A Discussion (diary entry)

  06.11.14 Tonight I was employed to provide an introductory session for my personal training services. The session consisted of a discussion on the right training path for my client. My client is a teenager, but has had a background in various different martial arts. A lot of areas were covered before we came to an agreement to run a Mixed Martial Art/cross training course with the option to move into specific disciplines. There is a lot of confusion on the world of combative training for various reasons. I take a very individualized approach and have devised a method for exploring cross-training with minimal confusion. My approach is outlined in C.S.I. Clarification, Scepticism and Individuality. Before we arrived at the decision to train in martial arts for the sake of art, there was a lot of ground that needed to be cleared up regarding the role of self-protection. I contend that although various arts have their roots in civilian or professional self-protection and combatives, and I encourage individuals to undertake combat sports for many transferrable skills and excellent attributes, effective modern self-protection is a tightly individualistic discipline. The best way to gain skills in self-protection is to train it with a strict agenda and attitude, where you have a firm objective in mind. Unfortunately martial artists are inclined to wander off this line and justify training in more abstract areas. I have addressed both these areas in “The By-Product Myth” and “The Calypso Effect”, which can be found in a revised, newly cited and annotated format in my ebook, “Mordred’s Victory and Other Martial Mutterings”. Self-Protection/Self-Defence Self-protection is a term several coaches use to describe the entirety of personal protection methods, both soft skills and hard skills. Soft skills are usually labelled as personal security and cover a range of non-physical areas, including attitude, awareness, understanding how humans react to the sympathetic nervous system, behavioural psychology and the law as it relates to self-defence. Hard skills, which we usually call “self-defence”, are a small selection of low maintenance tactics that have consistently proven to be effective. A good self-protection coach will tell you that the vast majority of self-protection training is made up soft skills. Pre-Emptive Striking If a person assesses that there is no efficient solution to a potential threat than to use physical force in line with the laws stipulated in Section 76 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 then he needs to be proactive in his actions. When an immediate escape path is not open and other means are exhausted or deemed impractical then the best tactic is pre-emption. There are many factors surrounding this issue. Many martial artists teach a reactive way of fighting that rarely works when applied under pressure and in the context of an assault situation, making it a potentially dangerous solution to the threat of interpersonal violence. Many worry about the legal ramifications. The 1988 case of Beckford versus the Queen set a firm precedent for establishing why pre-emptive striking is a legal form of self-defence if applied in the correct context. Finally we move onto the moral issue. Morals are set by individuals and whatever action an individual takes is their judgement call. Middle Level Threats There are self-defence systems that argue that the likelihood an individual will face a life and death struggle is very rare. Therefore, surely it is better to train for the more common middle level threat. There are several problems with this premise. Firstly, although middle level threats are situations that your average untrained civilian is more likely to encounter, they are also very likely to be situations that they have a better chance of stopping without using physical force. Fights involving two consenting people are what we call “match fights”. The best place for them is a controlled sporting environment, where no one has an obvious advantage. Avoiding them might require swallowing pride and fighting one’s ego, but it also requires the individual to have a proactive mind-set. Good self-protection places you in charge. You fight only because there is no available option. Secondly, it is easier to scale down skills than it is to attempt to scale up to the level of a threat. Generally speaking, the only type of justifiable middle level threat I can foresee a civilian wilfully engaging in is when he has having to prevent a violent crime not being committed to directly against him. In this context we are talking about an aggressive relative or friend who might need restraining and/or escorting away from a situation. It might that you decide to use your right to a citizen’s arrest for whatever reason. However, I must emphasize that both these instances are personal judgement calls and you have chosen to wilfully put your own health and wellbeing at risk for whatever noble cause. Mixed Martial Arts/Cross Training The programme I intend to teach my client will use MMA as a basis to explore various skills. We will look at western boxing and how it can be adapted to various other ranges of fighting. Training will involve conditioning and the most efficient methods to develop new skills. I emphasize that this is not a self-protection course and should not be regarded as one. The client engages in learning the skills of stand-up, clinch and ground for artistic appreciation. Having said this, we will probably briefly explore self-defence applications at my client’s request. However, these skills should not be interpreted as any form of substitute for learning a comprehensive self-protection course. Mordred's Victory and Other Martial Mutterings Kindle EditionSmashwords Edition