Armed Or Unarmed – What Is Your Self Defense Tactic?
A Google search for the definition of self-defense yields this return: ‘defense of one’s person or interests, especially through the use of physical force, which is permitted in certain cases as an answer to a charge of violent crime. ‘Self-defense and being prepared to defend yourself, your loved ones and your property is not only your right, it is your responsibility. We should not rely on others to keep us safe when we have the ability to protect ourselves. There are some who believe that self-defense is just another form of fighting. Self-defense is not just about fighting, but rather how to keep you safe from or during a fight. There are two basic self-defense tactics that can be used. They are: armed self-defense and unarmed self-defense.
Unarmed Self-Defense
Unarmed self-defense refers to any self-defense tactic that relies solely on the use of mind or body for protection. An example of the mental self-defense tactic is the use of verbal judo. This is using your words to prevent or de-escalate a situation. You can also study self-defense and safety tips to learn how to avoid dangerous situations or how to outwit your opponent or potential attacker Physical self-defense encompasses the fighting arts such as Karate, Taekwondo or Kravis Magi. It also includes less sophisticated but just as effective ground fighting techniques. You can attend a short self-defense class that will quickly teach you key moves that can be used in self-defense, or you can spend years mastering one of the fighting arts.
Ultimately, the only weapon you are relying on is yourself.
Armed Self-Defense. This means carrying an object, tool, device or weapon which you can use to defend yourself. Some people choose to carry a lethal force weapon. While I believe in the right to bear arms, lethal force weapons cannot and should not be carried by everyone. I do believe everyone should be able to carry an effective form of non-lethal self-defense. The most popular of these are pepper sprays and stun guns. Both of these have the ability to disable an attacker long enough for you to get to safety. There are also passive self-defense tools, namely personal alarms that will not disable anyone, but can be used to startle an opponent or attract attention to the situation. In my opinion, the best tactic is a combination of both armed and unarmed. You should know how to avoid situations and how to be able to fight back if you encounter an attacker. But you should also carry some type of device you can use for self-defense.
Whatever you choose, make up your mind to be a victor and not a victim. Ate Self-Defense Seminar Industry
A large portion of my income comes from conducting seminars and it has been for over 10 years. For me conducting seminars is a love/hate kind of thing. It is primarily a “love” kind of thing in that I love the teaching, I love meeting the people, I enjoy the travel, but hands down the number one reason is that I truly feel I’m helping people. Where the “hate” aspect comes in is the perception a lot of other people have of what I do, or perhaps even more the perception that most people have of my industry. Most of the seminars I do are self-defense seminars and when people find out what I do for a living they automatically mentally lump me in with a large portion of the industry that isn’t focused on helping people and brush me off with a platitude. Over the 25 plus years I have been in the martial arts I have found that the industry of self-defense seminars isn’t fully respected by either martial artists or by the general public.
When I ask people about their experience with them what I hear over and over is that they’re too expensive,
they’re too cheap so they can’t be any good, they’re too short and you can’t learn anything in an hour or so, the instructor wasn’t competent (they either weren’t knowledgeable, didn’t answer their questions, or they couldn’t preform what they taught and made themselves look bad), and by far the most common complaint is that they didn’t learn anything… or at least anything useful. I understand every one of these complaints and I have seen them firsthand. When I was a teenager I went to more than one self-defense seminar in my area and they were laughable at best. The way I see it there are two main problems with self-defense seminars, and the first is that most instructors aren’t qualified to teach them. Most of the seminars I’ve seen over the last 25 plus years were taught by some guy who has a black belt. Contrary to popular belief having a black belt doesn’t necessarily qualify you to teach self-defense. One of my black belts is in Song ham Taekwondo based solely on what I learned from the ATA I would never dream of teaching someone self-defense.
