Chi is also a term used in traditional Chinese medicine. It is the explanation behind the workings of acupuncture and other forms of TCM.

The controversy stems from several different causes. First, there are so called skeptics who automatically disbelieve anything which seems paranormal, or is explained with paranormal terminology. Second, there are, in fact, charlatans who use trickery to “demonstrate” chi effects. Third, chi is a loose term and , as I shall explain, actually references a number of different phenomena. Lastly, I believe that, with chi, there are some phenomena which science cannot yet, but may someday, explain.

To me, skepticism should imply and open but inquisitive mind. In the U.S., for some reason, it has come to mean anyone who disbelieves anything which is outside the current canon of scientific knowledge. The funny thing about this form skepticism is that it demands scientific proof, but disallowing any explanation of an effect from the front flies in the face of scientific method itself. In an infinite and expanding universe anything is technically possible. It is also the folly of some “scientific” minds to ever believe that they know everything there is to know about the universe or even any single aspect of science. New discoveries happen daily in every field from mathematics, to optics, to biology, to physics.

So, the following is my understanding of “chi”. Understand that it is incomplete, as I believe no full explanation exists.

Chi is a combination of physical forces
Through proper body alignment, the conditioning of tendons, physical skill, and the ability of the mind to lead the body -  martial artists through the centuries have been able to perform miraculous physical “stunts” which are impossible to untrained people. Some of this involves breath control (such as that used by weightlifters) to support the internal structure of the body.

Most of what the martial artist is doing is at an unconscious level. Imagine a baseball pitcher trying to explain every muscle twitch involved in throwing a perfect fastball. In order to explain what is happening, we use the term chi, as a shortcut term for the collective of breath support, energy focus, muscle tension and relaxation, targeting, coordination, balance, etc.  I believe that a lot of martial arts demonstration feats (such as breaking) are the result of this type of “chi”.

In Chinese medicine, there are many different types of “chi”. In this case, think of “chi” as energy. In Western medical terms we might talk about cellular energy, muscular energy, the energy from the oxygen in the blood, the chemical / electrical energy carried by the nerves, etc. It’s a similar idea.

Chi is mental focus
If you want to hit someone really, really hard in the torso, you do not focus mentally on their torso. You focus on a space a few inches to a few feet behind them. When you focus on their body, unconsciously, the brain throws the brakes on when you reach the target and you hit less hard.

Why does it do that? Safety. Imagine that every time you take a step, you try to push your foot through the ground instead of stopping when your foot does. You would destroy your knees in no time. Do you need to think “stop pushing down” every time you take a step? Of course not, your unconscious mind tells your body to stop.

Chi is something which science can’t yet explain
So, is there a supernatural component side to chi? Well, I would argue that supernatural simply means that there is something that science can’t yet explain. I am aware of a number of relatively scientific tests of “chi” which defy what we know about cause and effect in the universe.

I recently saw a kung fu practitioner bend a spear with the point held against his throat. I’ve seen this stunt before and always chalked it up as an old time strong man stunt. However, this time a couple of scientists measured the force exerted on the spear and made sure the spear point is real. The force on the spear went above what the sensors could measure which was over 2900 pounds of pressure. This is many more times than enough to slice through any soft tissue. The area of the throat used cannot be developed muscularly to resist such force, and no skin callous was present. The scientists admitted that they had no explanation for their results.

In a study published in a  peer reviewed journal, a medical qigong practitioner was able to register significantly on scientific instruments meant to detect radiation. That same practitioner was able to change the molecular structure of water to statistically significant degree in a double blind study.

There have been a number of studies of the effects of qigong on various medical conditions. Most of these are understandably done in China. I was able to find one in an American Oncology journal that showed that qigong had a significant positive effect on many health factors of people undergoing chemotherapy, even when compared with other exercise or relaxation programs.

