Simple. Effective. Self-Defense Techniques

The Steps to Self-Defense Technique

One of the most annoying and ridiculous things for me to watch is “fake” martial arts schools teaching “fake” techniques and at a very “non-fake” price. I remember walking in to a martial arts school who was advertising MMA and Jiu-Jitsu back in the mid-1990s when MMA and Jiu-Jitsu was just coming out. I thought I hit the goldmine! I watched one of the adults classes first while there were a few brown belt students preparing for their black belts in some sort of jiu-jitsu / karate style. I am not sure WHAT it was, but it definitely was NOT the jiu-jitsu that I know and have studied. The instructor was teaching a LONG series of techniques that were just ridiculous. I could not tell you exactly what the flow was or how many actual “moves” the student performed in the series, but I do remember a lot of spins, quick hits, and flailing around, BUT the cream of the crop was the finish: he bent over in front of the guy and tried to hit him in the face with his heel. NO BS – I can’t make this shit up!

Long story short, I briefly talked with the instructor out of respect – he knew I was coming to watch his class. But I never signed up nor ever took classes from him. A few years later, the same instructor walked into the ju-jitsu school I was studying at the time. We had a chance to roll and I wiped the floor with him. I was happy about my choice of not taking his classes.

The Moral of my story

I’m not trying to prove or show you how great of a fighter I am, because honestly I’m not! I’m a better teacher and technician then I am a fighter, and I’m happy with that. I just love martial arts! But, the moral is that wasting your time and learning LONG and DRAWWWNNN OUUUTTT sequences for self-defense is utterly crazy! How can you expect to remember any of that crap when you really need to! In fact, relate self-defense technique to learning a subject. Remember studying like crazy for a really hard test. You memorized all the necessary elements for the test and “learned” what you needed to… but did you really LEARN. I doubt it, you just used some space to in your brain to temporarily store what you needed to and after that it was gone. But, I bet you can remember how to add, multiply and subtract, right? That stuff is easy! It’s basic, it’s ingrained in your brain. You’ll never forget it.

And that is the way self-defense should be. Simple. Easy. Unforgettable. When thinking about self-defense: ignore the complicated, focus on basic and simple techniques that have a high percentage of effectiveness.
And please, if anyone tells you that you need to bend over and kick your opponent in the head with your heel, get the hell out of that school.