What does self-defense mean?
Self-defense means that you will have to defend yourself, or defend a loved one, against one or more people who threaten or attack you. Do not rely on others to help you: most of the time, you will be alone!
- The average police response time in major cities is about 15 minutes. The average length of a physical assault on the street is about 3 minutes… what’s about domestic violence? Take your time and think about it again!
In the world we live in, there is no soft threat, or non-violent attack. Friendly threats and soft violence in a fun and friendly environment do not exist in the real world!
- Learning self-defense is definitely not easy! « « Self-defense techniques easy to learn » or «simple self-defense moves everyone can do » are just marketing slogans and nothing else; self defense is not just about learning techniques. It is also learning to manage the timeline of the aggression: learning to control your stress; learning to manage the critical moment when the attack is detected and your brain and body instantly and automatically enters a completely different state; and learning to choose the right moment to fight back! Can you fight back? Are you going to freeze? Are you ready to fight? Your attacker will probably fight back if you use the simple self-defense moves you learned and if you can’t escape fast! Most people who already got a real threat or who got attacked know that! We speak about real life, not during a martial art tournament or with a partner in a dojo.
You must be prepared for the worst because you will never know the level of violence your abuser is capable of ahead of time. Most of the time, you will not know in advance his weight, his size, his combat skills, whether he will be alone, or armed.
- Even if your attacker is threatening you, physically or verbally, you will never know in advance when or if he is going to cross the line that separates the threat to the attack. What will be the trigger that will push him to attack you? your body language? the words and tone of voice you are using to speak with him ? threat him to call the police? or because his friends just showed up…
- Regardless of the situation, that day, you will freeze! It is a normal mental process. The questions are, how long will you freeze? and how are you going to act during that process?
When you are attacked without a weapon, it is about survival: you can not know in advance, at what level of violence your opponent will stop. The madness, malice or uncontrolled level of anger of your attacker will set the level of aggression and injury you will face (either physical injuries or mental injuries, and probably both)!
If you are threatened with a weapon, it is only survival and nothing else: the person who threatens you with a weapon, no matter what type of weapon (bottle, knife, pen, stone, firearm, stick, etc.), is already someone who is acting with a high level of violence. His state of mind will force him to use this weapon if he thinks it’s the solution to get what he wants from you.
For all these reasons, you should consider self-defense as a survival situation!
You should train hard, and under stressful conditions, because there is a difference between flashy techniques that work in a dojo with a cooperative partner, and practical responses to real-world violence!
The question is not whether it will happen to you one day, but rather to know what you will do the day you are threatened or attacked.
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How to get started: https://kravmaga-calgary.ca/how-to-get-started/
Training in the dark is one of our stress drills we are used to practice.