Self Defense 101

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Where to Start, What to Look For, What to Avoid, Who to Train With

First of all, I prefer the term Personal Protection or Protective Offense to Self Defense, for the former is proactive (placing you mentally in control of the situation) while the latter is reactive (makes you feel like a victim waiting for something to happen before choosing a response).

An article by Georges Z. Fahmy, Senshido Affiliate Instructor for the Greater Middle East Area.

“Like many people out there, I turned to Self Defense to avoid, escape, or survive violence (in my case, High School Bullying). To help you guys and gals avoid the hassles I went through, and save you time and money, I’ve decided to write this article to outline what you should be looking for in a Self Defense school/ system/ method.

Choosing to train in Traditional Martial Arts (TMA) schools, like Karate, Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Wing Chun, Kali, Aikido, Systema, etc should not be your objective if you seek to learn Personal Protection (PP). Although the abovementioned styles and systems are beautiful, culturally rich and allow their users to become disciplined, these methodologies have remained fixed in time, not evolving with the rising tide of violence, or are found lacking in one or more aspects. I personally trained in Chinese Kung Fu while a child (from age 10 to 15) and am proud to say that the art has allowed me to be flexible, fit, as well as disciplined.

Sadly, it did not help me in learning effective and realistic PP.

Combat Sports like Muay Thai, Boxing, Kick Boxing, Wrestling (Greco-Roman, Freestyle, or Catch-As-Catch-Can), Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), Sambo, and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA, also called Vale Tudo), among others, are very beneficial in developing a fighter’s toolbox. However, these arts and systems while allowing you to dominate a single, unarmed opponent, do not fare as well against multiples or armed aggressors. Additionally, it lacks the crucial pre-contact (psychological, emotional, and behavioral) as well as post-contact (evasion, legality, revenge and other factors) aspects a respected Self Defense methodology must have to be complete. I personally favour and wholeheartedly recommend training in MMA, as well as BJJ and Catch-Wrestling, for they teaches an individual useful tools, covers striking, grappling, and submissions, conditions its aficionados to full contact full speed training, and provides a great workout.

The third category people encounter while looking for Self Defense instruction are Reality Based Self Defense (RBSD) programs. The name itself, as Richard Dimitri, Senshido’s founder, states, is an oxymoron: RBSD as opposed to what? Unreality Based Self Defense? Nevertheless, many so called RBSD schools are just TMA repackaged, without uniforms and belts. Others are taken from Military systems (Krav Maga, Kapap, WWII Combatives) and may not be applicable by civilians because of numerous factors (such as legal, use of force, etc).

How do you distinguish between the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?

Well, for a PP methodology to be efficient, applicable by anyone (regardless of sex, age, build, strength%u2026), and realistic, it needs to cover the all-important trinity of emotional, behavioral and psychological training. Cover, not dabble in, not mention – fully cover.

These three elements have to be addressed across the three phases of combat, namely the Pre-Contact, Contact, and Post-Contact aspects.

Allow me to outline each phase in detail:

- Pre-Contact phase includes awareness training, fear/ anger/ adrenal management, evasion and escape tactics, understanding the criminal mind, tactical assessment of one’s environment, and much more

- Contact phase includes one’s ability to protect oneself and others from armed as well as unarmed assaults while covering the ballistic, kinetic, edged, striking, kicking, close quarters, grappling, and ground fighting ranges against one or more aggressors

- Post-Contact includes the legally of one’s actions, talking to the police, preventing revenge attacks, debriefing and analyzing the confrontation for enhancing one’s survivability, etc

For one to be ready to survive modern violence, I believe it is vital to train full speed, full force, with intent, while replicating realistic scenarios that induce an adrenaline dump similar to the one experienced in actual life. If what you do works under these conditions, then it is a realistic PP training methodology. If it doesn’t, then it isn’t and you need to change what you’re doing.

I have searched for a methodology that fully integrates all these aforementioned crucial elements and am glad to have discovered Senshido in 2002. After comparing it to other, more technical RBSD approaches, I decided to train in it and one day become an instructor. This great honour was mine in December 2006 and became responsible for the Greater Middle East Area since that day.”

Take care and stay safe.

Georges Z. Fahmy
Senshido Affiliate Instructor for the Greater Middle East Area, spanning from North Africa to Indian subcontinent.

Do you have any questions, comments or are you looking for training and seminars in the Greater Middle East Area? Visit my site www.senshido.net , email me at info@senshido.net, or call me on + 961 3 499 712 .

Senshido saying of the week: “Rather than provide technical aspects for people to use in specific situations, we provide analytical skills that will be useful in any situation”

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