“Being ‘armed’ is a mindset, not a physical condition.”
-Rob Pincus
A lot of self defense instructors and practitioners focus a lot on the efficacy of their techniques or the tools they teach with. The natural ability to be used by people, their ease to learn, how brutally effective they are, etc…
Any system taught that doesn’t address the psychological needs and components of violence may just find themselves coming up short in real life.
The ability to shoot tight groups on a piece of paper that doesn’t shoot back is not the same as pumping rounds into a human body that is trying to kill you.
Throwing brutal punches against pads in a choreographed sequence is not the same as trying to effectively strike an available target on an attacker that just ambushed you in a parking lot.
Practicing flow drills with a stick or knife is not the same as learning to survive a brutal knife attack.
You get the idea… these are great drills in isolation. They help to hone those specific areas. They can be very useful, but you cannot mistake these for true self defense.
Dealing with violence begins in the mind. The ability to understand violence, how your body commonly responds, how to increase your chances of turning the fight around under realistic circumstances, creating proper context and realistic training scenarios… this is an art in itself and no matter your vessel to deliver pain on the bad guy, you must respect and teach how to deal with violence.
Be good, stay safe, train hard
-aaron
*photo credit to Tyler S. from Bladed Grappler seminar w/ Eli Knight
Aaron Jannetti 