re in a fight, and unless you’re really good and disable your opponent in one punch, you’re likely to get hurt. Oh, and if your opponent is on drugs, I have news for you – they’re not going down easily. Ask any police officer or security guard for their stories and they’ll tell you how it took half a dozen well-trained guys to take down a shoplifter who was high on whatever.

Where martial arts can have a benefit is IF a practitioner takes “zanshin” seriously and incorporates it into their everyday life. Zanshin is a state of relaxed awareness – literally translated as “remaining mind”. Additionally, martial arts does provide one with more strength and fitness than the average person, so if breaking free of someone grabbing you and running is necessary, you’ll be more likely to be able to pull it off. It also gives a person better posture and more confidence. Both of those things make you less likely to be a target in the first place as most petty criminals are looking for easy pickings.

From my perspective, for the majority of martial arts practitioners, their martial arts training is not providing them a meaningful advantage when it comes to self defense, especially for young people. The amount of focus and training it takes to develop one’s situational awareness is not provided in the average dojo where they’re busy teaching students the basic moves of kata and how to kick and punch. If you have to kick and punch your way out of a situation, it’s because you haven’t been able to manage the situation using basic avoidance and social skills. Ironically, a martial arts dojo is one of the last places you’re going to learn those things.

From the perspective that no martial art inherently teaches self defense, there’s no reason for a person to avoid weapons-based martial arts. There will be improvements in their confidence, posture, strength, fitness and endurance. Those characteristics may be enough for them to not be seen as a target for bullying, muggings etc. Martial arts training has many benefits, but I honestly don’t believe martial arts dojos should be promoting themselves as bastions of self defense training.

What do you think? I’m interested in hearing other perspectives on this topic.