There is a self defense video out there -- probably several self defense videos, really -- that can kill you. It claims to be all about self defense 'arts', and it has a guy in it that says something about how self defense is just like martial arts only with less philosophy behind it. That's very much like someone telling you that getting shot with a BB Gun is like getting shot with an AK-47, just with less noise involved.
Not that there's no place in the world for martial arts, and certainly not that studying martial arts can't help you defend yourself -- but the difference between sparring and defending yourself is as profound and the difference between a Nerf ball and a baseball when they're slamming into your face.
Any "expert" -- meaning anyone who has actually survived several real fights in his lifetime -- will tell you unabashedly that the single most important thing in any fight is the ability to hurt your attacker. Some fights end in trips to the hospital, some to the morgue, and some even in a simple trip home to the medicine cabinet -- but they all end, and they universally end because someone got too hurt to keep fighting.
The two things that all losers agree upon is that they wish they hadn't lost, and that they recognize, looking back, that 'not losing' would have consisted of hurting their opponent more badly, more quickly.
That's why practical self defense videos concentrate on the easiest means of hurting your opponent. A self defense video that talks about stances, technique, and focus isn't a self defense video at all. It's a martial art training video.
A real self defense video starts with, continues with, and ends with one thing: how to hurt your opponent without getting hurt yourself. That usually means a study of weak points common to all humankind, a little bit of body mechanics and leverage for the smaller people out there, and a whole lot of evasion, avoidance, and blocking common attacks.
No amount of philosophy is going to help you when some mugger has already slammed you in the back of the head with a pair of brass knuckles. You need to know, on a deep instinctive level, that you only have two ways out once you feel that impact -- you can lose, or you can hurt that bastard badly enough that he loses.
That's why, every time you watch a self defense video, you need to not only go through the motions, but imagine what the results will be. Imagine your attacker numb, bleeding, choking, or unconscious because of your actions. Picture yourself, out of breath, turning to explain to your date why it was necessary for you to hit your would-be mugger with the bottle of champagne you were going to drink when you got back to the hotel room. Make it as real as you can.
Not everyone can be a bouncer, a soldier, or a MMA champion -- but anyone can, by buying into the notion that fighting to survive is like fighting in a tournament, get killed when they're unprepared for the truth. Don't be that guy -- don't buy into that stupid self defense video -- get a grip on your violent side: win that fight.
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