Self Defence Secrets

As a teacher of traditional Karate and a Self Defence Instructor, I am often asked “What are the secrets of effective self defence?”  The reality is that the secrets are not that secret at all; they have simply been forgotten by most of us. 

I will always emphasise the point that the best form of self defence is to not have to fight in the first place; commonsense really.  But, if you have no other choice than to engage in a physical defence of yourself or another person, then you must understand and employ these important principles.

Focus

Focus can be defined in a number of ways but the one I prefer is: the concentration of all energy in an instant on a specific target.  

Focus is a non-negotiable, without it you have nothing. Physical, mental, spiritual, all of your consciousness must be channelled into a single purpose.  

Centuries ago, there was an archery contest in which the target was a large fish.  The eye of the fish was the bull’s eye.  All of the contestants were asked afterwards what they saw of the target.  Most contestants described the fish in great detail but the winner described the fish's eye.  That is focus.

Tactics

Appearance:  Your appearance, not the way you dress, your demeanour and the way you hold yourself is critical.  If you appear weak and vulnerable, you will become a more attractive target for someone bent on causing trouble.  If you appear strong and confident, this may cause a pause in opponent.  If you are confident in your abilities, you may choose to appear weak to lure an opponent into attacking with less than maximum power, putting you at an advantage.

Awareness:  Conscious reaction takes longer than instinctive reaction.  Awareness is naturally shifted from small details to larger ones and finally to the whole action, without thought to any single part.  Under stress, our awareness tends to become limited and we experience a form of “tunnel vision”.  Actively diffusing our attention over a wider area helps to break out of the tunnel vision and gives us the opportunity to perceive openings more quickly.  

Hearing:  Auditory cues are reacted to more quickly than visual cues. Make a conscious effort to use all of your senses, especially your hearing, to combine audio-visual cues but focus on generalities.

Confusion:  Cut down your own unnecessary choice reactions and give your opponent a variety of possibilities. To control your opponent’s reactions, force your opponent into slower choice reaction rather than instinctive reaction.  Strategies of distraction, initiating forced hesitation will cause confusion for the opponent and provide you with openings.

Visual:  Your vision is composed of a couple of very different elements, they are Central vision - eyes are fixed on one point and, Peripheral vision, where the eyes are fixed but the attention is expanded to a wider field of view.  It is Peripheral vision that allows us to see our hand when it is held up beside our head while we are looking straight ahead.  It is much easier to follow footwork than hand movement when using Peripheral vision.

Emotion:  People’s body language will often mirror each other. If one is aggressive, the other may become aggressive. If one is friendly, the other may become friendly. If you act casual, the other may loosen up, and become less aggressive.  If the situation still calls for a physical response, that is when you attack.

Passing:  Everything that moves has momentum, or kinetic energy which will naturally keep flowing in the same linear direction.  Stopping that momentum, or changing the direction, requires a large amount of energy and time. Lure your opponent into action, change your position, then attack before he can change directions. If his attacking momentum is forward, move diagonally and attack from an angle.

Rhythm and Timing:  Win by changing speed. Attempt to force your opponent into fighting in an unnatural rhythm for him.  Advance in arrhythmic steps: slow - medium - fast, concentrating on your breath.  Breathe at varied speeds.  Build power from your yells and the tone of your yells.  The combination of speed and power is necessary to master timing.  It is necessary to be able to match your opponent's rhythm in order to control him.  Use a half-step, half-count, synchronise with your opponent's beat/rhythm.  Count the beats then change-up and speed up your count.  A master will know the rhythm of an attack before the opponent moves. The counter to this would be not to fight with a fixed rhythm.  Traditionally trained boxers, for example will have a favoured rhythm in their heads and their punches will be thrown according to that rhythm.  If you can disrupt that natural rhythm by imposing your own staccato beat, you will have a big advantage.

Distancing:  This sounds almost too obvious.  I am not talking about putting kilometres between you and your opponent, although that is a very sound strategy.  I’m referring to working to force your opponent to attack from slightly beyond their reach. Make them over reach, this will often put them off balance and make them vulnerable to counter-attack.  Hide your own reach until it is time to attack.

Attack:  As your opponent prepares an attack, you move in to attack. Attack without preparation. Don't think, just act. Thinking slows you down.  I drill into my karate students that they must practice, practice, practice their Katas and Yaksu. Traditional age-old kata are not meaningless formality.  They are a well-planned, proven, combination of techniques that when practiced relentlessly, become your instinctive reaction, your reflex - without thought, in the midst of battle.  Know why and what your forms teach you then find ways to use it in sparring so that it can become second nature to you.

Motion/Relaxation:  Stress has the unwanted effect of creating tension in our body.  Tension causes wasted motion and excess effort to break through the inertia it causes. The change of muscular tension on both sides of a joint determines the limits of speed, endurance, power, agility and accuracy.  Excessive tension acts as a brake which slows and weakens the action.  Minimum effort with maximum efficiency is the objective.  Glide in and out of distance with a minimum of effort and a maximum of deception.  Relaxation is a physical state controlled by the mental state.  Controlling your thoughts will make physical control much easier and will conserve energy.  Quality practice forms quality habits. Relax the muscles not the mind or attention.

Continuous curved motions require less effort than straight line motions involving sudden and sharp changes in direction.  

When you do take action, initiate that action unopposed. Do not restrict, hold back or attempt to control the action.  The most effective attack is fast, unexpected and violent.  Adopting an easy and natural rhythm will help eliminate hesitation.

Coordination:  You do not automatically inherit coordination.  You can learn coordination by training the nervous system, not your muscles.  This learning process requires practice, repeated over and over again. Do not practice finely skilled movements after you are tired. Do not substitute gross motions for finer ones or generalised efforts for specific ones.

Power:  Power is related to your centre and balance.  If you remember back to your high school science lessons, you will know that Power equals Force times Speed.  Force equals one-half the mass times the velocity squared.  Faster movement therefore, increases power.  Speed, flexibility and endurance, along with strength, leads to excellence in physical ability.

Copyright © 2014 by Drew Dale

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