(ARTICLE) Are You Confident In Your Ability To Defend Yourself In A Physical Confrontation?

I got into a fight with 2 Men last night so I thought I'd write an article to stress the importance of knowing how to properly defend yourself.

If you was confronted physically, would you know how to handle yourself in the situation or would you freeze and let them do whatever they want to you? Heres some reason to why everyone needs to know how to fight (PROPERLY)

Not knowing how to physically defend yourself can lead to you being...

1. Bullied

2.Sexually Assaulted

3. Robbed

4. Killed (WORST CASE SCENARIO)

BEFORE YOU ASK....

there is no 'best gym' to go to... they're all good. Just go and train consistently.

also, depending on the country/city youre from, some of the martial arts schools can be pricey, so find one that works within YOUR budget.

Knowing how to physically handle yourself will make you more confident, I say, and change the way you think about things, and get you fit and make everything else less scary. It is also brilliant fun.

Before fighting, the best way to deal with the threat of Bad Things Happening, in order, is:

1. Try to avoid places and situations that are likely to be dangerous or unpleasant in the first place.

2. When unpleasantness seems likely or unavoidable, leave: either at a brisk walk or a run.

3. If someone wants something from you that isn’t going to ruin your life, consider giving it to them.

4. If all the above fails, start breaking limbs and choking people unconscious.

It takes surprisingly little time to learn number 4.

The trick is picking the right sort of fighting. Boxing, Muay Thai, and most sorts of striking are not that useful for actual fighting in a self defence scenario. You aren’t going to learn to knock a bigger opponent  who's much more out in any decent space of time. Not saying they're not good because they really are, but it isn't the most ideal in a self defence scenario.

Also, if you don’t knock them out with one punch then you’re in a clinch – watch how often this happens in actual boxing – and then nothing you’ve learned is going to work. Also, these styles are based on being upright, having lots of space, and the ground underneath you being grippy and stable. If you’re squashed into a car seat, on the underground, on a staircase  or even just up against a wall, almost nothing you’ve learned is going to work.

The actual best thing to learn is some sort of grappling because most people who want to attack you will preferably want to grab and hold you (especially if you're a woman). I do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu because it's a grappling martial art which is specifically designed for fighting in unpleasant, scrappy circumstances. though other styles such as judo, sambo, catch wrestling are also available. I will be adding judo into my arsenal as soon this lockdown in London has cleared up.

The main point is that you pick a style that lets you spar, or ‘roll’ at near-full-intensity, so that you get used to the feel of someone fighting you back.....at full intensity

Most of these styles are technically sports, so there’s no hitting, hair pulling or biting or gouging, but everything is about joint locks,  chokes, and ‘positional control’ so if you’re ‘winning’ in sparring, then it’s fairly likely that you’d be able to subdue someone (more or less painfully) in a real fight.

Because it’s based on fundamental principles of movement and leverage, it’ll let you respond to situations with appropriate amounts of force – after all, you may not want to eye-gouge someone who grabs your wrist out of nowhere lol, but you might want to deter or restrain them.  It’ll also help you get off your back/get an attacker off you if you somehow end up in a very bad situation where they have your back: boxing  and other types of striking martial arts definitely won’t teach you this.

Once again, Im not saying boxing and other types of striking martial aren't good, they're great but just not the MOST ideal for a self defence scenario whilst you're out and about. its still good to practice some type of striking such as Boxing or muay Thai on the side (if you can) so that you can have at least some knowledge on how to punch and/or Kick properly.

Most of you reading this probably don't have it in you to really physically hurt someone badly you might just want to be someone who wants to become proficient in keeping people off you and kicking their ass away if they tried anything so thats also why i'm recommending grappling such Jiu jitsu, wrestling etc... because if you punch someone badly you never know if they'll land on concrete head first and die, whereas in grappling, you are controlling what you're doing to that person. you could kill them if you wanted to or let them live another day.

The slight downside is that all the body-to-body contact might feel a bit uncomfortable, at least at first. But there are options, especially if you’re a lady: women-only classes or learning online, or only sparring with teachers you’re comfortable with are viable and sensible options. Once you’re more used to it, you can always make things tougher if you want.

You can’t prepare for everything: no martial art is going to let you fight five people or a man with a knife, or whatever those BS Hollywood movies show . You aren’t going to be able to do everything and i wouldn't even recommend you to. even if you've been training for 20 years. 

But you are going to be able to fight better in some situations, and that might make all the difference between something terrible happening or not. And, of course, once you can fight, nobody’s saying you have to.

You should learn to defend yourself, and you should know, that if it absolutely comes down it it, you can defend other people. You shouldn’t have any doubt in your mind about whether you can fight or not, because you might need to.

With statistics showing that one in five women has been a victim of sexual offence, you owe it to yourself to be able to kick someone’s ass and mean it. Because even if you aren’t worried about any of the other stuff, there might be a day when you have no other option but to fight. And if that happens, you need to fight well.