I personally do believe that something is going on, which is currently beyond the ability of science to fully explain.  Does this mean it’s BS? I don’t think so. After all science can’t yet fully explain why we yawn, the placebo effect, or gravity. Perhaps someday science will explain chi phenomena in scientifically acceptable terms, and perhaps someday will know why there’s gravity.

I will not go into the spiritual side of chi as that borders on religion and religious faith is its own thing.

Chi is fake
There have been people throughout history who demonstrate supernatural powers using trickery. India is ripe with “God men” who use magic tricks to fool villagers into giving them money.

I have seen video on Youtube of a pretty well known fake ninja using a very well known magician’s trick to demonstrate his supernatural power.

Martial arts is full of guys with fake credentials, fake belts, fake military experience etc. Some of them are extremely financially successful. It’s not my place on this site to call any of them out.

Here’s a free conflict resolution tip: No angry person likes to be told that their anger is invalid.

When he stopped and was waiting for my reply, I did the thing that he least expected. I agreed with him. I said something like the following:

“Wow, I understand why you’re so angry. I don’t disagree with a single thing you’ve just said. For my part, I am not going to make any excuses – I don’t believe there is such a thing as a good excuse. I do think there’s been a misunderstanding and let me explain what I think happened.”

Within a few minutes of quiet conversation, he had calmed down, and we parted as friends.

What if I had sat there and laid a bunch of excuses on this person, what would have happened? I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’m guessing I would have pissed him off even worse than when he began. Why? Because excuses are bullshit.

What is an excuse? Think about when you were in school and you had to ask your teacher to be excused from the classroom to use the bathroom. When she is excusing you, she is (temporarily) relieving you of your responsibility for being in the classroom. This is an important concept, burn it into your brain.

When you make excuses for yourself, you are asking yourself and others to relieve you from your responsibilities. Doesn’t that, in fact, make you irresponsible. If you’re not going to be responsible for yourself, then are you really and adult?

Excuses are lies. They are lies we tell ourselves and others to feel better.

The biggest bullshit way we use excuses is to make ourselves and others feel better about our priorities. Example: I have friends who are consistently late for everything. I told one of them, “You owe me $160,000 for all of the time I have wasted over the years waiting for you.” They are always full of excuses, the traffic was bad, someone called me as I was going out the door, etc. If you are consistently 1/2 hour late, you learn from that and leave 1/2 hour earlier, or you just admit to yourself and others that respecting their time is not a priority for you.

People use excuses to make them feel better about their lives. I can’t be successful because …. fill in the blank. No, your priority is maintaining your comfort zone, and being successful at anything involves risks.

When people give me excuses about success I frequently invoke Oprah Winfrey. Oprah, an African American woman, grew up poor, in the South, and was sexually abused for much of her childhood. Today she may be the wealthiest and most influential woman on the planet. J.K. Rowling (writer of the Harry Potter series) was a homeless single mother, and today is wealthier than the Queen of England and has inspired new generations with a love of reading. I’ve had the privilege of meeting a man with no arms who is a rifle and archery instructor.

Whatever your excuses are – they are lies that suck. When I say “suck” I mean it – they suck the life and potential out of you.

The following video has been making the rounds on Facebook. I think everybody should watch it every day until you work it into the core of your mind.

It’s been said that, of those who start martial arts training, 1 in 100 will stick long enough to gain a 1st degree black belt. Of those, 1 in 100 will stick long enough to get their second degree. This means that out of every 10,000 people starting out on what’s meant to be a life’s journey, at least 9,999 quit along the way. I know many who get their black belt and then never walk into the dojo again – what a waste.

I am of the strong opinion that we, at least here in the U.S. Overemphasize rank and external accomplishment – or at least the symbols of those accomplishments. Don’t get me wrong, I am proud of achieving my rank in my chosen martial art, but not because I get to wear a black belt to show off to people. I am proud because I stuck with my chosen art for over 14 years, trained hard, and learned a lot. Getting my first dan a number of years ago didn’t mean I was the master of anything.

