The Basics of Self-Defence (diary entry)

Private Training

My client requested that training be focused entirely on basic self-protection. As my coaching now includes an online/distance learning service, I have more time during private lessons to focus more on the self-defence side of self-protection rather personal security. The psychology, physiology, criminology and legal factors relation to self-protection can largely be dealt with using correspondence, although confirmation of the students understanding can take place during the actual lesson. As we hadn’t much of a brief other than my completed standard questionnaire I felt it was important to outline the key underlying non-physical factors needed to best understand self-defence hard skills. A student should grasp the concept that a self-defence situation is not necessarily the same as a fight situation. It is a counter-assault, designed for the defender to use whatever means available in order to limit personal damage and escape. Attitude is of primary importance. A student needs to have enough strength of character to be able to not only be aware of environmental and situational factors but also willing to act upon them in a proactive way. They also need to understand that if matters do go wrong they will need a lot of mental fortitude to “not give in”.

We began our hard skills training working on distance. If you can control the correct distance you have a much better chance of controlling the pre-fight. If you can control the pre-fight, you can control the in-fight. The distance you are given is the length of your arm, unless you can put any other type of barrier in the way. Next, we look at the best positions that can be adopted during the “interview” stage. This is the stage immediately before violent contact is made. It is important for the student, aware of their own body’s stress responses during this stage, to have off-setting a potential attacker in their muscle memory. At the beginning and end of the session we simply drilled moving into a position that put the defender at a 45 degree to the potential attacker. I then introduced lining up targets and practicing light strikes to them, always making skin contact.

This was then overlapped on the focus mitts and developed more speed and power. Selecting straight and hook hand strikes using the palm, I had the student strike the target until it was covered. Then the student practiced it from kneeling, sitting and lying postures. These postures were then improved to create more stability and mobility. The concept here is to be able to “own” the strike from whatever position the student ends up in and to use the restriction to develop more force. Each posture was then drilled to transition to standing, to develop the muscle memory of regaining footing at all times. A by-product of this exercise is it develops good functional fitness. The student is prohibited from putting his hands on the ground at any time, which forces him to recruit all the major large muscle groups – particularly the core and leg muscles. Elbows, knees, kicks and offline strikes were all worked on next. These are back-up tactics when the straight and hook strikes are not immediately available.

The next stage of overlapping was a type of pressure-testing. Using the Strategy One versus Strategy Two concept, the student fended off a grappler coming in at 30-50% pressure. The student struck before contact was made, when being clinched and from the ground. For the purposes of this exercise the student was given an exit route to encourage escape as the primary objective.

The session was completed with a revision through all the postures and some simple solo exercises designed to get him used to regaining his footing.

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