Do You Think You Need Self-Defence Training?

Before you answer that question, to illustrate some of the crime problems in South Africa, here are a few highlights from the last crime statistics:

• There were almost 47 murders each day, or approximately 2 murders an hour.
• There were 171 sexual crimes each day, or approximately  5 sexual crimes an hour.
• There were almost 500 assaults to inflict grievous bodily harm each DAY, or approximately 21 every hour!  

These stats sends shiver down my spine!

However, this isn’t an isolated problem in South Africa. Unfortunately, crime around the world has been on the increases. There is more crime and violence in this modern era than there has ever been in the history of man.

For some people, the fear of crime has led them to live a very secluded, paranoid and non-fulling life. For others, the perceived ineffective of the government and police force to combat crime has left them with a lot of built-up frustrations and a feeling of helplessness.

Perhaps you are one of those people. And even if you think you are not, subconsciously there would have been some impact directly or indirectly on your life.

But let’s look at a life that is free from these fears or frustrations of crime. Without those barriers, you will be able to explore your full potential to live a happier, more fulfilling and a more active life. This is what I call a fully-engaged life? Don't you think living a fully-engaged life sounds appealing?

So how do you get from this life of fear and frustration of crime, to a position where you can be living a fully-engaged life?

The answer is training, and specifically self-defence training.  Besides the obvious hard, physical skill that a self-defence practitioner will gain, they will also gain softer traits such as self-confidence, resilience, and discipline, traits that form part of what I call the ‘self-defence attitude’.

Self-defence training, in my opinion, has become a vital life skill, and is one that I believe everyone should have in order to function in this modern society.

You may feel that you are too old, not fit enough, or not strong enough to do self-fence, However, let me leave you with this very simple response – crime does not discriminate. It does not care about your age, gender, athletic abilities, your race or even your economic status.  It affects us all, and more so for those who feel they are too old, very unfit and physically weak. Like a predator in the wild, criminals will always look for a weakened prey to make a meal out of.

Now is the time to take action and learn self-defence and take back control of your life to ensure the safety of yourself, your spouse, your children and the subsequent generations that will come after you.  In doing so, not only does it benefit you and your loved ones, but it contributes to making society a safer place.  Edmund Burke, a 18^th century Irish political philosopher said it best, “Evil will prevail when good men fail to act.”

Please take a few minutes to complete this survey entitled, “Do you need self-defence training?” Besides providing some valuable feedback, it will also provide some insight as to whether you think you need some self-defence training that is effective and relevant for this modern society.

Click here to do the survey now: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JJN3YLV

Remember to share this survey with as many people as you like.

Please feel free to comment below!

Until next time, get EDUCATED, feel EMPOWERED and live a fully-ENGAGED life!  

How Are You Building Your Self-Defence Skills?

Self-defence training is a life-skill that is vital for any person to learn and practise continuously. Some might say that in this day and age of civilisation and technology, there is no longer a need for it. However, the reality is that we need it now more than ever. Never in the history of mankind have we been faced with the human threats that we have now. From terrorist organizations threatening global warfare;  to organised crimes such as shopping malls shootouts and cash-in-transit heists; to increases in home invasions, murders, rapes and other hideous and violent crimes. Combine this with the global recession that still looms in the air, forcing more and more once-decent people to descend to a more barbaric survival means of stealing and plundering, it only fuels this vicious circle of crime and fear.

Many people have also become frustrated of crime and have resorted to throwing their hands up in the air and remark that that their tax money is supposed to be paying those law enforcement official to protect them from criminal elements; or they have gone to the other extreme of becoming apathetic towards crime by just pretending that it does not matter anymore because there is nothing that can be done anyway and are just prepared to become victims.

The truth is, most victims of crime are victims because they let themselves to be. They have not prepared adequately or rely on others to protect them.  As a life-skill, self-defence educates the individual on how to minimise the possibility of an attack, as well as empower themselves with relevant and effective physical skills. Although the physical skills are important, they are but a mere drop in the ocean of mental skills and preparedness one must undergo - It is fundamentally about developing the correct self-defence attitude.

I read an enlightened quote recently that said, "Many victims are victims not because they lack the capacity to fight, but because they have never had any exposure to the violence, and training to deal with that violence". How true is that statement! In my many years of traditional martial arts training, nothing could have prepared me more than the combative training I have undergone. Some of the highlights include: being hit in the face, groins, legs, chest and arms, just to see what the most effective combinations would be to elicit an incapacitation; being shot at with paintballs, airsoft pellets, and blank bullets filled with play-dough, to feel the fear of when someone is shooting at me; having being stabbed at with FULL-FORCE with rubber knives, leaving behind bruised ribs, to see if I really could catch a knife that was moving at that speed and being wielded with that intent to stab me to death;  having had attack-dogs set on me, dealing with them, and still having to accessing my weapon to deal with another human opponent;  bare-knuckle sparring with bigger and stronger opponents who just want to knock-out the little Asian guy; grappling with someone twice my size to emulate what it would be like to ground-fight with someone who knew what they were doing and would be willing to choke me to death or break a few bones; to trying to free myself from my opponent’s grip, while being held under-water in the sea to see if I could still fight in this oxygen-deprived, fear-inducing environment.

I admit -  I do put myself through some rather extreme training methods.  And yes, some people might call me a sadist (as I do actually enjoy the training)! However, I will be the first one to admit that each time I do combative training, I am scared $h!tless! Not because of the training methods, but because of the pain that I might (and inevitably do) incur. It is this fear of pain that makes me train harder so that I can minimise the pain. This fear gives me the edge above many of my opponents, because I am willing to do WHATEVER it takes to not feel that pain. I manage that fear of pain by training as hard as I possibly can to ensure that I don't get hurt. This is my self-defence training.

To take it to a higher and broader level, there is also a greater pain than my own pain, which is the pain I will feel if anything bad were to ever happen to my loved ones. THAT alone makes me train even harder so that I, should I have the opportunity to, will be able to prevent those bad elements from reaching them. However, I do still insist that they also undergo some self-defence training. After all, there is only so much I can do.

At the end of the day, it’s all about the choices I make. As I have said to many of my students, there is no right or wrong choices when it comes to self-defence decisions. The only proviso is that you need to live with the consequences of those choices.

So let me ask you again, how are you building this essential life-skill?

Get EDUCATED and EMPOWERED. Live a positive and fully ENGAGED life. 

* Just random news clippings while paging through a newspaper yesterday.