Tongue in Cheek

I was talking to my one of my colleagues the other day about the time I had him in a guillotine choke recently and he said he can still feel his face feeling a little numb to one side.  I asked why did he not tap out and he said, ‘you had both my arms trapped’.  I then asked why he did not say something, he said, ‘I tried, but I was choking.’  This is what goes on in my world, I am an expirementer, not a collector of techniques.

Martial Artists don’t usually have the experience but rely on theory when teaching self defence.  The information is passed onto them by people who claim to have the experience but this cannot always be verified.  When experimenting with or teaching self defence in class, the Instructor usually relies on their students in a clasroom environment which can give misleading results because of missing factors present in a real and hostile situation.  Realistically, we are not going to go out there to see if things work but Instructors need to be cautious when offering solutions.  My colleague, being very fit and strong, who was a riot squad officer, was not going to comply nor look bad in front of his mates so that made the situation more challenging and realistic.  Mr John Will made a point of this when he was training Afghan soldiers; he realised how different they responded to his moves to that of a normal martial artist.

Self Defence training has to be tailor made for the person, occupation and environment.  Training for the Afghanistan soldier is going to be different to that of a young female who works late at night.  Training a night club security guard is going to be different to that of a person who lives in a troubled area or country where guns and knives are prevalent.  So the subject can get quite complex in the ordinary martial arts school.

Reality Based Self Defence are best taught by those 'who have been there, done that'.  Time and time again, the experts say, 'on what life experience do you base your information on'.  But there are good Instructors (without that real life experience) who can still pass on these skills if they have been fully trained up by the experts.  However, they should do so with ‘tongue in cheek’ and not intentionally mislead people in believing the solutions are simple. 
GA