Today, I see a ton of martial arts teachers with 10th degree black belts giving themselves huge fanciful titles like professor, doctor, great grandmaster etc. It leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. To me, it’s the focus on the external, the rank, the title that is just crazy. Being called superhuman power master 33rd degree doesn’t mean you’re a good martial artist, or a good teacher. What makes people good martial artists and good teachers is very simple: be a good martial artist and a good teacher.

I’m not saying that all titles are bogus. Certainly some are meant to convey organizational structure or teacher licensing. In this case, there may be a quality control measure.

However, we live in the land of marketing. We are a jaded society and we need proof of credibility. Many teachers look for certificates, titles, etc. to prove  they are the most awesome martial arts super-humans on the planet. The truth is, sometimes they are. The flip-side to that truth is that sometimes they are not. Having been around the block a few times, seeing 9000 patches on a uniform combined with a belt with 47 stripes and a list of titles tends to set off my BS detector.

The term “black-belt” is now used to market just about everything else as well. I am reminded six sigma business training which awards actual black belts. Stuff like this takes away more meaning.

My sensei told me the following, and I’m sure he got it from someone wise as well: “black belt means that you are starting to learn.” Wrapping a piece of black silk around your waist does not turn you into Yoda or mean that you are going to be Donald Trump in the boardroom. It means that you have gotten good enough that you’re no longer an idiot and the real learning can begin.

When does that learning stop? When you exhale your last breath. Then, depending on your belief system, you get to carry on in the next life.

I refer to the philosophy of our system as martial alchemy because outwardly, we seek to transform gross body movements into efficient martial gold. Inwardly, we use the physical practice of martial arts as a bridge to spiritual and mental perfection.

From time to time, people get hinky when we mention the word “spiritual” because they frequently equate spirituality with religion. that’s fine but, as a rule, we stay clear of religion – everyone is entitled to their own and we do not ever preach religion. We might borrow examples from religious doctrines as a teaching tool, but our students are expected to come to their own truths about these things.

Training the spirit in martial arts, to us, means becoming acquainted with and integrating the  invisible parts of ourselves while becoming intimately more aware of our place in the universe. Spirit training, to us, builds a form of mental and emotional resilience or toughness where we can roll with the punches the universe sends us and take greater control of our own destiny. It involves accepting and working with the hidden parts of ourselves (often called the shadow). Spirit training also involves training the will or “fighting spirit”

Our training is integrated, so that training the body trains the mind and the spirit. I am reminded of my early training, sometimes doing the same set of footwork for hours on end. This accomplished several things. First, it imprinted the symbols of the foot movements into my unconscious brain, they became a part of me as new, more efficient neural pathways were developed. Second it required me to work through the enemies of boredom and fatigue. Every time the mind said quit, I would smile and tell myself I was loving the work.

This type of training builds mental toughness, something which is perfectly handy for for a professional warrior or someone who sits in a cubicle all day. Done correctly, the training will also make you smarter by creating newer and stronger neural-connections in the brain.

The philosopher’s stone in martial alchemy is the training.

It’s all crap.

Well, almost all. The vast majority of this stuff comes from very vocal people with very large egos (large ego = low self esteem) who need to feel better about themselves by seeming important, tough, or smart. Instead of focusing on learning, they are shut down to learning anything new.

I was recently reading about the Piper knife system on their web site and have seen a couple of videos on Youtube. I do not claim familiarity with the system but, from what I’ve seen they hold their knife in an ice-pick grip. This is not something I normally recommend, but I am willing to accept that I do not know everything there is to know about knife combat.

My understanding is that the system evolved with the use of a specific weapon. A short, extremely-dull, folding knife common among South Africa’s criminal gangs. Since such a blade would be relatively useless as a slashing tool, a system incorporating stabbing and ripping movements makes perfect sense. An ice-pick or reverse-hammer grip is going to be the strongest grip for the stabbing-ripping type movements. In this context it makes perfect sense.

