The most common criticism of RBSD is that its practioners suffer from "Walter Mitty" complexes -- that they rely on dirty tricks (eye jabs) and unrealistic weapony (tactical flashlights) instead of strong fighting fundimentals. Additionally many critics will say that scenario work is often unrealistic, relying on contribed situations and ideas of conflict. The final criticism is that the training itself encourages "fear mongering" -- the notion that there is an attacker around every corner. Admittedly, I've seen and read the work of people who seem to reenforce these stereotypes. My question is this - what do in your own personal practice (teachers, in particular I'm wondering about class structure) to ensure that we keep the "reality" in RBSD? Do you incorporate concepts like the oft discussed "aliveness" or progressive resistance? What's your training mix across ranges? Do you work scenarios? Is there discussion of crime statistics? How do you address weapons? Or, do you think that the above criticisms (like other criticisms such as "sport fighting is useless in the str33t") are just too broad to be concerned about? - Matt
I caught the end of the Brittish Combat Association course at my MMA gym when I started. Frankly what we did was develop the MMA skills most applicable to Self Defence (Clinch work and No-Gi grappling) but we put them more firmly in the context of self defence so we did clinch work in small spaces and we did ground work but allowed the use of dirty tactics such as biting or eye gouging. Id addition the concepts of verbal disengagement and fence work where trainned with an aggressive partner pushing us around then swinging for us with a sucker p[unch at any point they chose, the defender then having to cover up and clinch with the guy to prevent further damnage after the sucker punch. To answer the questions, everything is drilled in an alive manner, the mix is about 1/3 stand up 1/3 clinch and 1/3 ground work, almost everything is MMA sparring but in a difefrent scenario each time, we don't really discuss crime staticitics and weapons where addressed in a completely separate class that I unfortunately don't attend
