There are many reasons one could study a martial art: for sport, for exercise, to relax, build self discipline, or because you think the costumes are cool. All reasons are valid. In my experience, most people start training in martial arts because at least one of their goals is to learn how to defend themselves. All martial arts will do this to some degree.

Do not be fooled by the haters with low self esteem on the Internet who need to feel good about themselves by insulting other systems, or teachers. Lack of respect is a lack of self-discipline and it is a clear sign of mental weakness. Even if you dislike what another martial art teaches, keep your mouth shut. Those who speak out on internet message boards under the guise of “educating others” are being ridiculous, since only their fellow chairborne-commando haters read those things.

Self-defense (or self-defence if your British) training, ultimately, is not about style or system or what you wear or what you call it. It isn’t even about ultimate deadly unstoppable techniques culled from the jungles of some war-torn country by special operations commandos. That stuff is exciting, but it’s mostly marketing puffery.

True self-defense training is about one thing only (in the very humble opinion of this author) – transforming the individual into someone with skills and attributes to survive and escape danger. And, no two human beings will have identical skills or attributes, so throw out the silly notion of the ultimate best system on the planet to turn you into a superhuman fighting-machine.

In computer programming two skilled programmers can create exactly the same software using two different languages, two different development processes, and deploy them onto two different platforms. Which one is the “best”? Neither – just live with the fact that in life there are no absolutes. Thinking things are either all good or all bad is lazy thinking which is unbecoming of a true martial artist.

First, let’s talk about attributes that will help you survive a violent attack. In my opinion attributes are more important than skills.

Speed, endurance, coordination, agility, and strength are physical attributes which will help you whether you choose to run away or stand and fight. The physical training of most MMA fighters is simply incredible and gives them the advantages that conditioning brings. Pain tolerance, and the ability to carry on when injured relates to resilience. Boxers and special forces soldiers have excellent resilience due to their training regimens. Timing and awareness of distance almost always trump speed and other physical attributes. Weapons arts like kenjutsu, Kali, Arnis, silat, and fencing are incredible to imparting this level of skill.

The key attribute, more important than all the others is awareness. The ability to be aware of your physical surroundings will mitigate most attacks and make you less of a target. No skill or attribute will work if you are completely unaware of an attack until it lands. Snipers, drones, and smart bombs are effective weapons of war in part because they are hard to detect. You cannot defend against what you can’t detect.

So, a lot of self-defense oriented training will be geared towards developing advantageous attributes. In our school, due to our traditions, we look at timing and angles, off-balancing, body alignment and awareness as primary attributes. We teach understanding of concepts and principles. Here is the important thing – other schools have different foci and are completely effective.

All martial-arts schools tech skills. Skills are the technical lessons, the specific vocabulary with which you express your attributes. A skill may be punching, parrying, blocking, etc. Many schools are technique-oriented, having hundreds or thousands of techniques. Some may teach forms, some drills. All are equally valid teaching methods.

Our school focuses on teaching self-defense. What that means for us is the following:

• We focus on building attributes and understanding that we have found effective for real-world self-defense
• We throw away dogma, tradition, and ceremony where it doesn’t suit is
• We place less emphasis on archaic weapons than on modern weapons
• We focus on what happens to the human body and mind under extreme stress
• We do our best to train honestly, yet safely so we don’t develop bad habits
• We strive to understand local self-defense law and how it applies to us

This is not to say that our school or our system is better than anyone else’s. It isn’t. It is the best school and system for me and the people who choose to train with me because it makes sense to us, and we feel we can dedicate ourselves to the training. The best system for you is going to be the one you can stick with and train in for a long time.

I just returned from Bonny Eagle High School, a local school, where I taught a group of 24 seniors an 1 1/2 hour self defense class. I have probably done a couple of hundred very short self-defense seminars such as these over the years, and I draw a few distinctions between teaching martial arts and teaching a self defense seminar.

Let’s be clear – the martial arts I teach are 100% geared towards self defense. The people who come and train with me week in and week out get very good at purse self defense very fast. However, I can’t teach a 1 1/2 hour seminar the same way I teach the people who train with me 4 hours a week for years. The main issue is time. What kind of training can I impart in a very short 1 1/2 hour class?

To toot my own horn – I can teach awesome advice, strategies, and techniques in 1 1/2 hours that can save lives. Over the years I have boiled down a curriculum to a complete array of useful tools. Yes, I mentioned the “t” word – technique. This is the big difference between my regular classes and the one-off seminars – I focus on several high-value techniques. There just isn’t the time to teach concepts and principles and have people go through the exercises to internalize them.