I am sure there is much more to it than I have read about, and I have never personally studied Piper, but I’m willing to accept that this system wouldn’t have evolved or survived the streets of South Africa if what they did didn’t make sense. I’m willing to loosen the shackles on my mind and accept the fact that I could learn something that was true, and was counter to what I already accepted as true. The difference is context.

On the martial arts linked-in group I moderate there have been a lot of questions about whether high kicks or ground-fighting were practical. Again, everything is useful in proper context. This also means that things become less useful out of context. The real key is trying to understand that context.

All martial arts systems evolved in an environment which included opponents, geography, purpose, clothing and weapons etc. Japanese jujutsu was developed to fight multiple armed opponents in armor. Filipino martial arts evolved to fight in close with long blades against relatively unarmored opponents. Brazilian Jui-Jitsu arguably evolved to win wrestling matches. Karate evolved amongst unarmed and unarmored people. Each of these arts, and all others like them, make perfect sense. Remove their context, and of course you can point out “flaws”.

The presenter made an interesting point that I think is relevant to personal security and self defense. He showed an image of a house and talked about the three necessary components to preventing loss or mitigating risks for burglaries. The first component is prevention, this includes door locks, fences, and anything designed to keep a burglar out. The next component is detection and includes things like alarms which are designed to make us aware when a breach of our preventative measures has occurred. The final component is response and includes things like alarm monitoring that calls the police and owning a gun or a dog. Response is the ability to react when a breach has occurred and has been detected.

The presenter next asked which of the three components was most important. Most of us (including me) answered that prevention was most important. In surveys this is the consensus of 95% of people asked. The reality is that, according to insurance statistics, for mitigating loss to burglary – detection and response are far more important than prevention. While having good door locks and other preventative measures is  important, once they are bypassed – without detection and response a burglar is free to steal with impunity.

How can we relate this to self defense and personal protection?

1. Prevention: This is anything you do to keep yourself from being a target of criminals. This may include avoiding dangerous situations, locking your car and house doors, not flashing valuables or cash in public – etc. The issue is, that there is no such thing as 100% fail-proof prevention. You can do everything right, and even go overboard with security precautions and still become the target of crime.
2. Detection: Detection boils down to awareness. Clearly most people will be aware of an attack after it happens, but understanding pre-violence indicators and having situational and environmental awareness are keys to surviving violence. I sometimes tell students that I cannot teach them how to defend against a sniper rifle. If the attack isn’t perceived, there will be no response.
3. Response: What do you do when you detect a threat, or when attacked? This is where tools and training come in.

The truth of the matter is that all three layers of defense are incredibly important. Insurance companies are not going to tell you to forget about door locks and just get an alarm and a gun. Many schools of self defense focus solely on response, and this is fine. However, without awareness, response will be too late and infective.

“Think Evil” is at the heart of the Security Mindset…
~Patrick Heim, CISO of Kaiser Permanente from the preface to Hacking Exposed 6: Network Security Secrets & Solutions

In my experience people are generally good. Most of us don’t want to believe we’re evil or that we do bad things. When we do “bad” things we find all kinds of rationalizations for them. Sometimes our “goodness”, which is really about self esteem and self image, hampers us.

In self defense classes where I am teaching people with zero training, many people have a visceral reaction when I describe things like how to shove a finger into an eyeball. I see them squirm and many vocalize, “yuck”. “This reaction is fine,” I’ll explain, “it tells me that you are a decent human being who is repulsed by doing something so violent.” I will then go on to explain that criminals who want to hurt them aren’t so nice or decent, and that sometimes causing bodily harm is really the only choice other than being killed or seriously injured themselves. Most people get it.

The quote that started this post comes from a book about computer network security – it’s for people learning to be penetration testers, otherwise known as “ethical hackers”. These are people who, with authorization, try to penetrate the security of computer networks in order to find the holes before the “bad” hackers get in and cause damage. If you’ve ever read about the military’s Red Teams or Red Cell – it’s the same idea – pretend to be a bad guy to test security.

