Remember, the most important lesson of self-defense is: Run away at first opportunity. :) Everything else in a self-defense class is to give you that opportunity. Despite all the dramatic demonstrations and practice you'll get in class, it will never, ever work that well in real life... In class, they show you how to go from virtually any situation to having the "attacker" writhing in agony on the floor. In reality, all you're going to get -- unless you're really, really good at it, really lucky, or spend ten years practicing all this stuff -- is a few seconds free action. Just remember to use it to run away if possible.
And yes, this advice is coming (second-hand) from some ridiculously experienced martial arts instructors and all-around tough guys, as well as some cops. Hell, I've used it myself. :-)
Sorry, that was me. Didn't realise I wasn't logged in on that computer. :-) And yes, the techniques shown at self-defense classes are generally pretty good at giving you that chance to get away. So how'd the classes go?
Thank you! My best guess was that it was you, but I wanted to make sure.
It went really well. The overall aim of the course, IMO, was to get us in the habit of fighting back automatically (except in situations where that's not smart - like when there's a gun to your head), which is a good lesson. The instructors were really impressed with our technique and how quickly we caught on. And we were warned that today we would be crazy sore, and I AM. Not as badly as I thought I might be (some people said they were pretty much debilitated the next day), but definitely very very sore. I'm going to use a heating pad again this morning before going into work.
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And yes, this advice is coming (second-hand) from some ridiculously experienced martial arts instructors and all-around tough guys, as well as some cops. Hell, I've used it myself. :-)
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And yes, that's what they're teaching us. Our goal isn't to incapacitate the attacker, it's to get away ourselves.
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It went really well. The overall aim of the course, IMO, was to get us in the habit of fighting back automatically (except in situations where that's not smart - like when there's a gun to your head), which is a good lesson. The instructors were really impressed with our technique and how quickly we caught on. And we were warned that today we would be crazy sore, and I AM. Not as badly as I thought I might be (some people said they were pretty much debilitated the next day), but definitely very very sore. I'm going to use a heating pad again this morning before going into work.
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