Self Defense

Self-defense is an extremely personal thing. No one has the right to touch you, if you do not want to be touched, let alone assaulted. There is a great deal of responsibility that goes along with learning self-defense. There are both legal and moral standards to adhere to. You may have heard of the terms "excessive force" and "premeditated" in relation to self-defense, be it with or without a weapon. Excessive force means that more force (usually way more force) was used than was needed to defend oneself. Premeditated means that the act was thought out and planned in advance. For example if you went and beat someone up in retaliation for something that person did to you or someone else, that would be premeditated. An example of excessive force would be to continue beating on someone who was on the ground and obviously unable to pose any further threat. Excessive force would also be shattering someone's nose for calling you a name or making some sort of threat. The more skilled you become with self-defense the less you should have to use it. The true master knows how to avoid trouble in the first place, and has the confidence to know that they do not have to prove anything to anyone or maim someone for life to be considered "good at self defense".

That is the First Principle of self defense, Don't be there! In other words don't put yourself in a situation where you will have to defend yourself. Learn to avoid potential trouble whenever and wherever possible. This can be as simple as walking way around the school bully and his friends, to not parking your car in an unlit, deserted area after dark. Mostly it means being aware of your surroundings. Take note of who and what is around you. This is part of the training of self-defense. It does not mean to be paranoid and suspect every shady looking character is going to attack you at any moment. It simply means to be aware and observant. If you do notice trouble in advance, you have a chance to react or defuse it before it gets serious. Which brings us to the second principle of self-defense.

The Second Principle of self defense, walk away. If you have been aware and attempted to avoid trouble, but find that trouble finds you, the first thing to try is simply walk away. This could mean that when the school bully or bar room drunk gets in your face and challenges you to a fight, that you have the good sense to politely decline and turn around and leave. That can be the hardest thing to do sometimes. Other times it makes more sense not only to turn around and leave but run! There are plenty of good reasons to walk away. One is that if you are forced to defend yourself you will usually find that it's not all that much "fun" beating the hell out of someone, whether they deserve it or not. In fact it is traumatic for some people to cause injury to other people, for any reason. Another reason to walk away is that there is always the chance that there is more to the situation than you see at first. For example, some real little guy is trying to pick a fight with you, gets you to go outside where 12 of his BIG friends are waiting for you and your money. This is where it makes good sense to run! One other good reason to just walk away is that someone passing by may take you for the aggressor and help the guy who started the fight with you! Sometimes you try to walk away, bit trouble is determined not to let you off that easily.

The Third Principle of self-defense, talk your way out of it. If you have avoided, and tried to walk away but the trouble won't let you leave, the next thing to try is talking. "Look, I don't want to get hurt" is what you say while your thinking "Yeah, my feelings when you fall down and can't get up!" Let the aggressor feel as if they have won without having had to fight. Once again, you don't want to have to hurt someone. Talking and walking are always better than fighting. If you want to fight there are all kinds of full contact tournaments around, both with and without protective gear. Remember that when you walk away or talk your way out of a fight, you are really saving the other person from a beating. Unfortunately, you may be the only person who knows that, at the time. This is also part of the training of self-defense, leaning not to take the easiest way out, but to seek the best solution. The last ditch effort of talking your way out of a confrontation may be to call the aggressor's bluff. Many bullies don't actually want to fight, they just want to antagonize you as long as you will stand there and take it. Sometimes if you say something to the effect of "Ok, you go first." That is all that will be required to defuse the situation. Many aggressive people who talk loud and rant and rave are unwilling to engage in physical fighting. There are those, of course, who just want to fight, no matter what you do.

The Fourth Principle of self-defense, defend yourself! If all other measures have failed, if you have truly tried to avoid trouble, walk away, and talk your way out of the situation, and the aggressor begins to get physical (physical can be touching you in any way) then it is time to defend yourself and defend yourself definitively. No one has the right to touch you or harm you in any way at any time, so long as you are minding your own business and not intruding on someone else's rights. When you decide to fight you do it hard and fast and without hesitation. Make sure that the aggressor knows that you are not there to fool around. You do not hold back on any of the techniques when you are using them for real. This is not practice, it is not the Do Jang, this guy/gal is not your classmate. If the aggressor is absolutely determined to fight, then it is your responsibility to make them wish they had let you walk away. Once again we do not advocate the use of excessive force, but that does not mean that you punch with only half force, it just means that you stop when you should. Most real fights do not last long at all. In fact on average they over in about 30 seconds to two minutes. One well-delivered technique should be enough to end the average confrontation.

Not hesitating, sound technique, and explosive power and speed are the keys to making a technique work right the first time. The element of surprise is essential in a self-defense situation. If the incident has progressed from words to blows, the aggressor will usually be quite surprised that you are able to defend yourself.(Their mindset being that if you knew how to fight you wouldn't waste time talking) Your first and hopefully only technique should disable your opponent, rendering them at least temporarily unable to continue to fight. Once this is achieved, it's time to go on about your business. Don't hang around waiting to see if your opponent will get up and be stupid enough to try it again. The longer you hang around the more trouble you invite.

There are situations, which do not allow you to go through the first three principles before arriving at the last. It is these situations which we train for in the Dojang. Practicing the same techniques over and over again until they become second nature. Developing speed, timing, and coordination, we work on our techniques to make them perfect. And perfect they must be in a life or death situation. We all hope that we never have to face a situation where our lives or the lives of a loved one may be in danger. The most serious aspect of self-defense training is mentally preparing oneself for life or death combat. Thinking of life or death struggle is not easy and takes us out of our normally happy headspace. If you can imagine, realistically, a life and death struggle and apply it to your training, you will have reached a new level. The image of a real "fight for your life" scene has feelings and emotions associated with it, which cause certain automatic responses, which we can train. It is something, which we keep, tucked away in the back corner of the mind, but it is always ready to come out and help us whenever we need it. It is for this reason that our self-defense techniques must become second nature.

Truly, there are people in the world today who are predators, feeding off of those whom they perceive as weak and unable to defend themselves. Those of us in the martial arts today have a moral obligation to stand up to these predators and put them in their place when confronted by them. These predators are not your schoolyard bully or the neighborhood drunk, they are the cold-blooded murders, rapists, and muggers, often armed and never caring about what happens to you or anybody else. You must have a clear picture in your mind of these animals and learn to recognize them when you see them. You must never judge a person by appearance alone, but be aware of the signals, which they give off. It is said that the eyes are the gateway to the soul and that by looking into a persons eyes, deeply, that you can see into their heart. The predator's heart is a cold empty place that burns with the despair of hatred and desperation. Know it when you see it, your life may depend on it. These animals are extremely dangerous and should be avoided whenever possible. When confronted by one, the rules change, for there are none.