So I offer the following mindset practices to you to learn how to shore up your defenses:

• When you’re in public look around as if you were a mugger trying to choose a target. Who would you choose and why? Make a note of the criteria you would use to pick a target – and learn to make yourself less of a target.
• From time to time when you are sitting or standing near to someone imagine they were going to suddenly physically assault you. Based on both body positions, what are some of the likely ways for this to happen. If the person had a weapon hidden, where might it be, and how would they access it?
• Look at your home and ask yourself how you would break in if you wanted to rob the place.

I’m sure you can come up with a few more mental drills such as these. The key is not to become paranoid or obsessed with what can go wrong, but play with the mindset and learn to become safer.

Making a decision is a powerful tool. Like all tools, you can use it to build the house of your dreams, or you can misuse it and wind up cutting off your arm. Be careful what you decide. A decision is a mental lens which will help focus your thought process and lead you to appropriate action.

Here is a simple example: let’s say that you have decided to have Chinese food for dinner. What are the thoughts you will have? You will probably think about what dishes you may order, whether to take out or eat at the restaurant etc. You will probably not think about ordering a hamburger. What actions will you take? You might call and order, or drive to your favorite Chinese place. You will most likely not go to the drive through at McDonalds. This is quite a simplistic example, and may seem silly, but it illustrates a key point. Decision informs your actions mostly unconsciously while eliminating the actions that you don’t see as supporting your decision.

Contrast making a decision to considering something, or taking something into account, or thinking about something. These are important processes, but have none of the power of making a decision. If you are thinking about getting Chinese for dinner, that is very different from having made a decision to get Chinese for dinner right? When somebody says, “I’ll think about it,” that carries a very namby-pamby energy doesn’t it?

Now, how do we use this in the context of self-defense? We can decide, in advance what we will do if faced with certain threats. For example, I have decided that if the lives of my family are threatened I am going to attack the threat like a scalded spider-monkey on crack. I know enough not to pre-think what techniques, or weapons, or strategies to use – I simply know that I am going to fight with every once of ferocity I can muster and make the person or persons regret it. I have also decided that if someone points a weapon at me and tries to get me into a vehicle with them, I am going to run like hell.

I have heard stories from women who escaped rapists by deciding that the rapist would have rape them over their dead bodies – literally. At this point the women brought the fight to the rapist and escaped. I am not saying that this is a decision anyone must make or should make. You have to ask yourself if it came down to it – how hard are you willing to fight?

You can and should make new decisions when more or better data becomes available. If you drove to your favorite Chinese restaurant and it had burned down, you would have to make another decision. You should not be afraid to make new decisions if better ones present themselves. My sensei, Peter Freedman, taught me to, “never become a prisoner to your weapon.” It’s useful to think of the word weapon here loosely. When used for self defense your mind is a weapon. Never become a prisoner to your decisions, or you’ll find yourself sitting in  a burned-out Chinese restaurant wondering when the waiter is going to take your order.

In life, I have found that very few people are good at making decisions due to fear of failure. They shy away from making decisions because their self esteem is so caught up in never failing at anything. Instead of making decisions you get people saying things like, “I’d like to try that … someday.” They never move beyond their comfort zone. Let me tell you that I once tripled my yearly income within a couple of short weeks merely by making a decision to move outside my comfort zone. I am not special, I merely decided a change was in order.

Like unused muscles, your decision making faculty can be brought back to life through exercise. Not ready to squat 500 pound decisions? No problem, start small. Decide, as quickly as possible, what to wear tomorrow.

I challenge you right now to decide to be happy. That’s it, merely decide that you are going to be happy. Now, if you have truly decided to be happy one of two things will happen. 1. You will take small actions to change the things you are unhappy about, or 2. You will also make the decision to be happy no matter what is going on. I prefer the latter, and it doesn’t preclude you from changing things at all. Since I prefer not to deal with negative, grumpy, try to bring everyone else down types of people, I hope you’ll accept my challenge.

