Bad guys don’t play by a rulebook.

 

Posted by ADAM CARTER on AUG 20, 2022

Bad guys don’t play by a rulebook.

 

Training in martial arts or self-defense only improves your chances in a real life scenario. A little training improves your chances a little. A lot of training improves your chances a lot. No amount of training will guarantee anything except to know that avoiding a fight is the best option, and you should have learned that on your first lesson.

Most martial arts don’t teach self-defense; they teach dueling. Fights NEVER happen like sparring.

Training against someone who wants to learn with you is radically different from defending against someone who wants to hurt you.

You have zero guarantee that the bad guys aren’t going to kill you regardless of what you do. People who haven’t fought back, who’ve cooperated, have still been killed after a being mugged by bad guys who don’t want witnesses or are just stone-cold unfeeling killers.

You can’t tell WHAT sort of lunatic is attacking you – you’re going to have to make a very quick assessment with incomplete information, and use every resource available to you. With no sure-fire way that will always bring you out of the situation either intact or alive.

These guys don’t play by a rulebook.

For self-defense you fight dirty. You throw dirt and garbage and your boiling hot Starbucks in their eyes. You shout, spit, act completely crazy and insane. Bite, threaten to eat their liver. You don’t grapple on the ground, you don’t spar, you don’t threaten or brandish a weapon – if you have a weapon (many things can be a weapon), use it with as little warning as possible. Use surprise and startle as part of your arsenal. Startle them enough they might back off enough for you to get away.

Most of the scenarios requiring self-defense you’re already in close proximity. If your further than arm’s reach away you’re going to get away NOT fight. Don’t think sparring, think escape.

1. Avoid trouble whenever possible
2. If trouble finds you, run like hell if you can, your objective is to escape
3. If you can’t run, get ruthless – hit as hard as you can, fight dirty
4. If the bad guy falls down, let go, back off, don’t go to the floor….. go back to #2

Weapons make a HUGE difference when it comes to a fight. Most attackers who show you a knife have no intention of using it. Why? Because they brought it for the fear factor. BUT, if someone knows how to use a knife and wants to use it, they won’t show it to you, and I don’t care if you can kick someone unconscious from three feet away, they will cut you, stab you multiple times, because you won’t see it coming. They may ask you if you’ve got change for the meter, or directions, or a light, and when you turn your attention to your pockets, you’ll get cut or stabbed.

The trouble with learning to defend yourself against most knife attacks is that you will NOT see it coming!

So, be vigilant at all times….. These guys don’t play by a rulebook.

“The secret principle of martial arts is not vanquishing the attacker, but resolving to avoid an encounter before its occurrence. To become an object of an attack is an indication that there was an opening in one’s guard, and the important thing is to be on guard at all times.” – Gichin Funakoshi

 Funakoshi quote from ‘Karate-Do Kyohan'.