My recent article about keeping your hands up in a guard in self-defense situations, featured several responses, some stating it works in MMA, or other sports.
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You’re missing the point.
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A guard IS applicable in consensual fights.
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In self-protection, either, you are so close that BOTH HANDS SHOULD BE WORKING, or you are far enough apart from your assailant that you should be ESCAPING.
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There is NO sparring with each other. There is NO waiting for an assailant to throw a strike while your hands are up.
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If there is no option to escape, even then, the high static guard is still NOT the best option. (Another article coming)
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The attacker may be ARMED with a knife, gun or other weapon, or have accomplices.
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They may ask a question of you, be at close range, sucker punch distance, catching you off guard with an unexpected attack without warning.
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A criminal wants something from you, regardless of their weapon of choice (fists, knives, blunt instruments, guns), the greater the distance between predator, angry drunk, or enraged motorist the better.
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Real world attacks involve brutal realities and call for intelligent responses, starting with proper awareness of your situation, avoidance, de-escalation and deterrence skills, way before you stand there at a distance and raise your hands in a guard position.
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The core of self-defense is about managing fear, avoidance strategies, escape, verbal dissuasion, posturing, understanding attack ritual and violent body language, and, if necessary – the preemptive strike.
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Got the idea yet? Fighting is NOT the number 1 priority.
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If you do decide to fight, can you protect your children or loved ones? Can you protect yourself from accomplices, or the onslaught from a heavy boot or weapon? Is standing there with you guard held high going to help with some of these scenarios? That guard won’t stop a blade or bullet!
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Lets recap.
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Real world attacks involve brutal realities and call for intelligent responses, way before you stand there at a distance and raise your hands in a guard position.
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The high static guard – not the best idea unless you are agreeing to fight.
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The realities of real world self-defense is that there are more important things to consider first, than putting “your dukes up” and fighting it out.
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Still not convinced.
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Imagine for a moment that the assailant has a huge age and weight advantage. A female (no discrimination intended) about 5’2 and weighs about 120lbs, perhaps middle aged, being attacked by a late teen or twenty something, 220lb, 6ft plus, male, a career criminal, wanting something they have.
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Is she going to out fight him? When he begins attacking her is she going to be able to grapple with him in a realistic way that will allow her any advantage before he pounds her into submission?
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If he has a weapon, or accomplices, or more, does putting her hands up in a guard sound like her smartest strategy?
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NO – and this is why other methods are more important before; “you put your dukes up”.
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Most people are not really prepared or trained, physically or psychologically, for a physical encounter, it’s best to concentrate on something that will work – beginning with avoidance.
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Self-defense is about doing the minimum a situation will allow to ensure your own survival. Not standing there trading blows. That’s street fighting.
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Be honest with yourself about what a real attack actually is: it is terrifying and violent, it is explosive, it is unpredictable, it is savage and it does not abide by any rules.
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If you underestimate it, real violence can shatter you. Too many people in the martial arts grossly underestimate it.
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And if you are teaching any martial art as self-defense, you have an obligation, to qualify the potency of everything you teach as self-defense, because someone’s life may one day depend on it.
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Are we getting any closer to understanding yet?
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