One thing I have learned about really successful people is that they make  informed decisions very quickly. I remember watching a show that had interviews with the friends and family members of young successful pop stars. Every single one of then said basically the same thing – that these pop stars were 100% focused on becoming successful musicians. They made a decision very early in life and it guided their actions 100%. Were there setbacks and “failures” along the way? You bet. Heck, Donald Trump’s casino declared bankruptcy – but the guy is still rich and famous.

Make a small decision right now, I don’t care what it is – decide what you are going to have for lunch. Do you feel how powerful that is. Think about what other empowering decisions you can make right now.

To get good at martial arts you also need to train solo. There is something about working on the mental and physical aspects of martial arts alone which pushes things around in your brain and makes them stick. You do not get good in class, class is the catalyst that starts the reaction – you get good in solo practice and reflection.

I want to offer up my couch potato plan for getting good at your martial art – even if you think you don’t have time.

The first part of the plan is to make an enjoyable game out of finding hidden time. One thing I suggest is to do some kind of training during TV commercials. If you watch 1 hour of network television a day (and most people watch more), you’ll have at least 20 minutes of training time. You could exercise during that time, practice a kata, throw some punches, whatever.

Like I said, make finding time an enjoyable game – even a couple of minutes here and there really add up.

Another TV related training method which helps reaction time is to do a technique (such as throwing a punch) while watching a show – as quickly as possible each time the scene or camera angle changes on the show. This is a good way to train the perception without a partner.

The next suggestion is to utilize waiting time, and I have two ways to do this. 1. Carry around a martial arts related book with you whenever you think you might have wait time and read. 2. Practice your techniques, or kata, or whatever in your mind without moving. Suggestion #2 will get you good incredibly fast.

When I lived in Boston I would frequently take the subway or a bus. While sitting there, I would  mentally go over foot movements, angles, drills, etc. It really helped me to improve. The mind has a hard time differentiating between vividly imagined practice and real practice. I probably got an extra 5 hours of practice a week in just doing this.

My next suggestion is to find sneaky ways to train. Make all of your movements martial movements without giving away what you are doing. For example, I use tai-sabaki (body shifting) movements to walk around obstacles. I am aware of how I open and close doors and do it in a way that could be translated into a strike or a throw. Doing this will help internalize your movements and burn them into muscle memory. Again – make a game out of it – be creative.

Next is walking around training. When walking around amongst other people mentally note their distance. Notice how you feel as they get closer or move farther away. What are they doing with their hands. If they are standing, do they have good balance or poor balance. Are there any bulges in their clothing that may be weapons. If they had bad intentions, how would they have to move to attack. Do this without staring at anybody. Train yourself to use peripheral vision and short non-threatening glances.

Finally is mental scenario training. Whenever you go anywhere – including changing rooms in your house, scan the room. Look for exits and notice if there are any obstacles there. What in the room could be used as cover or as an improvised weapon? What would you do if armed people came in intent on doing you harm. While you do this pay attention to your breathing and heart-rate. Keep your breathing slow and through the nose.

The important thing is to make these things as enjoyable as possible. If you do, it will be easier to continue doing them.

First the 70% statistic may or may not be accurate. I got it from a trusted source, and when I asked him for his source – he had legitimately lost his notes – but pointed me in to a couple of places where it may have come from. I’m still looking. That number includes blades carried for work purposes, multi-tools, and pocket knives. It seems like a reasonable number in my experience. A recent Gallup poll said that 11% of Americans responded that they carried knives for self defense, and that number was higher among men than women.

I was using the statistic the way statistics are often used – to convince people to take action. That action was to get some training in how to handle edged weapon assault. Attacks with edged weapons are fairly frequent in the U.S. and that includes the use of swords and machetes. Knives are very common. Let’s be clear that I am not selling training at this point, and am not using that statistic to scare people for my own personal gain. The real question about the value of the number is this – would following the interpretation of the statistic and getting some training be a good thing? I believe it would.

There are two potentially big issues with the use of statistics: 1. bad data, and 2. flawed interpretation.

