Why MOST Martial Artists Can’t Walk Away From An Conflict.

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I have been thinking abut writing this article for a long long time now. Every day I see more and more reports of martial artists being caught in bad situations and not being able to get out of them. Some of those situations turn into fights which most of them can’t even walk away from. So my question was, WHY?

Through lots of study of many different martial art and self defense systems one thing was very clear to me, they were not being taught properly on how to deal with real life altercations. And not just being taught improperly, but also not being taught certain things at all.

Most martial artists are really only taught how to punch, block, and kick. And really nothing more. And on top of that, most only train to “fight” other martial artists of their own system. This HAS to change. Most of them boast about how their system or style has 100+ different kicks or how their style has 3000 forms. To me this sounds like, blah blah blah, ego ego blah blah blah.

My only question is, can you deal with a real life conflict properly and effectively?

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So I know what you are thinking now, “what do I need to learn to deal with a confrontation properly”, right?

There are many aspects of self defense not taught in 99% of martial arts and “self defense” schools around the world. Like I said above, most are only taught how to punch, block, and kick, and deal with other people of their same style. One of the most important aspects of self defense not taught in MA/SD schools is not letting a confrontation BECOME a physical fight.

The martial artist’s world is physical. It is all they have been taught. So when they find themselves in a verbal confrontation, most will ball up their fists (maybe even get into some sort of fights stance) and get ready to hit someone or just start swinging. They have no idea about avoiding or defusing a situation. Most don’t even realize that 99% of the time they don’t HAVE to fight. But they don’t consider that.

I have an idea about self defense, and that is: If your awareness fails and a confrontation starts to happen, try simply avoiding the situation. If you can’t avoid it, you must try and de-escalate the problem. If that fails then escape if you can (I always recommend to my students to do loads of sprinting and running and practice things like parkour). If that fails, Then and ONLY Then should it become a physical conflict. Only at the point where you have exhausted ALL your other options and you have absolutely no choice but to fight should you fight.

SO to recap and reiterate my point, you need to learn other things besides the physical side of combat. Start with learning how to recognize a potential threat (situational awareness) first. Then move on to learning avoidance and some E&E (Escape and Evade) tactics. And finally learn how to defuse and de-escalate a confrontation before it gets to the physical stage.
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