Perfection or Protection

 My own two pence worth...martial arts for self perfection or self protection?

Perfection or Protection? Over the last  30 years I have attended LOTS of seminars and seen representatives from quite a few different 'martial art styles' world wide. 

The major proportion of martial art groups are heavily influenced by a sport approach championed by full time professionals.

With modern societies' awareness of health and safety, the art form is of necessity modified. A few give the student the diluted art form he wants to pay handsomely for, and some take away the 'nasty pain bits' in case the students all leave or the instructor gets taken to court!

A significant proportion of the 'conventional' martial art population consists of children and whatever you think of this - they must be looked after in all respects by competent and socially cleared instructors.

By the way, our governing body asks the police body to check us (the instructors) out to make sure we are squeaky clean on that score! 

We personally don't teach our techniques to under 18's.

To all intents and purposes many martial art 'styles' are from the 'do' styles developed in the last 100 or so years - tae-kwon-do, ju-do, karate-do, ai-ki-do  - where the martial art has moved to a vehicle for  self-perfection  rather than  self-protection. 

Nothing wrong with this as long as all parties acknowledge the parameters and perimeter of what they are doing, and don't fool each other or themselves about the realities.

There's nothing I hate more than seeing the latest kickaerobixboxercise fashion which is pushed as 'great for ladies self defence'!

Perfection or Protection

Think seriously about a war environment where hand to hand combat takes place. Check out some of the websites where the American special agents (narcotics) discuss their field requirements and skill! It's scary. One I looked at an attacker had the agent in a rear strangle hold. Solution: draw weapon and blast elbow off!
  
 It is unlikely you will see movie type vertical kicks, spinning kicks, dropped axe kicks and long, deep, posed stances, or long-winded grappling exercises to a submissive conclusion judged by corner men and a referee.

There are no sports rules... your attacker understands this.

Standing up or taken to the ground, under stress, SURVIVAL and fear of death dictates that you may in desperation  head butt, bite, chew, scratch flesh and gouge eyes or crush wind pipe to gain the upper hand and SURVIVE!  Then you have to survive the courts!

And we haven't even discussed items used as weapons yet!

Translate this 'no rules' survival environment to your everyday environment.

I hope that by the time you have read this website, our advice on awareness and avoidance has sunk in and the nearest you get to any involvement in a crime is reading about someone else in the papers.

I say this purely because you may have honorable intentions to minimize the damage to your attacker(s) to make him/them stop. After all, you ARE a hero in your own dojo.

They in turn might walk up and gut you for your wristwatch and small change!

Again, how do you hold down and maintain some one in submission on the floor (would you want to?) when his three friends are bearing down on the situation armed with baseball bats or worse?

We now advise those people who wish to always play by set rules, enter competitions and gain shiny prizes, to look and join one of the martial arts which has adapted to follow a sporting path. 

But don't bet on it to save your life!

Malcolm Keith
Chief Instructor
Yoshiki GoshinJutsu Ryu
http://www.goshinjutsu.co.uk