Bad data can mean that the statistic is totally false – that  the resulting data is just made up. This is frequently the case, and I’ll talk about a pervasive lie about self defense in a minute.

With statistics generated from studies or surveys, errors in data can creep in from sampling or how questions are posed. There are mathematical formulas that tell researchers how large a random sample  of a population they must survey or test before their results cannot be attributed merely to chance. If you interview one guy in the United States and that guy happens to be Charles Manson – your data set isn’t going to represent the attitudes of the general population very well. The issue here is getting a truly random sample. Political polls aren’t random, they only poll people who are willing to answer polls – not necessarily those who may vote.

The other issue comes from the way questions are asked in surveys and polls. Look at these two questions: 1. Do you carry a knife? and 2. Do you ever carry edged tools for work or for other reasons including box cutters, knives, multi-tools, or the like? – People are likely to answer those two questions differently. People may be more likely to lie when there is a social stigma attached to the question. I’m aware of a survey done about butter consumption where rephrasing a question swung the results by around 15%.

In my opinion, one of the most commonly held misconceptions in self defense or martial arts is that all fights wind up on the ground, or 95%, or 80% or whatever number you’ve heard. Any number you hear in this regard is most likely completely made up (in other words – crap). This number has been actively promoted by people selling ground fighting systems. It sounds very authoritative, logical, and gives you something actionable to do.

There are only two studies that I am aware of. One study conducted by the LAPD before they designed their newest defensive tactics curriculum showed that in around 60% of hands-on use of force incidents, both the officer and suspect wound up on the ground. This is not only far less than 90%, but if you interpret use of force as an officer trying to take a suspect to the ground to facilitate cuffing – this sheds even more light.

Another study analyzed “street fight” videos uploaded to Youtube – which is not an analysis of all street fights – merely of the ones uploaded to Youtube. The results of this study showed that far less than 50% of fights analyzed wound up with both opponents on the ground. It also showed that the first person to go to the ground nearly always fared worse. Regardless, the term “street fight” does not imply self defense to me – just unsanctioned mutual combat.

So, let’s weigh the statistic on the scale of more good than harm. If you were to believe that all fights (100%) wound up on the ground, and so that you only learned ground fighting for self defense would that be a good thing or a bad thing?  If the statistic is wrong, and you faced an opponent who knew how to keep off the ground, or multiple opponents, or someone with a weapon – that could be a very very bad thing.

So let’s say that we have a rigorously controlled study with good data, and we generate some statistics from that, what could go wrong? Well, even more insidious is the misinterpretation, or deliberately false interpretation of what the data represents. Misuse of statistics in this way is rampant in media and politics..

I once read an article on a newspaper’s web site that had the headline, “study shows that people who own guns are more likely to be murdered.” Really? No. The paper quoted a study that showed that the rate of gun ownership was higher in areas with a high murder rate. To even approach this interpretation, the study would have had to compare gun ownership amongst murder victims – it did not. Just as easily it could have been interpreted as people living in high crime areas feel the need to arm themselves for self-protection, but this would also be false as the study didn’t look at motivation for gun ownership.

So what is a good way to look at statistics?

Let’s take a statistic about sexual assault among college-aged women in the U.S. In some studies it is shown that there is alcohol consumption by either the assaulted or the criminal or both in 70% of reported cases of sexual assault. Without getting into the validity of the statistic, could we safely assume that it’s a good idea for young women to be careful both about their own alcohol consumption as well as being cautious about others around them who are consuming alcohol? Seems pretty reasonable. Could we assume that women who don’t drink have nothing to be concerned about? No, absolutlely not.

Universally, police and self defense experts warn people never to let a criminal take you to a second crime scene. After an abduction, the chances of an abductee surviving drop to almost zero. I do not believe this is in any way an urban myth and I believe the advice to be sound. We don’t know how many of the people who go missing every year are abducted, or how many survive that abduction. From the crimes we know about over time – this advice stands up.

Look to statistics in self defense with an air of skepticism, and think about the consequences of their interpretation.