“Self Defense”.
It’s what gets a lot of adult students through the front door of a martial arts class. We like the idea of learning how to defend ourselves. Sometimes, it’s a bad experience (like domestic violence or a mugging) that has brought us through the door. It’s an unfortunate reality that we live in a sometimes violent world, and the need to defend yourself against an assailant is something that many of us will face at least once in a lifetime. Still, the violence that we may be forced to defend ourselves against, and our means of defense have changed greatly over the generations. It’s quite interesting to apply that to martial arts, particularly what one would call “traditional martial arts”.
First of all, let’s define the term “traditional martial arts”. I’m using a broad, personal definition; and from what I gather in books I’ve read and my instructors have taught me, “traditional martial arts” is that expression used for all fighting arts that are steeped in military history of a nation, and backed by a largely Asian-influenced philosophical base. Without going off on too much of a tangent, you can largely apply this definition to many fighting arts still taught today like TaeKwonDo, Shotokan Karate, my own Tang Soo Do, and many others. Even the popular non-violent art of Aikido was originally based on techniques derived from Aiki-Jiujitsu, which if you know your martial arts history, was quite brutal. The changes brought about by Morihei Ueshiba (regarded as the father of that art) came about from the later integration of his personal and religious beliefs.
So anyway, let’s take a quick trip back in time…..a couple of centuries perhaps?
What I’m talking about is going to a period in time before there was any business in martial arts. I’m talking about the times where “self defense” really did not mean personal protection. It meant that the attacker never got up again. Indeed, as we have evolved as a species, our morals have changed greatly as well. The martial arts techniques that evolved into modern-day Tang Soo Do, Shotokan, and TaeKwonDo were largely utilized, in their purest form, to incapacitate the opponent. This is one of those things that we should keep in mind as we learn more about whatever we’ve chosen to study; especially amongst those arts that lay claim to integration with the military history of a nation. Even with the modern Day US, if you look up the close-quarters combat techniques of the army manual, they’re mostly quite lethal. Keep in mind that “self-defense” in the military is usually a “him or me” situation where someone does not survive.
I’m sure that everyone that has studied martial arts for a decent length of time has heard the stories about the Asian peasants learning the techniques of empty-handed combat to defend themselves against well-armed military overlords (yes, I’m being vague here on purpose). If you dig deeper, you find that these stories are highly glamorized almost movie-like tales about the mystical effectiveness of martial arts; but if you look past that, you will see that “self-defense” often did not mean teaching the bully a lesson and then walking home. It meant a life or death struggle. Self defense was not taught to the privileged few as a weekly diversion. It was genuine combat. We often hear about stories of the noble martial arts master teaching the lowly thug a painful lesson, only to have the thug see the error of his ways and then beg the master to teach him the ways of enlightened self defense. Such stories are in fact, great lessons; but this was rarely the reality of a genuine fight back then.
By comparison, unless under extreme circumstances (i.e. your life is jeopardized by an assailant willing to take your life), we tend to define self defense with the priority of our own personal safety. This of course means that once you have nullified the threat, we tend not to go after the guy with the intent of breaking his neck. In today’s world, that’s assault. You wind up in jail. Self defense our modern times means self-protection.
(teaching a white belt the basics of ho sin sul….at what point does the line of “self defense” get crossed?)
One of the lessons that we constantly revisit at my school is one of “intent”. I often teach my students variations of a technique and then pose the question: what are you trying to accomplish? We learn blocks as defenses, for example. Those same blocks later become attacks as experience grows. I find it quite easy to transition many of my Federation-regulated moves into painful choke holds or arm-bars; but at what point have you crossed the line that it’s no longer defending yourself? I resolve this issue by constantly reminding my students that “the amount of force used must directly reciprocate the threat against you”. I find that in most circumstances, that’s a safe measuring stick. To put it bluntly, you don’t break someone’s arm for slapping you; but if your life is threatened by a gun or a knife, then feel free to turn things up.
To re-iterate, self-defense today means self-protection. I say that with a wry smile because many of our forms (hyung, kata, etc.), which are an integral part of what we do, go far beyond the mentality of “defense” and can be utilized to instead launch quite the brutal offense instead. It sort of gives you a lot more respect for the things that you learn when practicing the intricacies of hyung. As we have “evolved” into a more civilized society, self-defense rarely means taking the other person’s life (although that extreme does happen), and we martial artists find ourselves walking a fine line between protecting ourselves or a loved one and assault & battery.
Master Wayne Boozer
This is an important challenge facing the martial arts community today: to what degree are our styles still relevant? In some parts of the world – for example, the Philippines – the definition of martial arts you provide is still accurate; however, in other parts of the world – such as North America and much of Europe – there are tough laws in place which govern what does and doesn’t qualify as self defense. More and more self-defense is an act provided by law enforcement agencies and legislation and less and less an act performed by the individual. Even martial artists who act in self defense to ward off an aggressor may still find themselves liable to civil and criminal charges for using excessive force. It’s hard to say where the dividing line is and what is and isn’t appropriate!
That’s my exact point! As a resident of the U.S., one can easily be put in a situation where you are no longer defending yourself, but in fact, the aggressor. You have to judge the appropriate reaction for what’s going on around you!
Some times just being known as a Martial Artist puts you in the category of an aggressor. My son defended himself using his Martial Arts skills and because he is known as a student of Martial Arts and local competitor; he was suspended from school because he was thought of as the one to have caused the most harm because of his skills even though he was defending himself. The principal who knows my son well decided that he could have caused the most harm because of his training and needed to cool down outside of the school environment. My son did not hurt the other person, but kept him in a controlled hold until other teachers approached. This is exactly what he is taught in Self Defense Class.
It’s unfortunate that the general public tends to make that assumption a lot, Ms. Wanda; but as trained martial artists, it’s a reality we face if we’re ever forced to take things a step further than “turning the other cheek”. Most people that are uneducated about the purpose of martial arts training have a hard time understanding that physical aggression is the exact opposite of what we enforce.
So true, we learn self controle along with our training. Ko Map Sum Ne Da. Will keep following you on Twitter and checking out your YouTube videos.