OK heres a good question that Idontreally hae the ansewer to but I would dearly love. Do mostpeople have a false sense of self security about defending them selves? I remember when I started training ma I suddenly discovered I wasnt so handy with the handsas I thought, that didnt deture me from talking alot of smack though. Your thoughts and opnions please.:hat:
I haven't done or seen any studies about it, but relatively new students tend to over-estimate their skills in real life (aka "the streetz" lol) in my experience. Not so much with higher ranking students.
The higher ranked you get, or the more you spar/fight with more experienced students/people, the more realistic this confidence becomes in yourself. When you first learn something really awesome, I was guilty of this as well, you start to think, "Oh I am the poop, I can drop you any day of the week with this and that and that." Then the higher ranked you get, the more trials and hardships you experience in your journey as a martial artist, your thinking starts to become more humble. In my teen class some of the guys there get a little over confident at times, and sometimes it takes a little bit to make their confidence levels a little more realistic. Sometimes it is sparring with some more higher ranking people, sometimes my fellow instructors and I also spar with them. I've talked and sparred with some guys from school that talked about how their krav training/ WC training was great, and how they could stomp on almost any person of the same size that attacked them. We spar, their full out blows look like a little love tap with a fist. Suffering builds character.
Sometimes people make references to me being able to handle a self defense situation. They say things like "you could kick their ......" I tell them I have no idea how I would do, because I have never been in such a situation. I tell them the one thing I do know for certain is that I would stand a better chance than before I started training MA. And that this time next year I would stand a better chance than today. I hope my training would take over, but I don't know. Maybe I would freeze up. Maybe I would be too slow. Maybe I would be awesome and effective! And yeah, it kind of bothers me that I don't know- having never been tested. But then again, I hope to never have it tested. My school encourages us to be realistic and not get a false sense of invulnerability. It is one of the things that makes me know how great my school is. For example: one day our Sifu was teaching us knife defense techniques. But then he said to not get an unrealistic view of just how bad a situation that would be if we found ourselves in it. He talked about how he tested his knife skills by having instructors come at him with a fake knife covered in lipstick. And he said he was covered with red marks. He said it took several months of practice just focusing on this type of defense before he could take on an attack without getting red marks on him. So no, I have never had any bravado regarding my skills. I do however have some confidence that I would stand a chance, and (as I said before) a better chance every day I train.
From my many observations in different situations, some I had partaken, I have to state, some were actually self-defense where other situations were fisticuffs, brawling for the sake of it. Having a large family on both sides, especially my father’s side, his kin owned a few bars in my youth. (circa; late 50’s-late70’s: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA) One of these had a flat, which we gathered for certain events. I was able to experience/observe these situations, including almost being kidnapped. The problem with family owning bars in that period is that before I reached 13, I was already consuming alcohol and forcing myself a early start of lessons of hard-knocks. In actuality, my mother started me on the path to martial arts a few years before then, but I finally was able to get better after the right instructor, and a tad more instructors after that one. Strange, as each decade or certain era-periods changed, so too were the attitudes, ability, and aggressiveness of people around those bars. As well as my father being in the military, we had changed residency, and certain situations will arise being slightly different per opponent and environment. I had observed season martial artists and brawlers get beat as well as low skilled people defend themselves. As time passes, one realizes there are no "magic bullets". Martial arts have it share of myths, unsupported claims, and an air of excitement. This said, it will instill confidence, but this confidence should never make one complacent. A whole different syllabus of self-defense should be separated if taught in a martial art environment. One of my instructors told me to get better at teaching self defense, I should go forth and attend seminars related to violence or conflict, such as rape, behavior disorder (later to known as anger management), as well as having family contacts with psychologists, lawyers, LEO, to research upon. Many think that self-defense and martial arts are entwined to a point of not being separated. However, one does not have to have hard core practice nor be a hard-core martial artist to develop self-defense For other members reading this thread, please include what self defense-self awareness books or material are to be considered as additional aid. From my long list, I like to start of with some of the stuff from Marc McYoung
One of my instructors had done the same thing with big red markers. Man, you don't realize how weird you can contort your body just to not get marked, but to no avail. It was a exercise to come away with the least amount of marks in the least of vulnerable areas.