The students in my seminars will get some very important concepts and principles as part of the teaching, and I have sneaky ways of getting people to learn them without learning. Most “the 10 deadliest moves to win any street fight” type courses you can buy off the Internet teach a set of “unstoppable” techniques – most rehash the same old stuff over and over.

For the technique approach to work with beginners in a seminar setting the techniques must be:

• versatile – able to work from various angles, under different types of attacks etc.
• large muscle movement based – small muscle groups and complex motor skills will not function correctly under stress
• easy – the techniques must not require extreme balance, flexibility, or coordination
• stackable – the techniques must leave room for follow-up techniques, suicide throws and the like are not great
• simple – one or two steps, large target areas, etc.

When I teach in the seminar setting the teaching must be fun, fast paced, but still allow room to inculcate the skills I want to impart. I’ve developed some teaching methods which I have found maximize retention and understanding in a short time.

First – there is nothing wrong with women, or anyone, wanting to learn to defend themselves. Protecting yourself and your loved ones from physical harm is a natural instinct. Second, I personally have taught “women’s self defense” classes throughout Boston – particularly during heavy activity by two serial rapists in the area.

I do think that some training is better than no training, however, I have several observations, and a couple of problems with, the way many women’s self-defense classes are taught.

• Many women are attracted to women-only classes because of a fear of training with men who may be stronger and who may dominate the class or ogle the women. This fear isn’t unfounded and is similar to fears about gyms which have led to a growth industry of women’s gyms.There is an advantage to having training partners of both genders and many different body types. This leads to better skills, and a more internalized feeling for the movements.
• Many classes teach women differently than men. There is this pervasive philosophy that women have more lower than upper body strength. This is actually anatomically true for everyone (your legs are stronger than your arms). The issue is that many women’s programs have taught women to throw themselves to the ground and kick. We believe this is a terrible idea for many reasons:
  • Lying on the ground means you can’t run away, and now you are in a ground fight.
  • Unlike the matted gym, the ground may be covered with obstacles which can hurt you.
  • Relying on techniques which are only successful with significant strength is a problem.
  • You should know what to do on the ground, while sitting, while standing etc.

  Many classes also teach groin kicks or knees as primary defenses for women. Groin attacks are only OK. Someone who is intoxicated, full of adrenaline, on drugs, enraged etc. may shrug off a groin strike. Pain based techniques are fine, but to defend against a determined attacker – you must learn to attack the structural weakness of the body (such as eyes or joint). A powerful and determined attacker may have to be physically disabled from continuing an attack.

• Training needs to be repeated and expanded upon and should be quite broad. I’ve done single day or multi-day trainings. Certainly skills and confidence can be built shortly. The issue is that skills left unpracticed atrophy.I encourage my students to also train with firearms and edged weapons so that they can understand and respect the threat these weapons carry. I also teach improvised weapons, awareness exercises, combat breathing and mindset.

In this day an age, everyone needs self defense training. The right time to train is now – before you need it. But self defense training should be regular prevention – like dental checkups – repeated, tested, and updated.

Gun Defense

We believe that any training for self defense, whether that’s martial arts, or gun training, or anything else, must emphasize safety. It makes no sense to get hurt while training for self defense.

Most of us have jobs and family commitments that would be impacted by an injury, but injury recovery also detracts from the time we could be training. The effects of sports-type injuries seen most commonly in martial arts studios can be cumulative, causing real problems over time.

However, no activity involving body movement is without risk of injury. Yoga, dance, team sports, running all carry risk of injury. In general, most martial arts are safer than many sports.

In Ketsugo Jujutsu we say that there are three speeds: Slow for learning, medium for practice, and fast for the combat.

When a movement is first being learned we may practice it “tai chi” slow – like we’re moving through molasses. The main reason for this is that we want to learn correct biomechanics. In order to make small corrections, to observe the effect of a movement, and to build efficient neural pathways – you must move slowly.

Once a movement can be executed correctly repeatedly it can be “presure tested” at a medium speed. Medium speed practice adds a sense of reality, builds confidence, and helps to develop strategy.

Ketsugo Jujutsu is a combat martial arts, and cannot be practiced at full speed, even with protective gear. Many of the techniques, when applied at full speed, are designed to attack weak parts of anatomy (like joints).  Speed adds momentum, and we would quickly run out of training partners if we dislocated training partners elbows or shoulders.

As a reality-based self defense school we do try to approach reality in practice, but we necessarily have to work at a slower pace than many systems. We do not spar, and we do not compete or practice sport. This is simply not our emphasis.